Category Archives: art

The BRUTE! classified pulp nasties collection is here!

Over the last few decades since the publication of the Sphere paperback, we have attempted to find a new publisher to reprint the stories from my BRUTE! magazine into one volume. After being turned down by several companies, we have secured the services of Eyewear Press and I’m proud to announce that the book will be on the shelves in May 2020. Featuring all the stories from the seven BRUTE! pulp magazines and the paperback plus the short stories from Blitz and BIKE magazines, this is a comprehensive collection that includes several never before published yarns and illustrations.

To pre-order your copy, please click the link HERE:

KMFDM – PARADISE: Sketches and final art.

Final artwork. Inked by hand and colored in Adobe Illustrator

For the their new album, Paradise, KMFDM supremo, Sasha Konietsko, wanted an artwork that would inspire hope in a world torn apart by tribal rivalries and hatred. As both of us are family men, it seemed appropriate to create an image that would illustrate our state of mind concerning the future of our children and immediately this post-apocalyptic scene popped into my head. Hold them close, teach them well and maybe their generation can accomplish that which we did not.

Sketch one based on an idea by Sascha Konietsko. I originally saw it as a Mad Max-meets-Social Realism propaganda piece but, as the backstory to the scenario grew in my mind, I could see it becoming something more meaningful.
Secondary sketch. Still with the message of hope I wished to create fresh in my mind, I replaced the corny heroism for a quieter dynamic and tried to capture the relationship between father and daughter.
Third sketch. I decided to use a reverse symmetrical angle of the father and daughter to indicate the connection between this scenario and my earlier artwork for KMFDM’s Salvation album in which a young warrior rescues an unconscious woman from the ruins of a destroyed city.
In this initial pencil sketch, the main character had a bow, a knife and a pistol. These were all subsequently removed when Sascha and I agreed that they should be entering the future without weapons.
One of a series of alternative colour and background combinations. The sky in this version was considered too busy and replaced in the final illustration by a huge sun.
This image from the album, Salvation, ties in with the one from the Paradise cover in that the woman the young warrior rescues from the ruined city is the mother of his daughter in the new illustration

Custom BRUTE! portraits now available.

There are a number of positive aspects to my work as a portrait artist. One, I don’t have to come up with a narrative or conceptual roughs for the illustration. Two, I work from an available media source (the photos). Three, there’s no management committee putting their ten-pennorth in and extending the job schedule with endless re-edits and Four, I get to reach an audience who might normally never get to own one of my more expensive pieces.

Prices for portraits start at 650 (655 USD) per face. For specific backgrounds and/ or props, an extra fee will be added.
Final file is delivered in vector format for maximum print size scalability.

For details on how to commission your own portrait, please contact me at bruteprop@gmail.com

Restored KMFDM cover artworks

Over the last couple of months, I have been assembling images for inclusion in the forthcoming BRUTE! art book and I’ve been quite surprised at how difficult it’s been locating hi-resolution copies of my work from the 80s and 90s (much of it lost to corrupt back-up discs etc.). Of those I was able to source, several files had to be extensively repaired, many of the album covers from that period requiring major re-rendering to make them usable for publication.
There is still much restoration work to be done before the book goes to print next year but am now able to offer BRUTE! fans the chance to get their hands on one of these glorious vector-rendered versions, available as signed canvas prints. For details on how to order yours, please PM me here or order yours direct from the blog shop.
http://joef27.sg-host.com/?wpsc_product_category=prints-categories&paged=4

crash
Vector-rendered perfection: CRASH! (Adios)
BtruteBRONZE copy
Brute

 

DBYT
Don’t Blow Your Top

 

 

 

 

 

 

Naive
Naive
Split
Split

 

BRUTE! interview in Full Moon music magazine.

bluemooncover

was approached by leading Czech indie music magazine, Full Moon, to give an interview about my work with KMFDM, Massive Attack and others.

You can check out the full interview here or read the edited translation here (my replies in bold):

 

 

1) I’m just looking at the Martin’s great painting The Great Day of His Wrath and I am still fascinating by it – by its emotional power and magnificence. What’s the strongest thing on it for you?

