Tom J Newell

Release The Kraken..

2012-02-03T07:43:00.000-08:00

..I just drew this mural for The Kraken Rum and The Dead Sea Mob at The Crobar in Soho, London. It's all done with black Posca pens, so big thanks to Posca for their continued support of The Mob, and thanks to everyone at The Crobar for feeding me booze while I was drawing the piece, and welcoming The Dead Sea Mob with free jugs of 'The Dead Sea Mobster' cocktail that they named in our honor when we rolled into town last night.

Pub Scrawl at The Harley..

2012-01-16T08:46:00.000-08:00

..Following the last post on my 'Flash in the Pan' show that's going to be making up one tenth of Pete McKee's Sheffield 'Pub Scrawl', there's been an official announcement of where each of the ten artists involved will be exhibiting.. I'm happy to announce that I'll be cluttering up The Harley with art and music and I'll be doing it with the help of some talented friends.

There'll be live music provided by Love Boat and Double No No, a Pop-Up Syd & Mallory Shop featuring the launch of a 'Syd & Mallory X Tom J Newell' range of t-shirts and accessories, a live drawing collaboration by me and Drew Millward, and there'll be a collection of one-off, affordable artworks with all proceeds going to the Sheffield Children's Hospital.

The whole event has been kindly supported by The Dead Sea Mob, Dirtyface, Posca and the lovely folks who've put the whole Pub Scrawl event together.

Clickety click your inevitable attendance here..

The 'Flash in the Pan' facebook Event Page.

..and check out where the other artists are shacked up here..

The 'Pub Scrawl' Artists Announcement.

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Flash in the Pan / Pub Scrawl

2011-12-23T04:12:00.000-08:00

To kick off the new year I'll be taking part in Pete McKee's 'Pub Scrawl' event in Sheffield. On Friday the 20th of January 2012, for one night only, ten different artists will take over one of ten city centre pubs each to create an arty-farty pub crawl across town.

Pete has curated the event, asking ten of his favourite, Sheffield-affiliated artists to use ten of his favourite Sheffield watering holes as blank canvasses.

The ten artists involved are: Warp Films, Nick Deakin, Lord Bunn, Ian Anderson (tDR), Geo, Sarah Abbott, Tado, Faunagraphic, Fine and Dandy, and Tom J Newell (..me).

The ten pubs hosting the artists' work are: The University Arms, The Harley, The Bath Hotel, The Bowery, The Washington, The Forum, The Frog & Parrot, The Great Gatsby, Bungalows & Bears, and Dada's.

To encourage people to get a good look around all of the venues, the event organizers are keeping the details of which artist has got which pub under wraps until the night itself.. I'm really chuffed with the pub I'm working with.. I'll be exhibiting some new, Tattoo Flash inspired work and I'm calling the show 'Flash in the Pan' to reference the temporary nature of the event.

As well as a series of new paintings and prints, I'll be releasing a new zine of Tattoo Flash, there'll be affordable artworks for sale (with proceeds going to the Sheffield Children's Hospital), live music, a Syd & Mallory's Pop-up-Shop with exclusive, hand-made Flash accessories, AND I'll be joined by my pal (and fellow Dead Sea Mobster), Drew Millward to produce a pair of collaborative, Posca-painted pictures live on the night.

'Flash in the Pan' is kindly supported by Dirtyface, The Dead Sea Mob, and Uni-Posca.. AND there'll be a special Thornbridge 'Scrawl' ale on tap in all the pubs involved. I'll be designing the pump sign for the limited edition tipple, exclusively for my venue.

Check in at therealmckee.com for more details.

...

MOBCHESTER

2011-12-20T02:11:00.000-08:00

As the dust settles from The Dead Sea Mob's FIMBULVINTER event, here's a photo of me on the night that I just nabbed from Dar Barrow's album.. Check out his other snaps documenting how it all went down HERE.

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Flash Cat Mask

2011-12-09T02:59:00.001-08:00

..I've got far too much on at the moment to get sidetracked with things like this, but when I saw this 'Decorate-Your-Own-Cat-Mask' in a pound shop the other day, I couldn't resist taking it home and Posca-painting it up to look like the 'Cat with a Bone' character that featured on my first Dead Sea Mob Flash Print.

Next week The Mob hits Manchester for our Fimbulvinter Event, and our good Cap'n, Chairman Meow might be lucky enough to get her paws on this as thanks for all her hard work for The Mob over the past year.

The Kraken Rum just got on board with The Mob too, so they'll be loads of awesome art and booze up for grabs in the Fimbulvinter Raffle.. See you there!

