PRINTS FOR SALE ON SOCIETY6

Society6 is a great little thing i stumpled upon, it's a US-based site for artists to show, promote and sell their work.... I've put a few drawings online available to buy as prints, they're really reasonably priced and can be posted worldwide. Lots more prints to follow shortly - Try look!

(Geddit?)

(Print details: Gallery quality Giclée print on bright white, matte, smooth surface, 100% cotton rag, acid and lignin free archival paper using Epson K3 archival inks. Custom trimmed with 2" border.)

Sketchy Studio

Not owning a scanner or photography studio, I had to make do and mend while photographing a series of drawings for prints. The prints will be available in my Society6 Store, only one up at the moment but more to follow soon.

^A broom tied to the plastic garden table, with a stick shoved through the top and the camera attached to the stick served as my tripod with the sun and clouds as my frustratingly ever-changing lighting.

Where It All Began II

If this was where the seed of my illustration career was planted then these cine-film grabs probably mark my first tentative steps in wave-sliding....

Pushed by my dad into a little wave on our polystyrene board on a beach in northern France- a joyful ride of a few seconds and i was hooked....my waveriding skills may have only improved a little in the intervening 25+ years but the joy is still there and that's all that matters.

Dead Beet

there's a lot of beautifully rusting Bugs around here....

Papel Picado

i've been busy with the surgical steel again- this time a seascape papercut. All completely freehand.
Analogilicious!

Another Fin(e) Mess

having lost a fin while surfing the other day i had to get a new one, couldn't get the same size so i've got a mismatched set now and will probably be more wobbly in the water than usual (excuses, excuses).
Anyway i've sprayed up the fins so at least they look like they match and used a papercut, that didn't go well enough to keep, as a stencil....

Hair Cut

ok, here's the finished version of the cut below.....i'm pretty pleased with the result (especially for a first ever)

Paper Cuts

Inspired by both Mr Pinks the amazing papercut banners you see all around Mexico, especially on fiesta occasions like today: El Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead), I had a go at my own little papercut based on one of my Big Hair drawings...this is how it's looking so far:

I didn't have a clue how to start and this attempt is more feeling my way than finished piece but my technique seemed to evolve with each experimental incision. I think there's a lot of potential here....more to come soon...

even the offcuts look nice^

Appleman

Not a great photo, but here´s a new drawing, done for a little show i´ll be doing at the DRIFT party in Bristol in November (more on this soon).

I´m sending precious ink on paper through the anarchic and anachronistic (try saying that after 4 tequilas) Mexican postal system so will be thumbing my flourescent plastic rosary beads and praying nervously for a safe arrival....

ART

A great mellow little song by Tanya Davis about living life as an artist and wondering why you do it and what it´s worth but how you can´t help it anyway....made a lot of sense to me.
Someone made an animated video for it on YouTube....

Edge of the World

we swam in this amazing little lake at the top of a petrified waterfall called Hierve el Agua up in the mountains near Oaxaca city.
As you glided cautiously to the far end it felt like you we´re going to fall off the edge of the world. ´Twas "Awesome" in the true sense of the word.

a chalk drawing of a whale

does exactly what it says on the tin...

YELLOWING IS MELLOWING

Happiness is.......watching your board go yellow over the summer from a season of daily use, sun exposure and memorable dinging.....

Firing

The point's been firing big time over the last week. The beach has completely changed with a load of sand being dumped over the rocks and changing the wave for the better. My crappy snaps don't really do it justice but there's probably some better photos over on RPM

The wave's lost a lot of the fatness and has got a lot suckier resulting in a little barrely section and now linking up with the outside section so you can now get a loooong ride all the way from way out on the point almost to the lifeguard tower if the swell's right and you know what you're doing. Needless to say I don't know what I'm doing and have been getting a battering in the hollower waves, stronger currents and occasional mini-Shipsterns style double-ups.
All good fun, the locals say it's the first time this has happened in 12 years and wont last forever so i'm off to enjoy it while i can.......

