Quick boredom buster

So whilst we’ve been working on a few different bits and bobs including some massive B0 bits of paper which should be ready soon we realised we haven’t posted much stuff as of late. To remedy this i’ve got a quick face i painted on the studio door as i was waiting for paint to dry. Now back to work…

Cheers

id-iom

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Butterflarium

When I was young all I ever wanted was to be the proud owner of the best butterflarium in town. Then someone burst my bubble and said that there’s no such thing as a ‘butterflarium’ and it’s called a ‘butterfly house’. After doing my research it’s also called a ‘lepidopterarium’. Well, they missed out on a trick there, that’s for sure. 

From here on I have a mission. And that is to bring the word ‘butterflarium’ into common usage. You heard it here first. And when you get to go and visit a butterflarium at some point in the not too distant future, you will sagely rub your chin and think that your foray into neologism has been instrumental in promoting this exciting new word into the English lexicon. Go forth and spread the word…

This particular flutterbye was created using the magic of acrylic, paint pen and pastel on18 x 21 cm size paper and was a little bonus for a customer ‘cos we’re nice like that. 

Cheers

id-iom

I see faces. Even when trying not to.

Out of all the pieces of canvas we found this was the most complete with a somewhat creepy face that the other half of id-iom just did not like. After a few minutes of discussion on what we were going to do we decided we were going to go abstract although we had no concrete plans on how we were going to go about achieving this.

We find the easiest way to proceed when you have no plan is to just start and see where it takes you. This can lead to some unfortunate circumstances however…

On the journey to abstraction we had to start somewhere so our first idea was to turn the piece into a half man, half pineapple kind of thing. Luckily this idea didn’t hang around too long before the other half of id-iom decided to become a bit of a can killer and pierce any almost-empty cans we had hanging around the studio.

Whilst, it was fun we had clearly gone too far by this point. So we gave into the inevitable and went back to rescuing some of the face. With a little finesse and a whole lot of luck we set about trying to pull this canvas back from the brink. A square stencil here or there, pulling the face forward and pushing the abstracted area into the background I give you ‘I see faces. Even when trying not to’.

Cheers

id-iom

Flowers from a superhero

Gary was just like you and me until the day he accidentally wandered through a field of genetically modified flowers and became ‘Nosegay’ with the ability to grow the most amazing alien-looking bouquets of flowers right from his fingertips. Now, whilst this wasn’t very helpful when it came to fighting supervillains it did give him a certain celebrity appeal. Which he revelled in. His client list was quite something to behold. 

Despite this, his newfound wealth, and his access to jaw droppingly beautiful women he had repeatedly failed to impress any of them into going on a date with him. He imagined it was because he was ‘vertically challenged’ but in reality it was because he was arrogant and boring. Sadly he’d never have the insight to realise it…

This piece is based on an old sketch and is on a big bit of reclaimed canvas that was originally about 5 metres wide but had to be cut down into a slightly more manageable size. Which wasn’t really manageable at all. It’s now been rolled up so long that it’s no longer really viable as an actual canvas. Why I did it so large in the first place I’m not quite sure. 

Perhaps I’ll go and grab a smaller canvas and paint it again. That would mean that I have to take myself to the art shop though which is never an action to take lightly as who knows what I’ll come back with.

Cheers

id-iom

Winning

Please be standing for the King of all Things, Jasper Augusta Gibson. Not much is known about the self proclaimed King of all Things other than what can be found on his TikTok account. He claims ownership of all things both big and small. This apparently includes you, me, animals, metal, the air – literally everything! He claims to have ridden over the mediterranean in a small basket carried by many thousand ladybird. He reckons he’s the strongest man ever to have been born. There are many other bold claims he has made. The problem with the internet is that people are starting to believe him.

Jasper was created as a little thank you for one of our customers. I wish him well in his new home but hopefully that’s the last we hear of him…

Cheers

id-iom

The Citrus King

We like treating our customers to a little thank you when they buy something from us and just the other day we slipped Marty the Citrus King into one such parcel. Marty is a dolt of epic proportions but it just so happens that he is also very photogenic. Just look at that grid. Piercingly beady eyes, stunted cauliflower ears and a nose reminiscent of an inverted ski jump are just some of the distinguished facial features that Marty sports. Good luck to him!

Cheers

id-iom

Rule no.1

It’s happened to the best of us, there we are with the will to get on the good foot and do the bad thing but all too late we realise we don’t have any paint to hand. What does an intrepid graffiti artist do? They refer to rule No.1 in the id-iom Graffiti Survival Handbook, which is ‘use whatever you can to make your mark’. 

In this instance it was a power washer and a dirty patio that we had before us. The game was afoot. In scant seconds we had a figure emerging from the dirt. Then, in the name of our mum’s health and safety buffed our own work and the rest of the patio. Seriously, it was so slippery it was a broken arm just waiting to happen. Look after your mum.

Cheers

id-iom

Business up front, a party in the back

A mullet can be either ‘any of various chiefly marine fish that are widely caught for food’ or ‘a hairstyle in which the hair is cut short at the front and sides, but is longer at the back’. Looking at today’s piece I think we know which route we’re heading down…

The funny thing is that Schmigal here didn’t know that. He is a cultural historian living in the distant future and having found reference to the mullet he had to investigate further. In the future the haircut has disappeared whilst the fish remain so this reference to ‘business up front, a party in the back’ made no sense. 

Once he’d done some cross referencing however and found a picture of Patrick Swayze from some time (he guessed) in the late 22st century he knew what it was all about. Now, in 3041 the mullet is about to rock the world once more – and Schmigal will briefly become the most famous man on Saturn 7.

He’s on A4 and made using acrylic, paint pen and pencil. If you have a forward thinking mullet wearer in your life then you’ve just found the perfect gift…

Cheers

id-iom

Proper paper pusher

The longer you’re in this art game the more players you happen to meet. From other artists, to gallery owners, to marketing experts, to events organisers, to government officials, to journalists, to fans and even paper suppliers and today we’re talking about the last one.

Knowing someone in the paper game means that if we’re very good boys occasionally we get a very welcome present of off cuts and bits that can no longer be sold but absolutely perfect for a pair of art cowboys like ourselves. Yeehaw!!

That’s exactly what we received from our paper pusher, an amazing collection of high quality paper. In return they’ll definitely be getting some sort of reward as primo paper really is a big thing for the pair of us. Lastly, all that has to happen is our very own Lillian, feline head of procurement has to check all incoming goods and sign off, which after a quick inspection, she did. Now we just need to find the muse and get some new work knocked out…

Cheers

id-iom

The Golden Era of Eva

Eva had quite a different lockdown to the rest of us. Rather than just collect her furlough money and play Xbox for months she decided to better herself. Through some decidedly dodgy forums she found a place in Russia that would help you to improve your mental skills in 3 months or your money back. And we’re not talking Sudoku or crosswords here we’re talking telepathy, psionic abilities and telekinesis. 

Now she could move objects with her mind and bend others to her will and she was really quite looking forward to her upcoming chat with her boss about pay and a possible promotion… 

In reality Eva has been languishing in development hell for the last 3 years. She was started and never completed until recently the Muse gave me the nod to get this Eva finished. The application of some gold, some wavy black lines and some carefully placed splodges of black ink was all it took but I’ve found it’s better not to rush these things. 

Cheers

id-iom