Stuart Ruel Illustration Blog

2012

2012-01-02T21:21:00.004Z

'Tis the year of the Dragon. I was born in said Dragon year, I'm sure that means good things await this year, even if I'm not Chinese. To a Happy New Year and wishful thinking.

Happy Halloween

2011-11-01T02:10:00.003Z

Happy Halloween everybody. I didn't get any trick or treaters this year, they would of course receive nothing, because I was busy colouring this. Plus all I seem to have in my house is pasta and a wide selection of teas. They don't really need more sweets, what they need is a father figure...the scummy begging bastards. I decided to get Gary Oldman and his scrotum like face with the bouffant out and get him to slobber over Wilhelmina's face just like I would. I then wrote 'Happy Halloween' at the bottom to let you know my intentions this Halloween.

Lemniscus

2011-10-20T13:02:00.003+01:00

Here's a bit of process behind this one. It started out as a sketch with no intention of being anything else, but I liked it so I decided to ink it again...twice and then colour it. Yeeeeeaaaah.

Below is actually the second one I inked, since I decided the figures were too far apart. Alas, after this I decided they were too close and reverted back to the original inked image, I even considered using the one in my sketchbook, because the inking was much looser.

I do knock about this a lot - the retention of fluidity in inking - which is what I think makes a good inker. Inking when all the blacks are laid down that doesn't look like it's been pencilled at all. Not too tight and not too loose. I'll stop there because it's starting to sound sexual and I may get aroused.

Here's the finished thing and that's how it happened. I finished digitally and kept the original text in. You can buy the print here if you like maybe, if you wanna.

In other news, I got interviewed at the awesome site that is ProcessMade and you can read the interview here, also if you wanna.

Roll River

2011-08-29T17:20:00.004+01:00

Haven't blogged in ages, here's a couple drawings until I get up something more uuuup. I usually only carry around a mechanical 2B, because it's reliable and doesn't need sharpening, mechanical is getting comfortable and too precise, so it's time I started carrying something else, maybe I'll stick with these soft pencils for while. I heard you should do that when you start to feel comfortable, pick a totally different medium to keep you on your toes, just outside of that comfort zone...

Dout

2011-08-18T14:02:00.003+01:00

LFT

2011-08-01T16:47:00.006+01:00

Young Pedro riding shotgun. Pedro is wearing a beautiful 1950's loop shirt complete with birds carrying arrows/naked greek gladiators throwing javelin. LFT bitches!

Nicole

2011-07-29T01:22:00.002+01:00

A quick acrylic study. Nothing like a pair of boobs to warm up with in the morning.

Bukake

2011-07-24T01:43:00.004+01:00

I'm sitting on a train, drawing this Japanese lady. She is talking to her husband in Japanese. I don't speak Japanese nor understand it, but one word I did recognise her say was 'bukkake'. I don't know the context it was used in, but would like to imagine that's where they headed on said train.

Ad Infinitum

2011-06-22T00:45:00.007+01:00

I finally got around to doing a piece for Power In Numbers for Gallery Nucleus, which I've been wanting to do for a while now. This came out of a sketch, just messing around with symbols and text with image. I ended up using '∞' and working with the concept of infinity and a bunch of plays on meaning and the placing of the symbol in in correspondence to the figure. The image is inked with oil glazes on paper.

This is the prelim sketch for it, which I used to work out cropping and sizing and some more compositional and stylistic elements.
These are some initial sketches, initially I had a problem with the '∞' being rotated because it looks like an '8' and was going to have this landscape, but I decided I like it better portrait and it's not that much of an issue and the title of it isn't 'eight', so I don't think there's that much confusion. If you do get confused do me a favour and jump down an empty well. As always, I think the first sketch of the piece in my sketchbook (left page) is nicer than the final one, I guess I'll have to learn how to do everything in one take so I can live with myself. Anyway, hopefully the piece will be for sale on the Gallery Nucleus website soon and a percentage of the profit will go towards Red Cross, it's a really great project with loads of amazing artists involved, have a look/contribute.

170611

2011-06-18T01:17:00.002+01:00

Quick warm up study...

Stööki

2011-06-06T17:14:00.010+01:00

Recently did some printing work with my boy Lukey (majorly talented DJ/producer/designer) Quincey (curator) and Nadia (jewelry) for their brand Stööki. Truthfully, it was the hardest I'd worked in a long time, with invaluable help from plastic onion and petrol station water. We printed the shit out of those t-shirts. Majorly grateful to be involved, these guys put serious in work to get everything together and it's definitely the start of something HUGE.

