Battle Bunny at Glos-tonbury, Golden Lion, Bristol

Battle Bunny is the latest in my war themed series of illustrations and paintings. The running rabbit is cute yet made up of tanks, helicopter gunships, tank buster planes and bombs! I was really pleased with how this design turned out so decided to paint it at the Glos-tonbury Festival yesterday. It's called the Glos-tonbury festival as it takes place on the same weekend as Glastonbury festival but is at the Golden Lion pub on the Gloucester Road in Bristol. The festival has live Skateboarding, Graffiti, Breakdancing, plus food stalls, clothing stalls, facepainting and Djs.

The painting turned out alright on a scorching day. Took me ages as usual and was last to finish as usual also. Could have done some bits better blah blah, but over all pleased with it.

Shout out to James for sorting it out. Painterz - Soker, Hemper, Nik Ill, Rich T, 45 RPM, China Mike and the Jago. 'Big Up' as it were to all who came down including Mike and Steff, Tails, Tess and Jo and Roxy and co. Special mention goes of course to my wife Liz and our little un Felix, who picked up a can of paint and tried to help Rich T on his piece.

Rowdy Rooftop Burner Fund!

A little while ago fellow Farmyardy and good friend Rowdy lost everything he owned in a fire! There is now a benefit auction to help him back on his feet and I have donated an original painting to it.

Here's what Steal From Work who are organising the auctions have to say about it...


So, there are plenty of charity events, plenty of causes worth fighting for, whole countries at war.... But sometimes it’s just about helping your friends, helping those you love. And here we’re taking the opportunity to help one of our best friends.

If you don’t know, here’s the introduction. Rowdy is one of the longest standing players in UK graffiti, supporting the scene and playing his part in what has now turned into a global phenomenon. He has painted with the best of them, in fact is one of the best of them, always sticking true to his vision, rocking his own style, never selling out his ideas. Recently he walked out of his house, which also served as his studio and when he returned a half hour later, everything had been burned to the ground. EVERYTHING! ID, money, clothes, personal possessions, art, the ability to make art, everything gone!

So, we’re taking this as an opportunity to support someone who has so readily supported us as a scene by auctioning some art to help him get back to a position where he can do what he does best, making art.

It’s a testament to his popularity and reputation that so many artists have donated work to this auction. All work has been personally donated by the artists and the galleries that represent them: Banksy, Paul Insect, Swoon, Sickboy, Hush, Espo, the whole Burning Candy crew and a whole bunch more... So, it’s your chance to buy something beautiful and at the same time help out someone who has helped in his way to make graffiti and street art what it is today.

There is information on all the auctions and pieces available on their site. My piece is part of auction 2 which starts Friday 25th June and ends Monday 5th July.

Steal from works ebay profile where the auction is taking place is here.

My piece up for auction is the rather fine 'Styracasubway'. Acrylic on canvas, 61 x 51cm, Signed by the artist. Happy bidding!



PS-There's also a Banksy print in the auction too in case any of you are interested in that.

Secret Wars - Bristol Vs Malmo

Another round of Secret Wars went down at Start The Bus in Bristol a couple of weeks ago. I was determined to put in a better performance than I did when up against Glasgow a while back. I met up with Sepr and we came up with the idea of Ciderzilla versus a little Viking dude as what we would do to battle the Swedish team from Malmo. Dylan Shipley got called into action on our team at the last minute and decided on doing a warrior farmer character.



When it came round to the night I managed to hold it down on the drinks a fair bit and we went into action. I find it a bit nerve wracking being up on stage drawing with loads of people looking at you. It's also difficult as one of the rules of Secret Wars is that you can't work from a sketch. Needless to say, Bristol beat Malmo 2-1. Sepr and Dylan worked very quickly and added a comedy cock that must have helped swing the vote. I added value by doing crap drunken dancing. Well, what d'ya expect - I was drunk on a stage in Corn Street with loads of people watching me.






