IDDQD & ARTILLERY AD SHOOT

Just a quick update this time.. Uni is getting really intense as it should do in the final stretches of a three year degree, and I've also been swept up in a few other projects which have come to pass recently.

Amnesty International fund a youth/arts event called

the ARTillery Festival or something, and the advertisement was shot the other weekend. Basically the film team shot a white wall with "artillery" written on it in time-lapse with artists painting around and over it while dancers etc pranced around in front of us. Also involved in painting were Daek, Sean Morris, THNK, Tor, Knest, You Like Planes and a few others.

You Like Planes, Daek, Sean Morris and myself.

You Like planes, Sean Morris and Daek working.

The other half of the wall features Tor, THNK, Knest and some others I don't know.

This was my amnesty heart.

Injured Ninja and I are in a symbiotic art/music relationship. I am going to give them the best fucking art for their music and they are going to play the best fucking sounds and we'll both help each other to create the brand and take over the world. This is a preview of the Injured Ninja/Genghis split 12" vinyl cover art (the I.N. side of course). There are a few things I don't like about it, like stylistic mistakes due to rushing and the clumsy colouring that I did with copic markers that don't have a command-Z function... But I think it'll look great once it's printed. The single by Injured Ninja, "IDDQD" is badass, and the film-clip is going to be epic, so keep an eye out for it.

In other news, if you haven't already gone down to Kurb Gallery on William st to see Territory 12: 2 by Martin Wills then get the fuck down there like right now, because it's the best exhibition I've seen in ages. I bought a painting, how's that.

Days 3 & 4 of Three Bears Mural.

I missed out on updating yesterday but I still took some shots during Saturday's stint at mural painting.... I meant to get down there early and stay all day until maybe midnight and see if I could just smash the shit out of the mural. Instead it took me ages to get moving, re-stock the spray paint I needed and get there. Then I left early to get hammered. The beer in the eye of the squid is for scale.

Sunday was much better, I worked from 3pm until almost 2am and did pretty much everything I wanted to but was foiled by my good paintpen running out. I also fucked up some of the snake scales and did not add tiny random details yet like scratches, oozing fluids, tattoos, wrinkles, warts/spots etc.. I needed fresh eyes for that so I came home. I am totally happy with the anchor I busted out without so much as an idea of what to do.. it just worked out at the last minute.

The owners came in to add a coat of paint to the other half of the store and they took some photos of me busting my hump and lining that mothersucker up. They also got me a bottle of wine. I totally won with this job. One last thing I want to add: The Von Bondies album 'Pawn Shoppe Heart' is fucking great. Oh and I made a shitty sign for Vine Street house but I am totally going to make a better one, and now that I think about it, I am going to do a big god damn mural for next years Aussie day party, and probably do one during the day as well.. maybe a joint piece with some of Perth's finest... hmm.. can't wait. I fucking love spray paint.

Fucking love it.

Three Bears: Day Two

So I worked for another couple of hours today but had to can it early due to having cravings for an angus burger (I hadn't eaten yet) and work at 6. I managed to make a big damn mess by Mr.Sheen-ing off the pencil that was there instead of just trying to erase it, but decided it didn't really matter and got a few layers of colour down. The most exciting part of day two was seeing tonal range in my fills for the first time in my mural experience... it was hard to do on the floor with the nozzles clogging up and all that crap but it was worth the effort. I also ran out of paint for some parts and decided to bus home in time to eat before bussing back into town for work.

Still to do are the rest of the banners, the rope, the underbelly of the snake (green thing) with shading on the dark bits... cut back all the mess I guess.. do the teeth and eyes, then do all the line-work with paintpen.

fuck yeah i love spray paint.

Typhoons & Three Bears

I apologise for the lack of updates lately, things have been hectic with uni with not a lot of the work I'm doing appropriate for the blog... but I can finally upload the artwork from the Typhoons amazing new album, of which the launch was held several weekends ago. It was a great night and the Typhoons played an awesome set.

