digigraphs

Adrian Moyes
For more on what digigraphs are, click here
My enthusiasm for digigraphs came from my delight at being able to by-pass drawing - I was never taught drawing; it doesn't come naturally to me, and at 73, I'm too lazy to learn. So now I 'paint' with images on a computer - I build up an image very different from a photograph - more like a painting perhaps, but different from a painting too.

I started in the early days of computers (and of Photoshop) with birthday cards for friends. But as I got more adept, and computers and Photoshop got more sophisticated, I found I could do much more than cards.

I used to be a photographer, but now I don't use my digi-camera to take photographs as final images any more - I use it to take images to paint with on the computer. Lots of my photographs are of textures - stones, bricks, leaves, grass, paper - because computers need a lot of help with textures; they tend to make everything look very flat.

I start with a pencil sketch of the shape of the image I want to end with - then I take photographs or scan leaves, material or whatever. Then I block in the general shape of the image. Sometimes (it seems to me), the image takes over, and steers its own course, often very different from the original sketch - sometimes more representational than I had planned, sometimes more abstract.
Village Meeting , Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photos taken southern Mali
In general, I'm trying to create a visual impression of a place or mood or week-end - its colours and shapes and feel. So for me, the final image is an essence of the place or event, a kind of distilled personal memory. But I do like it when others, who don't have my memories, also like the results (I like it even more when they buy them), so I try to make my digigraphs accessible to everyone, not just to those who've been there. To achieve this, I have a group of Critical Friends who play Art Critic and General Public to my draft digigraphs. One of the many advantages of painting with a computer is that it's very easy to make changes or do experiments in the light of their comments.

And whether other people like them or not, I get enormous enjoyment out of my digigraphs.
You can buy any of these digigraphs. I find the best way of displaying them is to get them professionally printed onto canvas and mounted on a stretcher. Each digigraph is Limited to ten copies.

The regular size is 30cm x 40 cm or 40cm x 40cm,. The cost is £100 (including post & packing). I can also negotiate a price for larger or smaller prints (but the smaller prints aren't much cheaper). Let me know if you would like to buy one (mention the word 'digigraph' in your e-mail, or you may get junked !).
Isobars , Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photos taken on the Marlborough Downs
Isobars was intended to be a very abstract view of the Marlborough Downs, but somehow it turned into something more like a Shell Guide to the Countryside. This remains, despite making the hill more sinister, and emphasising the eye-field, and giving it a title drawing attention to the change in the weather.
Caen Flight , Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photos of the Caen Hill flight of locks, Devises
The flight of locks at Caen Hill is the steepest in the world (1 in 30). There are 16 locks in the main section, one after another - and 29 in all. It takes 5-6 hours to travel the flight by boat. Click here for more.

This digigraph aims to capture the apparently endless chain of locks, and their steepness.
Bamako2, Adrian Moyes, 2006 - using photographs as a basis.
Bamako1, Adrian Moyes, 2006 - using photographs as a basis.
Two views of Bamako, the capital of Mali, dirty, dusty, concrete, ugly; some of it crowded, some surprisingly open, thus the football. Bamako 1 (on right) is more of a photomontage; the people are everywhere, even though the concrete buildings dominate. In Bamako 2 (on left), the buildings have won.
The Two Masts , Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photos taken near the Wansdyke, near Marlborough
The Wansdyke is a massive earthwork dyke, 55 km long that was built around 600 AD by the Celts as a defence against the Saxons. With Offa's Dyke and Hadrian's Wall, it's one of the three great defence lines in Britain.

The Two Masts (the actual masts are scarcely visible in this reproduction) makes the foreground less clear than the distance (a reversal of the normal situation when the foreground is clearer than the distance). The title, although it refers to two radio masts, is designed to give a flavour of the hobbits' epic journey.

Needlework , Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photos taken near the Needles, IoW
This digigraph is made up of almost unaltered photos of the cliffs and sea round the Needles on the Isle of Wight. The colours and strata are so striking that I have only altered the angles - and somewhat enlarged the actual Needle rocks. Only the grass ridge comes from another part of the island.
All the World's a Stage - Merely Players , Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photos taken in Stanislas Square, Nancy, France
All the World's a Stage - Exits and Entrances , Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photos taken in Stanislas Square, Nancy, France
Above are two impressions of Stanislas Square in Nancy, France, one of the most beautiful squares in the world. It was built originally, all of a piece, in 1752, and recently beautifully (and probably expensively) restored. It is a good place to sit in the cafes that surround it and watch the world go by - weddings and all. Nancy is also the birthplace of Art Nouveau - thus the window frames on the left.
Pirogues on the Niger, Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photographs of the e Niger in Mali.
This is probably my most photographic and simplest digigraph. Indeed, apart from the two banks (top and bottom) done in Chinese-style perspective, this could almost be a single photograph. Despite or because of this, it presents both a pleasing design and a vivid essence of the place.
Colours of Caune, Adrian Moyes, 2007 - based on photographs of Caune Minervois in southern France
I wanted to capture the colours of the little town of Caune Minervois where we stayed for a fortnight on a house-swop. I decided to use the differently painted shutters as if they were swatches of colour in a paint-shop.
Pottery Village, Adrian Moyes, 2006 - using photographs as a basis.
Kababougou, Adrian Moyes, 2006 - a more abstract version of Pottery Village (left)..
Two views of the potting village of Kababougou in Mali. On the left a photo-montage shows the decorated pots and the wood used to fire them. Kababougou, on the right, uses the same photos as a starting point, but produces a much more abstract version.
Mekong Passage, Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photographs of the Mekong in Laos
Vientiane Sunset, Adrian Moyes, 2006 - based on photographs and scanned material.
This is the essence of several days spent on the Mekong in Laos on high-speed boats carrying freight and people. I've managed to catch the colours and shapes and feel - but I've struggled with the power and speed of the Mekong itself.
Every evening in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, people gather on the banks of the Mekong to watch the sunset across the water. There's a couple of kilometres of bars and cafes, with chairs and tables set out on the embankment. And everywhere in Vientiane, the holy nagas (snakes) keep watch over everything.

This digigraph is about the essence of those happy days.