GOOD NEWS…

Artist Jimpwasere releases new ‘Monogeddon II’ collection

I’m a huge fan of the work of British visual artist, Jimpwasere. I have one of his originals proudly displayed in my lounge and his off-kilter and beautifully wonky illustrations always intrigue and please me.

Jimpwasere has a new limited edition collection of surreal, witty and strangely moving monoprints out now. His Monogeddon II anthology comes in a handmade 48 page zine on random coloured paper and all prints were designed and illustrated over the past year. The zine comes hand-signed and numbered in an edition of 50 (with a free sticker included).

Order your copy here.

‘Manchester Icons’ collected – a new print

Between 2013 and 2017 I sporadically worked on fifteen portraits of cultural icons from the city of Manchester. Late 20th century men and women who’d made a real cultural impact on not only the city itself but the world at large.

With lots of help from friends and acquaintances (and lots of arguments later) I came up with the chosen fifteen icons. Stars from the worlds of music, film, TV and comedy. There were notable absentees like Morrissey, Ian McKellen and Liam Gallagher, but hey, you’ve got to stop somewhere, and fifteen sounded about right!

The final fifteen were as follows – Tony Wilson, John Cooper Clarke, Victoria Wood, Lemn Sissay, Mark E Smith, Shaun Ryder, Caroline Aherne, Danny Boyle, Ian Curtis, Johnny Marr, Maxine Peake, Les Dawson, Steve Coogan, Ian Brown and Noel Gallagher. You can view them all individually (and order prints) here.

Anyway, late last year, as some of the prints were getting snapped up as Christmas presents, I thought a nice way to conclude the project would be to collate all the icons in one print. Something for people who like my style and want to celebrate all the icons from across the series – so, here it is…

Low price A4 and A5 giclee mini-prints are currently available (mounted or unmounted) with a limited edition A3 print coming soon. You can order yours here.

Dunstan Doodles’ Manchester Icons slideshow

A slideshow I’ve put together featuring my Manchester Icons portraits…

All available as A3 sized giclee prints over at Dunstan Doodles.

Film & TV icons ART SALE

Over on the Dunstan Doodles website right now there’s a 25% discount on all Film and TV icons art prints.

There are around fifteen limited edition prints to choose from, including, The Big Lebowski, David Lynch, Stranger Things, Michael Caine and much more.

Check out the sale here.

Vic Reeves’ Simon Cowell portrait

Love this…

New Sir David Attenborough portrait prints available

Here’s a new portrait of Sir David Attenborough that I finished recently. It’s available as a limited edition A3 giclee print for those who fancy something new to hang on their walls. Visit the Dunstan Doodles site here and contact me to request a copy…

Twenty great illustration and art accounts to follow on Instagram

I’ve been getting into Instagram more and more over the past 6 months and I’ve discovered loads of great illustrators, some well know and heavily eye-balled, some not so much. One of my favourite ways to pass the time these days is a quick flick through the folk I follow’s latest work to get a bit of daily inspiration and motivation.

Here’s twenty Instagram accounts specialising in illustration, cartoons and art that you really should follow:

1. Jermaine Rogers – I first discovered Rogers’ work via the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester. He’s done loads of great posters for bands like Queens Of The Stone Age, Radiohead, Weezer, Ween and Rage Against The Machine, and he also likes to create cool vinyl toys too.

2. Luke McGarry – Manchester born, LA based cartoonist supremo is a tittersome delight on Instagram, posting loads of funny, pun-heavy and daft cartoons daily.

3. Omega Tbs – Spanish illustrator Omega’s work is a highly stylised and incredibly detailed collection of surreal, frequently grotesque and seedy looking characters.

4. Gangster Doodles – Working almost exclusively  on 3×3 post stick notes, this hip hop obsessed cartoonist is the master of the doodle. I discovered him via a QuestLove recommendation about two years ago and he’s been entertaining me ever since.

5. Pete Fowler – I’ve been a huge fan of Pete’s work ever since his early illustrations for the Super Furry Animals back in the mid-90s, and his Instagram account is an absolute joy. Not only do you get to see all his marvelous creations, from small carvings and owl pouches to murals and prints, he’s also piss funny too.

6. Jim Mahfood – Visual funk maestro and comic book legend, Jim’s account is a sprawling pulse of brilliantly ink splattered illustrations. There are collaborations with other artists, curvy female studies galore and the odd video showing the master at work too.

