Dylon's Cancer Journey First Anniversary

Lifeblogging?

Hi, my name is Dylon and I teach chainmail.

I discovered this ancient art after watching the cheesy Jean Claude Vanne Damme movie Cyborg on VHS nearly three decades ago.

Since that fateful date I have written books, created numerous tutorials on various chain weaves and provided instruction to students of all ages.

The last fan convention I attended in person (instead of via social media) was nearly 20 years ago. This is mostly due to living on remote northern island called Manitoulin which is about 3 hours from Sudbury and 8 hours from Toronto by car.

So when the opportunity to attend Graphic Con at the Sudbury Arena with my friend and social media guru Christine from Life on Manitoulin - I decide to go dressed as my chainman self. After all, I would not have survived the past 30 years as a freelance artist if I was not my own hero.

Nothing represents this better than the Herochain.com print-all-over t-shirts we were wearing. Which not only represent my personal philosophy of knowing what you are and wearing it like armour, but are also quality print-on-demand (POD) products produced via Society 6.

This is a service which not only benefits the environment, but also allow math-blind artists like myself deal squarely with our fans by letting a reputable organization handle all the dirty work. Such as overhead, wholesale, customer service and returns.

I also think that it’s wonderful that as a Herochain.com ambassador, Society 6 curators can also become their own hero by earning real-life affiliate dollars sharing the creative content they love.

Completing my cosplay homage to Cyborg  was a chest-mounted GoPro Hero 4 Silver capturing time-lapse footage for just about the entire duration of our afternoon convention attendance - condensing 3 hours of continuous photographs into approximately 8 minutes of video.

Capturing a frame every half second resulted in somewhat blurry action which I have mixed with start and stop captions. I call the resulting point-of-view the “Chainman Effect” in the spirit of an unholy alliance between Tove Lo’s Habits and Hardcore Henry. If the resulting POV low is a little too dizzying for you, imagine how existence is for me or feel free to use the pause button liberally to enjoy the convention scenery.

The truth is that editing this composition by compressing 8 minutes of native 4K footage into 5 minutes of start/stop 1080p pressed my venerable PC to the bleeding edge. As will uploading the resulting file to Youtube and Facebook. For editing I was using VideoPad from NCH Software for the first time at the suggestion of my friend Will Smith, who obviously has way more video editing experience than myself.

Special thanks to Valentina Carias from Because Geek for being the coolest (and only) YouTube celebrity I've ever met in person with some truly down-to-earth advice and a friendly reminder that even heroes crash their hardware from time-to-time - especially whilst editing crazy timelapse videos.

It’s my sincere hope that you enjoy this trip through the multiverse with thanks to all the great cosplayers who participated in this work of living art for Whytes.tv! Especially the ones I missed capturing like the Final Fantasy Crew, Boba Fett, Scarecrow, some kind of strange robot oven, the Pines family of Gravity Falls, Nina Tucker - the uber-creepy dog-girl chimera from Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood, at least 4 different Harley Quinns and a million more multiverse attendees I cannot recall!

Next convention I’ll definitely stick around for the Masquerade and will hopefully have more than a couple of days of preparation - also, please let me know what you think of this video!

Oh, and my final question for all Game of Thrones fans is… When the final credits roll, who do you think will be sitting on the Iron Throne and why?

What is Justice By Knight?

Even if I don't get to watch live I'm still pretty stoked about tonight's premiere of my ‪‎chainmaille‬ interview for Eastlink Cable's Talk Nerdy at 8pm on Channel 10. I'm working on some raw footage of the interview to share on social media, but in the meantime please check out our latest Whytes.tv production commemorating Whytes last night at the Gore Bay Harbour Centre entitled ‪Justice By Knight‬....

Top 3 Ways to Start Ormlänk Chain Weave?

Today is an exciting milestone with the launch of my first ever chain weave tutorial video as part of our new Whytes.tv YouTube Channel - hope you enjoy this lesson and be sure to let me know what you think! So far I've really enjoyed working with our Hero4 Silver - despite all the technical ups and downs of learning a new piece of equipment. POV filming is a lot of fun and I can hardly wait to put together more fresh island content.

Oh, and just for fun - here is an animated GIF of me speed weaving Ormlänk:


via GIPHY

Where can I watch the official HeroChain.com print-all-over chain t-shirt unboxing?

Can't tell you how exited I was to finally receive my HeroChain.com print-all-over chain t-shirt from Society 6 the other day! As a freelance artist I love this print-on-demand service, plus friends, fans and followers can make affiliate dollars just by signing up as Society 6 curators. That's what I call a win-win-win situation!

Making the chain?

Busy week carried into weekend with responsive site design upgrades for The Art of Chainmail and Whytes Online both going live after much polishing.

