Cracking New York ;)

hatfactorypublishing.blogspot.com/

A beautiful small book created to promote artists in New York, featuring myself and some other amazing artists!!

NEW BOOK and the unfolding darkness

So I think we put together a sweet little book. All the artists that contributed where really great and quick. Over all I think the book took about a month to really get the thing off the ground. It was a little confusing having both Isaac and I dealing with artists from like three different emails. We are definitely going to do another book. Hopefully we can make enough with this one to pay for this one and the next one. I don't doubt that will happen. I mean I loved seeing it all come together. Isaac did a lot of the leg work as far as laying images out and when he brought over the mock up I was surprised at how well everything went together. Screening the cover and envelops was really cool too. That was the step where the project came together for me. So yeah, I am really proud of this book. "

Separate Love/Lust

Can Love and Lust ever really be separated.

I don't bleed (when i think of you).

"Then dry my eyes and keep on walking til the motion makes me strong
Until one day i realise I don't remember that you're gone"
Emmy the Great - Canopies and Grapes

Modern Romance

"I want to hold the hand inside you
I want to take a breath that's true"
Mazzy Star - Fade into you

Belief in Joy

Baggage of Excess/Eloquent Misuse

Eloquent Misuse.



Baggage of Excess. (Oh Amy).

Giving up isn't easy/The Kiss/I'm. Alone....I'm Single./

THE BIG DAY!!

First day of the THAMES FESTIVAL tomorrow!!! Many great artists selling stuff, and i'm selling some pieces too, from the Static Love collection. Hopefully it will be a great laugh and successful. Come down and have a look around it should be a nice day out! And look out for us at the Brick Lane Arts and Crafts festival in a few weeks time....! :)

Play Room Collective - Thames Festival

Very Limited Edition Prints For Sale

This and a few other pieces, will be for sale as Limited edition A1 Giclee Prints at the Thames Festival. 12th-13th September. London, UK.
Near the Millenium Wheel, Jubilee Gardens, come and say hello. I'll be the one with a beer in my hand.

There will be a few other very talented and popular illustrators and artists selling pieces too, this is a special opportunity to come and talk to us and learn more about the work, chill out and chat!

you can learn more about our group here:

http://playroomillustration.blogspot.com/

And an article here:

http://www.jotta.com/magazine/articles/150/all-work-and-more-play

Hope to see you down there! :)

Sneak preview of Boxfresh DEsigns///>>>

Bit of an experiment as usual from me, wanted to see how the 'Static Love' subject and style would convert to T shirt, with a little more concentration on composition and focal points. Completely obscure when the canvas is someones chest!! The colours are not as directly effected by the emotion of the piece unlike in the 'Static Love' series, as to allow for some variation in the 'canvas' colour....Cant have them all designed on White T shirts can we now!! It will be very interesting to see how these sell when they are printed and whether I can experiment with wrap around designs, and maybe introducing more colours and layers, and maybe even gradients....Keep your eyes peeled for more sneak previews, and I'll let you know when they get printed obviously!! :)

Fat Freddys Drop

Back on it....."Waiting for nothing"

A feeling of waiting, always waiting for something to happen in your life, relationship or even your night out....Always feeling like this something will come, really deep down feeling like you know that it should in all likelihood happen, but the truth is it may never and will never happen, as you expect or at all.

think positively...

don't doubt yourself. think positive. good things will happen.

I can be sick. I could be sadistic.....

Again and Again (i end up like this)

I little bit of a darker more personal piece....

I need to touch her/why cant i love her

Used a few different textures than usual...still homemade but photos this time....hope you like it.
:)

Static Love...continued.

What good is your ear if a qtip aint in it?

Q_Tip's new album renaissance seemed to reminding the whole commercial world what hip hop is meant to be! Hopefully this will roll back the years by influencing many producers to come....we'll see.

?uest Love....

Going to see this guy play tonight at Cargo in London...he is a hip hop pioneer and master, so thought I'd dedicate an illustration to him....of him!

Quite enjoyed giving a bit more space to my abstract stylings....wasn't to sure about the color on this one....but happy with how it came out overall. Let me know what you think! :)

"Am i just another man to her?"

Catching up..."I will never love anyone else"

So I've been so busy working on boring things like promotional material and website stuff....YAWN!!! But ive done a couple works to catch up one for the static love series which I am still doing but to what end i know not....and one of a photo I liked, I need to add more dimensions to my portfolio hopefully including some works that could be used for editorials.

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?