FIMBULVINTER

2011-12-06T02:38:00.000-08:00

The Dead Sea Mob are soon to set sail for Manchester's Night & Day Cafe for our final event of the year. Our Fimbulvinter show takes its name from the Norse legend of "The Winter To End All Winters", and with the guest artists and collaborators we've roped in for the evening's entertainment, things are sure to go down like an apocalyptic storm.

On Thursday the 15th of December 2011, The usual Dead Sea Mobsters will be joined by fellow practitioners of the dark arts, Guy McKinley, Mr. Gauky, Michael Shantz, and Eight Bit.. The live drawing will be interlaced with live screenprinting from Parliament of Feathers, Vinter-Vibes from the good folks at Dirtyface, and astonishing visual-terror from Lord Whitney.. Posca will kindly support the festivities by providing paint pens of varying cataclysmic colours, and there'll be super limited edition, one-colour prints available from each of the participating artists involved for staggeringly affordable prices.

Here's mine..

..It's a Fimbulvinter follow-up Flash sheet to the last print I produced for The Mob's event in Brighton a few months ago. There are a few left of that original Flash sheet print (pictured below) in The Dead Sea Mob Shop and, as we're offering a 25% discount on EVERYTHING in the online store in the build-up to Fimbulvinter when you mention the discount password 'FIMBULVINTER' as you order, you can snap up one of the remaining A3 prints for the ridiculously low price of £7.50..

..Big thanks to Alan at Dirtyface for piecing together this animated Fimbulvinter trailer.. Yeah!

..And an extra special shout-out to Ice Cube Circa '88 for really puttin' his back into reppin' The Mob with his freshly Photoshopped Fimbulvinter shirt.. Word.

Show your love and confirm your inevitable attendance at the..

Fimbulvinter facebook Event Page

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Cosby Sweater

2011-10-30T07:50:00.000-07:00

I just customized a toy for an exhibition up in Leeds that's been organized by The Hang Gang..

...

..As the show is called 'ICONS', I made my bear a placard featuring a portrait of the iconic MC, Biggie Smalls..

..I Posca-painted up his head to look like an artichoke..

..And I did a spot of live drawing on the opening night of the show. I drew a similarly artichoke-headed character rocking the same 'Cosby Sweater' as the bear..

Some amazing artists contributed to the show. You can see the full line-up and see the opening times of the exhibition HERE..

Both the bear and the painting I produced for the show are up for sale through The Hang Gang. If you're interested you can contact them HERE.

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Surf's Up

2011-10-25T11:10:00.000-07:00

I just finished drawing this for an album that's going to be released early next year.. As with most stuff that I do, it's hand-drawn pen and ink on paper. Shazzam.

The Dionysian

2011-10-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

After helping out on the promotional imagery for über fashion-flick, 'The Dionysian', I was invited to help decorate a venue in Shoreditch which played host to the film's premiere.

So I got to sit in this awesome 'Nail Chair' prop from the film and shout about what I'd just painted on the wall.

..And you can read more about 'The Dionysian' HERE.

Excursions

2011-10-15T02:21:00.000-07:00

I'll be popping up to Leeds to exhibit my freshly Posca-painted custom toy in a couple of weeks. Here's a sneaky snap of the thing with a little cardboard character I made to express my excitement after signing off on a two week session of intricately hand-painting the bear and a few custom-made accessories that I whittled(!) for him..

The show opens at Fullcircle Gallery on Friday 28th of October, 2011 at 6pm. I'll be painting live at the event and exhibiting my custom toy alongside a host of other artists. Check the link below for the full line-up..

The Hang Gang Presents "ICONS" Custom Toy Show

Lay it All Down

2011-10-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

I've found myself on a bit of a 'Folk listening tip' since the sad news of Bert Jansch's death, last week.

Here's a drawing that I did a couple of years ago when we lost the legendary Johnny Martyn.. Until now the picture has only been seen in my comic, Pictorial Showboat so I thought it'd be nice to dust it off and post it up on here.

(die-on-niz-zee-an)

2011-10-11T04:36:00.000-07:00

STEPHEN LALLY

HELEN McGUCKIN

PRESENT

'THE DIONYSIAN'
TUESDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2011
5:30PM - 8:30PM
SPACE FIFTYFOUR
54 RIVINGTON STREET
LONDON
EC2A 3QN

The Mob in Motion

2011-10-11T03:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a short film courtesy of Mint Magazine, which gives an insight into how (sh)it went down in Brighton a few weeks ago for The Dead Sea Mob's 'Night Shift Masquerade' live drawing event.

