Threesome

Investigating the possible realities of a popular fantasy.

DIRTY DIGGERS

"WELL ITS THE SUN THAT GETS YOU UP,
AND ITS THE FACES THAT GET YOU OUT,
SEEMS ITS ALWAYS EASIER WHEN YOU KNOW THAT
SOMEBODY NEEDS YOU"

"IT'LL BE OK CAUSE I KNOW THE REST OF THE WORLD BLEEDS TOO"
- Dirty Diggers - It'll be ok

No freedom without sacrifice.....

This is a portrait of a Leeds based artist, Testament; who has been playing for years, hosting New Bohemia at The Faversham, I used to see him perform at every gig that was held there from Pharoahe Monch, Bugz in the Attic to my favorite who i have seen 3-4 times, including my last two birthdays, Kidkanevil. He has just brought out an album under the name Homecut.
It also has Corinne Bailey Rae singing on it, and its great to hear her voice again, she stopped singing after the death of her husband Jason Rae, Who I previously illustrated in The Haggis Horns portrait. The album is called No Freedom without Sacrifice, and i have listened to it a shit load already.

I'm really starting to enjoy these portraits of artists I enjoy the music of as it feels like i can give the image more depth, and personal touch, also I seem to be getting more comfortable with the colours i use and am almost creating a personal pallette with the soft gradients and warm/cool contrasts. This personal pallette has got to be bringing out the emotional side of the musician i want to bring out. Anyway, I'm going to carry on and then take the jump into getting some of these printed!!! At last!!

Jason Rae...R.I.P

The Haggis Horns......http://www.myspace.com/thehaggishorns

STATIC LOVE; I CANT BELIEVE SHE IS STILL TALKING TO HIM

I was thinking about the contained nature of these pictures, and the fact they are all confined into this section in the middle of an A3 page, which I think will work when printed onto A1, but in smaller works It might be better working towards having full figures in the picture, this will give more freedom to the painting that occurs in the process and the expressive marks I enjoy making, this will also be easier to convert into giant pieces....Although the content may have to change slightly, perhaps using full body fashion shoots as a foundation.

"Illustration is like visual DJing, and in this spirit I'm a DJ. There are plenty of existing images, a visual overflow. Why should I create anything new? Firstly, I'm looking for existing material that works with the idea and then I remix it. Secondly, If I can't find something specific, I draw or photograph what I need and start to sample myself." - Mone Maurer (www.monemaurer.com

This quote is to help myself overcome any fear of using other peoples images as a jumping off point for my art work, I feel my work brings its own style to the image and even the most famous may become unrecognizable to the original artist, but still I feel like I need more input in the foundation of my sources.

STATICLOVE...(more old pics)

Older pics, forgot to post them....

This is the first experiment for an idea for my small portfolio, and that was to practice my typography/writing to try and achieve a constant style, one i have used for logos in the past. And use it to illustrate the title of the piece on the opposite page after putting the type through the same process as the painting to see if the two style could mesh well together, since this is only the first try I'm still not sure if it is at all successful, I will do a few more i think to help make my mind up.

The Streets....(On the edge of a cliff)

Mike Skinner and the Streets have done very well not to float off in to obscurity, their last album sounds nothing like their first...But his lyrics continue to strike chords of relativity with me, especially when he is more conceptual, he is constantly trying to do something different....inspirational is a word i could use, and fuck it i did.

Back to Static Love/////

One more colour in this than original, which means it will probably not end up a screen print, but you never know.....

Work work work work....my brain is frying onto this screen, which is looking further and further away.

small animation fun....

Taught myself a cool little trick on After Effects.....

Portishead....

Beth Gibbons - Sounds stupid but I wanted the colours in this to represent the feeling and mood of their music, but also capture the warmth I feel when I listen to their music.....Some people find it depressing I find it deep, soothing and inspiring.

Thinking about the music in this way makes creating the picture a lot easier for me to enjoy, and also relates to the original process used in static love which was a lot more personal and therefore easier to reflect in the mood and colour of the piece.

So i may choose a few more artists based on perhaps how a single song has affected me, and the mood it inspired or perfectly represented.

Static Tunes.....(portraits)

So I have been trying to expand the style and process I developed for my Static Love project into a slightly more commercial vain, by looking at some of my favorite musicians and doing portraits of them....The only problem I have discovered is figuring out the emotion of the character i want to portray in the colours that I choose to represent them....

So far I have sent my first one to the subject Kidkanevil and had some positive feedback, and may even be featured on his website so fingers crossed!! I will do some more smaller artists so that i may be able to get some feedback on my work, which gives me a lot of confidence for my next piece! :)

Once again if you have time please leave some comments! :)

first attempt...

this is the first attempt ive had at changing my process and style to different content, at first portraits/situation art, to see how it converts.....The use of more detail may have changed it into something that looks a bit too much like a photo manipulation....but ill have to do more to find out. Plus without the emotion relating directly to the original colour choice, i think it may lack some feeling...perhaps the need is to put more narrative into the portraits?...hmmm

Simplification?