 

I first saw it in London and was blown away by its physical size. It’s very ominous and standing next to it made me feel inconsequential that I kept dodging looks at it over my shoulder as we were viewing other works in the same gallery. The shadows are so deep that they feel like yawning chasms ready to suck you in and the sense of apocalyptic scale increases the feeling of vertiginous dread. Martin takes snippets of dreams and then cranks them up to 11.

2) I read that your father was a landscape painter – was it him who took you to the world of art and paintings for the first time?

 

My father was a well-known sea- and landscape painter (as well as an accomplished musician) but I don’t remember him being an avid visitor of exhibitions that much. He took up to the galleries in Liverpool once or twice but neither my brother or I were interested in classical art and sculpture so I guess he gave up. However, he had an astounding collection of art and architecture books which, along with the comics and magazines I grew up with, formed the basis for much of the work I do today. I can remember him teaching me the basics of light, shade and perspective at a very early age but he seemed to let me get on with it after that and concentrated more on trying to get my brother to learn an instrument. Not that I needed any encouragement: no-one could stop me drawing. 

 

3) I noticed that you’re interested in russian constructivists and the italian futurists – are you a fan of architecture? Does it inspire you in your work somehow? I just finished reading a book about Fritz Lang’s Metropolis this weekend and everebody must see that this huge piece of art is very timeless movie which is still inspiring even today. Have you seen it?

 

 I love Cubist and brutalist structures as well as early 20th century skyscrapers and constructivist architecture, especially Malevitch’s Suprematist sculptures and the work of Futurist Alberto St, Elia. In the past couple of years, I’ve taught myself the basics in 3D design and create my own cities and streets for use as backgrounds and in computer game design. I designed most of the buildings in the ZPC game I did back in the 90s, creating hundreds of texture maps and level designs. Metropolis is one of my favourite German Expressionist films and, along with such films as M and Cabinet of Dr, Caligari, inspired much of the work I did  for that title. I find the silhouettes of tall buildings rising from the city smog to be highly evocative.
4) I saw some your new ilustration for tour for KMFDM band with some army vehicle – can you just describe it more?

 

The vehicle I created for the sleeve was a hybrid of several different types of riot vehicle which I morphed together in Photoshop before redrawing it in ink. I wanted it to look funkier and contain some of the fun feeling one gets from a tour bus whilst still retaining the killer lines. 

 

 

 

 

Traxbox CD boxed set artwork.

traxbox

I was asked by old friend and rare dance music enthusiast, Ian Dewhirst, to create the cover artwork for their CD collection of dance classics from Chicago’s legendary Trax Records back catalogue.   I agreed and spent the next week roughing out several concepts before settling on the one above.

 

When plotting out a character’s lines, I want to make as much impact from the lighting as possible and so, to ensure maximum flexibility, I built the DJ first in 3D so I could experiment with multiple set-ups.

 

On finding the right angle, I printed out the 3D face and then inked it in by hand before scanning it back into Illustrator for the final vector re-drawing.

Logos and lettering also by yours truly.

 

To order a box, go here

KMFDM 2013 promo poster

KMFDM TOUR POSTER (War Bus)

As part of their promotional campaign for their upcoming tour, industrial group KMFDM commissioned me to come up with something appropriate.

Inspired by WW1 armoured mini tanks and modern anti-riot vehicles, I set about creating a hybrid more suited to the band’s image than the traditional tour bus. After creating a collage of elements in Photoshop, I then warped and re-shaped the chassis before re-drawing the finished product in ink. Final artwork layers composed in Illustrator.

‘Kunst’,

In support of the Femen/Pussy Riot protestors, I created a suitably forceful chainsaw-wielding amazon for the front cover of the new KMFDM album, ‘Kunst’.

Since their incarceration for various anti-Putin stunts and protests, international support for the women of the movement has grown exponentially, mostly due to their bare-chested style of defiance.

(see Femen cross-felling video here: femen-cross-pussy-riot-930

Facebook have removed the image the band’s page.