DIBZ – Page 6 – Natural adventures

6362. Dean Lane skate park (749)

Fade and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2024

You might have seen several references in the past to World Wall Stylers, and wondered what it is all about. Essentially, it is a global street art collaboration event, organised through Instagram, setting a theme which artists can adopt, paint and photograph, tagging @worldwallstylers in their own Instagram feeds. It is a way of showing off your style to a large urban art community and observing other artist’s impressions on the same theme. This month is chapter 16 of World Wall Stylers and the theme is the film ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit’.

Fade and Dibz have collaborated in this Roger Rabbit piece in what I would call a fusion collaboration where both artists will have contributed to all parts of the piece, in spite of the letters spelling out FADE. The character in this piece was called Smart Guy, one of five weasel characters belonging to the Toon Patrol. Brilliant work from the pair and a prompt to dig out the movie and re-watch it sometime.

6349. Dean Lane skate park (746)

This magnificent beast by Dibz is the perfect example of tight wildstyle graffiti writing. The piece will have been thought out carefully and probably sketched out in a black book before being painted. This is graffiti art at its absolute best, by one of the best writers in Bristol and probably the country.

The piece spells out YUKI and is a tribute for Goldie and his partner Mika and their baby Yuki. I had to do a little bit of detective work to find all that out, but got there in the end. I cannot think of a finer thing than to have a piece of art dedicated to you. Lovely piece.

6338. Dean Lane skate park (745)

Dibz and Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, August 2024

Fade and Dibz need no introduction here given that I have posted dozens of their collaborations already on Natural Adventures this year. Their productivity is admirable and the quality of their work, awesome.

This collaboration centres on the theme of 1980s arcade game Pac-Man, but adopts a modern version of the little yellow character. The yellow dots in the maze are reproduced, although I am a little surprised not to see the incorporation of the four ghosts. Fade has split his letters into two colour assemblages, perhaps adding a little variety.

Dibz has also incorporated the maze element as his background and cleverly incorporated an ‘on-brand’ Pac-Man FUA (From up above). The transition of colour fill in Dibz’ letters is outstanding, and the fine yellow highlights help the letters to pop. Magnificent work from the duo.

6275. Dean Lane skate park (740)

Awkward, Fade and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

The FUA (From Up Above) boys are at it again, although this time they are joined by Awkward, and have opted for a smaller wall for this collaboration. In this piece we see our two main protagonists getting closer and closer to fusion in their work.

Fade and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, July 2024

Fade on the left and Dibz on the right have opted to use the same colours, 3D drop shadow, decorations and background, and it is only their stylistic differences that separate them. Dibz’ work tends to be a little bit more angular than the smoother edges of Fade. The colour transitions in the fills are excellent in both halves.

The central piece is book-ended by two characters by Awkward, who has painted with Dibz and Fade in Dean Lane not all that long ago. Messages contained in the speech bubbles are ‘roll the dice’, ‘Awkward’ and ‘Stop the war’. The characters look typically alarmed/animated with their exaggerated eyes and wobbly outlines. A rather nice collaboration from the three artists.

6235. Brunel Way (282)

Dibz, Jody and Fade, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024

If ever you want an example of the perfect triptych graffiti writing/character portrait piece then look no further than this magnificent piece by Dibz, Jody and Fade underneath Brunel Way bridge. As always, these three have smashed it, and I just don’t know how many more ceilings they can break with their work.

To the left, Dibz’ writing in black and pink is reflected on the right-hand side by Fade, where their writing is almost becoming indistinguishable except to the most experienced eyes. The key difference is that Fade’s letters tend to be ever so slightly softer than Dibz’. Both have created something special and finished it off with a splash of ‘liquid’ gold running behind the collaboration.

Sitting pretty between the graffiti writing is this outstanding skull painted by Jody. One of the great benefits of Jody joining these writers over the last couple of years is that we get to see so much more of his work on the streets, which I dare say we wouldn’t see so much if he was painting alone. When I see Jody’s work, I am still baffled how he manages to get such extraordinary detail and texture using a spray can. A trio at the top of their game.

6215. Brunel Way (279)

Acer One, Dibz, Jody and Fade, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024

I don’t think that I have ever seen so many production pieces as I have this year. The driving force behind these productions is the Dibz/Fade FUA brotherhood, and they have been oh so busy over the last eighteen months or so. In this full wall piece, they have been joined by Acer One and Jody, and what an amazing piece it is (gone now of course – overpainted by further FUA productions).

Acer One, Brunel Way, Bristol, July 2024

The production is bookended by two pieces by Acer One using his highly designed lettering spelling out ACER on the left-hand side and JODY on the right-hand side, thus ensuring that all four artists are named overtly in the production. The writing is painted over a moon/sun icon, and commensurate with the oriental feel of the entire collaboration.

There is a second set of inner bookends provided by Dibz and Fade, who present their wildstyle writing in a similar style and adopting an identical colour palette and decorations. In terms of painting, these two are brothers from different mothers, and while it is possible to tell the art of one from the other, it is becoming more difficult to do so.