In the build-up to the big night there's some behind the scenes printing and preparation at Parliament of Feathers Print Studio, as well as us lot "Getting Ink Done" at Magnum Opus Tattoos.. The DSM crest that Bob drew on my back still hasn't washed off..

"efiL4zretsboM"

Snowblind

2011-09-16T03:03:00.000-07:00

I had a couple of last minute gig poster jobs with quick turnarounds last week, and I discovered that the Tattoo Flash sheet that I did recently is a perfect source of incidental images that can be adapted to suit panicked promotor predicaments such as these.

The Messi image above is the front of a flyer for a Santa Cruz endorsed night that is starting up on Friday 23rd September at The 333 on Old Street. As well as producing some artwork (with a big ol' nod to the legendary Jim Phillips) for the night, I'll be dusting off my f-fr-fresh crossfader fingers and playing a DJ set which might see me sneak some Beefheart and Sabbath tunes amongst a classic '90s Hip-Hop set built from Biggie and Tribe and probably THIS, too.

You can also see the Three Blind Wolves poster HERE in my Gig Posters album, alongside a growing collection of stuff I've done for Dead Young Records, Leeds.

Viva Sea Shepherd!

2011-09-15T09:43:00.000-07:00

I was truly honoured to be involved in the recent Sea Shepherd fundraising event on board the HMS Belfast. Captain Paul Watson welcomed The Dead Sea Mob (and guest Mobsterist, Pete Fowler) onto the main deck where the five of us spent the evening producing some shipshape, Posca-painted canvasses, which will be auctioned off to help fund the continuing mission of Paul and his valiant crew.

I knocked up an Owl & Pussycat inspired piece featuring Sea Shepherd's trademark trident and crook. A friend sent me a link the other day to Stewart Lee's brilliant re-imagining of the Edward Lear poem, which you can check out HERE, if you like.

Make sure you pop over and have a look at The Dead Sea Mob's photos from the night, too. You can see the other pieces by Dan Mumford, Godmachine, Pete Fowler, and TwistedLoaf, all of whom completely pulled it out the bag and smashed it to smithereens for the worthy cause.

As well as meeting the legendary Cap'n Paul, we were introduced to Hawkwind and Adam Ant who played live onboard the ship, but the most humbling experience of the night was meeting the crew of 'The Steve Irwin' who showed us around their anti-whaling vessel. These volunteers are dedicated to sticking their oar in and putting a stop to the pillaging of our seas, and you've just got to take your hat off to them for their hard work.

Thanks to everyone at The Cult PR for putting the event together, Posca for the pens, and Cowling & Wilcox for donating the canvasses and easels..

"Viva Sea Shepherd."

Last of the Summer Whines

2011-09-14T05:46:00.000-07:00

I'm really trying to catch up with myself on blogging all the stuff I've been up to with The Dead Sea Mob recently. Before I can post anything about the live draw we did onboard The HMS Belfast for Sea Shepherd, I'll quickly say a little something about what went down in Brighton a couple of weeks ago.

First off there're the exclusive prints that the wonderful Parliament of Feathers knocked up for us. We sold most of these at 'The Night Shift Masquerade' event, but there might be a few left that you can get your hands on in The Dead Sea Mob Shop.

'The NightShift Masquerade' was a live drawing event masterminded by The DSM Captain and Ollie "Mega" Munden.. Ollie (a Mob associate since day one) got up to draw with the usual Mobsters, new recruit Dan Mumford and honorary Mob member, Harry Draws Pictures in a loosely Tattoo-themed shindig which took place to a huge crowd of good people at The Green Door Store, Brighton.

We got into the swing of things as soon as we dropped anchor in Brighton by booking into Magnum Opus Tattoos with Bob Done for some Mob ink.

Here's me and Drew Millward in the decorative surroundings of the Tattoo Studio as I hit him up with the news that I wanted him to personally rub nappy rash cream into my fresh Dead Sea Mob crest tattoo..

"Rub it"

So yeah, I got myself a simplified version of The DSM logo on my back, The Captain got herself a nice bit of heart-shaped rope that I designed, Drew got a pipe-smoking sailor bear designed by Bob (you can kind of see it there on his non-rubbing arm), and Harry got involved and got an anchor on her ankle.

Here's me drawing on the night and a couple of photos of my finished piece..

The next day me and Drew dragged ourselves along to a live Posca Pen demonstration for a Brighton Posca stockist called Pussy. We each decorated a canvas in front of a small crowd outside the shop and the finished pieces are now exhibited in the shop's window display..

You can see more photos of what everyone else got up to in this great collection of pictures taken by Dar Barrow, HERE.. and there's also a video in the making that I'll post up here as soon as it becomes available.. Yeah!