The Launch was held in conjunction with Redbull at Redbull Studios with sets from Erol Sabadosh, Ayman Ahmed and Hipsters Don't Dance and installations and live art all arranged by the Stööki team. (Photo credits: Calvin Osei)

I took advantage of the open bar Redbull and Rum obviously, subsequently rendering it impossible for me to sleep and drunk enough to not get a boner in this here photo session. (Photo credit: Doug)

They made a highly exclusive run of t-shirts and jewelry for their debut MYM collection that are god damn niiiice and you can pick one (or all of three t-shirt x jewelry piece combos) up here.

Today's Nude

2011-04-21T13:43:00.007+01:00

Quick life study...Aaaaand if you're an artist in the UK, check out this programme on Channel 4 called Life Class: Today's Nude. It's life drawing on the freaking tv, it's caused a bit of controversy since it's showing naked broads and old dudes on daytime TV - however, nobody seemed to care when it was all old wrinkly balls, but as soon as a young model sat (Kirsten Varley) people complained. Good show, if you can't get out to a real class. First image is a study from that show in FW and sumi brushes.

Goldtrail

2011-04-21T00:48:00.002+01:00

Been doing more experimenting with stuff, trying to draw from imagination more than previously and include more of a sense of play in image making. Life drawing is great for keeping a good eye for proportion and detail, but one thing I've learnt is not to neglect drawing from imagination. It is not bound by accuracy and representation in the same way and can allow you to be more free in play and process. Drawing from imagination uses complex symbols that aren't used as much when drawing from observation, but it is these symbols that gives an artist individuality and often gives an image a soul.

C-Beams

2011-04-12T01:21:00.007+01:00

Haven't blogged in ages it seems! I've been pretty busy, have a few things coming up and a few jobs I can't blog just yet! First image is a rough for a series of pieces Power in Numbers for Gallery Nucleus, A LOT of really amazing artists involved and part of proceeds go to charity, it's a really amazing project please have a look/buy/participate. Aaaand those sketchbook zines I mentioned will be available by the end of the week so check back!

Unsaid

2011-03-17T18:24:00.001Z

Drawing that was intended for a cover piece for my rarebit comic, that I scrapped in favour of another drawing...

In other news my shop is up and running and you can buy prints here and I'll be putting up more stuff, some screenprints and zines will be up there soon! There's also some small prints (10") up on Esty which aren't available on the website.

Stoked I made my first international print sale to Australia, so a copy of the 'Four Sheets...' giclée in a custom tube with a little Minara study to say thanks!

Muse

2011-03-13T03:09:00.005Z

...every artist needs a one right?

280211

2011-02-28T23:22:00.003Z

I'm working in a new moleskine for 2011 and I've switched to carrying a pencil because I was getting a bit too comfortable carrying a ballpoint - gonna switch mediums every 2-3 weeks just to keep on my toes. Right now I've been doing a lot of inking, it's filtering through into my linework and I'm being more gestural, whereas I would sketch a line out in several strokes I'm trying to hit it in one stroke first time. It's good practice for inking and I get to concentrate on quality of line without the permanency of ink, which can make you over consider a line before you do it.

Gun and Boob

2011-02-24T03:03:00.006Z

You know I be drawing them hoes errday. I've been back on inking with brushes recently and I like the outcome better than nib, but it is just a hell of a lot more technical. I've found I'm working best on smoother surfaces like bristol, even though I do like to dry brush and that tends to work better on something with a bit of tooth...This was done in a moleskine with FW ink. Tried a new bit of colouring that I've been meaning to try for a while, got my Adam Hughes on and tried changing the colour of linework according to subject matter, which works well in fleshing out the image a bit.

Nib

2011-01-26T16:38:00.004Z

As I said, I've been practicing my brush work to up my comic chi-kung. In the process I did pick up a nib and feel way more comfortable using it for comic work. I can get a nice variety of line width and control. I think I can push it a bit more because I'm not so scared of it going out of control...Not a bad thing but I need to master brush inking, I just prefer the line quality where it's evident, the looseness and flow of the line, Paul Pope and Nathan Fox are two of my favourite inkers for that reason. I'll mix the two for now, nib for tight lines and brush to block in and stuff.

New Gallery

2011-01-16T23:42:00.005Z

This is a detail of the piece I did for New Gallery Jumble in Camberwell, I went to uni with Tia (who organised the whole thing) and dearsweetagatha was trading there too. It was the first New Gallery Jumble and it went really well, really busy and think I'm going to do some more stuff for the next one... This was done in ivory black and titanium white acrylic then glazed with white spirit and oils, which is something I've never tried before. I haven't tried turps over acrylic but word is it strips the acrylic and spirits are gentle enough to glaze with, so this might be something I'll return to. Used a similar palette to my favourite Dean Cornwell painting, Dean is the man.

