Francis Bacon

Francis Bacon. Always on the reverse.

John Cooper Clarke in colour

...and now JCC in colour.

John Cooper Clarke

Pleased to have finally got round to drawing 'punk poet' John Cooper Clarke, The Bard of Salford, himself.

Edward Hopper

Think I've ruined an oil portrait I was working on, so tried to claw back something from the evening by sketching Edward Hopper. Agg, aaargh, boo-hoo.

Christopher Walken

Ah, one of the caricaturist's fav's.

Inktober #12 Paul Weller

 

Ace face, Paul Weller. Used special modernist ink.

Andrew Lincoln...

...as Walking Dead's Rick Grimes.

Inktober #10 Lance Henriksen...

...as Near Dark's Jesse Hooker. Pen and ink for version 1, version 2 coloured in Photoshop.

Inktober #9 Christopher Lee

Keeping Hallowe'en stupid.
A4 pen and ink drawing of Christopher Lee as Dracula—with a variant using a bit of mucking about in Photoshop

Inktober #8 Jim Morrison

"Come on, come on, come on, come on, now sketch me, babe!"...at least I think that's what he sang.

Inktober #7 Klaus Flouride

Dead Kennedys' bassist - in pen & ink on cartridge paper. Will see him do his stuff in two days' time. Funland at the O2, yeeehaaaw!

Inktober #5 Paul Simonon...

...of  The Clash.

Tools: Uni Pin fine line pens, brushes and inks on Goldline watercolour card.
All words Copyright © 3am Magazine (Ben Meyers) (link)

Inktober #4 Neil Young

Based on an old pencil sketch from years ago. Rusty never sleeps (again)
Tools: Uni Pin fine line pens, Pentel brush-pen, inks and brushes

Inktober Drawing #3: Hell-ary Clinton

Think I've made her look more like a mature Catherine Deneuve here - Aggg!
Obligatory pen-placed-artfully-on-the-drawing just to show scale.
Tools: Uni Pin fine line pens, brush and ink on Goldline Bristol Board paper.

Inktober Drawing #2 - Florian Schneider...

... from Kraftwerk.

Tools: Uni Pin Fine Line pens, brushes & ink.

Inktober Drawing #1 - Theresa May...

...as The Termaynator. I missed the 1st of the month for my inktober effort and although this is being uploaded on the third it was actualy completed on the second. Can't promise one for every day but I'm going to try and get as much done as possible.

Tools: Uni Pin Fine Line pens + brushes & ink.

Now on Instagram...

Have finally managed to get my aching cortex around the process of setting up Instagram via computer. Maybe I've inhaled to much paint-thinners over the mis-spent years (purely in the pursuit of art, you understand) but an account has finally been set up and art scraps, processes and other related nonsense will be uploaded. If you've got too much time on your hands then go check it out. Cheers!

Kurt Russell

Did you spill Kurt's pint?

I recently rewatched The Thing - one of my favourite films -  which, of course, stars Kurt as RJ Macready. If the last time you saw it was on a creaky old VHS version taped off the TV then I strongly encourage you to check out the Blue Ray of the film. It's beautifully clear and everything holds up great - even the special effects, which was a surprise given the age of the film. The recent prequel film isn't bad but the characters lack the great chemistry that the originals had between them; all evoked in the funny, snappy and hip dialogue. Every fan knows the great quotes from the original - but can anyone quote from the prequel? I certainly can't.

East Bay Ray

+

Punk-twang-surf-jazz guitar god East Bay Ray from Dead Kennedys.

Dead Kennedys are coming to my town next month to scare the locals but the question remains: is the DKs the DKs without Jello? A jury convened down the pub last Saturday night (which comprised of some heavyweight fans) and remained out. No matter; still gonna go and tap a toe.

More Mick...in progress

A crop of a painting I'm reworking of Mick Jagger; started - and put to one side - a while back. Always a slow process for me, or so it seems, but it's great to have a physical piece coming together. It's actually going to be a painting of a digital version that can be seen here. I'm interested to see how the two will compare side-by-side: it will be a first.

Alberto Giacometti

'Turned out thin again..."

That's a bad art joke, folks.

Thought I'd sketch the famous sculptor, painter and draughtsman while I was waiting for an extremely late materials order to arrive. Better than swearing and pacing the room.

Iggy Interview

Iggy Pop - pencil sketch coloured in Photoshop. All words Copyright Pitchfork. Click on for clearer view.

Gene Wilder

Finally managed to find time to acknowledge - by way of caricature - the departure of the great Gene Wilder. He's looking kinda suave here though that wasn't the initial intention. Wonka, Frankenstein and The Waco Kid will be his defining roles for me.

Tools: Sketchbook Pro.

Sid Vicious

Sid in Sketchbook Pro and PS

Ralph Steadman

One on my favourite artists: Ralph Steadman. Great fun putting this together. Click on image for larger view...

Tools: Sketchbook Pro + PS

David Johansen

No, it's not Mick! It's another New York Doll; this time lead man, David Johansen (minus make-up).

