For details of where to get these beauties from plus see a few more images, read on…

As you can see from the list, my work is in fine company; Dave the Chimp, Deadlemming, Kozyndan (wow), Lunartik, Mr. Scruff, Niels De Jong, Sixxa, Sarah Anne Langton & Den Patrick and Suckadelic (phew).

My designs feature the two popular slogans from recent campaigns; Pikea with added strapline, and Sodtherich. When my consignment arrived I was amazed by the quality. It’s like theres a little pocket protecting your tickets and any other flat accessories you may carry. The wallet is supplied flat, one side is printed and the reverse (inner sleeve) is a brilliant white. A crimped section on the printed outer assists the folded section by strengthening it during daily use.

Popping it out of the mould is simple, leaving no residue plastic. The fold can accommodate quite a few till receipts, together with a few purchased/borrowed/found travel tickets or fitting portraits of yourself or loved/hated ones.

You can grab one (limited stocks) from my new shop HERE for £2.99 (+postage) or buy one custom signed for only £5.99.

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. Art Pass coming soon…
2. Street Art at Tate Modern
3. Urban Art showcase – March 5th

Read more to see some sketchbook images PLUS a 360 degree which works on iPhones & iPads…

No gloves

This piece was painted in THE worst temperatures I have ever painted in. It was minus 6 with a very consistent wind blowing directly under the A51 in Tamworth.

The wall took a total of 6 hours to paint alongside muckers Fluid & longtime collaborator and friend Meek. There was a loose concept which actually got discussed, even had sketches to help plan it a bit more. The main concept was that the wall was breaking/cracking in a scene of armageddon (Tempo was celebrating his birthday, and he pleaded for the jam to have this as a theme)

My lettering was paying respects to Tempo slightly with a black & white scheme like his paste-ups, Fluid with a tight camouflage scheme, and Meek with a Kel piece in honour of Walsall’s finest graffiti legend “Johnathan Kelly”. I painted a chainlink Chu similar to the Berlin Freestyle. Barbed wire, other smaller chains and searchlights continued the war zone theme. For hours I had pondered the newest component to my graffiti; a bit of anamorphic projection, or 3D street art, or whatever seems to be the name for this most misunderstood technique. Basically it looks like an object or part of the scene actually exists in the painting but is only an illusion, seen from the correct position.

The cable of the detonator even went over the small curb stone, casting shadows like the box to the detonator itself. The experiment paid off with quite a pleasing effect ,best to explore this in more detail. I realise this isn’t a new method of causing nausea, there are other pavement artists working in chalk, for example. As you can see from the painting for Blackberry in Manchester I painted last year, aerosols are wonderful tools for this technique.

Even in black & white paint only.

Sketches

Here’s a few sketches made the day before at The Bench and vibing with Fluid. There were going to be these little impish silhouetted miners, each of them smoking and wearing white vests, with a helmet equipped with a lamp – a tribute to the miners of South Staffordshire. Pity we weren’t sponsored by coal on the day… Honestly, almost freezing were it not for there was no moisture in the air.

360 degree Panorama

Bit of a special experimental one this is – Meek has been working with long exposures and light photography. The 360 below shows what it looks like when mixed with a 360 degree panoramic image. Just click the image to launch the viewer (close button appears bottom right). Please let me know your thoughts & how you get on with the panorama below , especially all of you looking at this through a portable device, cheers.

The panorama above is the first in a few new things I’m working on. I have been photographing things in 360 degrees for some years now. For the last year I’ve been merging a few more of my disciplines into a digital online experience and something is almost ready to go beta (that’s the stage before alpha, general release). More news as that develops.

More of Meek’s handywork with ‘Heavy Light NTC’ can be seen on the Midlands only graffiti site dedicated to aerosol painting & photography www.400mlheroes.co.uk.

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. Weekend warriors
2. Walsall has a new campus
3. 3D painting planned for WATCHMEN DVD launch

Something special is about to be released.

In association with Lunartik, I’ve designed a travel pass wallet for the Art Pass™ Series 4. Keep em peeled for outlets and online stores where you can grab them from. Amongst some of the artists confirmed for the series are: Mr Scruff, Pete Fowler, Dave the Chimp, Lunartik himself and me.