Stalk

2011-01-10T03:31:00.006Z

A few sketches from my adventures on the trains of foggy London town. The last three people I've drawn have all looked similar, they are all different though, I swear. Plus, I think it's time to get a new sketchbook for this year, working in this water damaged thing isn't doing it for me, I'm going back to a moleskine for my travel drawing. So here they are including a sleeping lady. And yeah I did feel like a creep drawing a lady sleeping, but that's what the man wants us to feel like man. If I want to draw a sleeping lady and she doesn't know it, I'll do it man. You can do anything providing you don't leave fingerprints and dna...right?

Four Sheets to the Wind

2010-12-19T20:48:00.008Z

This is the process for my last piece, which originally started as an idea of having a body submerged in rising water/liquid. The figure was holding an object, saving it from the water, the object was to be one of little relevance and I hadn't decided what is was (yeah solid concept, art directors must be falling over themselves to get to work with me right?). I think it's good to create out of emotion and myriad ideas and build narrative around a concept rather than concept around narrative - it can open up new ideas and process. I probably wouldn't have experimented with mixing media if this was a commissioned piece.

After sketching out a few times, I decided that I wanted half of the face underwater, the problem with this being that the objects in the landscape detracted from the image of the face, so it ended up being reduced to a portrait. I also then realised that it looked a little like Martin Sheen in Apocalypse Now, so I decided to go for drowning, rather than squatting in a lake. I also tilted the head back gasping for air. And yes I was the reference for this and there exists such a photo, which I shall destroy. The water is going inside the mouth like when you go swimming and you accidentally inhale pissy chlorine water. Maybe that's my concept here.

The face is rendered in black with gouache and acrylic - Gouache is good for the softer tones, but when I wanted to lay down a solid and not have it awoken by later brushstrokes, I used acrylic. The water is phthalo blue oil and recycled turps. Final step is colouring in photoshop using soft, low flow brushes on multiply layers. I tilted the head to the side and placed it on a longer portrait canvas (the concept was originally landscape) and placed the head at the top to give it a claustrophobic feeling and give the water more depth.

Coincidentally you can buy this print and others here! (the grid on the site is under maintenance, don't be alarmed, it's legit I promise)

Inking Practice

2010-12-11T04:29:00.003Z

I planned on doing some inking so that I would loosen up a bit with my lines, which worked a little. I practiced drawing with a HUGE nib and a regular sized one, I'm pretty comfortable using a pen compared to brush work. I saw this Paul Pope talk at comic con and thought I'd give the brush a go. Turns out that the brush is a bastard compared to the pen. The first drawing is done with a medium sized nib and the second is inked with a brush (Windsor & Newton series 7, No.2). The brush is a lot more sensitive than the nib, which I'm not used to, so my brush work is quite tight since I'm being really cautious with it. I'll be working on getting a bit more fluidity with the brush, until I get it I shall not be a happy chappy.

Gesture

2010-12-03T00:53:00.007Z

After seeing Francis Vallejo's gesture studies (more on his blog here) I felt excited enough to do some of my own. I kind of avoid gestural studies because I'm not too good at the quicker studies. I started with really quick gesture studies then moved to longer periods, but my initial gesture studies were pretty off, so I think working backwards is better for me (starting with longer studies and then moving towards quicker, looser studies) so that I get some better movement and flow in my lines. Going to do my next lot in brush and ink, I think it might force me to loosen up a bit.

Gun Crazy

2010-11-25T13:37:00.003Z

Process blog for the last illustration I did. Reference for this was from the movie of the same title. I worked with a still for a majority of the pose and fabric draping, but abandoned it when it came to drawing the faces, so I wasn't just making a copy of the still. Made a lot of revisions with the faces (as can be seen on the heavily erased prelim), it was one of those days. I actually prefer the line work and feel of prelim, the final drawing was quite tight and it's easy to lose movement when your lines become more precise rather than gestural. Scanned at 600dpi, chose to keep the colouring quite flat too, going to work on colouring a bit more with the next few pieces...

stuartruel.com!

2010-11-17T18:14:00.005Z

In other news, my website stuartruel.com is finally up (albeit with little work on there, I'm in the process of uploading stuff to it) you should go check it out and that. Developed by the very talented scumbag that is Pedro Duarte.

Freedom & Hope

2010-11-17T15:03:00.003Z

This week I drew a tattoo design for Pedro. The design is an adapted one from Russian Criminal Tattoos that I redesigned to make the mermaids hips less birthing and her boobs look less like an ass with nipples. He wanted to keep the detail and dot work of the Russian style, but make it more Sailor Jerryesque. The design was then expertly tattooed by Marcio Bornholdt, I'll post another pic when it heals!

151110

2010-11-17T02:10:00.002Z

Some drawings from this week, I've mainly been painting, doing some new portfolio pieces, thumbnailing and stuff. See, one thing that happens in uni is that they don't remind you that nobody wants to see your shitty experimental exploration projects in the real world. So I'm revising my portfolio with some new work. Trying to invest more time in pieces too, more painting, more composing!

