Mr Underbite’s appearances are few and far between these days, so it was great to find this one in one of his favourite spots recently. I’ll not make reference to the brown background.
The Hapless character is painted in vibrant green, has his customary underslung jawline and is wearing a baseball cap for good measure. Signed MUB (Mr Underbite) and dated 2025, this is a piece without pretension or complication – what you see is what you get.
This combination piece from Fade and Dibz is outstanding, and really ticks all my boxes. I watched them as they started painting this and knew, even when it was in draft that it was going to be an absolute blinder.
This is straight out of the black book, a sketch come to life with a clever twist and superb early Disney character. I love seeing works in progress as it shows just how unbelievably talented these artists are, and how they build the picture up into something quite magnificent.
The writing is by Dibz, and has a beautiful, deep 3D drop shadow, with additional shading to create perfect depth and lift. The fox character, by Fade, looks like he is reading Dibz’ black book, maybe at this actual picture, which would be a clever twist. The whole thing is set on a piece of lined paper, which adds another whole dimension to the collaboration. Bravo! Gentlemen.
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Mr Crawls and Kool Hand have been painting together more regularly of late, and it is good to see. Their character styles, although quite different do complement one another rather well.
Mr Crawls has painted one of his ‘skeleton’ bird characters, which look slightly creepy if I am honest, but are very much part of his repertoire. He has shown another side to his talent here though, with some very nicely presented writing, spelling out JIM. I expect that this is a shout out to a friend/family member.
Kool Hand presents his orangutan character, who over the years has developed and become ever so slightly more sophisticated. The solid fills haven’t changed much, but the clean lines have improved and the overall shape of the head has softened. Some nice white flashes add to the 3D appearance of the character. A rather nice collaboration.
Normally, when Haka paints one of his graffiti writing/character combination pieces, I recognise the character from a children’s picture book. This time Haka has stumped me – I am not familiar with any books containing a lizard, and can’t tell you too much more about it.
Some classic HAKA letters sandwich the lizard, although I note that only the right-hand side has been decorated with stars. I wonder if that is an omission, or whether it is the lizard that has emitted the stars from its claw. The lovely piece was difficult to photograph on such a sunny afternoon, something that has been a constant problem during our glorious spring.
Only a few days ago I posted a piece by Mr Penfold, a collaboration with Mul that was at least a year old, and now I present a contemporary piece by the artist containing the same endearing character, that has a passing resemblance to Disney’s Pluto.
I love it when artists who make a living from their commissions and studio designs and illustrations, take a little bit of time out and decorate our streets. It feels like they are doing it for love and joy rather than for money, and there is something about that that is a refreshing break from the avaricious world that we live in. Thank you Mr Penfold for brightening up my day.
Ordinarily, I would expect a 3Dom piece to stick around for a month or two at least, but this wonderful piece only lasted a couple of weeks, which is a shame, but at least it was painted over with a decent piece, and it wasn’t tagged or bombed.
There is always a great deal of symbolism in 3Dom’s work, and here is a large eye character bearing the heavy weight of a skull. There is so much more going on here than simply the idea. The colour selections, light cast, shadows and perspectives are all impeccably presented and sets a bar for character artists across the land. You might spot a yellow Mr Bloopy in the background too.
There are a number of artists who have a signature piece or style that through repetition become recognised, and lean towards iconic. Examples in Bristol would include Full Time Ghoul, Mr Underbite and perhaps most famously, Slim Pickings, who writes TES. The visiting Scrapyardspec is one of these artists.
This is a fine double character piece from Scrapyardspec, looking a little golden in the late afternoon sun. His endearing, wibbly/goofy characters haven’t deviated much from the archetypal form and are beautifully filled with green and yellow colours that match the parched grass verge perfectly. His regular visits to Bristol are more than welcome.
This is a recent picture of a piece that I think was painted during Upfest last year, when Mul was visiting and dropped a few pieces about town. Here he has teamed up with Mr Penfold to create a fun and colourful collaboration.
Mul is known for his heart characters with legs and an eye. I’m not sure where Mul calls home, but occasional visits to Bristol are always very welcome. Mr Penfold is perhaps more commonly associated with his abstract commissions on shopfronts, but he intermittently produces these wonderful cartoon characters, presumably for fun. A tidy collaboration.
I am writing this from a tired Travelodge in Warrington, having watched Arsenal lose to PSG in the second leg of the Champions League Semi Final in an equally tired and slightly empty Irish Pub. I have had a long day, and still have this blog post to write. At least I am writing about this fabulous Mad Hatter piece in the tunnel by Mr Klue.
I think Mr Klue painted this as a bit of an extra, after he has finished another piece that I watched him complete. He is on a roll this year and has been churning out some great pieces. I particularly like these little characters that he paints and I have seen several of them over the years. This character is a little more solid than his ephemeral abstract writing and manages to convey a certain amount of mystery and intrigue.
I am always reminded when I see this character, of a wonderful double LP that me and my sister had as children, which was a musical version of Alice in Wonderland, and thanks to the Interweb, here is a picture of it. Try and find an online version to listen to, you won’t regret it.
It is a pity that Slakarts doesn’t appear to have much time for painting his stylised character pieces these days, but on the upside it probably means that he has a busy work and social life that is keeping him occupied. It is a bittersweet problem that real life can get in the way of the things we love to do with our ‘free’ time.
This is a welcome return of the Slakarts face that is so familiar, as you can see in this updated gallery of his work. The character face has two tongues, a duplication device often used by Slakarts, is bordered with a strong, thick red line and filled with nicely worked patterns in yellow and white. A welcome return from Slakarts.