(Official release date 7 days ago)

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. Art Pass series 4 – First look
2. 3D painting planned for WATCHMEN DVD launch
3. Street Art at Tate Modern

Recently, on the website I designed for Edding, visitors could enter a competition to win one of 200 limited edition screen prints designed by four selected artists from the art series contributors. Each design used the same 3 colours (light grey, pink & deep grape OR Pantone uncoated 429, 244 & 222) and measures 210mm x 300mm. Mine was the only design that ran landscape, the other three artists settled for portrait.

The printers had a challenge to print my halftones, for those technically intrigued, caused by the frequency and fact that each of the three colours in my artwork was overprinting each other. This gives the impression that there are more than simply three colours in the finished print. My inks were prepared slightly different to the other stock/flat method; they were produced with a transparency.

The edition prizes were limited to 50 signed / numbered which are giveaways, with 3 artist proofs.

I’m pleased to be able to offer you the oppurtunity to own one of the artist proofs.

Please choose:

Standard Parcel (3 days min.) £104.41 GBP Special Delivery Next Day (trackable) £105.90 GBP -EU only- Airsure (3 days – £500 comp.) £108.94 GBP

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. Sodtherich screenprint
2. 3D print – Last few left
3. Win one of my screenprints

I do feel for the drinking establishments that don’t have an area dedicated to outdoor pursuits, without endangering pedestrians, traffic wardens bonuses, or your hairstyle in the rain.
The Rose Villa Tavern (a Grade II listed building) recently asked for an all-weather seating area to be decorated, together with my very good friend Glen, who I battled alongside to reach the final of the Secret Wars Euroleague as the Brum 6…
It was quite an honour to be asked to paint such a beautiful tavern in a very nice part of Birmingham. Since returning from Europe, it was the kind of painting work that I had hoped for, especially after painting the ‘De Buurvrouw’ bar in Amsterdam.

Where is it?

Located in the historic Jewellery Quarter in Hockley, Birmingham, next door to the sister venue to the Custard Factory, the Big Peg, is a beautifully classic old tiled pub built originally for the Mitchells & Butlers brewery back in 1919.

View Larger Map

Design proposal

The rough plan was to paint the ceiling and walls from the perspective of a door threshold between a cold, outdoor garden and a huge, warm mansion interior. The room is only 7m x 2m, with a skewed elevation, making for a very adventurous interior. We painted it knowing that seating was going to be installed around the walls, meaning we were only required to paint above the 1m mark. The initial concept was to recreate an old library, or gentleman’s club in aerosol paint. From the viewpoint at the centre of the room, you are faced (on entering) with a scene containing trees, a greenhouse and a balcony fit for Oliver Reed. Whilst behind you are bookcases, swimming pool, wooden furniture and skylights.

A usual method of decorating a cubic space (room) with a mural is to use the parallel lines of the existing space to explore false depth, it was quickly decided to construct everything on a slight skew. This would mean that the horizontal lines would, in the main, be on a slanted perspective. Although a challenge to construct in paint, it serves the purpose of sending the viewer into another reality once inside. We painted the whole piece on a black background and worked with existing lighting to add to the illusion of being in a larger space.

Oh, before I forget – you have to try out the amazing burgers and ales when (and hopefully, if) you visit…

360 Panorama

To see the interactive panorama, you will need to be viewing in a web browser equipped with Adobe Flash player. Once you’re in, you can view it full screen and see the detail of the room. Either that or see it in the flesh, equipped with Human Brain v1.0

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. 360 Degree views of the Birmingham show
2. Berlin freestyle by the Birmingham Squad
3. FIFTY ONE DEGREES, Solo show in Birmingham

Beautiful six colour print, limited to an edition of 33, 500mm x 700mm on archival acid-free, bright white 250gsm.

Description

Initially created for a concept to paint an indoor market in Brixton, this stereoscopic print has a total of 60 definited layers, or planes of artwork. Each and every mark has been duplicated with care and the magic really happens when you view it through some 3D glasses (a pair is supplied).

Previously featured in Issue 16 of UK based magazine VNA.

Edition of 33 signed and numbered by the artist

Adequate packaging is supplied at a surcharge of £3 GBP, this is referenced in the checkout.

**PLEASE BE AWARE – WE CAN ONLY DISPATCH TO SHIPPING ADDRESSES in UK & EU**

Gallery

Since my sales area died some months ago, I have resorted to taking payments via Paypal. Payments and credit card details are secure, and most major credit cards are accepted, even WITHOUT a Paypal account.