Tata Gala Submission

2010-10-29T18:08:00.008+01:00

This is my submission for Tata Gala, which I've been wanting to do for ages, hopefully it'll get in... it'll be sooo good to show with all the REALLY good artists that are their. Like I said before, I was messing around with mixing inks, these are FW white, black, scarlet, process cyan, process yellow and possibly a bit of magenta, which got painted over eventually. Just hope that if it get in, I have enough time to send it over! It's up in their 'Distinguished Merit' online gallery *ahem* which is kinda cool. Proceeds go towards cancer of the boob, so if you're in the area, go have a look and maybe buy some amazing art!

This Week

2010-10-27T00:32:00.005+01:00

I've haven't been to busy drawing this week, I've been on the business side of things. BUT when I did draw, I drew this man (above). If you have seen him or know him, you will already know that this is the guy who dresses like he lives in a video game (if Zelda and Halo ever did a mashup game). I naturally stalked him and drew the hell out of him. If you know this guy let me know.
In other news, I landed the honour of being the first feature for the 'An Author a Month' initiative from Moleskine. You can read my interview here (which, mainly discusses... you guessed it. Moleskines) A big thankyou goes to Moleskinerie for arranging it!

Frank's Wild Years Inks

2010-10-14T00:16:00.005+01:00

Some more inks from the Frank's Wild Years comic, not coloured yet, this one might be a dead project, I worked on it for my degree soooo going to start some new graphic novel/mini comics for the sake of change. It's got to one of those stages where it's stagnated a bit, so I may very well return to it at some point.

Peeps

2010-10-06T01:05:00.005+01:00

A couple drawings whilst getting the train to work this week...my sketchbook isn't too healthy after getting pretty wet a while ago, but it had loads of pages left so I'm going to finish it.

Tatas

2010-10-03T13:36:00.003+01:00

I've been messing around with mixing inks a lot lately, it seems a lot harder to get a muddy outcome than using paints for example. Anyway this is one of a few warmup studies I've been doing to test medium and mixing and stuff.

Bansi

2010-09-25T01:08:00.002+01:00

drawing of Bansi...I've been drawing a lot from life as of late, been neglecting my imagination a little, so I'm going to do some stuff off the top of the dome, mix it up, not rely on ref as much... Should have a few more bits coming up, my piece for this year's Tata Gala and some more colouring and comp studies this week.

AFT

2010-09-21T01:05:00.003+01:00

Colouring practice.

108

2010-09-17T13:11:00.004+01:00

Trying to do stuff everyday, even if it is from photo ref. Doing more digital colouring too, nothing too heavy mind, a few multiply layers and being careful not to over-colour.

Dude

2010-09-14T13:05:00.004+01:00

Decided I don't do enough digital colouring, so this. I drew this broad and everything, looked at some other photos of her and said oh my I have larger breasts than her, then I realised it was a dude. Don't pretend that you wouldn't. (Photo credits Mert & Marcus)

Warmups III

2010-09-08T19:52:00.006+01:00

More warm up studies in ink. Some digital colouring and bigger projects to come. No longer shall I be a bum.

Warmup II

2010-09-05T14:30:00.005+01:00

Needed a bit of a rest after Frank's Wild Years, there's a few pages in it I'm going to redo, I think they could read a bit better and get some colouring in there. Thought I'd do some warmups to start of the day.

Frank Prelim

2010-08-23T03:39:00.004+01:00

Prelim drawings for Frank's Wild Years. I'm trying to make this a quick one, so nothing too tight with regards to linework and detail. Working on how I'm going to draw it and character development, I'm going to stick with this. Not sure if I'm going to bring in colour except for the end, possibly black and grey for the first three quarters. I'll try and post some colour experiments before I go to colouring.

Journey

2010-08-22T19:47:00.002+01:00

I haven't been doing much drawing, but I'm back on it, working on a comic for Frank's Wild Years which I've been saying I would do for a while, with any luck it'll be done by the end of the week.

Sketch 2010 III

2010-08-22T14:18:00.006+01:00

I've been lucky this week and managed to sit opposite a man with a real life eyepatch and a herd of buddhist monks. Result.

AMS EP

2010-08-08T15:36:00.006+01:00

Got the gig doing art direction for Cally's 'A Midnight Snack EP' of which you should download and show support to (good) UK artists. I've known Cally for a while now and those of you that know me will know that I'm a connoisseur of hip-hop and all round a-hole. So when Cally told me he was releasing an album, I didn't take much notice of his usual folderol...until I heard him that is. His writing and musical direction is accelerating at a speed that in retrospect, leaves this EP miles behind.

