Shade One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2026
Shade One is known for his incredibly sharp cartoon-style portrait pieces, many of which have been featured here, and you can see his typical work on this updated gallery. This time, the subject of his portraiture is a spray can with the word Rusk on it.
Shade One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, October 2026
The piece is a birthday tribute to Rusk, and how appropriate it is to feature a can, rather than a caricature portrait. The turnout for Rusk’s 50th birthday paint jam was fantastic, and some superb pieces were painted that day, including this one. More to come from this celebration.
Shade One, Fade, Jody, Jenks, Sikoh, Dibz and Rusk, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2026
However hard I try, I am not going to be able to do this large production wall justice. So many artists and so much quality on show in one themed piece. The artists, some of the finest around, are Shade One, Fade, Jody, Jenks, Sikoh, Dibz and Rusk, who has recently celebrated his 50th birthday. The piece is a throwback reminiscence of the video game Street Fighter (humorously labelled Street Writerz above the piece).
Shade One, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2026
Starting with the left-hand side, Shade One portrays the character E Honda in this outstanding portrait, painted in greyscale apart from the red striped on his face. A stunning piece augmented with a fine silhouetted scene.
Fade, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2026
Next up, is the character Dhalsim, rising high above some fiery letters by Fade. I cannot be certain who from this collaboration painted the character – perhaps someone out there could fill me in. Few, if any, of the elements were individually signed, so it is difficult to put names to all of them.
Jody, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2026
In the centre of the collaboration is another outstanding character piece, this time by Jody, who has faithfully recreated Chun Li striking a fighting pose. Brilliantly done.
Jenks, Sikoh, Dibz and Rusk, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2026
Moving further along the wall several characters come in to view. At the top left is Zanghief, holding a spray can (why not), possibly by Jenks. Below that is some bone writing and the head of Blanka, which I think might be by Sikoh. Top right is writing from Dibz spelling out Guile, another character from the video game, and rounding off the piece Ryu by Rusk.
Rusk, Dean Lane, Bristol, September 2026
That last character fits nicely onto one frame so Rusk gets a second mention in this post. While this is one of the most dynamic themed production collaborations I have seen, it has been a bit of a tricky one to attribute elements to artists. My apologies if I have got any of this wrong. Superb piece, which I imaging will be around for quite some time.
Shade One, Fade, Dibz and Sikoh, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026
This is a fabulous production collaboration painted back in June this year by Shade One, Fade, Dibz and Sikoh. It is a difficult wall to photograph in its entirety at the best of times, because of the light incursion creating reflections at different times of the day. These four really are the crème de la crème of their field.
Shade One, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026
Starting at the left, Shade One has painted an incredible cartoon realism portrait of a futuristic woman wearing pink-tinted glasses with gold rims. I’m not quite sure what the apparatus on her head is all about, but it is imaginative and creative. The pink surround creates a grerat hard defined edge to the portrait.
Fade, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026
Next up is some graffiti writing from Fade which I think reads SMOOTER and is likely dedicated to a friend. There is little more I can write about Fade and his work that I haven’t already written many times before. Precise and perfectly presented like the adjacent piece by Dibz.
Dibz, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026
The third piece in this production is by Dibz and mirrors the writing by Fade in terms of colours and to a point style. I cannot for the life of me decypher the letters, but that is wildstyle writing for you, it is intended to be disguised.
Sikoh, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, June 2026
Moving on finally to Sikoh, one of the most talented artists around, in my view. He has overlaid his piece on top of Dibz’ writing, bringing it forward and lifting it from the wall. The colours match Shade One’s bringing about a symmetry to the whole collaboration. Here a tortured skull, part human part machine appears to be yelling out, whether in pain or rage it is difficult to know. So full of movement expression and perfectlky painted. What a collaboration!
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.
Shade One and Rusk, Upfest 2026, Stillhouse Lane, Bristol, May 2026
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.
Turoe is one of the most reliable and consistent writers in Bristol, and it is a shame that he doesn’t write nearly as much these days as he has done in the past.
Turoe, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2026
This is a fine price celebrating Shade One’s birthday, and spelling out SHADE. Some great letter shapes picked out with fine black lines are surrounded by pink and purple bubbly decorations. This birthday paint jam turned out some real gems, as is often the case with this group of artists.
The turnout for Shade One’s birthday paint jam might have been relatively small in numbers, but was of the highest calibre. You know that you are well respected as an artist when Soker turns up and paints you a birthday celebration piece.
Soker, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2026
Soker is simply one of the best graffiti writers around, and although this looks like a relatively ‘quick one’ it still oozes class. The letters spell out shade with beautifully blended fills. The black outline picks out the letters beautifully and the cloudy pink, purple and green bursts around the edge of the letters rounds the piece off perfectly.
Most artists in Bristol have good days and bad days and everything in between, when it comes to their artwork. One artist whose work is consistently near-perfect is Dibz. I can’t think of a time when he has turned out a piece of writing and thought to myself ‘that’s a bit shoddy’.
Dibz, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2026
This is a beautifully finished piece painted for Shade One’s birthday, hence the letters SHADE. It would be easy to describe the piece as simple, but that isn’t necessarily the case. The white letters are decorated sparingly with green accents. The pink drop shadow is immaculate, and there is a tight thin blue border around the letters. To add some extra interest, Dibz has painted some glowing cubes around the piece, rounding it all off perfectly. Flawless.
One of the nice things about birthday paint jams is that they tend to encourage artists who don’t paint all that often to come out of the woodwork. One of those artists is Ware from the RAW crew. I have only ever seen his work a few times in Bristol, and it is possible that he lives and paints elsewhere, which may be why I don’t see his stuff all that often.
Ware, Cumberland Basin, Bristol, January 2026
This is a wonderful and technical piece of wildstyle writing. Each of the letters is assigned a colour, from green to light grey to dark grey and pink. The design of the letters is verging on a kind of Gothic or calligraphy font, but not quite. This is very nice writing, beautifully presented, and a great way to celebrate Shade One’s birthday.
One of the very best character portrait artists in Bristol, who doesn’t paint as often as I’d like is Shade One. Fortunately the draw of joining a Ulow birthday celebration was enough to bring him out to create this absolute beauty.
Shade One, M32 roundabout, Bristol, August 2025
Shade One is a specialist at painting caricature portraits, where the subjects are completely on point, but don’t fall into the realm of photorealism. The girl, wearing a bucket hat, painted in greyscale, is absolutely beautiful. Her expression somewhat moody as she glances to her right. Shade One is surely an artist at the very top of his game.