Had a funny giggle upon discovering that Sudbury's Talent North Magazine (which some of you may remember from my Zombie adventures in Espanola last summer) choose to feature none other than yours truly for the cover of their April edition. Check out the widget below - something awesome about this publication is that it is completely free-to-read online via international digital publishing service Issuu. (In retrospect I wish we'd had something this slick for the digital edition of Scrapbook.)

All around Talent North is definitely an innovative publication and even includes an awesome editorial this month on self-confidence!

IT has been too long?

Seems like forever and a day since I've had a chance to catch my breath in the midst of immense change for all of Whytes. Our first task started before x-mas with switching apartments - a month-long event of hauling hundreds of loads up and down two flights of stairs that my groin is still recovering front. Completely loving the new space which is a major upgrade - especially with fresh Jack Whyte art on the walls.

Once settled we ended up diving directly into learning "Responsive Site Design" in order to ensure our content remains current and compatible. This kind of dynamic designing has been an ongoing self-education like none other and still hasn't ended - with final edits for both Art of Chainmail and Whytes Online yet to be completed.

Although I'm totally in love with the first draft of the new RSD Art of Chainmail - a resource sure to grow. Something cool about this design is that (like Scrapbook: a story of art) we worked with nothing other than materials we already had on hand and although we later purchased RSD software, the original RSD AOC draft was created for a budget of exactly $0. Yay frugality!

Of course all of this is just build up to working on our free Manitoulin Island Colouring Book and some other secret art projects that we still have in the works.

In the memetime I managed to complete a new introduction banner for my blog and social media network in my "spare time" (see above.)

Chain on!

Dylon

Would you like to know more about this history of art?

A topic that the western world of today is sorely lacking in is art education. So this year - as a holiday gift for everyone - I put together a little educational video on the topic of art history. This was a "spare time" project for me at about 50 hours of labour over the past two months to produce a whopping 1 minute and 5 seconds of sound and images - so let me know what you think - Dylon

It's All Adele's Fault?

Remember last week when one of my t-shirt designs was summarily banned from Teespring - apparently lacking in inspiration when too closely mocking pop-music sensation Adele?

Well, this week a friend noticed the reactionary Warhol inspired pop-art banners across my social media network and requested something similar based on a meme featuring their feline buddy.

This six cat by seven iteration fractal poster was the initial result -

Cat Copy #42

Overjoyed with the results, I asked my friend if his buddy would mind the sharing of his pop art visage via my shoppe on Society 6? His buddy agreed almost immediately - based on the principal of being a complete and utter attention whore.

Sharing a similar passion, I couldn't help toying with different mathematically inspired cat compositions based on Society 6's selection of museum quality print-on-demand merch:

Corner Kitty

Cat of Nine Tales

The Come Back Cat

Cat-a-tonic

Earlene, Arlene, Ilene, Ailene, Darlene, Charlene, Shirlene, Karlene, Celene, Jolene, Gaylene, 
Sharlene - Catness Everlene

The Chess Sire Cat 

Cat Peace in Shower

Cat Man Do 

This is a Catapestry!

Who Let the Bag Out Of the Cat

There Are More Ways to Skin the Cat Than Uno

Am I driving you a little catty? - here's a link to the entire Cat Copy #42 exhibit on Society 6 - with daily discounts and free shipping just in time for the holidays!

https://society6.com/grumbledude/collection/cat-copy-42?curator=grumbledude

P.S.You may notice that the above link contains my Grumbledude Curator ID - as a Society 6 member I don't actually earn from affiliate links to my own art - but that doesn't mean that you can't - sign up today and start sharing your favorite art for fun and profit!

Dude - You're Not Getting Adele?

Small amount of flusteration this weekend with a kiboshed pop art tribute t-shirt lasting barely 10 minutes on the open oceans of produce-on-demand.

Fueled with indignation I was convinced the best thing to do was to pen a vitriolic indictment of all intellectual property bureaucracy...

...but instead decided to create some original digital reproductions based on my own infamous chainman.me photograph...

5 Days Left! Help dylon@chainman.me remain independent and authentic with a swank Andy Warhol inspired digital pop-art t-shirt featuring the one and only face he has the legal right to use,

What is Pionium?

As a rational and humane being I think that love is an often misunderstood concept confused with lust, attraction, mating instinct and a host of other all-too human experiences. 

With so-called true love being the self-sacrifice of caring so deeply that no matter how close you wish to have something you let go of it completely. Because of this the irrational dreamer in me has never given up on a certain cheesy sense of romance.

This meant that when I truly got to know my current partner for the first time during a weekend expedition to Hogtown we were reluctant to use the word "love" to describe the depth of our newly forged relationship. It seemed disrespectful somehow. Other than a mutual, "I never want to be without you again." Coupled to the shear terror that comes with the unexplored territory of new and profound change.

Determined to correct this potential omission in communication we coined a personal term to describe our heartfelt relativity - Pi. Much like geek letter which has come to represent the ratio of a circles diameter to its circumference - the result of which is a seemingly never-ending and yet ever-changing dance number.

