One Love...

What’s good everyone?

As ever, it’s been an absolute age since I lasted updated the blog, despite promises to be much more active here. I know I always complain about life being hectic, but this time, forreal, life is bonkers. On March 8^th our Family expanded, when my beautiful Wife, Corrie gave birth to our son, Mace. All is good – Corrie is doing great, Mace is a dream and even his 2 year old big Sister, Marley has handled his arrival brilliantly. As I’m sure you can imagine, he’s been keeping us more than occupied, so the drawing hasn’t been my top priority.

On the flip side, work has been slow again, so on the down time I’ve finally gotten around to rocking this Nasty Nas illustration. I’ve been a fan of Nas since I first heard him on Main Source’s ‘Live At The BBQ’ and, like the rest of the Hip Hop heads of my generation, was blow away by the quality of his debut album, ‘Illmatic’. I’ve long wanted to do a Nas artwork, and have had a painting of him on the go for well over a year now, but haven’t found the spare time to finish it off. So, in the mean time, I’m pretty stoked to have put together this ode to his ‘One Love’ single.

Check it out below and don’t hesitate to drop a comment.

Cheers,

Mark 563

D'Evils...

What’s happening, folks?

Life here, as usual, is super busy. We’re counting down the days until we grow from a three person to a four person family - less than a month to go and the time is flying by. We’ve still got so much to do to get the baby’s bedroom sorted (moving Marley from the cot to her big girl bed, getting new air-con fitted, and packing up/selling a whole bunch of my records) but we’re getting there slowly.

At work, we’re short-staffed, but there’s really not much work on right now, so I’ve managed to find at least a little time to do a quick Jay-Z biro sketch for you.

I drew a real rough version of this Jay-Z caricature months back and misplaced the sketch. After a lot of searching, it finally turned up the other day, so I tidied it up and am much happier with this version.

I’m not gonna front, I’ve not always been a Jay-Z fan. When he came out with his debut, I was firmly in the Independent camp – Stones Throw, Fondle ‘Em, Rawkus steez. I was late getting into Jay, but now hold him in very high regard. For Christmas, Corrie very thoughtfully got me a copy of his new book, Decoded, and so far it’s been a great read.

Anyways, check out the quick drawing and let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Mark 563

The Phuncky Feel One...

Wow – 2 posts in a week? Yep – I’m on a roll here. Truth be told, work is dead slow at the moment with most of our clients already broken up for the Christmas break, so during my down time I’ve had a chance to flex some artistic muscle.

I’m a huge Cypress Hill fan – have been since they dropped their debut. They were the first Hip Hop act I ever saw live, back in the early / mid ‘90s at Brixton Academy, and their first 2 albums remain firm favourites of mine to this day.

Anyways, this particular illustration has been sat half finished for the last 3 or 4 month, and it took a prompt from TROY blogger, Markshot to get me motivated enough to finish it.

So, here it is – a vector illustration of nasal-toned, Cypress Hill frontman, B-Real.

Have a butchers and let me know what you reckon.

Happy Holidays,

Mark 563

Big Poppa...

It’s been forever and a day since I updated this place – same old story, again and again. And more excuses – on the real, I’ve been pretty sick, laid up for well over a week with Glandular Fever, so doing anything other than sleeping really hasn’t been a priority.

Anyways, getting back to work in time for everything to slow down to a crawl for the Christmas period allowed me some spare time to flip a quick scribble.

Here’s my Notorious BIG offering. Rest In Peace Biggie.

Have a safe Christmas and New Year, if I don’t see you before hand.

All the best,

Mark 563

Rainy Dayz...

Here's another quickie for ya.

I've been wanting to do a Raekwon The Chef (Wu-Tang Clan) portrait for ages, but have struggled to find the right image to work from, so in the mean time here's a simple biro caricature I flexed between clients at work.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Mark 563.