A collection of amazing faces by Bristol street artist Face 1st
Instagram: @face1st_uk
All photographs taken by Scooj
Face 1st
Tag: Face
1805. St Werburghs tunnel (47)
The first time I saw this piece, the bright sun was streaming into St Werburghs tunnel from the right hand side, cutting this piece in two. I had to discard the pictures and return a second time. Fortunately the work, by the fabulous Tasha Bee, was exactly as it was previously and untouched by taggers.
It has been so good watching the development of Tasha Bee over the last year or two and this piece demonstrates how far she has come. I am starting to notice a lot more tone and shading coming in to her work, giving her characters a more rounded look. This I believe is one of her finest to date…the colours work really well, especially the yellow which offsets the blues and purples. Looking forward to seeing more and I know I won’t have too long to wait.
1803. The Bearpit (163)
This is just the best, best, best cheeky piece I have seen in ages. Beautifully simple but incredibly engaging. You’d have to have a heart of stone not to have a little smirk on your face seeing this on your way to work in the morning.
I have said before how much I am enjoying the diversification of Face 1st’s work these days, and this piece has to rank high among my favourites. He told me the day after he painted this (when I was buying a couple of small originals from him) that he started off doing full length figures 18 years ago before conbcentrating on the faces that he paints.
It is very rare to see any kind of nudity in Bristol street art, which is quite strange really, because it seems to be quite common place in other street art hot spots around the globe.
1800. City Road (9)
Oh I wish I had got to this piece before it was partially ruined by the chrome throw ups. At least they had the decency to leave the face intact. This is yet another gorgeous piece by Face 1st , whose work is reaching a new level both in terms of quality and quantity. One can barely move for new pieces.
I particularly like this one for its overall pleasing shape and colours, but it is the attention to detail on the background that I really like in that autumn brown. It is a nice gesture too that he includes a little ‘Happy Birthday Eleanor’ in the top right – I love it when street artists do this.
I met up with Face 1st last Friday and bought three small pieces from him and I am so utterly chuffed with them. I will be giving one to Scoojette for Christmas and I can’t wait. More fantastic work from this lovely artist to come.
1782. St Werburghs tunnel (44)
So back we go now to St Werburghs tunnel where we find another Face 1st piece, this time it is just the face and hair which has a leaf-like appearance. I think the hair might spell Face, as in other works by the artist, but I fear I am losing my grasp a little and see writing in things where there is none.
I think that Face 1st tends to do a couple of these at a time when there is a paint jam in the tunnel, because there always seems to be something by him in there at any one time. This piece features his commonly used purples and pinks which often dominate his colour palettes.
1779. St Werburghs tunnel (43)
I really hope you don’t get bored with seeing pieces by Face 1st. If you do, then just skip over this one and the next one in about four posts time and so on. You see, I like his work a lot and he manages to hit the streets a lot, which means his work will feature here a lot.
This is an absolute blinder from Face 1st in St Werburghs tunnel and I had to do quite a lot of colour management on my photo editor to bring out the true colours that were swamped with orange light in my originals. Because of this manipulation these pictures can never be a true representation of the piece, so things like this really need to be seen in the flesh. Two faces and lots of adornment…each of the tear-drop things decorated differently, but each given that 3D feel. Lovely piece.
1776. Fairlawn Road (2)
I don’t often post pieces that have been badly dogged but I make an exception with this piece by Stupid Stupid Meathole because I don’t see much of his work about the place and get rather excited when I do see one.
I certainly wasn’t looking for this little gem when I found it walking the dog around Montpelier. I think it was painted at the same time as the Tasha Bee piece directly to the right of it. There is always room in my blog for his rather grotesque organic pieces.
1768. Fairlawn Road (1)
Ubiquitous is one of the words I would use to describe the work of Tasha Bee. It doesn’t seem to matter where I wonder, I end up finding some of her work. This piece I found while taking the dog on a long walk around Montpelier – I wasn’t even hunting it down.
Tasha Bee I think also wears the crown at the moment for being the most prolific artist in Bristol, giving Laic217 and Nevergiveup and Facef1st a run for their money. I have said before how much I love the serenity of her faces, and am enjoying more and more the fills she is using for the hair. Great work.
1748. M32 Spot (27)
I have been prompted to publish these wonderful cartoon faces by Zake from my archive because I am aware that he has done some more recently. I was hoping that I could find out a little bit more about the artist in the meantime, but all my searches have been fruitless.
Zake’s faces are wonderfully expressive and in terms of their size and format seem to work very well within the rather tight constraints of the columns under the M32.
Another characteristic of Zake’s work is the selection of brown colours for the faces, which seems to provide a good contrasting base for the features. I love this man with the pens in his shirt pocket. These are great small pieces, and it would be good to see where Zake takes this work.
1746. Moon Street (54)
Absolutely no prizes for guessing the artist…besides which his signature is strikingly obvious in this piece. Laic217 favours this wall, and I must have six or seven of his works from here over the past three years or so. Incidentally, Moon Street is one of my favourite haunts too, but there seems to be less and less turnover here than there used to be.
In this piece, we have many of the things you can expect from Laic217 Including the bucket hat and brick wall motif. But what I particularly like about this character is his eyes which are actually spray can caps – a great idea. You have got to like the rather manic ‘Joker’ mouth too, which adds a touch of menace to the piece.
Laic217’s pieces are often highly colourful and this one is no exception to that. The turquoise background acting as a perfect foil to the red brick shirt and purple face. I’ve always been a fan and likely will always continue to be one.
Natural adventures 