With a nod to the Rashomon Effect - objective, subjective and relative reality from different perspectives as explored in Kurosawa's Rashomon and Yann Martel's Life of Pi.  

Anyhow, just we were slowly starting to use this affectionate alternative to all the perceived weight of "love" with sweet nothings such as "I pi you" instead of "I love you" we found ourselves completely unsure of the outcome of our decision to be together until we turned an otherwise unassuming city corner and simultaneously looked up to discover a literal sign from above.

Seriously, across the city traffic, two or three stories up the side of a building was this flipping huge banner sign for some radio station that read, "Pi - 3.14159265359... etc." We froze in our tracks,  completely lost the conversation we were having and sort of just stared at each other like, "WTF!?"

Then, with a huge sigh of accepting what was obviously inevitable we found our relationship cemented with bizarre synchronicity, were married on Feb 29th less than a year later and have permanently inked wedding bands.

Anyway, here is a special sign for all the lovers and dreamers who experience the Ineffable Spirit of Pi.

Plus, a suggestion - watch Space Dandy - best speculative fiction series - anime or otherwise - in ages! We enjoyed the English dub and I'm sure the subs are awesome as well!

Also for your enjoyment - collectible chain print travel mugs are now available at HeroChain.com for only 24 woolongs aka USD!

Support this dude's bid to become a Teespring winter top-seller or convert your own dank memeage to cash?

This is how easy it is!

What is Advertism?

In the spirit of artistic mavericks such as Picasso, Banksy, Warhol, Matisse, Beltracchi, Lichtenstein, Jack Whyte and other well-known renegades - the self-taught school of Advertism proclaims that product placement has long been a means by which creativity may support itself. Essentially the same as any commercial artistry - except honest about its goals - the difference is that opposed to seeking elaborate sponsorship - advertainment memes are humorously presented as overt advertisements for self-made applied arts projects such as Hero Chain - just one of Dylon Whytes’s unique produced-on-demand couturier product lines and Scrapbook: a story of art - his father’s full-colour memoir.

“If you find that this type of art upsets you this is due to its blatant honesty - and - well - if you’re upset by honesty - then fuck you - your lies - your hypocrisy and your motherfucking censorship.” ~ Dylon

Do you miss Saturday Morning Cartoons and Sugary Breakfast Cereal as much as I do?

Today's Chainman Banner brought to you by the Good Old Days and Herochain - BE THE HERO!

Got to thinking about how much I used to look forward to cartoons on Saturday mornings when I was a kid. Especially the ones that don't involve catching every new overseas consumer trend like hemorrhaging a Ebola  of the pocketbook.

So this week I decided to make my own very Saturday Morning Cartoon - [HeroChain Presents] The Majestic Moose in G Miner - hope you guys enjoy! This was one of those rare weeks where I actually had a little extra time due to Waifu's vacation - so I honestly don't know when I might have time to create a piece this intricate again - at least for awhile.

As for me, today I'm taking the rest of the thanks-for-giving weekend off. Love you guys! Remember - likes are ok, sharing rocks and subs are superb!

Thanks in advance for your patronage (the good kind) and supporting the arts!

Flashback Freya's Day?

Yesterday's Throwback Thorsday Banner brought to you by HeroChain - Legendary Home of Ass Guardian Armoured Pillows - the one and only cushion officially sanctioned by all the major and minor Gods of Thunder!

What did you want to be when you grew up?

Today's Chainman Banners brought to you by HeroChain spokesman Mr. Animeme!

For myself I can't imagine a single occasion of actually entertaining such a ridiculous notion! 

HeroChain presents Dead Reckoning (Sting) - Epic Metalhead {Official Video}

HeroChain - King Sized Bed {Official Video}

Pardon me, are those Manolo Blahniks?

Today's Chainman Banner of the Day is brought to you by HeroChain.com - #BeTheHero

I'm blown away by the overwhelming success Hero Week has received with our chain themed items literally flying off the digital shelves! Keep your eyes peeled and across my social media network for streams of fresh content brought to you by this monumental moment!

Have you got what it takes to be a real hero?

Chain artist Dylon Whyte sure believes so with a labour of love that combines applied arts with memes and produce-on-demand technology to create the legendary t-shirts and various epic hero accessories of his latest initiative - Hero Chain - wear you can be the Hero!

"Today, by utilizing a lifetime of technical experience I am able to produce chain faster, lighter, stronger and less expensive than ever before on the computer. POD services such as the Hero Chain Shop on Society 6 afford independent artists such as myself the unique opportunity to represent ourselves authentically by bringing similar ideas from digital canvas to life."

Keep watching for many more unique opportunities as Hero Week continues on Chainman.me

Please feel free to email Hero Chain requests to Mr. B.A. Hero