Character – Natural adventures

7830. River Avon (125)

Avem808 appears to have been having a lot of fun this summer, transitioning his work from writing dominated to character dominated. I think that he enjoys the creativity and charm of his characters as much as the technical aspect of his writing.

The writing is heavily disguised, and I have to assume that it spells out AVEM. It is the bookend characters that leap out, almost literally, especially the one on the left. These crazy imaginings are quite unlike anything I have seen in Bristol before and are becoming as a bit of a trademark of the artist.

When I look at the character on the right I see a sandglass, and the sand character slipping from top to bottom through the squeezed middle. I cannot help feeling that Avem808 seems rather liberated, from what I don’t know, but this marked change in his work is very welcome and I look forward to seeing it develop further.

7828. Brunel Way (365)

This may be the most dynamic and sophisticated piece that I have seen by Butch to date, painted as part of a PLB paint jam underneath Brunel way. The first notable thing about the piece is that it is full of colour, and he has combined his letters with an animated character on the left.

Butch nearly always overlaps his letters so that the letter to the left sits over the letter to the right. This layout distinguishes his work from other writers. Each of the letters is decorated independently, although the ‘U’, ‘C’ and half of the ‘H’ share a grey and white colour scheme. The character is a running pencil, with a big mouth. What he is running from I have no idea. All in all an entertaining combination piece.

7796. Goodneston Road (1)

3Dom, Goodneston Road, Bristol, July 2026

Recently, I became aware, through Instagram chats, of a spot with very long hoardings that I have been blissfully unaware of, even though I have seen pieces posted from it, I simply didn’t know where it was, but now I do. The discovery has given me dozens of new pieces to share, most about a year old and many tributes to Ticks/Tickz.

This is another in the ‘street elf’ series of pieces by 3Dom, in which he has created a bilaterally symmetrical character. The formulaic approach is quite different from his more familiar free-form and wildly creative dreamy pieces, and restricts him to painting within certain constraints. I like this series, because it presents a sense of mystery (no signature) and another string to 3Dom’s substantial bow.

7792. Greenway Bush Lane – Upfest 2026 (38)

Minto, Upfest 2026, Greenway Bush Lane, Bristol, May 2026

Another Bristol artist to grace the Upfest stage this year is Minto, who somehow managed to get away with painting two pieces rather close together. Sometimes artists pull out at the last minute, and opportunists make the most of the blank space.

This first simple white on black piece shows what is possible, using only one colour with some great outlines and a bit of shading. I can’t imagine that it would have taken Minto more than a few minute to create this cartoon doodle, and it is very much an extra piece thrown into the mix.

His other piece only a few yards away is also a bit of a quick one, but more along the lines of what we see frequently in Bristol. The letters spell Minto, and the pig character has been nicely incorporated alongside them. If I am honest, I don’t think Minto put too much effort into these pieces, and probably turned up more for the crack than the artistry, because he has been smashing it with much more sophisticated and well-finished pieces than this recently.

7791. Stillhouse Lane – Upfest 2026 (37)

Shade One and Rusk, Upfest 2026, Stillhouse Lane, Bristol, May 2026

Upfest 2026 was arguably the best so far in terms of the number of artists attending and breadth of talent from Bristol, the UK and from overseas. It really was a feast for the eyes, and it was gratifying too for local artists to be able to show off their work to a ‘home’ audience. Two Bristol-based artists, Shade One and Rusk collaborated under the name Stone Crowz, which they have done previously at street art festivals, to create this stunning piece.

Shade One, Upfest 2026, Stillhouse Lane, Bristol, May 2026

To the left, Shade One painted one of his glorious portrait pieces that have a crossover between comic-book and photorealistic styles. So beautiful to look at. Shade One is an artist who likes to take his time with his work, and This piece took him a couple of days at least to complete. He also painted a smaller portrait as part of the central section of the collaboration.

The central panel is full of Japanese iconography. Lanterns, a Japanese flag and warrior character are all presented in the most incredible detail. I just don’t k now how they managed to paint the dragons on the lanterns – fine work indeed. I think that the bold writing is likely by Rusk, who is a highly accomplished graffiti writer and has done a superb job with these blocky metallic letters.

Rusk, Upfest 2026, Stillhouse Lane, Bristol, May 2026

The Godzilla-type character stepping through a ‘Hokusai’ sea is by Rusk and shows off his skills as a character artist as well as a writer. I love the bamboo frame to the monster piece. Overall the elements of the collaboration come together in a very pleasing way. Brilliant work from the Bristol duo.

7787. Brunel Way (363)

Sled One and Oust, Brunel Way, Bristol, April 2026

I was very happy to catch up with Sled One as he was finishing off his snail, way back in April – a piece that nearly slipped through the net. Happy, because I hadn’t seen him for a long while, which was perhaps not too surprising because he told me that he was a bit of a ‘fair weather’ artist with regard to his street work. Here he teamed up with Oust, amongst others is an outstanding collaborative wall under Brunel Way.

Sled One, Brunel Way, Bristol, April 2026

The Snail is so full of character and a multitude of charming details – his face with those eyes on stalks is a picture. Three cheeky ladybirds are hitching a ride on the snail’s back and his shell is a clever representation of planet Earth. The snail is sliding his way through the grass.

Next to the snail set in a grassy landscape is a wonderful piece of graffiti writing from Oust. The letters and drop shadow pick up on and reflect the colours used in Sled One’s adjacent snail. The wildstyle writing is beautifully presented with organically blended colours in the letters, with some spots, and a blue background with further spot decorations. This is a superb pairing from the overall collaboration.

7785. Brunel Way (362)

There are no two ways about it, Sepr has to be one of the greatest creators of graffiti characters around. It is not only his perfect execution that draws the eye, but his creative concepts that make his work so compelling… his ability to tell stories through his artwork. Stories that the viewer can make up, depending on how they interpret what they are looking at.

In this piece, we have a three-toed sloth dressed in a smart suit, holding a briefcase with the letters ASK embossed on it, and holding a mobile telephone with the word ‘Yoooooo!’ in a speech bubble. For me this is a throwback to the late 1980s/early 90s where such work executives paraded around as if they were the most important people ever. We all knew they were jumped-up self-important twits, many of whom ended up running the country in one form or another. Generally speaking sloths in a suit.

7775. Stapleton Road

Avem808, Stapleton Road, Bristol, June 2026

One of the highlights of the year so far has been observing How Avem808 has been developing his work, and transitioning his character drawings and digital representations into his street work, creating elaborate combination and complex pieces.

In this busy piece, his characters have pretty much superseded his letters, and in fact I’m not sure that I can find any. Mouths seem to feature pretty strongly in these characters who are introduced alongside some kind of mechanical and process-type piping. There is plenty going on here, but I can’t be too sure what it all means. Colourful and creative.

7753. Stapleton Road

Avem808 only really came under my radar about a year ago, and since then his work has transformed somewhat and at an incredible pace. I think that he has a bit of time on his hands at the moment, which is why he is able to get out and paint quite frequently.

His intricate writing has given way a little to the creation of busy and detailed combination pieces, crawling with characters. Here, his letters in red and pink, which I assume spell out AVEM, are joined by a fez-wearing camel, and a raft of other crazy characters. There is a lot going on in this piece and an awful lot to look at, it is almost overwhelming, but worth dwelling on it for a while to see all the little stories unfold in front of you.

I am Ian

A gallery of superb character street art by Bristol artist I am Ian.

Instagram: @iam.ian.m

All photographs by Scooj

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