^ The big beachie at Zicatela has also been going off but i wouldn't touch it with a barge pole....yet.

 ^ I'm definitely not missing the cold brown windswell of my previous hometown Brighton (UK).

New Arrivals

Two new things came into our life last week and have already improved it no end:

^ First up, this little stray (the kitten not the fiancee) turned up on our doorstep yowling and looking for a home so we took him.
We named him Charley because he sounds (and looks a bit) like the cat from the 1970s 'Charley Says' public information cartoons for kids. For a bit of childhood nostalgia, watch one here
(apologies for pet picture on my blog, there's nothing i hate more on other people's blogs. But now, for my sins i understand why....)

^ "The Silverback" One hundred and ten CC's of raw power and Chinese plastic. OK, it's no Harley but it's our ticket to freedom and a lot of fun to ride on the bumpy dirt roads.  

 ^ The arrival of the cat also gave me a change to use my 3D design skills for the first time since getting a degree as a Designer Maker nearly a decade ago- £13,000 of debt well spent then!

(The cat doesn't sleep in it of course but does like playing with the window)

pee pee ess

as another PS to the post about the Switch-Foot II book, there's a little video promo of this new "megalith of stoke" right here

Enjoy.....

pee ess

A quick PS to the post below about the new Switch-Foot book, there'a another little interview with it's creator on swellnet.com

THE HUMP

This is an oil painting i started a while ago and have fiddled about with a few times. i think i'll call it finished now. I'm quite pleased with the ethreal look of it, much less literal than my last oil of Croyde bay and all the better for not being so consciously a 'surf painting' or seascape. Hopefully it captures more of a mood or feeling than being a literal representation.

While i was painting it it kept changing- one minute looking like a Dartmoor landscape at dawn, then a stormy sea under moonlight, then just abstract shapes and colours, then a sultry sky etc etc. Hopefully it is still somewhat ambiguous and allows the viewer to take what they want from it...
{PS- it's For Sale here}

Publish And Be Damned

Whilst the web is a wonderful outlet for any artist, it's always satisfying (and a sort of seal of approval) to see your work published in real ink...so I'm honoured and humbled to be included in the new SWITCHFOOT RELOADED book alongside legends of surfing history, travel, art and culture such as George Greenough and Albert Falzon (and, it seems, lots of men with beards.)

The "eccentric and enigmatic" Aussie Andrew Crockett is the man responsible for this mighty tome, a slice of 'the other side of surfing' pie deliciously jam-filled with art, photography, observations and stories with a sprinkling of saturated soulful stoke. or something.
The book should be available in November, in the meantime, check out an interesting interview with AC and some more samples from the book here on Empire Ave and more good stuff on the switch-foot site

MOBILE

there was this cool little handmade flotsam n jetsam mobile hanging up in our shack when we last visited The C Spot
(is that Frank Zappa or Jesus Christ?)

Fish Fry

well, i couldn't make it to the 2009 Euro Fish Fry in Ireland last month so i had a little one of my own....bumped into the fisherman on the beach after a surf and 20 minutes out of the water these beauties were on the grill- FRESH!

SUCCESS!

The Kind Lines art show and auction went off with a bang with a gallery event at 303GRAND in Brooklyn, NYC and a successful online auction of the artwork that raised over $5000 for SurfAid International's Padang earthquake appeal.

I was stoked to see the logo i designed for Kind Lines sprayed up all over the gallery walls:

Mucho credit to Rick at Malwitz Surfboards and all the contributing artists and sponsors for creating this great event and PLEASE NOTE: you can still donate to the appeal here

80's Tat - gotta love it

me new sticker...

surfysurfy

not much surfy stuff on the blog of late due to annoying rib injury keeping me high and dry but here's a couple of recent wavesque wanderings...

blue bear

^a beautiful bit of card artwork by my lady

funny little man

a few people that keep popping up......

