Stiles of Art: THE SOCIAL NETWORK

This piece is an example of throwing caution to the wind. I am not an abstract artist what-so-ever, and as a creative, I am truly embarrassed to admit that I don’t ‘get it’ very often, or ever, in most cases. With that in mind, perspective (or arguably personal taste), shouldn’t prohibit me from drawing upon these works for inspiration, right? This would be my second venture into this ‘space’ the first in this style being my ‘These Strange Things…’ piece for the Paul Thomas Anderson show at Gallery1988 in December (2021). Even with that piece, my work has lately started to take on more of a graphical look. This is my ‘abstract phase’ I guess for any historians out there willing to following along, or for when they unearth some sacred treasure with a vague signature and ‘QR’ code sticker on the back. That or it’s my ‘director series’…?

The theme for this piece, I should note before I take you on another random unrelated tour of my mind, was based around director David Fincher. Or more importantly, illustrating one of his features. I recall seeing the email and was both elated & anxious. I love Fincher’s work. I’ve seen most of his films and grew up watching the music videos he worked on early in his career (unknowingly). My favorite project of his has always been ‘Se7en’I saw it in the theaters by accident, and became (healthily) obsessed with his work. I’d watch anything his name was on and was usually rewarded. If he’s reading this, I have one request, Mr. Fincher, David if I may, please for the love of all things holy, finish ‘Mindhunter’!!!! Damn that show is intense. I digress…

Looking over Fincher’s work I knew I shouldn’t pick anything already too saturated. For me that meant no ‘Fight Club’or ‘Se7en’, which left me with ‘The Social Network’. Outside of ‘Mindhunter’, this had to be my most favorite recent-ish work of his. It is such a cross section of human psyche that it haunts me how well it was done. This however would not have been possible if it was not for the masterful and Oscar-worthiness of the entire team involved. The adaptation (of Ben Mezrich’s ‘The Accidental Billionares’), by Aaron Sorkin (>ahem<OSCAR>ahem<), the music….can we talk about the music?!!! Holy cow, also the music by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross (>ahem<OSCAR>ahem<), which created such incredible tension, and the editing done by Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall (>ahem<OSCAR>ahem<), yeah…it was great film. It was also nominated for eight Oscars in total, but ONLY won three. So, there’s that.

I got to work rewatching the film and collecting some reference materials for my illustration. As usual the final images you seen here were developed over time, and it transformed at least twice before I settled on my final layout/design. My first idea is something I may return to, so for that you’ll have to stay tuned, but I will tell you it was a quote. The second phase I had a better idea of what I was going to do, but no clear layout, just a bunch of imagery I knew I wanted to include and it was going to look something like an old Facebook profile. I was firm however on three things: the color scheme, the focal point, and a design element to relate it to technology.

At this point I looked at some of my previous work and decided with at least two out of three elements nailed down (color/focal point), I should just start something. Taking inspiration from the illustration I mentioned earlier (first paragraph…I’ll wait), I painted the background in Procreate, and the returned to my reference material. Since I was going to keep things mostly abstract and only planned on having one actual realistically rendered element, I would need to choose anything I could use as a ‘symbol’ of some kind (be it logo in the case of Sean Parker’s representation here with Napster), or even typography (with the detailing of Mark Zuckerberg’s alleged hacking for Facemash).

I finalized the layout rather quickly after determining what I was going to represent, and what was not going to make the cut. I settled on the pint glass of beer (which originally was a Beck’s bottle as in order to true to the context of both film and alleged ‘facts’), the ‘equation’ written by Eduardo Saverin (Andrew Garfield), on Mark’s dorm window. I still needed a technological element to connect everything to fill in the dead space and as a method to convey more of the story. I knew the bottom of the work, much like the ‘These Strange Things…’ inspired piece, would have silhouettes of iconic buildings/structures that could be easily identifiable.

I turned to the web, which eventually led me somehow to circuitry images that I ended up using for inspiration. I then took my background into Adobe Illustrator, and began constructing the silhouetted buildings I needed for my base along with the window & circuitry. It didn’t take me entirely too long to design all three and take it back into Procreate. Meanwhile back on the iPad I went about finishing the illustration/design, detailing the central beer glass, window (banners*), and rowers. Upon finishing I got it ready to send to SGX for proofing. (*Those banner images were hella hard to find. The Greek letters were in the movie, but the Phoenix Club’s symbol has been almost wiped form the internet, I’m guessing because of all the controversy around these Harvard Final Club’s and their ‘sunsetting’ back in 2017).

Covid, however, was not done with supply chain and so the paper I had so diligently asked my printer to hold for me the day I started the image, was not yet available…yay… Eventually, much closer to the due date, the paper arrived, and there was one more final hiccup, because…life, amiright? After one proof, I was able to correct any ‘issues’ (being only the rowers changing in hue as they were lost in background), I got ready for my final round. I originally scaled the image to 11” x 17”, for the sole purpose of having the extra layers available on Procreate. You see non-artist types, the larger the starting size, the less layers you have, even at an industry standard threshold (300, but really 600 IMO at least). Thankfully, upscaling can be done in Adobe Photoshop without error. You DO NOT under any circumstances want to upscale any image or item in Procreate, it will become hideously pixelated, losing most of the detail. Wait to do it in Photoshop or other software that has the capacity to upscale an image without destroying it. The problem here was none of that, and I’m pretty sure I’ve issued this warning before. Typically, when I get the White Pearl Linen Paper from SGX, it comes in sheets of 13” x 19”. So as not to waste any of the precious commodity, I enlarged my final image to 12” x 18”. The paper SGX had, was however, also 12” x 18”, meaning some of my image was going to be lost, AND it was not going to fit in the frame I needed it to for the show. Or at least I thought. Luckily, I was able to get things worked out (with help from my liaison at SGX), and the final image fit beautifully in the frame.

The final illustration is hidden with ‘Easter Eggs’, entirely digital, started May 2^nd and finished May 11^th totaling about twenty-two (22) hours. The image was primarily developed in Procreate, with some design work done in Illustrator, and minor editing in Photoshop. What’s that? Well, I could tell you everything I ‘hid’ in this piece (another Stiles Trademark historians!!!), but I’m not going to, so either enjoy or look away, you’re ruining the ‘mystique’.

The piece (limited to a run of 11), was originally featured at Gallery 1988’s ‘Political Menace & Moral Despair A Tribute to David Fincher’, which ran from June 11^th, 2022 through June 25^th, 2022. The image is roughly 12” x 18”, and is printed on white pearl linen paper. Please check the gallery’s website for all available works related to show, including mine.

For more information, or to see a catalog of my other work, please visit my online store here. You can also find me on various social media platforms below doing a multitude of other artistic things that include hand lettering, and the occasional sculpting, crafting and painting.