The Don, The Jets, And The Golden Snake Portal

I was honoured to be involved in this year's Secret 7" exhibition alongside some powerful and magical artists creating one-off record sleeves for an impressive list of musical musicians.

Completely torn and faced with the common dilemma of 'Elton or Nas', Secret 7" head honcho, Kevin King kindly krept in and said I could have a go at producing sleeves for both Nasir's brilliant Don't-Call-It-A-Comeback single, 'The Don' AND The Rocketman's Classic-Made-More-Classic-By-Biz-Markie hit, 'Benny And The Jets'.

I've had a few emails recently from awesome people who think my artwork is worth looking at, asking about my artistic process and pens and what-not.. so I took a few snaps while I was messing these blank 7" sleeves up..

For 'The Don' cover I looked at a few ancient Egyptian references and sketched out the initial image on tracing paper with a 'Mars Technico' pencil (which I lost shortly after.)

 

Then I transferred the image to the blank sleeve..

..and inked it up with a 'Rotring Rapidograph 30'..

Next I coloured in the character with a gold Edding paint pen..

And finished it off with a red Posca Pen background..

Done!

I added the record's details to the back..

Here's the sleeve up in the show..

For the 'Benny And The Jets' sleeve I was looking through old school astronaut/pilot imagery for reference. The process was the same as I really wanted the two pieces to compliment each other in the show as well as stand alone and represent their specific tracks.. not too much though as I do love the secretive nature of the project, so I didn't want the images  to represent the artists  too directly. The gold n' red was replaced with silver n' baby blue for Elton..

For the opening night of the Secret 7' show, Downstairs at Mother London, I was invited to join the Peep Show Collective and Pete Fowler to spin 7" records and produce another 7" sleeve live on camera. I drew an All-Seeing-Pizza-Slice for HAIM's 'Better Off' record, Disc Jockeyed a nice set o'sevens and then left my box of records on the tube the following day.. (I lose things.)

The show was a great success and almost all of the sleeves were sold when the venue opened its doors on Record Store Day on Saturday. All three of my sleeves were sold and I was chuffed to receive a message from 'Eel Art' in Brighton who bought both my Nas and Elton pieces, so they're reunited in a lovely seaside home! I'm not sure what became of the pizza slice yet, but it isn't up on the eBay page where you can bid on the few remaining sleeves so someone definitely snapped it up. Here's a link to that last chance to support the great cause that is 'Art Against Knives' and to get your hands on one of this year's Secret 7" records..

Secret 7" eBay Sale

...

The breaking news concerning the mystical totem featured on 'The Don' sleeve is that shortly after its 7" appearance, a Golden Snake Portal emerged  from the effigy's head region and a limited number of the resulting prints are now available from APG Works' ONLINE SHOP as part of the Spring potforlio they have 'Unleashed', which also features exclusive prints by EMA, Jo Peel, Kid Acne, Jon Cannon, and Lawrence Harborne. Details HERE .. The prints are available online now, but we're having a few beers down at APG Gallery, Sheffield this Thursday (25th April) evening to launch them and everyone's welcome to join us.

I should stress that the 'Golden Snake Portal' is a visual progression from the image I developed for the Secret 7" show, but these new prints of mine aren't connected to those good people. Head to the eBay page I mentioned before to support their cause.

Thanks..

Record Store Deity

I try to have as many Record Shop/Store Days as I can throughout the year, but I do think it's a positive step to recognise the importance of independent record shops on one specific day on an annual basis. 

This year's official 'Record Store Day' takes place on Saturday 20th April 2013. I've contributed work to the Secret 7" show. I'll post more about that once the secret's out, but follow the link, see if you can spot my sleeves, and try and get along to the show on Saturday if you're in the Shoreditch area.

I'm also releasing a limited run of prints, which will be available to buy on Saturday from a couple of record shops in Sheffield and from one in Manchester.

The 'Record Shop Monolith' is a mystical totem, which brings good fortune to intrepid crate diggers. It is an A3 digital print on recycled grey board, and I've hand-painted each print with white detailing, signature, date, and edition number. This is an edition of 25 prints, which initially will only be available for £20 each on Saturday 20th April onwards from the specific record shops that are stocking them. 

There will be 10 of the prints available from 'Eastern Bloc' in Manchester as part of a R.S.D group art show alongside work from Point 273, Tasha Whittle, and Mr. Scruff.

There will be 10 of the prints available from 'Record Collector' in Sheffield as part of their R.S.D event, which also includes a live performance from The Crookes.  

And there will also be 5 of the prints available from my favourite shop in Sheffield, 'Rare & Racy'. The chaps there are too laid back for the whole R.S.D thing, but I always take every chance I get to support this amazing place, and I urge you all to pop in on Saturday and buy a record.

..As with all three of these shops on Saturday, you should go and buy a record.. if you've got a bit of spare cash after that then buy another record. Somewhere along the line you could consider one of these prints, but just support the shops. Sorry to those of you that would like one of these prints who can't make it to one of these shops. If there are any left after a week or so I'll put them up in my online shop.