Purchase options

Please choose:

Standard Parcel (3 days min.) £64.41 GBP Special Delivery Next Day (trackable) £65.90 GBP -EU only- Airsure (3 days – £500 comp.) £68.94 GBP

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. Chu X Escher – Edding Screenprint
2. F**K Hue – Limited edition print
3. Time lapse video of 3D cube

Guinness World Record attempt

The world record attempt that I painted a few years back is not being considered by Guinness World Records.

The proprietor of the Hole in the Wall, who commissioned the piece, have failed to recognise all the work I did to raise awareness of the building, the painting, or their fabric shop. The BBC Midlands evening news featured on the painting’s completion in September 2007 live as they broadcast the weather from there too, as had been previously arranged, in order to celebrate the world record attempt. The coverage lasted around 4 minutes, worth quite a sum of money in terms of exposure (almost half of the west midlands) to the viewers at home watching the news while eating their dinners. Aside of that coverage, there was a phenomenal double page piece in the Midlands broadsheet, The Birmingham Post.

I fell off the scaffolding during painting the piece, scaffolding that wasn’t even reaching the top of the wall. I needed another step ladder on the top level of scaffolding to reach the top. On the first storey of scaffolding ‘flats’ they supplied only palettes instead of the usual planks.

When I began to paint the section on the right, the huge pile of bricks on the ‘floor’ prevented me from ascending the wall safely to reach the top of that section. Very unsafe indeed. Nobody was prepared to ready that area safe for my work to continue, but I had to finish the piece. Scaffolding was insecure and in general there was no safe access to all of the walls.

The reason that the Hole’s management gave for non-payment (the final payment was short by more than £1000) was that the painting took too long… In all I spent 42 days against the breezeblock and mortar, sometimes through to midnight.

Good as new

View on Google or click and drag/zoom around the Google Street View scene above

It is still there, brightening the landscape in its full intensity, advertising the shop. The site was previously where two buildings belonging to the shop once stood, they burnt down in a massive blaze which kept the fire brigade busy for around two weeks. A very sad moment for Walsall. This event inspired the mural concept. I would create a portal where all the destroyed buildings in the town would rebuild themselves; the power station cooling towers, The Woolpack Inn, old Walsall train station, The Dolphin, Ratners jewellers, Fellows Park, Shannons Mill and the WS2 skatepark to name but a few. I studied the extensive local history archives for any reference to the once great buildings of the town of Walsall, there was no shortage!

The odd shape of the wall also proved to be quite difficult to paint. The illusion that the wall is flat was hard to construct when there’s four floors of scaffolding in front of it. There was extensive planning for the wall, after my first site visit.

Originally I painted during the Summer of 2007, over the space of 5 months, for 42 days, starting during Mayday bank holiday weekend and finishing mid September. I used over 700 litres of paint

Finished painting in huge detail

As i type, the finished photograph has now been viewed 6,010 times on Flickr:

360° panorama

When I returned to Walsall recently I had to take a 360 degree photograph of the inside of the compound. Its a very difficult place to take photos of the whole piece. The wooden partition seperating the footpath from the compound was decorated with the shop’s website address (it had been retouched) and the holes I designed within the address were still there too, albeit not synchronised with the lettering of the gigantic website.

Competition

As a supporting activity, I was not only going to print commemorative tea towels (the Hole in the Wall is a fabric outlet) but I was also going to run a competition. And here it is…

Simply tell me how many holes can be counted in the painting.

There is a distinct advantage for anybody going to view the site for real, although viewing the XXL image on Flickr would help anybody that is incapable/intolerant/internet only. Enter the competition by sending me your guess on the contact page with the number of holes in the message. You must have a working email address and also be able to provide a valid land address so I can post the prize to you.

The winner (denoted by being the first or closest to the actual number of holes) will be notified in time to receive their prize before Christmas this year. Unfortunately this competition is only open to entrants who provide a UK mainland address ONLY. The prize is a beautiful print proof of Sodtherich, limited to an edition of only 10. Competition entries will cease to be valid after 00:01 December 2nd (5 months, 15 days ago).

Adequate recompense?

I am a great believer in supporting the roles of both artists and businesses in the local community, long may it last but what happens when the business doesn’t fulfil it’s obligations?

If you would like to know what happened to the money, please contact them via their website, or leave a comment below, thanks

I officially finished the mural 4 years, 8 months, 4 days ago

Wonderful quote from passer-by

I don’t know why they let them paint on top of the old buildings, I wish they’d leave them alone.

