Published in The Northern Echo July 20th 2009
Matt Bryan is an artist… but not in any traditional sense. He’s a digital artist. “It’s the way people move more than anything," says Matt, who is turning his passion and skill into a promising freelance career.
The 32-year-old is currently exhibiting a selection of his digital painting at online gallery, Yarm Originals. The underlying theme of his work is the concept of character. "I might pick up on the way someone is walking, or a particular pose they have struck," he says. "These are the elements that capture a person."
Middlesbrough-born Matt started out with a BTEC in Art at Cleveland College of Art & Design and then moved onto the University of Teesside where he gained a BA (Hons) in Computer Games Design. Following graduation in 2002 Matt took a job at a call centre while applying for designing roles.
But with a home to build he didn’t have the time to focus on his passion and keep up with the cutting edge skills that were required to stay ahead in the games design world. “Before I knew it I’d barely put pen to paper in three months and the very nature of computer game design means that you always need to be up to speed,” says Matt. He became a manager at the firm and his dreams of working on computer games began to fade away.
Some years later, a simple bus journey that he took each day became the unlikely catalyst which took him back into drawing. Matt always carried his trusty bag of art tools and began to find himself sketching away, capturing the expressions and poses of the people he came across on the way to work. Studying their individual traits allowed him to hone his portraiture skills, alongside delving into the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, whom Matt refers as “the master of anatomy”.
A job move last year meant that Matt, who lives in Eaglescliffe with his wife Dawn, and three-year-old daughter, Ella, now drives to work. The characters that provided a constant source of inspiration for his imagery no longer crop up in his daily life, but this hasn’t fazed him. “Now I think more about the context of relationships in the characters I draw,” he says, something that is reflected in his atmospheric series of monochrome digital paintings, which will be exhibited in the online gallery.
Throughout his training, Matt studied a variety of traditional art disciplines, including photography, fine art and fashion illustration, but he is not averse to trying out new media. He has recently become part of a group of artists at Middlesbrough-based Custom Tattoo Design, a company which designs bespoke tattoos.
In the current economic climate, more and more people are seeing that a hobby or skill could become an extra source of income. However, although this venture could potentially reap financial rewards, Matt is more concerned with the personal benefits it is bringing. He likens himself to a character in the 2000 film ‘Unbreakable’. “During one scene, Bruce Willis’ character mentions that when he wakes up he feels empty, like something is missing; that some part of his life is going unfulfilled and it’s making him unhappy. That scene pretty much sums up how I feel if I don’t draw.”
Matt encourages anyone harbouring a hidden skill or talent to stop thinking about developing it and just go for it. “It has taken me years to finally do it and now that I have it feels like a release to be sharing my work in so many different ways. One of the major bonuses is that I get to talk about my passion to a great many individuals and that is a reward in itself.”
The 32-year-old is currently exhibiting a selection of his digital painting at online gallery, Yarm Originals. The underlying theme of his work is the concept of character. "I might pick up on the way someone is walking, or a particular pose they have struck," he says. "These are the elements that capture a person."
Middlesbrough-born Matt started out with a BTEC in Art at Cleveland College of Art & Design and then moved onto the University of Teesside where he gained a BA (Hons) in Computer Games Design. Following graduation in 2002 Matt took a job at a call centre while applying for designing roles.
But with a home to build he didn’t have the time to focus on his passion and keep up with the cutting edge skills that were required to stay ahead in the games design world. “Before I knew it I’d barely put pen to paper in three months and the very nature of computer game design means that you always need to be up to speed,” says Matt. He became a manager at the firm and his dreams of working on computer games began to fade away.
Some years later, a simple bus journey that he took each day became the unlikely catalyst which took him back into drawing. Matt always carried his trusty bag of art tools and began to find himself sketching away, capturing the expressions and poses of the people he came across on the way to work. Studying their individual traits allowed him to hone his portraiture skills, alongside delving into the works of Leonardo Da Vinci, whom Matt refers as “the master of anatomy”.
A job move last year meant that Matt, who lives in Eaglescliffe with his wife Dawn, and three-year-old daughter, Ella, now drives to work. The characters that provided a constant source of inspiration for his imagery no longer crop up in his daily life, but this hasn’t fazed him. “Now I think more about the context of relationships in the characters I draw,” he says, something that is reflected in his atmospheric series of monochrome digital paintings, which will be exhibited in the online gallery.
Throughout his training, Matt studied a variety of traditional art disciplines, including photography, fine art and fashion illustration, but he is not averse to trying out new media. He has recently become part of a group of artists at Middlesbrough-based Custom Tattoo Design, a company which designs bespoke tattoos.
In the current economic climate, more and more people are seeing that a hobby or skill could become an extra source of income. However, although this venture could potentially reap financial rewards, Matt is more concerned with the personal benefits it is bringing. He likens himself to a character in the 2000 film ‘Unbreakable’. “During one scene, Bruce Willis’ character mentions that when he wakes up he feels empty, like something is missing; that some part of his life is going unfulfilled and it’s making him unhappy. That scene pretty much sums up how I feel if I don’t draw.”
Matt encourages anyone harbouring a hidden skill or talent to stop thinking about developing it and just go for it. “It has taken me years to finally do it and now that I have it feels like a release to be sharing my work in so many different ways. One of the major bonuses is that I get to talk about my passion to a great many individuals and that is a reward in itself.”
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