When you listen to music, you sometimes hear something that affects you as profound and that doesn't happen very often. A pleasant disturbance. Excuse the clichéd examples, but they are milestones for a reason. It's like the first time I heard 'I Used to love H.E.R.' or when the intro ended and the drums and the opening lines on 'N.Y. State of Mind' begin. I'm clearly exaggerating about this EP. I would be a dickhead to compare. But I can say, he's touched me at times, take what you will from that.

Dare I say he's going to be the next Ty. I'm not just saying that because he's a four-eyed black man either.

SO look out for the album, which should be out soon (with a beauty of a hand-printed sleeve and gold spot colour cover by me)

Download it here.

excuse me I have to go wipe the shit of my nose now.

Excursion into hair

2010-08-08T14:49:00.003+01:00

I went for a much needed haircut and during the usual four hour wait, I thought it would be a good opportunity to get some filling for the sandwich that is my skecthbook - which, is looking quite weathered these days after my successful attempt of saving this mexican wrestler mug from it's cruel life in a foreigner's bar by smuggling it in my handbag. I of course only checked to see if it was full an hour and a half later.

Sketch 2010 II

2010-07-24T03:45:00.004+01:00

Some drawings of people I perved on during my travels this week...

in other news, I'm working on a new album cover art project, which I can't leak just yet, but will be done real soon.

Dio Cane!

2010-07-11T02:53:00.003+01:00

D

2010-07-05T15:10:00.003+01:00

ah.

17 Days

2010-07-05T14:43:00.004+01:00

This record store (The Vinyl Resting Place) donated a good few crates of 7's to my local charity shop, I thought it closed down, but turns out they were shifting stock. Diggin' crates I found a load of Prince singles 20p a pop son.

Sketchbook 2010

2010-07-05T14:22:00.005+01:00

I've been drawing a lot more recently, which was something I neglected because of uni, I was reading more than drawing, so it's good to draw again. Really been trying to get back on top of things, and train my eye with drawing exercises that I thought were useless in school, but apparently aren't. Right now I'm pushing a Fabriano Classic Artist's Journal, they aight, a bit of a nightmare to scan since they are so thick and the paper is a bit on the thin side. I said I wouldn't, hook back up with moleskines, at least for drawing.

Playground III

2010-07-05T04:19:00.006+01:00

Last in the series of burlesque illustrations, this ones been on the back burner for ages because of the bullshit that is uni. Unfortunately the later ones came out better composed than the earlier few, but that's life brother.

My Vinyl Weighs A Ton

2010-06-14T01:48:00.007+01:00

Steel Slipcase

Detail - Halftone Lasered Steeeeel

Got my slipcase for DOOM 'Born Like This' behind a camera and got some photos of it. The lasering wasn't 100% successful because of a gradual bend in the surface of the steel towards the edge where it was welded, BUT since it's all battered anyway it added to the aesthetic. The image is the same as the LP cover, originally airbrushed. To prep it, it was darkened considerably, grayscaled and halftoned and sent to the awesome guys down at Cutlasercut who then rubbed magic juice on it and shot it up with a laser.

Renaissance

2010-06-08T04:03:00.004+01:00

Getting back into drawing more, messed around with a couple inks and acrylic to get a flesh tone. Think I'm going to try using more colours and see where this goes, maybe get some of these printed as postcards to sell come exhibition time.

Warmup

2010-06-01T01:13:00.006+01:00

I haven't drawn much because of uni coming to an end, I no longer have to dumb down anything and am free to be an real illustrator now. So I'm upping my drawing time and going to do loads, so I can improve rather than falling off. There's a print sale this sunday at Jaguar Shoes, I'm trying to get a couple prints together for that and I don't want to be out of the groove, come and buy some donuts, cake and paper with stuff on it made by 3rd Year LCC Illustration BA.

From the Heart of Bed Stuy

2010-05-25T02:54:00.006+01:00

Spec Boogie gig last week in Notting Hill. Set was fully done with a live band, no pre-recordings at all and he completely held it down considering it seemed mostly impromptu. Definitely a name to look out for...listen out for him too, get hold of mixtapes, whatever you can or you missing out.

DOOOOOOOOM

2010-05-21T14:32:00.006+01:00

This is my redesign for the front and inside covers for DOOM's 'Born Like This', it's an all made up deluxe double vinyl with steel slipcase (courtesy of the really cool guys down at cutlasercut) I don't have any pictures of the slipcase, as I only got it really close to the deadline, but I should have some within a week or two. All of the artwork was airbrushed monotone, photographed and manipulated in Photoshop and Illustrator.

The Elect Exist

2010-05-21T13:55:00.008+01:00

Short story based on idling. The narrative is a piecing together of things I read during the project, The Bible, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, The Road To Los Angeles (which doesn't get enough credit) and The Critic As Artist. It's about the reinvention of morals, dismissing the Protestant work ethic, The idle man as the overhuman.