(mistaking the painted brickwork and windows as a real structure)

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. Putting the Wall in Walsall…
2. Sodtherich
3. Weekend warriors

There’s very few magazines relating to graffiti that I actually read. Sure, there are graffiti magazines out there, few can compete with Very Nearly Almost – with plenty of quality eye candy and decent in-depth interviews with artists etc.. VNA has been going for 16 glorious issues now. Its a really pleasant read, sitting comfortably in a5, and printed in matt stock for that luxury vibe.

They approached me to answer a few questions a several issues back, but with all the usual suspects’ interviews for shows and big changes in my schedule, it only came to fruit for issue 16. Speaking with Roly on the blower whilst holidaying in Barcelona, he had a great line of enquiry. He actually asked some really good questions relating to the reasons why I ended up painting in the first place, stuff I never even connected for a long time–my passion for computers at a very early age, being raised in middle earth and my time painting alongside Desire & Goldie. The interview went really well, and there are more than a few good quotes spread through the article.

“My life’s changed a lot as a direct result of my aerosol use, it’s like a drug”

Then came the challenge of finding & resourcing the imagery to support the interview. It had been 12 years since a (inter)national publication had interviewed me. My work has been changing quite a bit over the last 5 years, so I had to show off some of the newer work. Most of the digital archive was back in London, 700 miles away. Fortunately I had a fair amount of recent material, from my work with mathematics and perspective, so it was a great opportunity to show the ‘Cover your tracks’ 3d design (which was a prototype sketch for Brixton indoor market).

VNA 16 is now available for £5, or for £26 you can have 4 issues delivered to your door (UK prices – more HERE).

Where were you painting in those days?

Back then you couldn’t afford a train ticket; you’d get a coach down to Bristol with a bag of paint. Because I worked for Walsall Youth Arts, there were only three sites supported by the local authorities in the country; Barton Hill, Selly Oak and Walsall. The one in Walsall was called The Paddock, which was a sunken foundation for a block of flats. So we came up with the idea to take it over and develop it as a painting site on submission of all this bureaucracy. I became the caretaker of the place, so journeys to Bristol and Selly Oak became the backbone of my graffiti world.

Extract published HERE

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. All new hippo show
2. Some early walls
3. Walsall Copperworks

Late 2010 I painted alongside Amp, Bon and Alex at Chulalongkorn University Faculty of the Arts, Bangkok. I was out there making the Sodtherich screenprints and some adhesive propaganda with Souled Out Studios…

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. Rose Villa Tavern, Birmingham
2. Berlin freestyle by the Birmingham Squad
3. Southbank Freestyle

This website that I finished designing recently, is for my good friend stationed in Afghanistan, David Gill. It was clear from the beginning that it was to work like a dynamic library of photographs and interviews that David can upload with comfort, publishing these amazing stories to the world – without it looking too much like a blog.

Site is now live

His site www.kabulatwork.tv (which is now live) chronicles the lives at work for the thousands of the population of Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital city, where life goes on, war or not. Its seriously, seriously worth checking out. The photographs only compare to the text, beautifully inspired and ripe for the study, this other world.

There will be updates every week, so far there are 15 characters in 10 chapters, ranging from Sport & Recreation to Magnates & Moguls.

There is an intention, I hear that there is a book in the making…

Early designs

The logo remained the same for a good while, I dabbled with a few different icons and layouts for the chapters, before settling on something a bit more ‘trim’ and changing the font to something slightly more legible than stencil. The look for the site was inspired by an early photograph that David showed me, of a battered road sign. The server had some issues when updating services, but I resurrected it from the ashes to give a better, crisper design the second time round.

Logo design

Chapter Icon designs

Each chapter had to be distinct when journeying the site. When looking at one character, it had to be clear which chapter they were from, and when the chapter was selected that all the characters were visible within that too. There are a few basic categorisation and ordering tools (such as keywords, or tags – which are used but only in the background to calculate similar characters/chapters), although content is still king, so the key is to ensure correct and apprpriate data entry (text & image/video).

As I was designing the online persona for the site, it made sense to also design the icons for the avatar inside the discussions, and icons for the social network sites that link to the identity of the project (Twitter, Youtube, Facebook, RSS etc)

Also on schudio.co.uk:

1. Wallords of Afghanistan
2. London venue refurb