Back from BARCELONA!!!

So here's the special post I mentioned last month!!!

Last week I ventured back out to Barcelona. It's a place that has always held a special place in my heart and have always wanted to live there. It's only my second time out there and I'd advise it to anyone.

A city that has a great acceptance of graffiti, great food, a lot of civic pride, and a great night life.. it goes on alllll night!!

As I do my main interest was seeing the architecture, eating damn good food and experiencing the culinary culture and hitting walls!! A lot of walls!

Every day was spent travelling, a lot of area was covered by foot, and as much as people say it is a small city I do not agree. Maybe the main city centre is, but there is a lot more to it and great visual stimuli for creatives.

On the first day after a nice couple glasses of sangria we headed down to the beach. We wanted to find some local food which isn't really hard to find.
We found a really local joint that tapas and booze. Being by the beach there was some amazing seafood.

Travelling around a lot of people generally head for Las Ramblas. The main street, but as advised and as I would also advise, get out of there and head over to The Gotic area and El Born. Great parts of the city with amazing bars.
Nevermind is a bar in the Gotic that is damn well worth hitting. For the skaters, and the writers, it's full of them. Great staff and damn well healthy measures! It seems like most of the bars gave healthy measures!! The recently opened a second bar the week we were there with a skate bowl and gallery! EPIC!!


Sugar bar was definitely a good hit.. well we went to 2! Both good, within the Gotic too [I think there a spelling difference between the two], but the specific one I'm referring to, again great measure, with a kinda rock, power ballad vibe. A tight squeeze but good.
The George and Dragon, which is actually out of La Rambla [a bit north about 4-5 roads up], was pretty damn hilarious! We arrived there at about 1am as we were just on a random wonder and bombing spree! They publicise themselves as an English pub... I can kinda see where they were coming from, apart from the draught I couldn't see that, but I'm glad about that as I didn't leave England to go to an English Pub!!
Drinking isn't too expensive in Barcelona, and measures are healthy. The most I spent on a drink was €4 and like I said HEALTHY measures [60/50 to alcohol]!
But in general €3 a pint.. sometimes a litre!

Now seriously.. the food is IMMENSE!! We wanted to try the food of the city, and La Concha served us amazing Paella! It cost us €20, easily split between 2 ,and 0.5Litre of the house white wine was €5.. walked out full and sitting sideways!! We actually went there twice!



Now Euskal Etxea has a great Tapas area which is superb and honest. You tapas from a really good selection and of great quality and they simply charge you by the toothpick. I think it was €1.90 each and I couldn't take any more after 9. But don't rush into it, have good conversation, some booze and watch out for the waiters walking around with niceties fresh from the kitchen, they're dynamite!!

The Market off Las Ramblas is a definite hit! I blew my nut, a lot more than the first time. We had rented an apartment so it was great to utilise the array of fresh fruit and veg, meats [chorizo, goats heads, sheep's face, trotters and hoofs of various species, brain].
I purchased 1KG of fresh prawns for..wait for it.. €10!!! Yesssss!! I jumped on this offer for 2 days in a row!

This Mangosteen is a fruit that will cost you a lot. But do research into it.

We truly ventured a lot of the city, but not all of it and I will be heading there again to get it on some more!! I would definitely advise getting bikes, not to rely on the transport system too much as you never really see the city. I would definitely advise getting to Parc Guell, one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. I'm gonna get back to this city and it's going to be a blast!



I was so happy to see so much SMASH137 work out here!! Definitely a great treat.

Jeba of the Rainbow Fume Village

This is my Jutsu

Club Tropicana

More experiementation!!

This original design for a project I did for Brugal back in 2011. I've always been fond of the composition of the sketch and this is actually my 3rd experimentation, with the design!

To state the obvious I was trying to achieve a layered paper cut aesthetic.

Algay

Another from the vault.

Kush Clouds- The finals

I neglected to post this up.

Thanks for every one that followed the progress of this project.

For those who are new to my work/blog/ this particular project, the Kush Clouds series were prints created by myself inline with the Chain Gang exhibition in January.

One thing [of many] that I failed to concentrate on was drawing good smoke. So I really wanted to create a project that would include these studies.

I decided to couple this with my enthusiasm to drawing women, but I wanted to express my cultural influences within this. Influences of the Caribbean and African style has drawn me into focusing on cultural identity within a group or tribe. We generally all associate ourselves with a group of piers, this influences our style, the way we make our selves up, the way we pose. This is where the tribal markings and facial decor have come into play. For a while I've been focusing on this.

So anywho there's the blurb, feel free to let me know what you think.

Tuesday Morning Type

The british weather is something you never get used to... well I personally have never!

For the last couple of days it's been snowing in some parts including London, I'd be none the wiser to anywhere else but bloody hell... what's going on?

A bit of a play around with type this morning.

JEBA X Illustrated Ape

Another one dug out for the files. A couple of years ago, Monorex was asked to feature in an issue of The Illustrated Ape magazine. Quite a few of the artists on the lost submitted in illustrations. This was mine.

The the was Animation. I wanted to express the evolving thought process that went into creating an image. The flow of imagery and inspiration that runs through an artist's mind.

Could you imagine stepping into your own mind and seeing the randomness that goes on. I don't think you's come out the other end sane.