Hugh Masekela

The Jazz musician, Hugh Masekela.

Tools: sketchbook pro + photoshop. Click on image for larger view.

Blixa Bargeld

Musician and performance artist, Blixa Bargeld; singer for einstürzende neubauten.

Tools: Sketchbook Pro & Photoshop

The last roots train has left the station... goodbye, Junior Murvin

Sad to hear this morning of the death of Junior Murvin. Like everyone else with working ear drums, I love his collab with Lee Perry on Police & Thieves, but his other songs are well worth checking out.  If you like his falsetto delivery and LSP's Black Ark production then I recommend  his first album - also titled 'Police & Thieves' - as a good entry point to his catalogue. Roots Train is a cracking opener...

Gary Numan

Are caricatures electric, etc., etc.?

Mani

Gary 'Mani' Mounfield - bass maestro of The Stone Roses

Karl Bartos

Man - machine - caricature

Death Makes You Live (Wilko Johnson)

 Wilko

I try and keep this blog art-related but in this post I wanted to highlight a recent BBC story about the musician Wilko Johnson who, at the time of writing, has very recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer. Sadly, too many people get diagnosed with this but it was Wilko's reaction to the news which caught my interest: his was extremely interesting, profound and refreshingly untypical compared to some people's ruminations on the condition - especially in regard to how diagnosis actually lifted his life-long depression. Check this link here for the BBC's report.

Anthony Burgess

in Photoshop on PC

Changed the brush settings and went for a more dip pen approach with this one. Why? Anthony Burgess had a wild head. 

Miles of Jazz...

Due to other important non-art based distractions, it's been a long time since any posts. While I get round to finding time to remedy this, you may want to read a little online interview I had with Jeffrey Hyatt who writes and curates a Blog/site dedicated to Miles Davis. As well as Jeff's knowledgeable and comprehensive input, his site is a great resource for interviews with writers, musicians, artists and others, all linked to Miles Davis in some way. So if you're interested in Miles, Jazz or just want to find out a little about the caricature of Miles Davis I recently drew then take a look here. Some answers I've given before elsewhere on the web but I'm hoping it still makes for a good read...

Miles Davis

Sketched in Photoshop with Cintiq...

Levon Helm

Twanged on 6music this evening to hear the great live version of 'The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down' by The Band - not just a great version of this particlular song but a great live performance and recording of any song. On finishing, Gideon Coe remarked that it had been played as part of a tribute to The Band's singing drummer who'd died after a long battle with cancer, which I was unaware of. I'm a late convert to The Band and am still catching up, but this quick post is for Mr Helm. If you're interested in watching Levon & The Band performing the song live then click here (link good at time of post).