I have begun a mural commission in Wembley at the Three Bears store, which is still under construction and will be some sort of high-end, urban/coastal-wear store..... today was day number one and I laid out the design in thin paintpen after a while of dicking around with a pencil and an eraser which has halved in size since this morning. For scale, note the dustpan and bucket in the distance.

The mural should take until Monday hopefully, and in the evenings when I'm not doing that I should be working on the new Injured Ninja vinyl cover named "IDDQD". I've done the pencil work but it's looking a bit tame, hopefully the inking will make it insane and gross and shit. It has loads of guts and dead bodies hahaha... ooooh yeah.

PS. I don't have time to hyperlink anything. If this annoys you then you can piss off, nerd.

Injured Ninja Progress Report

Local fucking badass noise/rock/legends-in-the-making band INJURED NINJA are the only band I am doing artwork for now. Exclusive and shit. I have known half the band for a really long time and seen them grow into something with righteous potential. Also, they'll let me draw really outrageous shit if I want to and they'll print it (if anyone remembers the content of the last thing I did for them, you'll know what I'm talking about).

Currently in the works is a 12" vinyl cover for their new single "IDDQD" and today I made them a new logo. I don't often use illustrator, but I have to say I really enjoyed making this.

In other news I have been commissioned to do a mural for a surf store opening in Wembley, a few square meters on the concrete floor near the stores entrance. That is happening next week so hopefully I can get some photos of the making of for that. It is going to be tough doing something that big on the floor... i will need a ladder or something to check it doesn't get skewed.

Recent Happenings

I've been pretty busy lately, with uni starting again for the semester and other things, so thought I'd update on what's coming up for this last half of 2009, as far as I know...

Firstly there's been a few events on lately that were badass, like the UP YOURS show at Last Chance Studio. The night was well packed and the work was brilliant, especially the collaborative pieces; artists like Deathbot, Creepy, Sean Morris, Daek, YoYo and Jessie Mitchell working in twos to make extra-special pieces.. fuckin oath that is some good shit. Also on the night Daek was tattooed by Pari Corbitt, whom I had not met at the time but does sick paintings that are well worth a gander.

Overgrowth 2 was a month earlier, also at Last Chance, and was also packed out and had a hugely awesome bunch of work on display. I did some pretty shitty paintings which I want to re-work before showing them again anytime soon... it's what happens when you get into an art-slump; you leave things until the last minute and produce sub-par work. I've started to dig myself out of my slump only recently with a couple of things I've started which I'll mention soon.

The Condor Tower Car-Park launched on the 25th of July and was a totally awesome (but completely head-raping) experience. five full levels of car-park and almost every single wall and beam in the joint was painted by a countless number of artists in a huge array of styles. The amount of people that came on the night was insane, I heard it was about 1500, and the beer ran out pretty early due to the amount of punters needing to maintain their buzz amidst the chaos. Bloody brilliant Idea, executed fantastically, well done all involved.

On the night of the car-park launch I got to hold in my hand for the first time a copy of the Typhoons new album which I did cover art for. It printed really well and I'm very happy with it, but will wait until the album launch before I post the art here. The launch is on the 28th of August at the Rosemount Hotel in North Perth.

Today I began painting at the Hula Bula Bar. Myself and THNK are painting on the mirrors and lino-printing the tiles in the bathrooms there. It was a good start today, and I'm happy with the two images I finished, but it is no where near the level of cleanliness or neatness I usually stick to. It is way hard to do. I'm not going to bother getting into it.

There is a gnarley online blog about budding artists from Perth called Hawks and Hounds, and the first issue is almost done accepting submissions. I'm finishing up mine this week, and it is looking pretty sweet to me. I had badass horrible dreams about the subject matter because I have been so into it... just thinking and thinking and thinking about it, really hard, for too long every day.

I have a bunch of work still to do for Injured Ninja, including cover art for a 12" vinyl coming out for their single "IDDQD". If you recognise that from somewhere then your parents did something right when you were a kid (or in my case, my grandfather- go pops!). It may possibly be the most epic, gorey, boner-inducing piece of work I have ever conceived to create. Fingers crossed for that one, I'll be starting it really soon.

