Jean Reno

The great French actor, Jean Reno.

Josephine Baker

Randomly ended up watching a very cool documentary about her, a few days ago.... For those that might not know, Josephine was kinda like the Beyonce/Rihanna of her day, and definitely one of the first black superstars.
If you're peeping, I hope you like what you see. :)

Mars Blackmon (Spike Lee)

"Please baby, please baby, please baby, baby baby please!" :D

RAKIM

A tribute piece to one of Hip Hop music's most influential artists.
If you're peeping this, I hope you like what you see. :)

Michael Jackson

Before the fame destroyed him.

BRUCE LEE

('',)

AMY WINEHOUSE

Wow... Has it really been 5 MONTHS since my last post. Disgraaceful... Shame on me.
Well, here is a digital painting of the late great Amy Winehouse. If you happen to see it, I hope you like. Really was a lot of fun to do, hopefully it shows.
Rip Amy.

Liam Neeson

More caricature fun. ('',)

Gil Scott Heron (Finished)

At last, my tribute painting is finally finished. If you're seeing it, I hope you like it.

Rest in Peace brother Gil.

Crazy DJ

A very old sketch from back in my high school days. Still one of my favourites though. :)

Just a nice painting.

I might get in trouble for posting this, but I've taken the risk because I simply love the pic. It's one of my favourite pieces so far.

The baby in the painting is actually my old college friend Nadine again. She requested this commission for her parents anniversary.
I love the warm retro feel ... and the loving expressions on her parents faces. It really was a sweet reference photo to work with.

Nadine, if you happen to read this, apologies if I've taken liberties with a fairly personal photo. If it's of any consolation, I only get about 2 people viewing my blog a month, and one of them is me. Lol.

Rotoscope animation,

This was an animation that I did a few years ago for my final project at University.
The guy rapping is my old multi-talented uni buddy, Jason 'Wan-Cee' Nwansi (Scroll further down to see his caricature).

To be honest I have mixed emotions about it when I see it these days. I always think about how certain parts could be improved or tweaked. But, overall it is a solid first time attempt at Rotoscoping, and I'm honoured that Jason still promotes it alongside his other more official promotional videos.

Nadine (Chalk on black card)

The lady in the pic is my old college friend, Nadine. A really cool person, and also a very talented illustrator. She's given me a lot of great advice about how to tackle this illustration hustle, for which I'll always be grateful.

The chalk sketch took literally 10 minutes to do. It was really a case of focusing on the relevant highlights and letting the black card do all the hard work.
It's also a good reminder to myself that I don't always have to go all out with little details... Simple sketches can be just as effective.

Gil Scott Heron (Work in Progress)

I've always been a huge admirer of the man. His lyricism and music has had the power to lift and inspire my whole day at times. The news of his passing last month was unfortunately not surprising, considering his gaunt appearance and fairly public troubles with drugs, etc, but still nonetheless devastating to hear.

So.... here is my tribute piece to the late great Gil Scott Heron. Still a work in progress as you can see, but to be honest I kinda like it in this sketchy form. I can't resist adding more to it though, so keep an eye out for the finished result. Hopefully it'll do the great man justice.

Francesco Totti

A.S. Roma's legendary Francesco Totti. A painting dedicated to my girlfriend's Roma mad cousin, Walter. ('',)

Jose Mourinho

Haven't posted anything on here for a loooong time, so here's something to get things rolling again.

THOM YORKE FROM RADIOHEAD

I can't lie, I'm a pretty big Radiohead fan. OK, their songs won't be the first to be played on a grey Monday morning, that's for sure. But when it comes to creating beautiful music that actually touches you, they definitely get a standing salute from me. 'The bends' and 'Ok computer' will always sit pretty in my top 10 favourite albums of all time.

In regards to this painting, I've been stopping and starting with it for a good 2 weeks now ('man flu' and other projects are mainly to blame). But fortunately I finally had a chance to sit down and complete it last night. I think it looks pretty cool, hope you do too. :)

Magazine Commission.

These were for EMEL Muslim lifestyle magazine. They just started a new sports section, and commissioned me to paint caricatures of various sports personalities once a month as part of it. So far I've done three. Pretty cool for the portfolio. Always a good feeling when you get to see your work officially printed and published.
Hopefully this will be the start of many more magazine opportunities.

Mark and his fiance Naomi

My former work colleague Mark. A cool guy, he gave me a lot of great advice. This pic was for his wedding invitations.

MALCOLM X

One of the last great leaders.

"I saw all races, all colors, blue eyed blonds to black skinned Africans in true brotherhood! In unity! Living as one! Worshiping as one! No segregationists, no liberals; they would not have known how to interpret the meaning of those words"

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it is for or against. I'm a human being, first and foremost, and as such I'm for whoever and whatever benefits humanity as a whole."

Malcolm X