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

Survival of the Fittest...

What’s going on everyone?

Life at home has changed dramatically since the arrival of our new Daughter, Marley (born at 00:12 on Wednesday 25th February). Corrie had a gruelling 29 hour labour introducing this whopping 9lb 11 baby into the world, and we’ve since been doing our best to get into some sort of a routine based around Marley Marl’s demands.

All this baby tending has left little time to get any drawing done, but with a long weekend just passed, I was lucky enough to steal a couple of rare hours, while Mother and Daughter caught 40 winks, to flip this Mobb Deep sketch.

Check the image below (click to enlarge) and feel free to drop a comment.

All the best,

Mark 563

You Must Learn...

What’s going on?

With Corrie’s due date looming, I’ve been doing my best to make the most of the time I have without a baby to worry about. Countdown has been in motion for a minute now, and if everything goes to plan, this kid should be born within the next fortnight or so.

With that in mind, I’ve been as active as I can with my drawing. This weekend I broke out the pencils and rocked a KRS-One sketch. I had initially intended to draw a 'Criminal Minded' era KRS, but stumbled across this great image of the Teacher from the mid 90s.

I’ve long been a fan of KRS-One and BDP, and even though his releases from this century haven’t been amazing, his earlier material is all certified classic.

Anyways, have a butchers at the sketch below (click to enlarge) and feel free to let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Mark 563

Unbelievable...

Yes yes y’all.

We managed to survive the heatwave for another weekend thanks to the wonders of air con (though Friday night was a struggle when he got hit with a powercut), and considering that it’s been too hot to do anything outside, I had time to rock another sketch.

Notorious BIG has been one of my favourite emcees for the longest and I had wanted to do a Biggie drawing for a while. It seemed kind of fitting to churn this one out now, considering the ‘Notorious’ movie opened the other week.

Check out the sketch below and feel free to drop a comment.

Cheers,

Mark 563