Eazy Duz It...

What’s happening?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been on an uncharacteristic West Coast tip – those that know me will tell you I’m a closed-minded Golden Era East Coast fanatic, so bugging on some Gangsta ish really ain’t my regular bag. Lately I’ve been bumping the likes of Ice Cube, Dr Dre, Snoop, King Tee, MC Eiht, WC & The Maad Circle, Westside Connection and I guess that has influenced this week’s portrait.

On Saturday, while Corrie and Marley were out shopping, I slung classic West Coast Gangsta flick, Menace II Society in the DVD player and flexed this drawing of NWA member and Gangsta Rap icon, Eazy-E (RIP).

Check it out below (click to enlarge), and feel free to leave a comment.

Until next time,

Mark 563

Long Live The Kane...

Yeah yeah.

Another slow week at work that’s allowed me some time to do some more vector artwork.

Here’s an illustration of Juice Crew legend, Big Daddy Kane. Have a look (click to enlarge) and let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Mark 563

Doggystyle...

What’s going on?

Once again, apologies for being slack with the updates on Run The Line, but, as some of you’ll know, being a new Dad doesn’t leave you with much free time. Not that I’m complaining - Marley is awesome - just making an excuse for my few and far-between updates.

Anyways, I’ve been working on a commissioned sketch for a moment, which is nearly finished. I’ll be posting that once it’s done, and the client is happy, so hold tight.

In the mean time, my day job (Graphic Designer) has been kind of slow of late, which has afforded me some time to play around with some digital artwork. On a day to day basis, I work heavily in Adobe Illustrator, and for a while now I’ve wanted to output some vector illustrations. Whilst listening to some classic Snoop and Dre, I started out with some pen and pencil sketches, scanned ‘em in and set to work in Illustrator.

Below is the finished Snoop Doggy Dogg-inspired character. Check it out (click to see full size) and let me know what you think. More to come as and when I get the time.

All the best,

Mark 563

The Diabolical Biz Markie...

What’s going on everyone, I trust you’re all well and surviving this Swine Flu drama. All’s good here – busy as ever, but still getting things done.

I’ve been meaning to post this for ages, but just hadn’t found the time for whatever reason. Quite a few months back I began work on a canvas I had wanted to paint for years. Basically, while I was still in London I painted a Hip Hop Legend, Biz Markie, (if you don’t know: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biz_Markie ) canvas. I completely messed up the composition, and in an effort to compensate for that I ended up thoroughly overworking the painting. While I was pretty happy with the actual Biz Markie likeness, the finished painting just didn’t work and had never been hung.

I’d always wanted to revisit that image, and set about redoing the whole thing. I opted to keep the colours pretty much the same, but switched the composition, and this time worked on a much larger canvas.

It has taken me months to finally finish the artwork, but I’m actually extremely happy with it – it should be noted that between painting and coating the canvas, I had a nightmare moment when I thought I’d ruined the whole thing, which lead me to hours of painstakingly fixing my problems.

Check the picture below (click to see the full painting) of the finished piece hanging in our hallway. It’s a 36” square canvas, entirely hand painted (not stenciled or screen-printed) using acrylics and coated with a gloss varnish.

I have since started work on the next canvas, but at the speed I work I wouldn’t expect to finish it before the end of the year.

Feel free to leave a comment.

All the best,

Mark 563

The Great Adventures Of...

What’s happening, people?

Over the weekend I managed to find a couple of spare hours to do some more drawing, and finally got round to doing a sketch of one of my personal favourites, Slick Rick.

There’s not too much that needs to be said about Slick Rick, The Ruler – He’s a certified legend, so was happy to rock this illustration of him.

Check it out below (click to enlarge), and feel free to drop a comment.

All the best,

Mark 563