Left-handed Lockdown doodle alphabet

Having cut my right index finger quite deeply on a tin of treacle a little while ago, I decided to challenge my left hand to do something useful during the Lockdown. I drew a creature alphabet in pen on some painted bits of card, whilst my normally well-behaved right hand could only throb and watch. Here are the results.

I’ve unified the colours a little in Photoshop, but you can see what the sketches were like originally too. I think I got pretty ambidextrous by the time I drew the animals for the letters X, Y and Z! I did take about three times longer, mind, but it was a good exercise.

Some were more successful than others; I’m pleased with the duck, the elephant and the quail. The trickier ones are shown below (in case you can’t work them out). Look out for the creature I did for the letter X. Worth remembering if you like playing Scrabble.

• I- Ibis

• M- Marlin

• U- Urchin

• X- Xeme

Studio 73 Brixton now stocks Crystal Palace art prints

I am now pleased to announce that the wonderful Studio 73 now sells some of my Crystal Palace-themed giclée prints in their lively gallery in Brixton Village.

© Studio 73

Definitely worth popping into see all the work there (including screen prints and original paintings too). You’ll probably even meet the friendly owner Adrian.

This new variation on the Subway Sphinxes is only available at Studio 73, currently.

Subway Sphinxes

I made a little film/slide show thing too (with some hastily created beats I put together using GarageBand. Channeling some bargain basement Chemical Brothers, I think!). Enjoy.

People of Brixton - you can now buy my prints from @Studio73bv gallery. Celebrate the quirks, corners and creatures of south London. #studio73art #crystalpalace #southlondonart #illustration #brixton pic.twitter.com/Ac0XDl5jzr

— Matt Bannister (@magbanno) March 6, 2020

Crystal Palace gifts on sale at The Paxton Centre

“More t-shirts based on these Crystal Palace Subway designs are now available to buy via my shop https://brickworks.teemill.com. 16th September 2020”

In case you’d not seen this on my social media accounts, you can now buy cushions, t-shirts and tea towels featuring my designs from The Paxton Centre in Crystal Palace. Some of the items you may recognise from the shop Smash Bang Wallop, formerly of the Crystal Palace Triangle. Following their sad closing, Beth at The Paxton Centre has taken on some of their stock (including the items I’ve designed). The Paxton Centre also stocks cards and prints of mine, too, in case you’re looking for a gift with your coffee/live event. The designs take inspiration from the famous Crystal Palace dinosaurs, and the hidden but amazing Crystal Palace Subway.

Jackson's Open Painting Prize 2019

I’m happy to share that I've been included in the long list for the Jackson's Open Painting Prize 2019. In addition to that, if you have 5 mins, you can vote for my TWO paintings in their People's Choice Award. (You do have to register, though).

Here are the links to 'People' and ‘Market’ in the "Scenes From Everyday Life" category. Thank you! 

People

Market

#jopp2019

The Poster Prize for Illustration 2019: London Stories

My illustration Paint In the Street is included in a new group exhibition of images at the London Transport Museum.

Organised by the Association of Illustrators and the London Transport Museum, the show contains the work of 100 selected creatives who have all responded to the idea of a London story. This might be an historical event, a local legend, a scene from literature or even a narrative of the artist’s own creation. This last approach is how I came up with my poster Paint In The Street.

The image depicts the moment when a delivery driver accidentally spills an order of paint across a busy London street. Typically, the Londoners fail to stop or negotiate the mess and carry on their respective journeys, leaving an attractive (almost abstract) trail of colour across the road. The spillage never happened in reality, but I think this image draws attention to the deliberate and random road markings we can see all over London’s transport networks.

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Paint delivery (detail)

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Bike and scooter (detail)

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Footprints (detail)

Me at the London Transport Museum at the opening of the London Stories exhibition.

The image was created first with acrylic paint on a board. I built up a series of textures using a variety of brush strokes, splashes and flicked paint to help create the backdrop of pavement, kerbstone and tarmac road surfaces. In order to get the crisp, bold shapes for the lines, paint and characters, I used Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop and merged the whole thing together, adding more shading and colour.

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Original pen sketch

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Coloured version of early sketch

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Background painting 1

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Background painting 2

Some people have not noticed immediately what is happening in the scene. My mum thought the splashes of paint were strange bodies in the road, for instance, and others have liked the abstract shapes only to see the figures and tyre tracks later. Looking at it now, I think the paint spills remind me of Matisse’s paper cut-outs but I hadn’t planned that at the start - you can’t escape your influences!

Poster Prize for Illustration 2019 – an exhibition of 100 artworks on “London Stories”
London Transport Museum, Exterion Media Gallery, Covent Garden, London
Open 8 February – 14 July 2019

London Transport Museum, Covent Garden Piazza, London, WC2E 7BB, United Kingdom

#LondonStories