Last night, a week after the first trouble happened in stokes croft a second bout of violence broke out.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13236264

Also, while the Royal Wedding is on and everyone's backs are turned, the Police have taken the opportunity to evict the Squatters that live across the road from the Tesco store on the premise that they are responsible for the violence. It seems that they are not the only people being targeted, people are being arrested for involvement in any recent protests, including the student protests and anti cuts protests.

Nice one...

Riot under the watchful eye

So there I was on my way home with my brother in bristol when we see around 30 police riot vans speed past us in broadmead. I checked twitter and found out that there was currently a protest going on outside a new tesco express store in Stokes croft, right next to my favourite banksy piece, 'the Mild Mild west'.

The community has been opposed to the opening of this new store with some 95% of people in the area opposed to it's opening. The reason? Stokes Croft high street is widely considered to be the last true independent high street in the UK. It is also a hub of culture, with almost every building covered in street art, gig venues and homely bars and pubs. It has always had a bad reputation due to 'undesirables' such as squatters, homeless people and drug trade in the area. I have however always found it to be a very welcoming place, full of independent artists, musicians and great nights out!

We decided to investigate and so walked up towards the area.

It was apparent immediately that this was more than a protest. Police vans lined the streets and there were bins and trash on fire. The police helicopter circled above as lines of Police advised people to stay away. I got some images but unfortunately I only had my phone on me, so the quality isn't great.

This riot reminds me of the riots which famously gave the area its bad name. The St Paul's Riots of 1980 happened when racial tension between the Minority community and the local police force escalated.

It is my belief that the community are right to be angry. Why should a company such as Tesco feel free to impose themselves where the residents do not want them? There are two other Tesco stores already in the nearby area and a sainsburys just up the road. Whatever the outcome the group who call themselves 'The People's Republic of Stokes Croft' are not to be messed with!

So why did I make this post? I feel it is important to understand a community where street art is so significant and is welcomed. 

I also have a sneaking suspicion that Banksy may create something related to this. He has been outspoken in his views on Tesco before.

I will be interested to see. 

Final Image 2

I have worked hard to make this piece look like a spray paint image. I have used the spray paint brushes I downloaded for photoshop.

I used a similar method to the last image but have literally used the spray brushes to create a digital version of spray paint. This has given the image a cool effect as it has left some areas slightly unpainted and more realistic of stencilling.

The word Eureka has been used as it is famous for meaning "That's it!" or "I've done it!" In this case it is used in celebration of creating a deadly weapon.

I have used Einstein instead of Oppenheimer because he is more easily recognised. Oppenheimer isn't as much of a household name and so the joke would be lost on most people.

I have used an image of Manhattan for the thought bubble as the nuclear project was called the 'Manhattan project' It is also ironic that the bomb is landing on the US when the target was Japan.

Finally, after being inspired by Invader's work, I have used the image of a space invader monster. The idea is that the invader is influencing decisions and creating chaos. Wherever there is an Invader, bad things will happen.

Following this, I decided to go back and add an invader to my previous image to make the two follow a similar theme.

Holiday snaps

I took my Girlfirend to the south of France for her Birthday for a few days. While visiting cannes we stumbled accross these pieces of street art. I remembered seeing them in Banksy's film 'Exit through the gift shop'

I had to have a quick look online to remember the story behind them.

Basically they are done by the cousin of Thierry Guetta (Mr Brianwash) He calls himself 'Invader' and is known for tiled installations of pixel art, specifically space invaders and pac man. Check out his website here!

I like it!

New brushes!

I have been playing around with a graffiti brush pack I found online.

I plan to use these along with the splatter brush set I created myself for the last Visual studies assignment to create some more spray paint like work.

Easter break!

So the Easter Break is here.

I am again finding myself under a mountain of work. This time I am concentrating on my level design project more than anything else.

I have had a chance to look at some of Banksy's printed work.

This is the classic, iconic Banksy work. It is mainly a very simple single colour stencil but features a much more detailed bunch of flowers.

The piece looks very digital. The crisp lines around the outside make it seem as if it was done simply on a design package like photoshop.

I like this piece a lot. Banksy has used his more typical spray paint style to create the image. Most of his stencil work tends to work well on a block colour background and this is no exception. The splatter paint detail on the floor is nice and I particularly like the way this is more of a traditional graffiti piece with less defined edges and more colour blending to mask the stencil work.

Final Image 1

Here is my first final image. I have used the cartoon strip idea I designed before but have added some slight differences. Firstly, I wanted to give the image a slightly sillier look to it so have made it look like the bomb lands on Einstein's head. I found this amusing. I have also scribbled out their faces as if another graffiti artist has come along and scribbled over the work. Or scribbled their lives out.

I like this image as it fits the silly side to the Banksy style.
I did not want to get overtly political and so have tried to avoid accusations and inflammatory statements. I have also opted to let the image speak for its self without adding text to it.

I have designed this piece with the idea of it being posted up as a poster rather than being sprayed directly to a wall. More like the work of Shepard Farley.

I created the image by taking images, some drawn some acquired and selecting a colour range to create a selection marquee. I then filled it on a new layer to create each block of colour. These were then put together on top of each other to layer up the stencil.