FINALLY down to my last piece of business.. I think. I have finally got the chance to create the board-game I've had in the works for the past few years. I want to keep as much of the details off here as possible for paranoid fear someone will thieve my ideas, but it is pirate-themed and going to be really great. You'll want it. I am developing it at uni this semester and by the end of the year I should have a playable proto-type of the game itself, a book about the design of the game, and an exhibition based on the game. I need to go now to write a schedule for production of the game now.

werd.

updates

I have changed the layout of my blog, making it much harder to see what the actual point of it is. It is still a hub for my illustration, but is now graced with a genuine David Collins photograph. I am very proud to have this. I am thinking of sending this out to my entire family as christmas cards.

I went back to the car-park again on Saturday to try and add highlights and shadow to my skull piece, but spray-paint and acrylic do not mix so well and i canned that idea and just finished it up with some details and some lyrics. 

I did another piece that took a really short amount of time and I'm pretty happy with in some respects. I didn't know how to get it looking like I had it in my head, but with the nozzles and cans I had with me I think I did a good job. I ran out of a lot of paint and could not afford to go over it and restart or even cut back in to it, so I just had to improvise. I fucking love trashy-sunset-beach imagery.

I was there with a buddy of mine who does graphic design and is pretty awesome at it. He has a blog reviewing indie-pop from strange places and is worth checking out if that's your deal.

Condor Tower Car-park.

I've been spending a little bit of time at the Condor Tower Car-park this week to contribute to a massive street art project by the crew at ololo. The Condor Tower is a new building in town with about a five-level car-park, which is being fancied up by some of the biggest names in the local art scene in Perth, and from over east. For more information (including who is involved, directions to the site and a short video clip), check out the ololo site. The launch is happening on Saturday the 25th and you'll be able to see the entire five levels worth of art. Bring your ID and some casholah for some cheap ass drinks.

Martin Wills and I collaborated on one of the few remaining blank beams in what is my second attempt at murals with spray paint etc... turned out ok, I still need to go back for some finishing touches.

You can see Martin in the bottom of the last photo, painstakingly adding tiny details to the purple crap his dude squirted out.

RTR Carpark Mural

Local radio station RTRfm were nice enough to let a group of us paint a mural on the back of their building in the carpark. Organised by music producer/artist/awesome-guy Ash, the mural also involved the likes of Hurben, Griv, Sean Morris, THNK, Tim Rollins, and some a couple of others. Most of the pack got their work done in an efficient and prompt manner, taking at most a couple of days.

I don't really know what the fuck I'm doing when it comes to murals, so as my first forray into the field I went with a chalk outline, spraypaint fills and then the line-work was done with a paint brush. It took me a good week to get it done due to a massive hangover Monday after celebrating my birthday, and taking a day off Thursday to play PS3 all day while it rained. I should have put more thought into the colours I bought but I still think it looks ok. The banners feature lyrics by Injured Ninja.

It was loads of fun to do this, I'm pretty keen to improve with my can skillz now. Thanks to everybody I saw going in and out the building and not yelling at me because I hadn't finished yet. Unfortunately I had to take these on my phone around some cars, and I didn't get any shots of the rest of the wall, which has some damn fine work up.

I haven't updated in a while because I've been busy with uni and other such stuff I do not want to include in the blog or can't for certain reasons. For example, drawing a picture of a spice rack in perspective isn't something I want mentioned here. I am busting to do a post about the CD covers I managed to get done between uni, one for NAIK and one for the Typhoons, both fantastic local acts from our little town of Perth.

Coming up really, really soon are two shows at Last Chance Studios at the top of William St in Northbridge; Overgrowth 2 is end of this month and Up Yours is the end of next month.

Also coming soon is new look for the blog thanks to David Collins. I'd recommend checking out his site because his photography is fucking BOSS, and it'll give you an idea of what to expect.

Relative Apparel Launch Tonight.

