"Destroy The Machines" Workshop

Justin Maller: First of all, welcome to Depthcore! It's great to have you on board, I don't know how it took so long? I've admired your work for a long time, it all just came together on twitter that day! Your debut piece is awesome, and the creative process is just nuts. How did this one start off for you?

Daniel Diggle: The piece was actually rescued and reworked from an earlier unrelated sketch I'd started for the KDU, I found it in a pile of old work and saw some potential in it's development. The hands originally reaching out from a cloud matter become the hands breaking through the cogs and machinery, breaking free of their mechanical oppression.

Justin Maller: The stippling looks super time intensive; how long did it take you to make this one? Where did you come across that technique?

Daniel Diggle: This was probably my quickest piece yet, I moved from using rotring technical pens to simple fibre tip. It meant the piece wouldn't have the same micro-fine appearance as my other pieces, but what it lost in fine detail it gained in texture. The piece probably took just over a week in total, thanks to the use of more cross-hatching than stippling.

The use of stippling in my work was quite an evolutionary discovery. It started from a love of pop art and Litchenstien's work. In trying to recreate the style I was working with large dots to replicate the printed texture. This then moved into my 'street art' style of illustration, the dots forming a kind of Maori like tattoo of shading and form. (a good example is my Lipside MC work) It wasn't long before I experimented and began my first piece 'Random Got Beautiful' that fully used the dots to create shade and structure. It wasn't till long after that I actually came across the term 'stippling' and the idea of it as a specific technique.

Justin Maller: I think this image was a great interpretation of the theme, quite similar to my own with the machine x human relationship aspect. What other pieces did you enjoy from the Chapter?

Daniel Diggle: Hydro Plant by David Mascha tickled my graphic design sensibilities, but in truth - without it being a cop-out - all the pieces took my interest. Having such a wide spectrum of talented people show their different responses to the same subject just shows how creative and diverse we all are.