While you were asleep

2010-05-15T16:06:00.002+01:00

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

2010-05-05T19:06:00.003+01:00

JUST prepped this to get lasered onto my steel slipcase. The image is quite dark, but it needs to take into consideration the dullness of the metal. Now to do the rest of the coverart. shit.

Idle man

2010-04-29T17:55:00.006+01:00

Messing around with colouring pencil drawings on photoshop for the comic I'm making on idling. I've figured out how to change the line colour wherever I need, but with a background colour I lose the vividness of colour. It might be an alpha channel + delete thing, I gotta mess around with it. I've set myself 2 days in which to complete it. I also tried doubling up the linework and offsetting, which makes it a bit less weak. And a paint layer for tone. Oh 15 days to deadline, oh how you shit on my chest and rub it in. Panic Schmanic, I spent the last week watching the Cleveland Show and urinating a lot.

The Work Shy

2010-04-28T02:56:00.004+01:00

The Slug vs The Ant.

Cold Lampin'

2010-04-27T03:09:00.003+01:00

I haven't got nothing ready to post, so some pics from P.E. @ Brixton Academy a while ago. Supporting acts were Edan, Kool Keith and Anti-pop Consortium, so it was pretty sick. It's the roughest hip-hop gig I've been to ever, I left with a scratch on my arm which took a suspicious amount of time to heal (I was like shit, I hope I don't have the AIDS) and a dude said he was going to rip my fucking head off. But I forgave that four-eyed mulatto, he didn't know how gutter I am. Too much violence in hip-hop wyooooooh.

Cellz

2010-04-19T12:04:00.006+01:00

Second go at stylising the mask and I decided to go with a mixture of DOOM and the 60's Dr. Doom. This is only a mockup of the style, there's a lot of pencil marks still in there and it needs to be rendered cleanly. Airbrushed in blue originally, the blue/red is added through a colour burn later. I'm going to use this one for publicity for the record and going to get it lasered onto the metal sleeve (which means it's going to have to be half toned OR inked just just linear in one colour, but it should be aight). Going to get a bit more of an airbrushed smoke vibe going in the background, probably red or white text or both. There was supposed to be a third eye there too, but I didn't have the circle stencils to do it, , but I will get that in the next one. I hope. A few more weeks left of uni and we're free.

Sweat Bullets

2010-04-15T12:41:00.004+01:00

Hardcore porn, did his own stunts. Mock up of an idea for DOOM's 'Born Like This' cover. I spent ages trying to stylise the mask away from the current Gladiator one. Since I'm working the inside cover towards an outer-space theme by putting DOOM in the context of Bukowski's 'Dinosauria, We', DOOM finds himself escaping earth on a space platform before the end of days - I was trying to make an updated space DOOM. After much sketches I decided to take it back instead. This is airbrushed with freehand shields, I'm going to play around with the dimensions of the mask and maybe add some stuff, but I think this is where I'm going with it.

In other news, the sleeve which it goes in, which is mild steel, has just been finished - so I'm pretty stoked to see what it looks like. I'm going to check it out today, file the edges and polish it up then get it ready to be lasered.

Leaf

2010-04-09T03:44:00.002+01:00

Drawing of David in pencil. I wanted to mess around with Photoshop colouring on a pencil drawing. I was intending for the colour in this to be waaaay more subtle, but shit happens. I started adding bits and tweaking things. I wasn't going to have the glow from the match light, but it happened at some point and I was like that's a keeper son. Process was pretty organic, but it's totally not what I intended to do. Maybe a bit too polished for my liking. Nevertheless, I digress. Yes.

Not to do

2010-04-01T20:07:00.004+01:00

But to be, not to merely be, but to become. The Gods live as thus.

First paste up is ready, this is a mockup of colour, which will be inked after printing. Started of as a pencil drawing, scanned in, blocked in darks and halftoned. Still need to sort out some text for it, until then I'm going to start on the next series of pasteups. I might change the skin colour as the white beard and skin make my buddy here look like Papa Smurf. Idleness is Godliness kiddies.

Wax Off.

2010-03-31T00:11:00.004+01:00

Wax on wood with oil. Tried melting some wax on one of the panels I did earlier. Ideally colour would be added pre wax, but I wanted to see how it would take, the colour here was added in Photoshop. I want to keep the wax as the last step in the process so the waxed panel can be the final outcome, it will be a lot more interesting to exhibit come showtime.

Jesus built his own cross

2010-03-25T23:36:00.007Z

A couple pages from my idling project. So far, I've been mainly reading for it. Tom Hodgkinson's 'How To Be Idle' is like my bible and there's plenty of good stuff by Oscar Wilde and other goodfornothings , which you should read if ever you have the time. But now I'm ready to take that research into production. The first page is some writing and thoughts and stuff, most of my sketchbook is text based up to now, second is a drawing of Loulou Pidooh from Something Hell's. The outcome is going to be paste-ups, which is something I ended on last year and I'm carrying on that same project. Hopefully have it well under way by the weekend and all pasted up by the end of next week.