Tonight I'll be doing live art at the Manor in Leederville for the Relative Apparel Launch. Doors open at 8pm, $8, the event is to launch a range of shirts with designs by local designers, I did one with some monkeys on it.

I'll be painting on the same board with Abdul Abdullah, and alongside us will be local talent including Creepy, Daek One and some others. I would link to these guys but I'm pretty sure I've done that in previous posts like a million times.

Come check us out, there will be naked women, snakes, pandas and monkeys.

Clutch-pencil Love

So i got a clutch-pencil on the advice of my buddy Abdul, and it's my new favourite toy. I drew this in class today and think I want to base a live-art piece on it for the Relative Apparel Launch on May 15th, 8pm @ The Manor in Leederville. Alongside on the night will be Daek, Creepy, Abdul and Drew from Keith & Lottie. I Don't want to say too much about the night, but it is the premiere of a small range of t-shirts with designs by local artists and produced by Relative Magazine, one of which features something by yours truly. Pics will go up after the launch.

Post-Riding With Wolves

As some of you may already be aware through STM or Dropstitch, the Riding With Wolves show was launched at Pigeon Hole in Shafto Lane the other week to much praise and many a raised plastic cup of champagne. The other artists involved, including Sean Morris, Kate-Anna Williams, Jess Horrocks & Jessie Mitchell, all produced some outstanding work for the night and I was happy to see a few purchases on opening night. The crowd were, for the most part, lovely and a good night was had by all. The end.

"Liberian Girl"

Acrylic and pen on pine.

Oh yepper, before I leave you this is the piece I created for the show, with the toned-down hand gesture and different choice of lyrics than originally intended. Hope you dig it, I do.

Final BEACH CLUB!! update

After Much messing about and forgetting what I started this blog for, here is the last of the BEACH CLUB!! show that Sean Morris and I had back in December. It was a controversial exhibition that culminated in the artwork being banned from the Little Creatures Brewery for inappropriate content, and then being re-exhibited at Spectrum Project Space a few weeks later.

"Mighty Aphrodite"

Features the lyrics to "Bossy" by Kelis in the banners.

"Scared White Boy In A Black Neighbourhood"

Features the lyrics to Everclear's song by the same name.

There you have it, the final update for BEACH CLUB!!... most likely. I am thinking about putting up a coupe of detail shots because the works here are about A2 size and pretty detailed, but it will clutter up the page and waste everybody's time. I have two more about this size that never even got finished in time for the show, and that I'm not really that fond of. perhaps one day I'll finish the other two off and push them as some sort of long-lost artwork bonanza... "see the work that time forgot".

werd.

Riding With Wolves...

...IS TOMORROW NIGHT.

Pigeon Hole at 7A Shafto Lane, Perth, is launching a sweet range of wolf sculptures and imported bikes tomorrow night with a mini-exhibition or PARTY at the store. The shindig kicks off at 6pm and will showcase the new merchandise and 5 original works by local artists Sean Morris, Kate-Anna Williams, Jess Horrocks, Jessie Mitchell and myself.

The artwork is on medium sized squares of pine and are for sale while on display at Pigeon Hole, but if you miss out or just plain can't afford it there will be postcard sized prints of the works for bugger all. So forget the usual boring wednesday nights, most often fraught with disappointment and drama, and kick it off this time with free drinks and expensive toys at Riding With Wolves.

Pigeon Hole Preview

So today I got busy with this mini-exhibition that a local store is having to promote some new merchandise. Pigeon Hole is on Shafto Lane in Perth and sell loads of cool everything... it's hard to describe. The handful of artists selected were given squares of nice, thick pine of the same size to create something incorporating the themes of wolves and/or bicycles. I was pleased to get the basic pencil work out of the way for my piece today... drawing bikes has always pissed me off.

This is just a taste. The whole image sits nice in the middle of the pine and includes the full lowrider bike... thinking of slipping in some Bushwick Bill lyrics somewhere.

