Going through Phil Hall’s portfolio of work, it’s easy to see the flexibility and range that he has said he enjoys having. I like that there are some pieces that feel so different in juxtaposition to one another yet you can get an overall sense of his style and what he likes from his loose and free drawing approach. There are times when his pen creates detailed, bustling images, and times when it is quick and intentionally simple, which I think works really well.
“Left to my own devices my work would probably consist of scribbles, wood and dead things in forests… although I’m dubious as to whether I’d get anywhere commercially, most of my work tends to spark from little exciting bursts of thought that I’ll convince myself needs to be realized, I think that drives me to make work.”
“It’s been about a year since I started working on the computer, coloring-in really, mainly because it’s easier to adjust things. I hope that my illustrations have a common underlying trait other than the ‘style’. I work in ink pen, coloring pencils, mainly scan and edit in the computer; although I feel I need to step away from that a bit or find a better way of hiding the Photoshop look.”
“The picture I include, although not a studio/workspace per se, is a good place to go when I need to leave behind some of that grown-up conditioning and adopt a more playful feeling in my brain box.”
© Phil Hall, 2011.
