Banksy would be an interesting person to have around for dinner, he created a brand from a style that most original graffiti artists would have considered cheating & most people would consider vandalism. Despite this he has been one of the foremost people in making street art a valid form of art. The Banksy brand is easily recognisable & his elusive nature has enhanced the publics perception of him. The creation of this mystical character is very smart, he’s simultaneously a celebrity, a highly collectible artist & he can go to the shops without being recognised. His work as all work by famous graffiti artists benefits from the mystique & anti establishment tradition of street art. This advertising coups builds curiosity, his exhibitions sell out without any advertisement & his studio canvases can command thousands. The release of “Exit Through The Gift Shop“ was his masterpiece, he shows how fickle the art populous are, how hype can turn what art actually is on its head. Recently in NY he increased his brand value by completing one new piece of street art every day, causing hysteria among his followers who wanted to be the first to see the latest Banksy. He truly is an advertising genius.
This is my first Banksy. It has seen better days but it still makes people stop and take notice.
Banksy
Fire
This is a nice effect that I created using Photoshop CS6. These are the steps I followed:
I found a photo that I thought that would be good for editing
I got rid of the colour from the photo and inversed the colours so the blacks were white and the whites were black
I also then created a layer mask, with an overlay setting to make the whites yellow in colour
I then copied a flame form google stock images into a new image
I then used the channel’s layer section isolate the flame and copy a transparent version to a new layer
This layer I copied from this image and posted to my main picture my face.
I messed around with these techniques until happy with the result
Check out this video on YouTube for more advanced options.
Nelson Mandela
Mandela of the greatest and most respected men of our time. It was truly an honour to create this tribute to him, honestly it doesn’t do him justice. The world was a better place with him in it. When doing this I was amazed by the the great quotes attributed to him and the fact that he only spent just over 4 years as president of SA. Those 4 years were truly remarkable as he managed to unite a troubled country, and bring SA into the 21st century.
Possibly one of the greatest ways of making dilapidated buildings look aesthetically pleasing! I think it looks great, what do you think?
graffiti house
dissolving of face
This is a photo I edited using Photoshop, it was pretty easy to do and creates a great dissolving effect. The process I used was as follows
- created 3 layer copies of the original face
- use a layer mask on 2 of the copy’s to make it look like they were dissolving
- liquified one of the layers to pull it away from its original position
- used the brush tool with a splatter stroke on the layer mask to knock out sections of the layer copy
- on the original layer do the opposite to take pieces of it away
ant that’s it really, you have to do a bit of messing around with the splatter brush strokes as if you use the same one it doesn’t look great it needs to look real random. Give it a try.
I also created this one that came out ok, originally started off with a random photo of Obama that I took from Google I just messed around with it a bit and I’m relatively happy how it came out. The one below is not as good but I inserted it to give you an example of what you can do and where you can go with this effect. For more see the advanced tutorials on youtube. Also you can see the Adobe Photoshop forum
dissolve face
Christian Nagle is brightening up our horizon with his abstract representation of mushrooms on top of buildings. Made from polyurethane ‘surfboard foam’, fiberglass and stainless steel, they can be spotted all over the City fringes. These are the first ones I have seen if I see more ill take some pics. However is Christian trying to say something about modern-day society? Mushrooms are the fleshy, spore-bearing fruiting body of a fungus, typically produced above ground on soil or on its food. Mushrooms feed on decay, are they a representation of how corrupt and rotting society is today?
What an artist! ROA is everywhere, he has to be one of the most recognisable street artists around these days! His pieces like this hedgehog appeal to everyone. People seem to respect his work and don’t paint over it. We want to be seen up close beside his work like in this photo. We are proud when we see one and want to be seen in places where there painted. Not many street artists could get away drawing dead animals on buildings and come out being so widely respected. I don’t know how he does them so quickly too, they are in near perfect scale. Two days before I walked down this street and there was no sign of anything going on.. Now that I’m in London I’m looking forward to seeing allot more from him as I travel about.
Made an updated logo/t-shirt design what do you think? I think I’m getting a little bit better it took allot longer than it should have tho , I think the lens shine from the tops of the star points looks well. I’m probably a bit biased tho!
Should we be stopping precious graffiti getting tarnished by what ever this is? Or is this in the anti-establishment ethos of graffiti coming out? If someone is good at graffiti are they immediately making themselves targets for other street artists! Look at Banksy in New York, his “the street is in play” only lasted a couple of days before it was completely painted over. However in that case I think Banksy himself is the culprit. By doing this he is sending a message to society, reminding us, that its “just” vandalism and we shouldn’t take it too serious. This is and example of such vandalism on a piece by Ireland’s most prolific street artist Maser, in Dublin. However I suppose we should assume “what goes around comes around” and that no individual piece is subject to stay around indefinitely. That’s really the fleeting joy of street art.
This is my new logo for a t-shirt, it’s a bit of a take on the Bacardi logo and other stuff that I have created myself. What do you think?
A MCCOY 