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?

Jack Whyte launches Scrapbook along with new gallery and invites world to visit for free!

“Access to arts and culture should be free for everyone,” says artist Jack Whyte. “Anyone can tour my 2015 exhibits online for free and - from anywhere in the world.” He and his son Dylon Whyte created a virtual gallery this past Spring where artworks are experienced up close and personally, as if literally standing in front of them.

"It's great to produce and present work on a scale of my choice, the way I originally envisioned it," Jack explains. As a young boy he never imagined having the opportunity to design and construct art without restriction. The discovery of a platform which allows for creative freedom has provided a new means for connecting with others.

Jack Whyte was born in 1939 in Toronto, Ontario - just before the start of the second World War. Having been influenced at an early age by a creative environment, he has pursued artistic practices as well as the adventure of invention for more than 55 years.

2015 marks the beginning of a new exploit for Jack, the release of his latest publication, 'Scrapbook: a story of art'. From modelling with Mickey Mouse as a child to showing at the Pollock Gallery and even winning awards for videos, this book recounts the journey and challenges faced by a becoming artist and the enormous adversity that life can throw at you.

In the autumn of 2014, Jack mentioned to his son, Dylon, that he was starting a book and could use some help with it. Over the course of a long winter and many toasty afternoons by the fire, they searched for, found, prepared and put together what has become a very personal and thoughtful one-of-a-kind memoir.

"It's not until you have the whole story that you really understand how the pieces all fit together," says Dylon Whyte. "It's also difficult to put everything into perspective when you're part of the story. Getting to the point where I can hold a part history in my hands helps me understand where I come from."

When Jack and Dylon started producing the book, it was just a collection of stories and images, but with months of collaboration and hard work, they have created an album that is delightfully personable and genuinely familiar.

"Jack tells you about the experiences that influenced him as an artist and includes all sorts of fun stories from his life," says Ashley Whyte, wife of Dylon and proprietor of the Whytes gallery on the waterfront in the Gore Bay Harbour Centre. "There is also an abundance of never-before-seen photographs and a wealth of artwork. When Jack named it Scrapbook, he really meant it."

Coming in at a whole 456 pages, Scrapbook was digitally published in June of this year and is available online for everyone to read for free. Although it was only meant to be a digital publication, new economic platforms have given Scrapbook the opportunity to become something more than just a concept.

"The book is obviously quite big and financing a print run on our own wouldn't be viable, so we talked about other options and crowdfunding came up as a potential," explains Ms. Whyte. "It's an incredibly different approach than anything Jack is familiar with, he has always done things on his own. It wasn't until only recently that we knew something like this even existed."

Crowdfunding is the process of funding your projects through small contributions made by many individuals in order to attain a certain monetary goal, typically via the internet. The model that has been around the longest is rewards-based crowdfunding, where people can donate and receive goods in recognition of their support.

Ashley and Dylon Whyte have taken Scrapbook to Rockethub; a platform specializing in arts and entertainment, to seek help in bringing Jack's story to life. They've launched their campaign and are working to raise $11,500 to cover the costs of printing a limited edition hardcover. In the meantime, Scrapbook remains free for everyone to read online and enjoy.

For more information about Scrapbook and how you can help, please visit their Rockethub campaign at: scrapbook.whytesonline.com