FIESTA

This is when you really enjoying living somewhere and not just passing through to surf their wave with a cursory glance at the town:We got well involved with the first anniversary party for the Centro Cultural (at La Punta, Puerto Escondido) where we teach the kids bad Bristolian English...
There was live music in the street, free food & drink, a raffle with some bizarre donated prizes, violently-contested piñatas for the kids and we set up a 'Try your English' stall with games and worksheets for the locals to come and learn a bit of lingo.

^ I held a mini art exhibition, the illustrations looked good back-lit by the sun through the weirdly-shaped windows

^We made a big banner with our 'inglés para niños' class

^Our raffle prize. ouch.

^Street art bites back

OAXACA CITY #01

A recentish trip to the state capital Oaxaca revealed a lively city full of art (in streets, shops and galleries alike) and a welcome break from the sunburn/sand/shortboard scene of Puerto.......more photos of oaxaca, puerto and guatemala on my flickr

^ a piece of street art we christened Polly Styrene

^ceramic skull thing

^ some trippy peyote-inspired Huichol art made with intricately placed lengths of coloured cord.

^ some postbox inspired weirdness at the suprisingly good stamp museum called MUFI

^The Subcomandante is always watching....(Zapatista garbagegraff)

^beautiful intricate papercut artwork

^cute minimalist street art

^some bizarrely multicoloured chicks in a box. the girls selling them didn't know how it was done, we didn't know why it was done...?

^more weirdness in the form of 'alebrijes' - mythical folkloric creatures carved from wood and painted in hallucinatory colours and patterns.

"Kind Lines" is happening sooooon, click away

More Lines

Otra Luchadora

a little oil cartoon based on my Lucha Libre experiences

Sea Level

nice sea-level shot at La Punta....(a bit superhaole style, no?)

BARREL SURFBOARDS

these are some mock-ups i did for artwork on French maker Barrel Surfboards boards. You can check out their beautiful boards at the next Euro Fish Fry in Ireland.

More Sketchlings

^^^a few more random drawings found in the dark corners of old & new sketchbooks......
don't forget to check out http://d79sellsout.blogspot.com/
to find my artwork for sale.........

GRAB

another very lo-fi frame grab from a surf vid (i forget which), this time a photo of our crap telly screen....it could look could translated into paint though, no?

MASHUP

just a random mashup of various images i was working on as a design but never used.....

Little Luchadoras

The Lucha Libre anticas (see below) along with the logo for the recent Puerto Escondido Quiksilver comp inspired a few little Lucha cartoons by yours truly....

! LOCA LUCHA LIBRE!

we went to see some grass-roots amateur Lucha Libre and it was mental!
the fact that it was only semi-indoors and there was a massive tropical storm at the beginning (which resulted in half the crowd running in panic shouting "huracan!") added to the electric atmosphere.

I know the 'figthing' is mostly choreographed as are all the amusing asides and arguments but it was still pretty spectacular with 'luchadoras' flying from the top rope into the crowd of startled gringos who only just leapt from their plastic chairs in time for them to be broken into sharp pieces when the wrestlers landed (that's why there were no Mexicans sitting in the front row). the wrestlers both lay on the floor writhing for a while looking bruised and winded in a way that didn't look too choreographed to me.....

The luchadores later took the fight all over the room, throwing chairs, taking over the microphone, beating up the referee and slipping on the rain and (fake?) blood-soaked floor
the crowd got involved too, throwing beer cans and a few 'borrachos' started fighting amongst themselves. A good Mexican night out.

pintando

BHD on Threadless

Check out my latest design up on the Critique section at Threadless...Please go and comment and help me develop the design so i can put it in the running to be printed...cheers.

Litmus Test

^^^ i took some crude 'Print Screen' frame grabs from the LITMUS video recently, the Richie F section in Ireland.

I love that bit where he pulls off the back of the wave with the ghostly figure in the spray and sun...check it out, they almost look like paintings already, might attempt an oil inspired by them soon....