(Sketchbook Pro and PS for some b/ground stuff.)

Chuck Close

Quickish sketch of the American artist, Chuck Close. If you're fan of large scale portraits - especially photorealistic ones - then Google him!

Johnny Thunders

Had a coupla goes at trying to capture Mr Thunders a while back but never really liked what I came up with. Today I finally managed to get something I thought was nearer the mark. Keeping with the NY Dolls vibe: David Johansen's definitely on the list..

Tom Waits

Tom Waits again - never get sick of drawing this guy. Drawn in Sketchbook Pro with a bit of PS for the background. Click on image for larger view...

Mark E Smith

" Mr Caricaturist-uh!"

Had good fun capturing that great face of The Fall's frontman. Click on for a larger view.

Daniel Sturridge

Hoping he's going to turn it on again for England's next outing in the Euros against Slovakia. Don't care how he dances when he scores, as long as he scores!

Gareth Bale

There's your target, England - lock him down, ha, ha!

Brilliant Bill Burr

My current favourite comedian - enjoyed doing this.

Quentin Tarantino

I've tried drawing Mr Tarantino a few times in the past and never felt I got anywhere near a satisfactory take on his features. After a long break and a fresh approach I went with a flat line version and felt a lot better about the result. No doubt there's a more detailed, cross-hatched version 'in there' somewhere but for the present I had to make this intermediary stage to understand how about getting the basics down.

Chris Evans as Steve Rogers is Captain America

 A pouty Captain America!

Cillian Murphy as Thomas Shelby

Yeeeeeeeeeees! Peaky Blinders back on the small screen! Celebrating with my version of Thomas Shelby as played by Cillian Murphy. I don't want to paint a flat cap again for a loooong time...

Sketchbook Pro + Photoshop

Johan Cruyff

 

Total football requires total caricature. My tribute to the late, great soccer star, Johan Cruyff. Great memories of being a kid and watching him dazzle on the field.

Travis Fimmel as Ragnar Lothbrok

Travis Fimmel as Norse smiter, Ragnar Lothbrok. Have enjoyed a few episodes of Vikings - a show about extreme Norse farming, as far as I can tell. Seems he'll lick you upside the head just for a nice plot for his carrots.

 Caricature was hacked out on a cintiq and splattered with digital ink in Sketchbook Pro...

John Grant

Saw John Grant playing live last last night - a pretty darn fine performance, I reckoned. Thought he'd make a good caricature but it took me ages to get the right look. About 80% happy with it.

Lemmy in colour

 

Thought I'd throw some paint at my recent sketch of Lemmy. Always fun to do some real painting

Acrylic on canvas card: 31cm x 20cm

Original sketch here

Commission

A recent commission of a sports blogger for a company called Brainify - a Norwegian consultancy firm. My only brief was not to make him look too angry(!) so I slightly softened the attack of his eyebrows. All done in Sketchbook Pro - and an enjoyable one to complete...

Boris Karloff

Boz: sans nuts and make-up.

Alan Rickman

That great voice, sadly gone. Despite the hairstyle I gave him, I'm not a Potter Fan - I prefer a Gruber over a Snape.

'Twas fun to try and put something down as fast as possible without getting too hung up on detail.

(Speed-paint in Sketchbook Pro & Ps.)

Planet earth is blue and there's nothing I can do...

Very sad start to the day with the news of David Bowie's death. Am posting an old caricature of him from the vaults but I will look to post a fresh tribute to the starman in the near future.

RIP, David.

Kurt sketch

Kurt Cobain in Sketchbook Pro and Photoshop

RIP Lemmy

Regarding the recent departures of musical greats, here's an overdue sketch of Lemmy - saying 'Hi'.

RIP John Bradbury

Seems like you don't have to be away from the drawing board too long before another musical great is snatched away. This is the first chance I've had to attempt to honour in pixels Specials' drummer John Bradbury.
I remember thinking at about ten years of age, when hearing their album for the first time, that I'd never heard drums sound quite like that before. Check out 'Blank Expression' for a masterclass of rimshots on what soundlike biscuit tins recorded in a fire-escape...but in a good way.

Rush & Belushi Commissions

 

Geoffrey Rush

(as Captain Barbossa - Pirates of the Caribbean)

  

Progress pic

 

John Belushi

First: Happy New Year!

Looking forward to getting some more great faces caught this year - in some format or other. Last year was my quietest year, caricature-wise, thought it wasn't through idleness: just had more non-caricature artwork going on elsewhere.

So, I'm kicking off with a post showing a couple of commissions that were completed at the end of 2015. Both were pencil and paper.

For those interested; I used a Rotring Tikky machine pencil with a 1.0 HB lead (could probably have gone a bit softer/darker) on 220 gsm cartridge paper.  I cleaned up the final images in Photoshop as pencil scans can look a bit messy, but the progress pic of Rush is a good indicator of how they finally turned out..

They were fun to do - hope you like.