Chris starts with printing paper which has 3 layers; a paper layer, emulsion layer and a plastic layer. He tapes it onto a wood panel then starts drawing with ink whatever image that comes to mind, usually a face or body part of a creature. The ink takes roughly 2 days to dry, so he can manipulate areas of the drawing to his taste even “erasing” or removing parts that he does not like. Once he is happy with the drawing he uses a blow dryer to dry and set the ink. He usually applies layers of varnish over the ink after this process. He separates off the plastic layer resulting in a transparent drawing. He will draw the same image this exact way 15 or more times then layers the plastic drawings on top of each other. Since the drawings are transparent, the layering creates almost a silhouetting effect giving depth to the image. The back of this is usually painted with white ink or left alone depending on Chris’ vision. Finally, he glues this finished element onto the wood panel and begins drawing the other elements based off of that starting piece. He repeats this process for every element until the wood panel is covered and hence resulting in a finished piece.
When you check out his work in our gallery, you can faintly see all the individual squares that make up the complete artwork. I also attached the video that shows his process because it is truly remarkable and my explanation does not do him justice. I highly recommend you checking out the other videos I linked below for some inspiration and some insight into the mind of this incredible artist.
|| ARTIST: CHRIS BERENS
| Facebook | Hi-Fructose Video | “Observation Deck” Time Lapse Video |