SKETCHLINGS

trying to find new ways to illustrate water (watercolour n ink)^

old doodle of pyjama-man^

'the hump' is the name of this work-in-progress oil painting^

?QUE HONGO?^ !NO SE!

more swell lines^ trying to evolve my style of drawing the sea from the close swirly lines think i've done a lot of in the past...

a few quick pics of recent work.....^^^^

KIND LINES

I've just finished a voluntary job designing the logo for Kind Lines an art show and auction to benefit Surfaid International
The event, created by Rick at Malwitz Custom Surfboards will take place in September 2009 in NYC. The 24 participating artists have painted or drawn onto specially shaped bamboo-glassed cross sections of surfboards. The show will also from part of the New York Surf Film Festival
You can find out more here and please contact the organisers ASAP if you know of a decent venue for the event....and look out for the logo on tees and other merch.

The C Spot

For my birthday, in June, we travelled along the coast to a great little (not very secret but there's no pint in shouting about it) spot. You can only get there by boat and there's nothing much there but a very chilled out village, croc-filled mangrove swamps, a few shacks to stay in, a few places selling fresh fish and cold beer and a great right hand point. Perfect.
(apart from the scary plumbing/electricity combo as mentioned in this post)
check out a bigger version of the panorama photo here

Get My DRIFT?

After a brief but unfortunately unsustainable foray into the world of paper, DRIFT magazine is now back online-only but better than ever.
There's separate editions for America and Europe with some shared content and loads of quality features on surfing, art, the environment, photography, music, film & culture and even a little portfolio space for me

Pig Dog

This is Lola (!Hola Lola!), the pet pig of a local hostel-owner here at La Punta. She comes down to the beach with the dogs of an evening for a quick walk (or sleep) and lives in a little pen out the back with rabbits, chickens and turkeys, eating the organic waste from the cafe. It's a good life.

Alex Weinstein & Superhaole

Despite being here since January i only just got the oil paints out for the first time this week. To get back a feel for it i did this quick cardboard sketch of an Alex Weinstein painting which came out ok. Check out his massive paintings - they really give you a feeling of being out there in the water- i'd love to stand in front of one...

So, I'm going to try and do some oils in the same vein- trying to illustrate surfing and the sea from a different angle to most mainstream photogs and artists: what it feels like to be out back, at and under water level, seeing the backs of waves, the spray, surreal colours and reflections being out there alone at dawn, dusk and in chaotic storms and eerie mist and to try to get across the feelings of awe, fun and fear at it all.

Another guy who's doing this through photography is the brilliant Superhaole. Really ethereal pictures that wander into the realm of the abstract but capture the mood and feeling of paddling out and riding in beautifully. try look!

Edit: the kind mr.haole has allowed me to put a couple of his images on here:

GRAFFISH

attempt #2^^

attempt#1^^

i bought some Mexican 'Ilegal Squad' spray paints and (disappointingly legally)attacked my old 5'8 fish (apparently a locally made cut-down from a longboard that has now become my spare/loan board.)

This being only my second attempt at aerosol art (This being my first) my can control is still pretty poor with rough lines and drips and wobbles but i'm pleased with the overall look of it...might keep spraying over the top as on a wall, at least until it becomes so thick and heavy with paint it sinks!
(British blog-readers may notice the way the 'drip' looks annoyingly like that bloody British Gas advert which i only realised after i'd finished...)

HAPPY OWNER

The Mattson Art Auction/benefit gig at Surfindian, San Diego, last month went really well. I was pleased to see this photo of the happy bidder for my piece (think she's got it upside down but maybe that's the artist's fault)
There's lots of great photos from the night including loads of good surf-related artwork from around the world on organiser Jamie Watson's flickr here

EMPORIUM of MISCELLANY

^This board kept moving around and appearing in weird places each day. it was strange

^ facetree sketch

^yo quiero una casa asi



^ "Blue Lines" For Sale over on my sister site DROOG79 Sells Out


Playa Carrizalillo^

a load of random photos of bits of art and bits of mexico that i've been meaning to post for ages but have never found a place for.....