Monokrome

I'm in a book, .. as you can see here

I have some sketches included in the new 'Monokrome' book available to order now..

MONOKROME is about taking a whole bunch of graffiti writers from around the world and giving them a very clear brief: they can create any outline they choose- their crew names, their own names, characters, abstracts, whatever gets them off, but everything must be in black, white and gray.
Compiled and written by old school UK writer Robert ‘CUTE’ Whitelock.
Beautiful graphic design by Aaron Munday at 12 Orchards.


The two sneak peaks for the Monokrome website.

The original sketch page for 400ml Possession. Painted at the Blueprint Gallery Event in Selly Oak 1995.
Sketched on the train on my way up to Birmingham.Always loved the Selly Oak jams.

And here's a thing... Why the hell did I paint my self portrait at Selly Oak all those years ago?

I originally planned to paint my name in biomechanical style. Even did a sketch in advance for a change. Got to Sell Oak and I thought I'd lost it on the train, looked everywhere for it. Got to the wall, searched my pockets for inspiration and there was my railcard with my face on, 'Ha, fuck it why not..'
When I recently went through all my old piecebooks for Monokrome, guess what I found!..

As for the other sketches in Monokrome, I figured that not many people would have seen my old stuff, and my style has changed quite a bit. So why not throw in a few old samples from over the years for projects that never saw the light of day. Sketches for LP cover ideas for DJ Spike. Some erotic Gigerism from my 'carnal chaos of burning eroticism' sketchbook that probably only Juice will remember seeing.
And the original Gigerism sketch for my 'Malcolm X' piece that I don't have photos of but you can see me painting it in 'The Big Payback' Livingston Graffiti event in 1992 ( I found it on Youtube.. Thats me at the start.. Fuck me!! I am really thin back then.. what happened? Ignorant twenty something with a full head of hair, to hell with him.. skinny bastard!)

Anyway, forget me, get the book for all the other great artwork in there, blackbook work from 31 featured artists from all different styles of graff. Go get Monokrome now.
I'm looking forward to it myself, love to see other peoples sketches.


And there was also a lot of stuff you wont be seeing. Remember the Spin Inn Records in Manchester, or the Stu Allan Hip Hop radio show. (I think a lot of us did sketches for those :) There was a bunch of pages from the 80's I decided not to send, cropped some of them together here.

Death Day by Sam Hiti

Death Day by Sam Hiti.
An awesome sci-fi strip with lots of action, all done in a beautiful brush and ink style that Sam Hiti seems to perfect.
You can check out the first three chapters and prologue on his Death Day website for free.
There's also the collected first book available that contains chapter 4. Chapter 4 is huge. The battle gets epic.
I got myself a copy of the black band edition and it's beautifully presented. Take off the black band to get at the bug eyed insane Third Wave Commando Captain wrap-around dust jacket and a great original sketch inside. Goes nicely with the hand drawn cover of the Prologue book.

Who needs new comics day when you can have self published books sent straight from the artist with a unique hand drawn sketch in it.

Check out his website http://samhiti.com/ and his blog http://samhiti.blogspot.com/

King Size

I love art books, especially graffiti art books. King Size is an amazing project. Adams made a super-sized homemade marker and sent it to writers he thought would put it to good use. This book shows you how the marker was made and then the photos of them in action. Featuring Sacer, Twist, Foe, Kegr, Nug and Zys. Man, this is how big tags should be.
There's also three sections of text by various authors. The best one is 'Gotten Up' by Craig Castleman who wrote 'Getting Up: Subway Graffiti in New York' back in 1982, another damn good book, If you don't have it, why the feck not?
King Size has been next to my desk since I first got it, it's a great looking book. Each book is hand finished with it's own cardboard covers so each is unique. There was 3000 printed. The poor bastard had to cut out 6000 pieces of cardboard and gaffa tape them to the pages. I got the frosties box.. lol. The sticker on the front is the actual size of the marker nib. Nice touch



It's came out a while ago but it might still be available from some graff stores online. Please try and get one. Iv'e picked it up again because it turns out someone has posted the original PDF online. It's the original, not scanned, so all the pictures are clean and not all newsprint halftone dots. Niice!

Also this week, I went down to my local Borders to find a copy of the latest Juxtapoz featuring Chaz Bojorquez interviewed by Saber. Samples here. Love that guys writing style.

Instead I found the latest copy of VNA, very nearly almost issue 8.
Featuring Kid Acne and Nylon, this is the best issue they have done yet. Show your support and go get one.