Monday 21 September 2009

Special Benny - 'Air Filter' artwork

Here is the finished the artwork for the digital release of Special Benny's fantastic new single 'Air Filter'. Uncharacteristically of me it's a pretty simple illustration but I think it works all the better for it - there's a very good chance it'll end up as screen print too so watch this space. There was some furrowed brows and much heated discussion as to whether the couple should have mouths but I tried it and I prefer them without. There was also a skull option and a few other variants but as you can see below it looks a bit morbid and distracts.

Final artwork:

Horror variant:

Friday 18 September 2009

Ella Doran presents 'There's No Place Like Home' exhibition

As from tomorrow Ella Doran's Cheshire Street shop in East London will be hosting the 'There's No Place Like Home' exhibition. The basic premise is for a wide array of designers, illustrators and photographers to create their own collection of placemats which will be displayed for two weeks in which time people can make a silent bid on their favourites. All profits from the exhibition will go to the charity organisation Shelter. Being as I work for Ella I've had the privilege of making all the mats this week - my favourites are Paul Bommer, Peter McDonald and the Sparks Studio but come along and decide for yourself. The opening tea party begins at 2.00pm.

I was asked to contribute but have been so desperately busy this month couldn't get anything sorted. I'm gutted I missed out.



Wednesday 16 September 2009

Pavement reunion!

So who else is coming to New York with me next year?

I'm still reeling from yesterdays Kollywood musical gem but this is something else altogether. I need a beer to calm myself. Click on the most fantastic band of all time for more information.

Tuesday 15 September 2009

Oh. My. Gosh.

I've just played this about seven times over. Just absolutely incredible. Frantic shuffly drums. Sick bassline. Awesome sax. Nice little calypso excursion. Ace synth breakdown. Fuzzy surf guitars. High pitched disco vocals. More awesome sax. And the way it gains momentum at the end with all those handclaps. And then there's the video...

I swear I've never wanted a record more in my life than this. Thanks to Rich Hero for making everything right.

Saturday 12 September 2009

LV - Don't Judge sleeve

This has been long time coming but here's some work in progress shots of the LV 'Don't Judge' sleeve and label sticker for 2nd Drop Records.  I illustrated it a while ago but for various reasons I only finished screen-printing them (a run of 500) last night - it's been exhausting but rewarding none-the-less.  To be fair I'm not quite Aaron Horkey famous so it's not like a screen-printed sleeve is going to sway the dubstep record buying public one way or another but I'm very happy with the finished result and 2nd Drop have made a point of supporting decent artists for all of their releases.  Mark of 2nd Drop is a thoroughly decent fella too so big up to him and to everyone involved - it's been a pleasure and I'm going to take this opportunity to apologize to Mark and their graphic designer Ralph for being a fussy bugger. 

Further apologies for the shit photos - my official photographer fucked off to California...  

Colour matching (ahem.... 80 odd limited edition aqua sleeves anyone?)
Fizzy cherry cola bottles - essential screen-printing equipment.
The blue was spot on when spread over the screen.  Not sure what happened...

Friday 11 September 2009

Alphabet Series

It's a long standing goal of mine to do something with the alphabet - it's not big nor clever but it's something I want to do. I screen-printed some illustrations of my prototype A but I can't take any pictures that do them justice and scans look like shite too so in the meantime as a taster here is the original illustration cleaned up and coloured on mac.

Monday 7 September 2009

Gouged.

Look at this.

Half of me is ferociously angry someone is trying to make money off the back of my hard work - the prints are almost three times as much as I sold them for.
Half of me is secretly chuffed to be somehow included amongst massively talented artists like Andy Kehoe, Daniel Danger and Jeff Soto.

Which according to my maths leaves me pretty much indifferent all things considered... Meh.

Sunday 6 September 2009

Special Benny - Air Filter

All work and no play makes Mat a dull boy. I've been very busy of late hence no blog updates to speak of but I've got tons to put up including the epic screen-printing of 500 sleeves for dubstep record label 2nd Drop Records which followed a rather excitable boozy discussion and subsequently bit me on the arse with the amount of work involved but I'm very happy with the finished article. More later. I may even post pictures of my calloused squeegee hands. For re@lz. Nice to reaffirm my dubstep connections as well - I used to play 40-40 with Benga back in the day on my estate...

In the meantime here's a sneak preview of Special Benny's new single 'Air Filter' which is fantastic. I'm currently doing the artwork for their forthcoming album which is absolutely smashing all nepotism aside and would happily sit amongst my albums of 2009 alongside Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective and Samandtheplants but for the fact it's not actually out until 2010. Ooof - just writing 2010 is a bit scary. Anyway I think my first take on Special Benny was Can meets the 'Dan but I've since decided that's fucking nonsense. I'll try and think of something a bit more constructive for when the album comes out but in the meantime have a listen here.

I've also been at Ruth and Matthew's wedding which I supplied the music for which was very agreeable for the three of us at least. Hence dance floor meltdown to Animal Collective's 'Brother Sport' that was totally wasted on all but myself and the bride and groom. Still it's nice to have a bit of room to maneuver. I maneuvered to such an extent earlier on in the night that on my third or fourth lap of the dance floor (and to the blessed tones of Wolf Parade's 'I'll Believe in Anything') I completely lost balance, mounted a table full of of food stuffs, managed to regain balance on a bowl of curry, plunged into some kind of child-like roly poly and somehow ended up straight back on my feet moving seemlessly into my next move. Smooth. Curry all over my brand new suit. All the same I'd do it all over again in a second such was the wonder of the day.