A gallery of incredible character pieces painted in a cartoon style by South Wales-based The Art of Sok.
Instagram: @theartofsok
Big Cartel: https://theartofsok.bigcartel.com
All photographs by Scooj
The Art of Sok
Tag: Cartoon
7450. St Werburghs tunnel (565)
A super quick post today, written last night because I’ll be running a workshop all day today. What a brilliant thing to see PWA faithfuls Zake and Face 1st meeting in Bristol together and creating this collaboration, especially as both have moved away from the city.
Chill doing what Chill does with some superb colours. Although, had I looked a little more closely I would have seen that it is a piece by Zake in the style of Chill. So cool.
Face 1st with one of his classic laughing girls with big hair spelling out his name. A superb and quite unexpected collaboration.
7316. St Werburghs tunnel (546)
Feek rarely paints our streets these days, so seeing this piece in the tunnel for Minto’s birthday was a particular joy. His zany cartoon style lends itself so well to the street scene, offering mini stories and curiosities for those lucky enough to see his work.
In this humorous character piece, a rather fed-up brain is taking leave of the skull it belongs to, declaring ‘that’s it, I’m off’ while the hapless skull utters the word ‘wuh?’. An amusing story perfectly portrayed with clarity and detail. This is a lovely piece by Feek and a reminder of what we are missing.
7306. Cumberland Basin
Last year I managed to catch up with The Art of Sok several times, and it seems that the artist crossed the border several times to paint in Bristol. This year his visits have been less frequent, but he has definitely left his mark, not least with this stunner for Dibz’ birthday.
I wasn’t expecting too many Halloween pieces this year, but as it turned out, there were quite a few. (Note to self – do a Halloween gallery). The Art of Sok has created the perfect pumpkin character painted in his outstanding cartoon style. Everything is superbly balanced and the fills and borders immaculate. This is cartoon character street art at its very best. Bravo!
7268. Dean Lane skate park (880)
This wonderful character by Veeez, or VZA, is another one I have pulled out of my archive from earlier this year, because it is simply too good not to post. There was a time when VZA first hit the walls of Bristol that it was difficult to not stumble across one of his characters of toadstools, however, of late his pieces have become a bit of a rarity.
This is a wonderful, bold and bright alien bug painted with strong fills in two shades and an incredibly precise thin black outline. Obviously the work of a very skilled artist and a superbly creative subject too. It is a pity he doesn’t paint all that often, although it is always worth waiting for.
7264. Brunel Way (340)
I came across this outstanding collaboration, intending to photograph its predecessor by Dibz and Fade who I had watched painting their collaboration, but as I have said, you snooze, you lose in this game and when I returned it had been painted over by this masterpiece. I think that this is probably my favourite collaboration of the year so far, oozing with talent.
To the left, Sled One has painted one of his magnificent cartoon-style creations, heavily loaded with political commentary. The piece is reflecting the rather unsettling rise of the appropriation of the St George Cross to represent anti-immigration (and for some, racist) sentiments, purporting to be patriotism. This is another division stoked up by the right wing parties, Reform and the Conservatives, as a wedge issue from which they expect to benefit.
Anti-immigration and racist sentiments are not particularly well-supported in Bristol, and Sled One has illustrated a large shoe squashing a gammon (“gammon” is a derogatory slang term for middle-aged, often ruddy-faced, white men who are perceived as being nationalistic, anti-immigrant, and particularly supportive of Brexit) attempting to paint a St George cross on the sole of the shoe. He is being squished. If only it was that simple to moderate this rise in anti-foreigner narrative masquerading as patriotism.
The middle section of this triptych is a superbly colourful piece of graffiti writing by Oust, spelling out OUSTER. Beautiful letters, beautiful fill colours, some nice flame bursts and bubbly background. A first-class piece of writing.
On the right is an outstanding cartoon portrait piece by Stivs, which I think is one of his best, and that is a high bar indeed. The stylised portrait draws on the Japanese anime genre and has so much movement and attitude about it. The piece is beautifully executed and looks like it could be a still from a film.
As I said before, an outstanding collaboration. Bravo! Sled One, Oust and Stivs.
7227. Lucky Lane (15)
Although he doesn’t paint all that often, Sam Brentnall pretty much always brings a smile to my face with his quirky illustrations of familiar animals and their amusing personalities. This beauty was painted in Lucky Lane as part of the most recent Bristol Mural Collective paint jam.
The piece, painted on a back yard wall with door and garage, takes the form of a reconstructed cow. Of course no real cow looks like this, but the caricature illustration immediately appears as a cow, even though it is mixed up and has green spots instead of black. I love the udders on the door on the left, and the cow’s head cropping a four leaf clover – tapping into the lucky theme of the paint jam. This is a truly charming piece from Sam Brentnall.
7165. Dean Lane skate park (865)
Asre has a new Instagram handle, @azre_returns which is a great description of his status as a street artist in Bristol. He was pretty busy a couple of years back and then abruptly stopped. Good things come to those who wait, and at last Asre has rewarded us with one of his trademark character portraits.
The character is wearing a baseball cap with the letters AEK which might relate to the Greek football club AEK Athens. Google searches didn’t give me an answer to the word ‘Trelenomai’, so the theme to the piece remains a bit of a mystery. The character itself is grimacing a little and has crosses for pupils, a tell-tale sign the piece is by Asre. Great to see him back.
7161. M23 roundabout J3 (709)
This superb little character piece by Cheo was painted in celebration of Ulow’s recent birthday. Although the piece is unsigned, it looks like it is by Sled Onebut is actually one of two by Cheo. It piece depicts a cheeky spray can eating a taco. Quite why I do not know, but it doesn’t matter.
Cheo has had a busier than usual year, and it was great to see this piece, celebrating Ulow’s recent birthday. One of a number of superb pieces from a gathering of some of the best and most established artists in Bristol. Top work.
7160. Cumberland Basin
A few of the pieces that were painted as part of Werm’s birthday celebration didn’t last more than 24 hours, including a rather striking piece by Zake and some writing by 3F Fino. Fortunately, however, this character piece by DFC 1848 remained untouched.
Spot the difference
There are two differences between the two photographs, taken about three minutes apart. Can you see them? Clue, one is on the elephant, the other is not. DFC1848 continues to expand his repertoire, and this elephant is quite a beauty.
There is something about the style of this piece that reminds me of 1960s and 1970s TV cartoon shows. It is really nicely painted, with good solid fills, some great three colour shading and a superb thick border. It was really good too to be able to catch up with the artist, just as he was finishing up.
Natural adventures 