6x2 Blues

2010-03-22T01:41:00.005Z

After photographing David, one of the first oil studies. Using John Foster's palette, didn't go as planned, but pulling out colour with a stylus worked over painting highlights and hairs, which is a technique I might use more often. Probably abandoning oils from now on though and going to work acrylics in black and white and render the colour in Photoshop. Need to combine these studies and getting familiar with his face with blues themes, songs, stories and abstractions.

Up Jump The Devil

2010-03-22T01:21:00.004Z

Painting David, Originally was going to use oil, but I'm way too unfamiliar with it. Pushing around colour a lot makes it pretty muddy, so I got way more practice to do in using it. I think this project might go down either a drawing/photoshop route.

DOOMbots

2010-03-08T03:24:00.004Z

They know who they are like a shoutout.

Figaro Figaro

2010-03-06T19:14:00.007Z

The DOOM set for Taste of Sonar was pretty damn good. It WAS him, which in many ways I was kind of bummed out about, because I wanted something to kick off, but hey. 40 minutes late he sent out a DOOMbot, before jumping on stage himself. I got pretty close to the front, where there was an abundance of hyped up refugees and dance trulls. Good gig though.

DOOM from the Womb

2010-03-03T18:26:00.005Z

He came with more rhymes than molecules in air...brush, again. DOOM on canvas, took way longer than I thought it would. It's a decent size (30x40"), so I shall have a good time getting that into uni in rush hour and back home whilst being barged by polecats and the alike. I used acrylic washes for the green, applied using a brush and airbrush, and then airbrushed over with black in and freehand stencils. I want to get some white accents on the mask to make it shine a bit, but since it took so look I am pretty dubious that I will succeed in doing it well. In other news, the DOOM gig is on friday and I'm pretty stoked to get some snaps for the project nah mean.

Dying because of this

2010-03-02T03:00:00.008Z

Some quick sketches for the 'Born Like This' cover using stills from 'Born Into This', the first one is an idea for the steel sleeve, which would be lasered and the following few are for the inner cover. A bit tame for the album, but I wanted to try steering clear of the mask, but it might have to be done, this is all a bit too nice for the supervillain. Plus it reminds me of this poster by Jeremy Deller, which isn't good, I think I need to get same hand-drawn type in there.

The Vulture

2010-03-01T03:40:00.003Z

So if you see the vulture coming, He's flying circles in your mind, remember there's no escaping for he will follow close behind.

13

2010-03-01T03:32:00.003Z

A study of David from one of the reference photos I took. I attempted to use an oil technique used by John Foster, which involves a palette of Pthalo Blue, Raw and Burnt Umber, Burnt Sienna and Titanium White. It kind of worked at first in the sketching stages, but I think this one got a bit muddy. I ended up adding some extra glazes in Photoshop to finish it. Oil is still well over my head, I might stick to monochrome and digital colouring to be safe, as I am a retard when it comes to mixing.

12

2010-02-28T23:07:00.005Z

Yesterday I photographed David for reference to paint him. I didn't get as many as I wanted, so I might try and takes some more. I ended up using flash for a lot of them due to poor lighting, but they came out good, I might take some more with a little more direction or get some more formal poses or maybe not.

Black Hearts

2010-02-23T01:00:00.004Z

A little airbrush practice working on the DOOM project. Looks like I'm going to be making a metal slipcase for the vinyl, as the metal fingers and chromed out grill need a matching record...so there should be some welding and engraving happening sometime soon, working on the specs now.

Tenner?

2010-02-19T00:26:00.006Z

So the materials fees for UAL are £100 right? Word on the street was it was actually £90 and they were failing to correct students and pocketing the change. SO...I paid the £90 quid, gave a little wink and chipped off home then some months later received a letter...

Send in the Bailiffs! I got a jar full of coppers that must be a tenner or you can have one of my paintings for £20 then you owe me £10, I'll invoice you in a letter...

Chrome Dome Glisten

2010-02-18T23:52:00.006Z

...He came with more rhymes than molecules in air...(brush)

Yes, after a brief hiatus the airbrush has been cracked out and is probably going to be the weapon of choice for the 'Born Like This' coverart. This was the first attempt after a while and some of the stenciling isn't too clean, but it's aight...This is just in black on white paper, I was thinking of working back in with white FW, but was way too scared to balls it up. Hopefully taking this stuff to much bigger canvases, for little mistakes look much bigger on a small scale.

Into This

2010-02-14T02:29:00.006Z

Some manipulated stills from 'Born Like This. I messed around with colouring black and white stills and then overlaying them and cutting them up and stuff. For this DOOM coverart I might not draw or paint or anything like that, but I probably will. I've latched onto the whole Bukowski theme, likening the character of DOOM to Hank, - the scarred face and whatnot, being a recluse and mastermind at that.

