Kustom Graphics

Recently I also picked up kustom graphics 1 and 2 and I have realised that there are a lot more artists out there doing the sort of stuff I want to do and they appear to be making a living out of it, so why can’t i? (I keep asking myself this)… by this I mean a lot of the artwork featured within its pages is primarily isolated characters but a lot of them are created out of a love for the Hot Rod, Rock and Roll, Punk, Burlesque scene for which I also admire… I remember an old tutor telling me that it isn’t enough for me to just like a subject and create something based on it.. I needed to get in there, get involved, be part of the scene so it helped inform my work that I produced.. however.. there’s very little in the way of Hot Rods locally to me.. or England in that case.. purely for the weather! Hahahha anyway.. flicking through these books I discovered a tonne of artists whose work has also helped inform my editorial pieces recently.. mainly due to their cartoon inspired deformation of characters…. Such as..

Dirty Donny (Gillies)- A lot of Gillies characters have enlarged heads so you see the expressions more clearly and the bodies are generally jus a basic shape with elongated limbs extending from them… the focus is more on the expression and the action of the limbs rather than having a proportional and realistic looking character whose body might twist and turn depending on the action.. he also limits his palette to only a few colours, usually as his work is printed as gig posters so it would keep the costs down, only going more elaborate with colour when it comes to his paintings.

And

KRNPX aka Kurono- I have never heard of KRNPX but I feel it is very close to what I was trying to create in my “running with scissors” design. He paints cutesy characters in more adult situations e.g. an undead zombie cat character or a cute teddy massacring fruit with a chainsaw. The mix of cute cartoon like creatures and ugly situations is what got my work noticed initially, apparently challenging social paradigms bit I do believe it is just because of there’s something people respond to when an otherwise taboo image or meaning is represented in a cartoon/childlike way.