Ben Tour / Interview
This is the first of six mini interviews, featuring the artists in our Tangents art show. First up is Ben Tour!
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BEN TOUR INTERVIEW
Can you describe your process? And are the little letters that appear in some of the works from those rub/transfer sheets?
My process changes from piece to piece. With painting, I start with a sketch which is quite tight and then project it on my chosen surface with an overhead projector. I’ve played around with different techniques but find this one the easiest. For smaller scale work, I just sit down and get to work usually building the final from smaller roughs. Tradititional illustrator style. The little letters and numbers are rub-on. It’s a product that was popular for designers before computers.
My Dad actually introduced me to it as he would lay out magazines cut and paste style and have sheets of Letraset Rub-On next to the drafting table. I also remember as a kid their was similar stuff in boxes of Fruit Loops – you would get a little rub-on sheet with Toucan Sam and you could use a pencil and rub him onto paper. I’d forgotten all about the stuff and then by chance years later found a box of it, which I still have.
I totally remember those rub-on sheets in the cereal boxes! When you were a kid did you ever read those books that came with a battery-powered “pen” that had some sort of laser in it and when you put it on different colors in the book it would make different noises and light up? (This sounds totally made up, but I swear this was actually a thing!)
I don’t remember those? Sounds awesome. My parents only got the good kid cereal maybe once a month, I ate alot of Shredded Wheat and Weetabix. I like both of those cereals but they never had cool toys.
