Back From Lisbon

Last month I made a little trip to Lisbon which I have to say is a city definitely worth seeing. A great vibe, lowly people, really friendly and helpful, beautiful architecture, and a LOT  of hills!! It's insane how many hills are out there.

I didn't get to paint as it was a short trip however a shit load of slaps and a pen will get you quite far!

 

JEBA interview with Mo:Vel

Today I will be painting in Brighton at the Mo:vel store. Quite excited as it is a fun concept I've got lined up. In the meantime, here is an interview I did with them which may have answers to questions you may have for me... if you really have any questions… really care… maybe I'm communicating to nobody…!

Catch the interview here

JEBA X Knowhere Special 15

The good people at Knowhere Special asked me to come down and jazz up their shutter… to be honest I had my eye on it for a while!

Camden Summer Night Markets

Last Month I was invited down to take part in the closing event for Camden Summer Night Markets. A good old crack and you can tell it was the end of summer as the weather wasn't up to par with previous weekends.

I didn't leave myself much time to get a sketch done for this but what I did pull out I worked with and I was damn happy with the results!

I've never attempted a colour combo such as this and to be honest I generally avoid using oranges! I always found the MTN94 range to be a bit off with their values in the oranges and reds. The original sketch ad more of a story to it, so I may find time to work on a digital representation.

I've got to say ZINA turned up with almost the same colour concept in mind and she probably layer down the best piece I've ever seen her do! Totally smashed it.

On the day I was also joined by JIVE, STERLING, CAPTAIN KRIS, FANAKAPAN, Tommy Fiendish, and Mr Christa.

Sterling & Jive

Mr. Christa

Captain Kris

ZINA

Back in the Lab

It's been a busy Summer season and I realised I havent posted in a month. I've been running around doing multiple things instead of the design and finally when I settled in I've had the chance to get back into things.

A lot of walls have popped up so I've been spending the past 8 days sketching night and day for these, concepts etc.

Here's a couple I've worked on.

There will be more updates over the coming days.

JEBA Sugar paint review

Last week myself and Riff grabbed the opportunity to test out the Sugar brand of spray paint by Ironlak. The range of paint boasts as a competitor to the recent releases of more environmental conscious spray paint for graffiti artists. I couldn't really find any decent reviews online and I cant be arsed to watch dodgy shot Youtube videos so here I'm gonna try to be as concise as possible as to how I found it.

Background info:

You can find this shit online but in short;

A recipe of alcohol and water, less solvents and volatile compounds, almost no smell. You can read all the rest over on their site/ tumblr page.

Pressure/ Flow/ Coverage (Straight to the nitty gritty):

Firstly I'll just say overall I was impressed, I liked it! You pretty much get a solid coverage.  The surface I was painting on was emulsioned wood panels so quite porous surface. You definitely have to give the tins a good shake, a lot more frequently than usual. What you will find is that with some colours you get a bit of a random change in tint, it's almost like using a wet brush in photoshop. I experienced this with TEEVEE (purple) and a bit with SHERBERT (pale mint). I couldn't quite get a good control of that colour issue but didnt affect the final outcome that much.

The pressure is DOPE, big clap to Ironlak. I prefer it to Ironlak pressure to be honest and is as soft as MTN 94 and as smooth as Montana Black (a good combination in my book).

Regarding coverage, it was decent enough. The only colour which seemed patchy was GUMDROP, I had to do another cover of that to get a smoother finish.

You may find that you need to leave a certain area to dry a bit before going over again. Not too long mind you, but paint build up is a lot more immanent than general spray paint. So if you see it, take a chill and work on a different area for a bit.

Straight away with the primary sketch out/outline I could see that the pressure was right.

Regarding fades it was a bit scrappy, not as smooth as general brands, but definitely not impossible.

I was still able to use the general techniques such as cutbacks (wether you like them or not).

Caps:

Everyone has their favourite caps and I had no idea what to go with so only tried a few.

Firstly the ssssstandard cap that comes with them looks like a knock off green level one! I've used it recently on a 94 tin (mistaking it for a level one) and I thought it was pretty shit. HOWEVER on the Sugar tins, a big thumbs up. They're decent for doing a fill, good enough to do a nice thickish outline. The fade was ok, probably could definitely find a better cap for a fade, maybe the classic grey dot (soft) or the yellow banana.

I also used the Blue Skinny Pro which has apparently replaced the Black Skinny Pro. Worked bloody marvellous for my outlines. Real nice flow, skinny lines, and you could do a nice flair with them too, so pretty good thick to thin contrast (take your time with them, always tae your time with flairs.. treat them like the curves of a good woman).

I used the Green Level 1 a bit, it was decent. A bit more pressure out of this cap, great knocking out a fill, probably really good to do a flair as usual, and actually good for tight fades like riff used in his glasses. 

Fumes and Dust:

Regarding a smell (I love smelling a good tin of paint)… hmm you get a hint of wet cardboard with a kick of vodka.

Remember when Ironlak was first released, you used to get loads of silly string pumping out? Well I've noticed these really fine hair like fibres flying around!! I checked if there was dust on my boards and all that. But my arms looked like I had cat hairs all over me. It wasn't every tin though.

I didnt get any nauseating feeling, and there were no fues that scared of the people in the event, so a job well done.

Overall round up:

I bloody well like them and if you've got an indoor job this is your product. I need to test on an actually wall but I was exerting loads of energy t pull off a tight piece. It did the job well.

Shakey points:

Some colours aren't what they seem on the doughnut- Teevee/ Gumdrop/ Fiorvanti

Need to shake up a lot more than usual.

Little cat hairs flying out now and then.

Some patches here and there.

Need to leave paint build up for a while longer than usual paint.

Good points:

No much cap blockage (BIg thumbs up).

Nice juicy colour range (limited but enough)

Colours that you would expect to be watery like yellow and white are fucking solid (Boom)

The black is on point, so outline away!

Not much of a smell at all.

Really looking to do a nice interior wall with these.

I've tried Liquitex. It's pretty shit, swamp water compared to this. Sorry Liquitex just have to be honest.

JEBA X RIFF X Very.co.uk

Last week, myself and Tony Riff were invited down to the launch of Very Uk's launch for the #Summertime remake with Rizzle Kicks. A great event was put together with The BeatBox Collective performing, a great bar and food.

The brand wanted to push a Fresh Prince of Bel Air theme, a great chance to use some juicy colours and get some nice old school styled lettering done.

I think this is the first time Riffs actually painted a human figure too!

As the event was indoors myself and Riff grabbed the opportunity to test out Ironlaks Sugar brand of paint, something I've been meaning to test out; I will be writing a review on this shortly.

A special thank you to Lee Productions and Very Uk for including us and a great night.