System customised Nike shoes

 

System customised Nike Cortez sneakers and box

I started with Nike Cortez Classic (size 10 so too big for me unfortunatly)

 

Used multiple paint layers scratched off to look aged. The idea with the layers is that if the shoes were worn, the paint would peel and crack off and look 'aged' faster. 

Added real antique calligraphy book pages to the main body and drew characters on the heels. Japanese print style clouds for the insides of the shoe in place of the Nike swoops.

Made a shoe box with the same layered technique to match the colour scheme. As I had made a stencil for the front of the box I added the test print signed for the inside of the lid. Didnt want it blank when you opened the box. The System stencil on the sides of the box are supposed to be like the traditional Calligraphers 'hanko' stamps.

 

Monokrome

My copy of Monokrome turned up today. It's very nice. Heres my copy with the originals

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.

Sketchbook - what I been watching

Whole Train

Whole Train. It's a great film, directed by Florian Gaag, about a Munich graffiti crew.
For a change, it's a pretty accurate look at graffiti artists. Theres some stunning graffiti in here by Neon, Won, Cemnoz, Pure and Ciel. That train that pulls up early on is amazing. Love the Won character.
I had to watch the film in German as the subtitles didnt work. I don't even understand German and it was still a great film.
Cant wait to watch it again with decent subs.
I could have drawn the racking, the bombing in ski masks, the fighting with police but this scene, not exactly the most dramatic scene to sketch from a movie, it's one that I most Identified with.
What I miss most is the black book sessions. Either before we went painting or after an event chilling out we all just sketched up in our piece books, swap books. Looked over tons of graff photos and magazines. Good times with good friends.
Graffiti and Hip Hop is fucking awesome.

Whole Train website

Won ABC crew and scroll down to 'Wholetrain Movie Ghostpaintings'

Sketchbook - what I been watching

Let Me In

A great little moment from the remake of 'Let the right one in'. It was not a bad remake. Not quite as atmospheric as the original. Chloe Moretz was pretty good but I think the director missed out by having her come across as so innocent. And they shouldnt have done the dodgy CG effects. The physical make-up effects were just fine so why go there..

The original was much better. Watch 'Let the right one in'. make sure it has the correct subtitles as it does make a difference to the characters. It might not sound like you need the exact translation but it makes a huge difference to the relationship between the 'little girl' and her Keeper. More details here iconsoffright.com

Sketchbook - what I been watching

Black Swan

Everyone must know this one by now. Pretty basic story structure made nice and wierd by Darren Aronofsky. It's pretty good, and it certainly doesn't hurt to see Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis going at it. This sketch is a scene I was suprised to see.

Did Natalie really do that? Maybe I need to watch it again just to make sure. Rewind!!!    :)

Sketchbook - what I been watching

Reign of Assassins

Directed by Chao-Bin Su and John Woo. Not a bad wire-fu movie. Always a fan of Michelle Yeoh. 'Drizzle' is a daft name for a character though.
Ridiculous story about a group of assassins called The Dark Stone fighting over the remains of the enlightened monk Bodhi. Felt sorry for poor old Lei Bi, he had a family to support!

Review over at Twitch film http://twitchfilm.com/reviews/2010/11/reign-of-assassins-review.php

Sketchbook - what I been watching

Zatoichi.

I love Zatoichi. Every episode and every movie.

If I can remember which episode this is Ill re-edit the pic

More information on Zatoichi at Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zatoichi

Apparition Park by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard

'Apparition Park' was an awesome colaborative writing project by Jeff Noon and Steve Beard using the Mappalujo engine. The original online writing project created online in 2002 at www.mappalujo.com
The writing game was a shared narrative with the writers taking turns at each chapter and the Mappalujo Engine infecting the style with a celebrity virus. The project was later collected together and refined into a finished story.

We did talk about maybe working on an illustrated version of the book. Each chapter would have the Mappalujo Engines choice of celebrity virus. I know my brother will be interested to see these. We are both huge fans of Jeff Noon. Heres two sample chapter headings infected by Harry Houdini and Jim Rose. Under the title is an object featured within the chapter.

www.jeffnoon.com/
www.mappalujo.com/stevebeard
www.mappalujo.com/

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/

Ghost Mews Project / 10

Agents of Change at the Mews 42 Gallery. www.mews42.com/

INSTALLATION featuring : DERM, JUICE,LX.one, Remi/Rough, Jason System, Steve Mor, Timid ...