Born Like This

2010-02-12T04:00:00.007Z

This is for the redesign of DOOM's 'Born Like This' since Eh? did a pretty shite job of it despite doing good stuff before, mainly on Prince Po's album, but they've kind of fallen off. Found out that DOOM named it after Bukowski's 'Dinosauria, We' and got a proper boner when I realised that the Buke is actually on the album reading the poem and I hadn't noticed because I slept on the album hard when I shouldn't have. Anyway I'm gay for doing that and this is a still from the movie 'Born Into This'.

Tried out some new techniques colouring on photoshop on a black and white painting in acrylic, mainly because I can't mix colour when I paint and washes over acrylic don't work. I used a flesh base with white and red then used a blue overlay, all guess work and pretty stoked that it worked I'm gonna use this a lot more.

PS. I'm also doing some single covers. Batty Boyz is one no doubt. I don't know about the others yet... Gazzillion Ear and another who knows.

Baby

2010-02-04T20:08:00.004Z

Other stuff that I didn't take out. Part of some collabo work with Adam, which is why it doesn't make sense yet, it might end up here later.

Reject

2010-02-04T20:02:00.002Z

Some painting I did for a comic and then cut it out of the comic.

bint2

2010-01-30T13:04:00.001Z

Tried out mixing some oil with biro on paper, worked alright.

Dud Perks

2010-01-30T12:55:00.002Z

Dudley Perkins taken a while ago at the Stones Throw 10th anniversary.

Charon

2010-01-27T03:14:00.004Z

I'm on this white ink ting. Looking at Phil Hale and Memling when I was doing this one. It's of Charon the ferryman of the newly deceased across some river so they can be dead on the other side of the river and he takes their eye money but doesn't see a penny because he's getting pimped by Hades or summin. In other news I'm going to be working with more text because I think it's what a lot of my stuff is lacking. It doesn't say stuff.

Et In Terram Ibis

2010-01-25T04:34:00.004Z

Dead stuff on a memento mori tip, done with plaster in a sugar skull mould, still contemplating doing some more inking over this one, it's a bit bland at the mo', but I don't want it to get mexican or overly decorative. I've got another one on the go so I should have a set by the end.

Dead Christ

2010-01-19T04:32:00.006Z

Study of Dead Christ by Gregorio Fernandez thats now at the National Gallery's Sacred Made Real, which is not good to hang around and draw in, but it did have one of my fav paintings ever in it, which is usually at the gallery anyway so whatever.

God's Son

2010-01-13T22:04:00.005Z

Oh my God look a painting of the son of God for a project, because I'm so religious and shit. The body was a monoprint, which I painted over partially (mostly).

As planned, I am behind on work, so I need to like do something. Unfortunately work doesn't equate with rebel status.

Jesus

2010-01-12T05:05:00.002Z

get off the notorious penis.

Palace Flophouse

2010-01-12T04:20:00.002Z

#100.

The Beauties, the Virtues, The Graces

2010-01-10T14:33:00.004Z

Our Father who art in nature must have a great and overwhelming love for no-goods and blots-on-the-town and bums.

Slaggy T

2010-01-10T14:01:00.009Z

Portrait of Nat by yours truly. Portrait of penis by Guy and Billy (collaborative effort).

Succubus

2010-01-04T04:15:00.006Z

As sure as your shadow plagiarises your next move

the two backed beast doth await shuteye.

Mors

2010-01-04T01:23:00.003Z

Part of this Death gig. I read about milk as a fixative on Francis Vallejo's blog and thought I'd try it out. Apparently used by Goya and it's archival. The milk dries like a thin gloss medium with a slight yellowing, it's a shit load cheaper than gloss medium and I'm broke as a joke so I'm all over it.

Playground II

2010-01-03T04:24:00.009Z

Commission for a bunch of these are getting printed onto canvas and I have been instructed to do two more to make up 6, because 6 hoes looks better than 4 hoes, but hey, can't complain, I am partial to increasing the hoe rate in most scenarios. Well this makes 5, so one more to do...it's 5am, my eyeballs are melting and I'm bogling to Pharcyde. Bogling is like my favourite past time next to mild racism and idling. Ya Mama got a glass eye with the fish in it.

Motherless Children

2009-12-31T16:44:00.003Z

Motherless children have a hard time when mother is dead.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

The Rose Of Tralee

2009-12-29T03:16:00.002Z

Her long hair black as a raven,

Oh how we danced and you whispered to me,

You'll never be going back home.

Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe

2009-12-26T16:07:00.006Z

Hey Charlie, I'm pregnant.

Merry Christmas to all the Jews, Hindus and Muslims.

Grand Old Sky

2009-12-24T02:58:00.002Z