Photos by Sylvia Meller.

Pub Illustrations for Vokrug Sveta Magazine

A while back I was asked to produce illustrations for yet another Russian magazine - Zokrug Sveta. It's similar to National Geographic and one of the features is on places around the world that Russian people may not be familiar with. One such place is a typical British pub and they chose me to illustrate and write the double page feature! An ideal subject for me as I enjoy frequenting such establishments very much. I chose to base the illustrations on my local - Inn On The Green. It was an ideal pub to choose as there are loads of different beers on tap, different rooms, beer mats on the wall and a garden. I wrote a bit about me and my wife's favourite crisps that we buy there to go with our alcholic beverages also.

Collaboration with Acerone at Upfest 2010

I was really pleased to get an email from top Bristol artist Acerone asking if I wanted to do a collaboration piece at Upfest this year. I really like his work so of course replied that I would. Acer is a top notch Graffiti writer and photographer. In recent years he has been producing murals based around his photos of Bristol scenes at night.

We met for a couple of beers and agreed that if he got a shot with a recognisable Bristol landmark in it I could then get one of my dinosaurs made of things in there.

Acer got a good shot of the Portway in Bristol which has the Clifton Suspension Bridge in the background. I drew up this car dinosaur rushing forward to fit in the scene.





We photoshopped the dinosaur in and decided that it could do with something to the left of the scene, so I added in a little one made of engines and exhausts! We made a mock up of how it would look on the wall/boards.

When it came to painting the piece I was really interested to see how Acer works. We went down to the Tobacco Factory the night before Upfest and painted the wall off black. When it got dark Acer projected the piece onto the wall and painted out the areas that would be filled in colour with white emulsion. After that was done, still using the projector, we marked out areas of detail.

We returned the next day and worked really hard painting the piece alongside all the other artists painting that day. We used a combination of acrylic and brush with spraypaints. It was a real mash up of styles and working techniques and we think it worked out really well. Stay tuned for further collabs with Mr Acer!



All photos in this post are by Acerone.

Sailor Jerry Dino

Last month I took a train down to Southampton to do a spot of live drawing at a Sailor Jerry art event at Pulcinella's bar. I got the design together on the train down due to lack of time and it came together nicely in the end. I sort of managed to fuse my artwork style with that of Sailor Jerrys tattoo flash. I got this Triceratops made up of Rum bottles and a Sailor Jerry style cow girl riding on its back! This drawing was of course fuelled by Rum. I enjoyed having a few cheeky swigs on the train home too.

Big thankyou to Lloyd for sorting this out.

Reject Designs

Here's a couple of designs that got rejected as potential T Shirt designs. I rather like them and think they could perhaps be used elsewhere or developed. They are of a great outdoors type theme and feature lots of mountains, fields, trees and streams. The one of a man is another move into human forms. Looks a bit like Bigfoot which is pretty cool.

Tank Girl 1

Tank Girl 1 is my latest Acrylic on canvas piece and represents a slight change in direction for me. I have decided to move away from dinosaurs for a bit and have a go at human forms made out of lots of smaller objects. Tank Girl 1 is kind of based on a cross between a Bomber pin up and Snow White. The helicopter is a bit like a little bird perched on her finger.

I'm quite pleased with how this came out. I think the face could have done with a bit more work, will be trying to get that right on future pieces that I have planned.

I would have spent a bit longer getting the face and other elements looking just right, but I ran out of time due to it needing to be boxed up and shipped over to Bold Hype Gallery in New York for the Strangers group show!



STRANGERS is a group show featuring new and exciting works by twelve contemporary artists and illustrators from across the country and around the globe: Adam Alaniz, Chinamike, Andy Council, Heisuke Kitazawa (pcp), kozyndan, Travis Lampe, Sean Morris, Sidney pink, Skinner, Deth P. Sun, Aiyana Udesen, and Kirsty Whiten. STRANGERS explores, challenges, and celebrates modern culture, and our ever changing place in it through vibrant imagery brimming with fantasy, wit, and absurdity…

It is brilliant that me and studio buddy China Mike got to have some work in this show alongside some awesome artists!

