An interesting and rather curious portrait piece by Minto peers out from the tunnel wall at passers by. The portrait is composed of an obvious outline and conventional eyes, while the rest of the piece is filled with fragments of shapes and colour to complete the whole.
The cartoon face a find a little unsettling, but it is a skilfully crafted piece and very much presented in Minto’s rather crowded style. Lots of ‘white space’ and busy bits. Great work from the graffiti writer.
More quick ones today, there is fishing to be done. This is another piece by Gent48 in Birmingham. It is quite an old portrait piece, but the artist is clearly respected, because the piece is still here and untagged.
The cartoon-style character is painted with a sepia tint, making it look like an old photograph. I’m not too sure what the back story is, but it is a nice piece.
Such has been the consistency of sunny days this summer, the shadows cast on this piece have forced me to photograph it on at least three occasions, but my patience paid off at last with these ‘clean’ pictures of the combination of letters and characters by Stivs.
Judging from the buffed background in two slightly different shades of blue, it looks as if these two cartoon portraits might have been painted on different days. The first portrait is accompanied with a D and C in calligraffiti style, part of his DSC tag. The portrait in gold and brown tones and with slightly exaggerated cartoon features is fantastic.
To the right, is a floating S written in a slightly different style, and a three-quarter portrait view, much more angular than the first, of a man with a tight haircut and goatee beard and large hoop earring. Once again the features are somewhat exaggerated. All beautifully finished as you might expect from Stivs. I’ll need to find out more about the characters next time I see him.
Zake has come along such a long way from his early column pieces under the M32 back in 2018 when I first came across his work. This year he has turned up the dial with a variety of really different character pieces that each tell a bit of a story.
In this piece, Zake has painted a cartoonish demonic character playing some mystical pipe. Behind him is a group of hooded characters, looking a little creepy to me, with lanterns held on sticks. Perhaps out protagonist is summoning them to do their evil deeds. Something a little different from Zaake.
Another wonderful framed piece in the Elton Street gallery, this time from Jody. What is so fascinating about this piece is not so much what Jody has painted, but what is absent beyond the confines of the frame – we are getting a peek into something much bigger.
Jody has painted part of a portrait, which looks very much in the futuristic comic style, with the eyes and nose clearly in view. The rich colours hint at a dark and shady scene, probably nighttime. There is some great detailing reflecting the way of graffiti writing, with lots of splats and drips, that appear to be so at home in this piece and don’t in any way disrupt the portrait. Skillful and intriguing work from Jody.
Straight off the back of her hugely successful stint as the featured artist/designer for this year’s Upfest, Esme Lower (Melo) continues to go from strength to strength. Her rise has been relatively meteoric and richly deserved. Her unique cartoon character style is popular and she is learning and developing all the while.
This symmetrical piece on framed board on the wall of Lost Horizons has an amusing twist running through it. A green cable/stalk runs through from left ear, with an electrical plug, to the right with a flower (resembling a fan?). Meanwhile the two characters appear to be having something of a face-off. A striking piece with strong colours – perfect for this particular spot.
Wow, how can work like this be created using spray cans? The richness and depth of colours and the brilliant use of shades to create a three-dimensional scene is incredible. The artist Zmaja is a Canadian-Serbian muralist and illustrator known for her cartoon-ish 3D animals, community-focused street art.
In this tea party scene, a fox and a rabbit are sharing a brew and a cookie and are accompanied by a couple of little yellow birds assisting with the sugar. A wonderful scene and story unfolds, but I can’t help feeling that there might be a sinister motive in the back of the fox’s mind, which once thought about, can’t be unthought. A superb Upfest piece.
Esme Lower’s stock is sky high at the moment, having been Upfest’s featured artist this year, with her artwork adorning all the marketing materials, posters, maps etc. She has simply had the best breakthrough year and now sits at the top table of street artists in Bristol, which is high status indeed.
This stunning mural was painted by Esme Lower as part of a Pre-Upfest commission organised by Upfest to promote the Festival, and to stamp Bristol’s identity an a street art city in this shopping area between Cabot’s Circus and Broadmead. The largely symmetrical mural sits above one of the many Costa Cafés, and adds a vibrant and joyful atmosphere to this otherwise dull alley. Her colourful cartoon style shines through and tells a story of people and flowers. I love the two guys sitting at the table, setting the context of the piece off perfectly. Upwards and onwards for Esme Lower.
This is an amazing cartoon portrait piece that not only shows off Sled One’s technical skills, but also reveals his extraordinary imagination and creativity. The piece is set on a pink background and the grass in front of the wall is still green, which dates this piece to before July.
The blue-faced man in a green jacket with beautiful folds, is having a lightbulb moment. But this lightbulb moment is more literal than usual, with his scalp tilted upwards revealing a characterful lightbulb where his brain should be. There is so much detail in the piece, and those sunglasses simply have to be admired. Surreal creativity at its best.
If one was to describe a typical piece of artwork by Cheo, this character work on the long hoarding in Fishponds would probably tick all the boxes… the archetype if you like. The character, a man wearing a cap and ski mask on his head and large gold chain round his neck is posing with two spray cans, one in each hand.
Cheo’s cartoon style is most endearing, especially when it includes the ever-present signature bee, in this instance lurking on the peak of the character’s cap. There is a nonchalant confidence in Cheo’s work, which is always presented to perfection. Solid fills are solid, folds in clothes well-thought-out, exaggerated features on his characters amusing and the composition, usually telling a story beautifully considered. Here is Cheo in a nutshell.