Everything about the production points towards the centrepiece which is provided, as is often the case, by Jody, and he has surpassed even his very high standards with this astonishingly beautiful portrait piece. Jody has been working on this robot/human interface a fair bit lately, and this follows on from his remarkable Upfest piece (not yet posted here). It is the detail in the piece here that is so admirable, the hair and garland, the features of the face, machinery in the neck and patterns on the kimono. The portrait is a fitting climax to the whole production and shown how the coming together of different elements complement one another in perfect balance. Awesome stuff.

6200. Dean Lane skate park (732)

This is the second piece (the first was by Deamze) I have seen in Bristol featuring Asterix and Obelix from the children’s comic book series written by Goscinny and illustrated by Uderzo, both, regrettably no longer with us, but their legacy lives on through apprentices who have carried on the series of books. I am something of an expert on Asterix, I was brought up on the books, and in my youth they were the only thing I would read (much to my family’s dismay), so I judge this remarkable piece by Fade and Dibz through critical lens.

Starting with Fade, the strong and on-point letters in black with orange drop shadows, are nothing more than I would expect. For me, though the writing is eclipsed with the appearance of Dogmatix, Obelix’s dog, at the bottom left.

Dogmatix, obviously had a non-speaking part in the books, other than the odd growl or woof, and Fade’s rendition of the little character is perfect, picking up on his personality faithfully.

The centrepiece, probably painted by both Fade and Dibz features the heroes of the piece, Asterix and Obelix. The large sidekick, Obelix is 100% spot on, everything about his is brilliant. Getting on to Asterix though, my hypercritical eye isn’t quite happy with the warrior’s face, which feels slightly elongated… there is something not right about the proportions. I’ll let it go though, because they have tapped in to something that is deeply rooted in my childhood.

Dibz rounds off the production piece by mirroring Fade’s style and colours to provide balance to the whole collaboration. Remarkable stuff really and a red-letter day for me on finding it. Below is the Deamze piece from 2018 before he emigrated to Tasmania.

Deamze, Waterloo Street, Bristol, October 2018

6149. Dean Lane skate park (727)

Fade and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, June 2024

There has been no let up from Dibz and Fade, and although their pieces don’t appear as regularly on Natural Adventures as they used to, it doesn’t mean they aren’t painting as frequently, it simply means they are having to compete for space with so much other art including Upfest 2024.

This is a classic presentation by the two artists with Fade on the left, Dibz on the right and a co-created character in the middle. They have cleverly reversed the fill colour layers between the two pieces of graffiti writing, with Fade starting with green at the top transitioning through dark blues to a light blue, while Dibz starts with the light blue at the top.

The writing is, of course, of the absolute highest standard, painted by two artists who are at the top of their game. I don’t know who the green dog character is, and my Google searches haven’t turned up any clues, which is a pity, but he is nonetheless magnificent. Naturally, there is more to come from these two… watch this space.

6079. Dean Lane skate park (721)

Fade, Jody and Dibz, Dean Lane, Bristol, May 2024

Just because I have been paying quite a lot of attention to Upfest 2024 recently, id doesn’t mean that the world of Bristol street/graffiti art has stood still, on the contrary, it continues at the same ridiculous pace as usual. At the vanguard of high quality high productivity are the machine that is Dibz and Fade, and in this instance Jody too.

This ET tribute triptych is typical of the classy collaborations these artists have been churning out for well over a year now, since Fade returned to Bristol. On the left is a beautiful and perfectly presented piece of graffiti writing from Fade, that is notable for the drop shadow lifting upwards, which makes it feel like the letter block is moving downwards, if that makes sense – clever stuff.

The filling of the sandwich has been created by Jodi and portrays the most iconic scenes of the movie and possibly one of the most iconic images of the early 1980s. Not only has Jodi recreated Elliott and ET, but also the amazing landscape and moon shot. I like the way that the artists have put their signatures onto the box which ET is sitting in, as if they were written in felt-tip.

Rounding off the collaboration is a perfect piece of writing from Dibz which mirrors Fade’s writing on the other side. The drop shadow that Dibz uses is more conventional and acts as a counterbalance to Fade’s. This is an awesome ET collaboration, worthy of great praise.

6026. Brunel Way (271)

Dibz, Jody and Fade, Brunel Way, Bristol, May 2024

This extraordinary collaboration from Dibz, Jody and Fade, in my view, approaches graffiti/character combination perfection, and I feel that the more I say about it, the more I risk devaluing it. This piece, is adjacent to an earlier collaboration by these three which I haven’t yet had the space to post…

The classic triptych begins with some stunning writing from Dibz with an outstanding deep 3D drop shadow, full of shades creating loads of depth. There are some nice dark highlights in the corner of some of the letters too.

Bookending the central character on the other side is some writing from Fade which closely mirrors Dibz’ writing. The main difference between the two is the colour of the drop shadow. Their work is deliberately merged into one.

Arguably, the star of the show is the portrait piece from Jody in the centre. I don’t know what it is that makes this one so special, maybe it is the colours, maybe it is the writing either side, I just don’t know, but it is truly outstanding and captivating. The portrait is full of mystery and power, with the flowing hair and wispy flowers providing plenty of movement. This is really great work from the three. How often have I said that over the last year or two?

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