ITCH

So I still haven't got this thing totally up to date yet due to uni, commissions & exhibitions being in the way. Also I'm just a really lazy guy at the moment who can never start work until the late afternoon. I have been designing stuff for one of my units regarding a fictitious collective for local artists called ITCH. If everything turns out to look pretty sweet I might think about making it a reality... maybe. Anyway for part of the stationery set I drew this which I think looks pretty alright.

It's not much but I'm still thinking about you, my precious blog.

Arterial Collective Teaser

Str8 off da batt I juz wanna apolog1ze 4 not upd8ing in AGES!!!

Seriously it's been a madhouse with uni and more, and when I think about updating I am unsure of how big I want the files to be.. It always seems to resize them and then only link to about half of the full-size versions. I guess the lesson here is do not try and take control of a blog, just throw some shit up and get out of there.

With that in mind, I'm putting up a small, really bad quality teaser of what I am getting ready for the next Arterial Collective show, called dRaw. These are good people who helped me out a lot by having me in their first show back in October.

I will return to post the remaining BEACH CLUB!! photos.

werd.

BEACH CLUB!! first installment

In December of last year I had a joint exhibition down at Little Creatures in Fremantle with Sean Morris. The exhibition was called BEACH CLUB!! and it had a short run at the brewery before being taken down for "inappropriate content" ten days earlier than agreed. It had something to do with the inclusion of knives and knife-fighting in the images, judge for yourself if you think we went overboard (check out Sean's blog to see his work for the show). The ultimate effect of the early termination was that we were able to re-show it at a more contemporary and central venue; Spectrum Project Space in Northbridge. We also got insanely better exposure, several scandalous press articles and a longer run-time. 

BEACH CLUB!! was meant to be an exploration/celebration of how boss summer is, but also got a bit dark and a bit into greek mythology somehow, despite watching a shitload of Baywatch. A more in-depth explanation might be found on Sean's blog or the BEACH CLUB!! blog. I had two large paintings and six small ones in the show, this is my Shiphead Series; six small pieces made with diluted acrylic, pens and copic markers on pine.

"Hermes"

Features the lyrics to C.R.E.A.M. by Wu-Tang Clan in banners.

"Poseidon"

Features the lyrics to Bottom Of The Sea by The Duke Spirit in the banners.

"Ares"

Features the lyrics to 99 Problems by Jay-Z in the banners.

"Hephaestus"

Features the lyrics to Some Get Back (Revenge) by Necro in the banners.

"Apollo"

Features the lyrics to Staring At The Sun by TV On The Radio in the banners.

"Zeus"

Featuring the lyrics to Learn by Dizzee Rascal in the banners.

The next update will reveal the last two pieces I did for the exhibition with some detailed close-ups. Stay tuned for nudity, ghosts and tentacles.

Arterial Collective 2008

In October last year I was involved in an exhibition by the Arterial Collective; a group that brings unknown local artists into the public eye. I had recently received some scrap pine from a friend and had just finished my first painted piece ever, which was basically an experiment in combining painting with illustration. At first I wasn't sure about it, but it's grown on me. It is a milestone; my first painting ever completed. It is a self portrait of some sort, but I really didn't give much thought as to what was happening in the image... It has the lyrics to 'I Touch Myself' by The Divinyls in the banners. It was done on pine with diluted acrylics/gouche (because I don't know anything about painting), pens and copic markers. About 25 inches high by 8 inches wide. For sale.

"Pubic Maze"

"Pubic Maze" detail

The next piece is the other painting I completed for the Arterial Collective. It's still the biggest painting I've ever done, and like "Pubic Maze" it is a milestone. For the first painting I kept it simple in content and colour so I could recognize where I was meant to add the ink afterwards. This second piece I went all out and tried to make it as complex as I could without the ink-work laid down, but after painting it became limited to just inking around the paint. It's maybe something I need to learn to do; to paint then ink, then paint and ink again and again and again. It was based on a photograph from a nature magazine, and features the lyrics to Missy Elliot's 'Work It' in the banners. Diluted acrylic/gouche, pens, and copic markers on the rough side of a plank of pine.

"Work-It"

"Work-It" detail