T Shirts!

There are now 2 different T shirt designs available of mine on sale in Bristol!

First up is this Yardasaur, junk yard dinosaur design which is available from My Yard clothing, 34 Park Street, Bristol, City of Bristol BS15JG‎ - 0117 316 9438‎






Also available is this junk dino T Shirt from Mild West Heroes. They have a stall in Bristol - its open 6 days a week Mon-Sat 9.30am-5pm, in The South Arcade of St Nicholas Market, Bristol, opposite The Rummer Hotel on All Saints Lane. They also have a stall every Friday on Wine St.

Mild West Heroes have a stall at Glastonbury Festival this year in the market area close to The Bandstand and central Meeting Point, just look out for the banner!

The design is available in mens and womens sizes and can be bought online also.

Triscudatops - Print now available from Art-El

Triscudatops is now available as a very snazzy limited edition print from Art-El!

Signed and numbered edition of just 25
One colour print. Gold on Black Astralux Gloss paper which comes mounted ready for framing.
Print size - 21 x 29cm
Mounted size is 33 x 32cm, Mount width is 5.5cm

Only £37.50!

Get it here.

Secret Wars in Glasgow, April 2010

Continuing the run of live drawing bad luck as it were was my performance at Secret Wars up in Glasgow back in April. Me and Cheo left Bristol at a hideous time in the morning and were totally shattered by the time we met up with Inkie in Glasgow. We started drinking and it all gets a bit hazy from there....

By the time we reached the club to do the drawing I was pissed, tired and not really in the mood for it. I did this dino/crane thing that wasn't my best really. I spent quite a bit of time writing swear words into areas where shading was going to go. The other guys on our team did alright I thought.

Bristol lost 3-0, but I guess that's always going to be the way with this when judges are from the city. I wasn't really that bothered, I enjoyed being up in Glasgow and going on the rampage for a few days. It's a great city and well worth a visit!

Here's a pic of the two finished pieces by Mateusz Sleczka. Bristols piece is on the right. He has a flickr set of the event that features some pics of me gurning here.

Live Drawing at Furious Five

I think it was way back in March I did a spot of live drawing at the Furious Five gig at The Tunnels in Bristol. Was a bit of a funny old night. I wasn't really on form and wasn't really feeling it. I got part way through drawing this kind of hip hop inspired sloth beast when the Five came on and everyone went through to watch them. I ended up going also, so as a result it never got finished....

Seem to remember being told by someone that night that I was copying Andy Councils style which was quite funny.




Photo by Tim Jones.

Hotwells Mural complete!

I'm finally back on ye olde blog. I've been so busy working on various different projects of late that I just couldn't be bothered to report on them all on here. So, now that I have a bit of time on my hands will report on all the things I have been doing. There is a fair backlog to get through and not sure I will be able to keep it in chronological order. I will kick off with some pics from the finished mural at Hotwells School...

The Hotwells Mural was on a beast of a wall and I was glad to have the help of FLX on one of my days working on it. Here's the main animals in the mural. There are other smaller ones in there also, but didn\t manage to get pics of them all or a joiner of the whole piece.

First up is the Chameleon...



Then the Croc...




And finally the Cormorant...



There was a lovely party arranged to celebrate the mural with orange coloured drinks and food. I had to cut a ribbon! The Evening Post did a feature on it that was pretty good I thought and the photo of me wasnt all that bad either. I don't really like having my photo taken.

Twitter

As you may have noticed, I haven't bothered updating this blog for sometime now. I will try and get it sorted out soon, but the best way to keep up with what I am up to at the moment and other ramblings is to follow me on twitter....

http://twitter.com/AndyCouncil