MEWS 42 Gallery, 42, Princes Gate Mews, London SW7 2PR

One of the main themes is the number 10. The main wall uses 10 colours. Juice 126 created his own set of Rorschach 'inkblots' in spray paint as there are officially ten images in the test. LX One used the Tetractys of the Pythagoreans. Derm was based in Base 10 and the decimal system. Timid inspired by the decagonal number and I went for the Ten Heavenly Stems. 

The Ten Heavenly (sy)Stems

In China around 1600BC, the Shang Dynasty belived there were ten suns. These Celestial Stems, or Heavenly Stems were given their own names. There are nine individual system characters sketches that join up to create 'Jiǎ' the main character who represents the first of the Heavenly Stems. The canvas is spray painted within our ten colour limit then the thin calligraphy paper glued on top to show the colour through the paper. It's a bit delicate, so I probably won't be trying that experiment again.

Ten Kimonos

The Heian period of Japan was a time of art and culture, they had some unique customs and the style of Kimonos and ceremony really took shape.. Noble women would wear 'Juni-Hitoe'. They are the 'twelve layers' of Kimono. Every detail was important, the arrangment and colour, to represent the seasons, virtues and elements of the earth. The makeup was also very unusual and can often be seen on the Noh theatre masks. I love this era, the golden age of Japan, its so over the top. (And this style shows up a lot in the court scenes of any of the 'Chūshingura' movies. The tale of the 47 Loyal Retainers. I love Jidaigeki movies and especially Chambara.)
I decided to do 'Ten Kimonos' for the show. I buffed some graff off a canvas board and then illustrated with acrylic on top within the ten colour limit. Tried to let the scratched off textures show through as much as possible. (which is why there is a little too much space on top, I couldn't bring myself to paint over the texture) The orange and blue really clash in the flesh.

More photos of the show here on Remi's Flickr and maybe here if you have permission

Ten Heavenly (Sy)Stems

Ten Heavenly (Sy)Stems

Drawing in little space with little sleep and lots of coffee. If only it wasn't decaf!

Currently working on the 10 Heavenly (sy)Stems

 

 

Sketchbox.

Finished my peice for the Au Secours event in aid of the Haiti charity.






'Sketchbox' - A box for putting sketches in. Most of this is recycled material. The wooden box was rescued from an old graphics card display. I painted it black and wood glued textured paper over it so the black shows through. Brough out the sketch with Japanese brush pens and then it's all sealed in a light varnish.

And you can't have a box without having something inside it, so there's two new sketch pieces to go inside.
"Red Lorri" and "Yellow Lorri". Created on recycled card. I love old packing boxes and parcels. I like the challenge of remixing the design already on the box, fitting an image around them, or using it as texture.The backs are signed and then sealed in red and yellow packing tape. Yellow Lorri's blue dots are still drying and smells of Hycote Double acrylic, 'Peugeot Blue Spatial', my favourite outlining colour.



















I've also included my catalogue from my 'Gaijin No Bijinga' show at the Galería Nuble and 3 postcards. Also I've also included the piece of paper I used when gluing the paper to the box. The pencils transfered over to the wet paper. Looks kind of ghostly. I love accidents like that.

I hope this finds a nice home, I love boxes.
I have a lot of recycled card and boxes ready for my next sets I will be working on.
So this box is officially 'Sketchbox #001'

 

Yellow Kimono

'Gaijin No Bijinga' at Galeria Nuble in Santander.


My show, up now until July 4th, originally started with the Yellow Kimono, my first picture of the show that inspired the direction I was going to go. Originally called 'Sykimono' for the postcards, short for 'system-kimono', it is now called 'Kikimono', Kiiro(Yellow) - Kimono, basically short for Yellow Kimono. Paper and antique calligraphy pages wood glued to canvas before painting acrylic and dye.
The main head decoration is based on the traditional Geisha 'Kanzashi' hair ornaments. In place of the flowers is my 'System' piece.



I mostly stopped painting lettering in my graff when I joined Ikonoklast in 1989 and went through my Gigerism biomechanical style. And I always just liked painting characters anyway, and was always happy to be the character guy when doing productions. I still do outlines in my sketchbook or doodle on old paper and even hide them in my illustration work now and then but you won't see them very often. When I worked in computer games I would hide my name somewhere in each game I worked on. Lettering is something that never leaves you, and it's what makes the graff art movement so unique. After all these years I still love all graffiti. A city just doesn't feel right for me if it isn't written on.
But I still also like drawing. This is the original sketch on old newsprint paper.