A gallery of superb character street art by Bristol artist I am Ian.
Instagram: @iam.ian.m
All photographs by Scooj
I am Ian
Tag: Cartoon
7709. Greville Smith Park – Upfest 2026 (16)
It was good to catch up with DFC1848 at this year’s Upfest, and before he painted this fun character piece, we had a long chat while admiring Jimmer Wilmot’s skilful alphabetti spaghetti piece.
With so much practice over the years, DFC1848 has built up a portfolio of animal characters which he is constantly adding to. When he first started, he would paint the same two characters pretty much all of the time, a bear and a spray can with wings. Now his menagerie swells and is bursting at the seams, with the addition of this rather unhinged elephant. Great work, beautifully executed.
7672. Greenway Bush Lane – Upfest 2026 (7)
What a wonderful bonus for Upfest 202 to have The Art of Sok come over from Wales to paint this absolute gem on Greenway Bush Lane. His comic-book cartoon style is utterly captivating and feels very contemporary in a kind of retro way.
The BS3 referred to on the cap is the postal district where Upfest is held, encompassing Bedminster, Southville, Bower Ashton and Windmill Hill. The two characters, captured in shades of pink are pictured standing in front of silhouetted buildings and a nighttime sky. It feels like there is a story here, leaving the viewer wanting to know more. A wonderful Upfest piece.
7657. Stillhouse Lane – Upfest 2026 (3)
The organisers of Upfest have been keeping busy since the last Upfest in 2024, and incorporated a host of new walls to show off local, national and international talent for this year’s festival. This wall is tucked away just south of the east end of East Street, and is in an area I’m not sure that I have ever been to before. The wall is on the side of a light industrial unit called Willway Yard, with plenty of space for multiple artists. One of the first to complete his allocated space is Bristol artist Sean Sepr.
Sepr has an extraordinary talent for telling elaborate stories in his cartoon-style pieces. Everything is laid out with clarity and humour, and then it is up to the viewer to piece it all together into some kind of narrative. My reading of the situation is that a cyclist has had a bit of an accident, running into some wet concrete perhaps and rather than helping him, a collection of animals are taking advantage of the unfortunate protagonist and generally being unhelpful. I love the way the fox is stealing his shoes and socks. Creative and imaginative.
7645. Dean Lane skate park (921)
Over the last year or so, Cheo seems to have upped his game (if that is at all possible), certainly in the frequency of his wall decorations. Cheo is a very talented artist who has been part of the ‘establishment’ in Bristol, but never lost his contemporary edge, and appears to be equally happy with his commercial work and his ‘graffiti’ art.
This piece in Dean Lane is in a narrow section and quite difficult to photograph – where would I be without a wide angle facility on my phone? The character in the piece, wearing a LIDL T-shirt has been spraying (one assumes) a CHEO throw up in green and blue. He is holding a spray can out of which a rather surreal scene unfolds… a pink blob character, complete with a plunger stuck to his head and smoking a cigar. What!? Great work from a master craftsman.
7638. Dean Lane skate park (919)
What pure joy to come across this outstanding production piece by Dibz, Cheo and Soker. For anyone older than me, the piece is inspired by the long-running children’s cartoon Spongebob Squarepants.
To the left Dibz had filled his outstanding wildstyle writing with the colours of Spongebob’s friend Patrick, the starfish, really cleverly done and as you would expect from Dibz, tight as a nut.
In the middle, Cheo has painted a brilliant rendition of Squidward Tentacles, with a little sea snail on his back. Naturally the character is up to no good with some spray cans, and Cheo has included his signature bee, as you’d expect.
To the right-hand side of the triptych is another remarkable piece of wildstyle writing from Soker, which has been filled with the colours of the star of the show himself, Spongebob. I love the attention to detail with the inclusion of his little red tie.
In addition to the three main characters, the three artists have added so much detail to the background, creating a masterpiece, which fans of the cartoon would relish. Utterly brilliant and next-level.
7624. River Avon (116)
I took these photographs on one of those rare occasions that my wife joined me on a ‘street art’ dog walk. She doesn’t share my enthusiasm for paint chucked at walls, but to be fair, not many people do. On the upside I did manage to introduce my wife to a new route for her road runs, for which she was most grateful.
These letters from Seam spell out his name with a series of characters in monochrome colour. There is a lot to like about this line up of cartoon-style characters, which although quite crudely drawn, have something about them. I love this take on combination graffiti writing.
7571. M32 roundabout J2 (16)
Another column piece from the John D’oh gallery of stencils underneath the M32. The artist has certainly made himself at home here, and I note from his Instagram account that he has been busy down there again recently.
This simple piece features a rather stereotyped curvaceous woman holding a book and tilting her glasses. The caption says ‘love is like street art, sometimes it doesn’t last long’, which I guess can be true, there is also an additional view that might take the position ‘love is like street art, sometimes it lasts forever’. Yet more to come from this rich seam of John D’oh gold.
The Art of Sok
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
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.
Natural adventures 