7. Punksgitcut – Creator of the charcater art for TV’s Bob’s Burgers and all round surrealist and anarchist, Jay Howell regularly creases me up. New characters like Melon Man and Botanical Dave are the latest in a long line of joyous creations.

8. Jimpwasere – If surrealist excellence is your bag then the peculiar and wonkily soulful art of Jimp will tickle your underbelly. I’ve got one of his originals in my front room and it pleases and amuses me daily.

9. Abstract Sunday – Visual storyteller, Christoph Niemann is a gentle genius. His clever illustrations regularly pull in household items like pens, socks, teacups and bananas, creating abstract takes on funny images and jokes. You may have seen some of his work before gracing the covers of The New Yorker.

10. Graaaham – Graham Roumieu is one of those master doodlers that’s an absolute ace at satirising modern life and the world around us. Like many of the accounts I love and follow there’s a intelligent daftness at play with everything he posts.

11. Maria Herros – I love the off-kilter and wonky brilliance of Spanish artist, Maria’s paintings. She’s a superb portrait artist and has a truly unique and bold style.

12. Karl Kopinski – If your a bit of a role play / Warhammer / D&D geek you may already be familiar with Karl’s work as he’s done lots of stuff for Games Workshop. It’s his portraits of cyclists that really blow my mind though.

13. The real that Polish guy – Eisner award winning artist, Bill Scienkiewicz is probably my all time favourite graphic novel / comics illustrator. I’ve got a fair bit of his work, Elektra Assassin, Stray Toasters, 30 Days Of Night, Wolverine : Inner Fury and Voodoo Child: The Illustrated Legend of Jimi Hendrix. All of them packed with beautiful illustrations. He’s the perfect blend of comic book illustrator and fine artist.

14. Wocco – Warwick Johnson Cadwell (aka WJC) has a unique style and his gothic fantasy pencil drawings and werewolf doodles are brilliant and amusing in equal measure. He also does lots of mini character studies called PotD’s (Person of the Day) and is a masterful sketcher of alleyways.

15. Dirk Van Dulmen -Dutch storyboard artist, Dirk has being posting a lot of cut out illustrations these past few months. He lights them really nicely too and they’re a tittilating collection of everyday vignettes, puns and visual gags. He’s a master of catching people going about their everyday business, socialising in cafes, wandering around museums and galleries etc too.

16. Huge Skull – Marc Etherington is the kind of artist I think of when someone uses the word ‘outsider’ or ‘naive’. In all honesty they’re pretty wanky terms – his work embraces a child like approach with a wry pop culture edge and a real skill that takes his work beyond just a tongue in cheek in-joke. He’s really random too – I can’t think of many artists who’ve produced studies of fish tanks alongside a He-Man poster, film scenes painted on wooden iphones and Star Wars character studies.

17. John Kenn Moertensen – I first discovered JKM’s work on Pinterest. I loved the idea of beautifully drawn monsters and creatures strewn across dozens of post stick notes. If it was a gimmick to get noticed it certainly worked and his illustrations are like modern day Grimm Borthers’ fairy tales brought to life. He’s ditched the post stick notes for now and he’s got a new book called Monstre that I really should buy.

18. Jonofski – One of my favourite new ‘art finds’ is the work of Welsh illustrator, comic artist and toy designer, Jonathan Edwards. His portraits of music and film icons like, George Harrison, Tom Waits, David Lynch, John Hurt and Jim Jarmusch are sublime (his lines are incredible), and his cartoons and design work are equally brilliant too.

19. Nebdeneb – Nebdeneb AKA Lamare Ben is a french artist I know relatively little about, but I’ve never seen anyone doodle a portrait on a receipt quite as brilliantly as he does. Seriously, he has the best receipt doodles ever.

20. Dunstan Doodles – It would be remiss (and far too humble) of me to exclude myself from this list. I’ve been building up a big body of portrait work over the past four or five years and I’m just about to embark on a freelance life. I love a good doodle but a lot of my recent work has been cut and paste portraits mixing illustrations on coloured card with bits of collage. Follow me and see how I progress…

Lynyrd Skynyrd portrait

Back October / November time last year I had the pleasure of undertaking a Lynyrd Skynyrd portrait commission. I decided to base it on a publicity shot from the early 70’s. Check it out below and come and follow Dunstan Doodles on Instagram:

New portraits from Dunstan Doodles

Follow Dunstan Doodles on Instagram here – and check out some of the new portraits below:

From top to bottom – Bill Murray as Big Ern in Kingpin, Alfred Hitchcock, Bon Iver and Caroline Aherne. Check out more from Dunstan Doodles here.