Oh yeah, in honour of the three most popular record sizes, numbers 7, 10, and 12 from the print edition have coloured eyes. There'll be one of the super limited coloured-eye variants in each of the three shops so if you get down there early you can ask about one of those if you like.

 

Greetings Cards..

The folks at Awesome Merch just printed up a collection of greetings cards featuring some of my designs. They're all up in my online shop for a bargain price now, so follow the link below if you'd like to snap them up...

http://tomjnewell.bigcartel.com/

...

BABY LEMONADE

...

HALLOWE'EN IS AWESOME..

Here's a picture I just drew for the fine folks at Awesome Merchandise featuring a shifty looking Grim Reaper, a horned-pumpkin headed character and a teenage wolfboy trying not to get hairs stuck to his toffee apple.. Hallowe'en is AWESOME! Click on the link below to find out how to win one of the t-shirts..

http://www.awesomemerchandise.com/badgeblog/2012/10/22/halloween-is-awesome-massive-t-shirt-giveaway

Last Few Primitives Prints..

I've not had anything up in the online shop for a while, but my friend Lauren, who printed up The Primitives Tour Posters I did last year, recently dug out some A/P copies of the A2 posters whilst spring (autumn?) cleaning her studio. These are the last ones available and they're all signed and up in the shop now. I contacted the band and half the money I take on these is going to be donated to their charity of choice, Teenage Cancer Trust..

http://tomjnewell.bigcartel.com/product/the-primitives-a-p-screenprint

Pet Symmetry

I just drew this for a friend's gift to her husband on their first (paper) anniversary. It features their pet cats, his bird-inlaid guitar neck, their favourite cheeseburgers, and some Mouldy Peaches lyrics from their first dance song...

The Dead Sea Mob is Dead..

It’s probably fairly obvious now after nearly six months of inactivity, but the Dead Sea Mob is dead! First and foremost we want to say thank you to all involved with the Mob’s activities, much of what was achieved would not have been possible without you. From the guest artists, to the wonderful guys at Parliament of Feathers for all their screen-printing services, and Posca for supplying us with many, many pens! We did some fantastic shows and got to support some amazing causes like Sea Shepherd. We hope that our paths will cross again soon. Thanks to everyone who supported us during The Mob’s brief voyage.

Secondly we would like to say that The Mob came to a natural end due to individual artist’s commitments, and that we will all continue to work together on future projects! If anyone has any orders placed from the DSM store that were not fulfilled, please email us directly as opposed to through any DSM social sites or email. Unfortunately, due to the DSM not being an artist run collective, we have now been locked out of all of these and are unable to respond through these means. We will try and help resolve any issues ourselves if you need to contact us.

Once again, a huge thank you to everyone who supported The DSM along the way. We hope to see you all soon!

Big thanks to Parliament of Feathers, Skinner, Godmachine, Dirtyface, Mr Gauky, Ollie Munden, Harry Draws, Pete Fowler, Andy Council, Gavin Strange, Posca Pens, Guy McKinley, Eight Bit, Michael Shantz, Kraken Rum, Lord Whitney, Clutter, Cult PR, Pure Gallery, Cult PR, Magnum Opus, Green Door Store, King Of Paint, Sea Sheperd and 55DSL.

Tom Hovey, Drew Millward, Dan Mumford, and Tom J Newell.

...

Brown Paper Sketchbook..

..I haven't really used a sketchbook in a long time, but I've recently been having some fun with some quick pieces using Posca on this brown papered book. (Except for the guy with the patterned shirt, who was drawn on white paper with a Sharpie, cut-out and stuck in.)

 

 

DJ ZO x TOM J NEWELL

..Sorry, I've not blogged much up on here in a while.. Check out my tumblr page for more recent stuff. Here's a logo re-working I just did though. It's for DJ ZO who's now got a big ol' pile of f-fr-fresh stickers to go with his serious skills on the ones n' twos..

What Chew Want

I painted this Wookie the other day for The Hang Gang's 'May the 4th' Star Wars exhibition up in Leeds. It's black n' grey Posca on a Gesso-primed,  A3 canvas and it's available to buy from the guys at The Hang Gang. I named the piece after my favourite song from my new favourite album.. Check out 'What Chew Want' by the Quakers featuring Tone Tank by clicking on this link HERE.

...

R.I.P

MCA

...

Man Tooth

I've been waiting to post this for a while, and now that we're clearing a bit of space in The Dead Sea Mob Shop with a big sale on the stock, it should be up in there and available to buy soon. Head over there and snap up what's left of the awesome t-shirts and prints and look out for this and some other exclusive stuff popping up on the virtual shelves soon.

It's an actual size, plaster skull on a wooden mount. I built it up using Milliput and decorated it with black Posca, gloss red paint for the eyes and gold paint for the teeth.

keep an eye on my twitter and facebook pages or contact me directly at tomjnewell@gmail.com if you're interested.

...

The Kraken Attackin' Brighton

I checked into the Hotel Pelirocco in Brighton last week for a few days of black Posca painting, completing my second mural for The Kraken Rum..

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to everyone at the Pelirocco, the Kraken Krew, The Dead Sea Mob Captain, and black Posca pens.

...