Sister, Sister

2011-09-14T02:19:00.000-07:00

..It's my sister's birthday today. I sent her this card yesterday, but I don't think she's got it yet so I thought I'd whack it up on here so she could see it. "Happy Birthday, sis!" .. You should all swing by her recently opened online boutique n' pick something up, too..

Syd & Mallory's Asos Boutique

I scribbled out the card yesterday morning (Posca on Paper) before heading out to the HMS Belfast where The Dead Sea Mob did some live Posca painting in aid of the amazing Sea Shepherd.. More about that'll be up on here soon.

Monster Munch

2011-09-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Here's a Tattoo Flash design I did recently. There'll be some prints of it available in the next few days, exclusively from The Dead Sea Mob Online Shop. Thanks to Parliament Of Feathers for the awesome printing steez.

Loaded

2011-08-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

I just did some stuff for Loaded Magazine's Style Section, which you can see in the current issue amongst the booze n' babes. Under the direction of super stylist, Elauan Lee I drew this random cast of celebrities, who were picked out by the people at Loaded, and had them model some real-life New Era type caps.

I also spent a day in photographer, David Marquez's studio creating a big Posca Pen painted backdrop for some Supra trainers, which David snapped a picture of when I was done.

Elsewhere in the Style Section, Elauan snook a Dead Sea Mob 'Mobster Lobster' t-shirt of mine into a Viktor Vauthier skate-inspired shoot featuring Ben Grove.

Now Then.. Again

2011-08-10T04:40:00.000-07:00

If you're up in Sheffield then you're probably fed up to t'back teeth with seeing my stuff dotted about, but if not then you might like to pick up the new issue of Now Then from one of the fine shopping establishments in Town as I've got some stuff in there.

It's the second time I've taken over the free magazine, which gives up its pages to a guest artist each month. HERE's my Blog post from a couple of years ago when I was first featured in there and, if you click on one of the following links, you can check out the latest issue, read my interview where I chat about The Carol-Anne Showband and The Dead Sea Mob, or even download a PDF copy for all y'all that can't get your hands on a real life copy..

NOW THEN ISSUE 41

TOM J NEWELL INTERVIEW

DOWNLOAD ISSUE 41 AS PDF

DO IT TOGETHER!

2011-08-09T05:38:00.000-07:00

My friend, Del Hardin Hoyle has put together a group show with work from loads of great artists and a good old 'all for one and one for all' spirit that you can read a bit more about on Article Magazine's site HERE.

The DO IT TOGETHER exhibition is up in The Forum, Sheffield for the next few weeks and I've got a few bits of work all up in there.

There are a limited number of A3 prints of this image available exclusively from Syd & Mallory's Boutique, round the corner from the show in The Forum Shops.

Each one is printed on a nice brown card stock and is signed & numbered. They're £10 each and the money from the first one sold will go directly to one of the other artists in the show, picked at random.

There're also a few A4 copies of the print which will be given out to lucky members of the public in Newcastle as part of the Papergirl Newcastle event later on this month..

DO IT TOGETHER!

The Calm After The Shaun

2011-08-05T10:44:00.000-07:00

The Carol-Anne Showband Reunion gigs that we reformed to play a few weeks ago were a whole heap of fun. (Click HERE for a recap of what they were all about.)

My buddy Shaun's visit was short but totally SWEET, and we were completely blown away by all of our family, friends and fans packing out Bungalows & Bears in Sheffield and singing back every word to us whilst dancing "holes in their soles" and shedding "tears in their beers".. (Apologies if I misquoted you there, Ben.)

..In between the two gigs we played up in Sheffield, I popped down to Bristol to take part in the 'Asylum Harbour' live drawing event with the rest of The Dead Sea Mob.

Have a read about how that went down HERE, check out some more photographs of the event HERE, and read about our new Mob member, Dan Mumford... HERE.

Kick Up the Fire, and Let the Flames Break Loose

2011-08-05T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm finding myself a bit swamped with stuff that has been piling up around me and is in need of being blogged. Anyway, let's just try and get through it one piece at a time and see where we are at the other end.

I did the 'Whiskey Knife' poster you can see above recently for a gig that happened the other week up in Leeds.

The Showband, The Mob & The Totem Homecoming

2011-07-15T05:04:00.000-07:00

Busy, busy, busy next week.. My old band, The Carol-Anne Showband are reuniting for a couple of gigs up in Sheffield. The first one will be at Bungalows & Bears on Thursday the 21st of July (see the poster that I doodled up for that one above) and for the second gig, we'll be supporting the mighty Mayor McCa as part of the Sheffield Tramlines festival at The Old House on Saturday the 23rd of July.

I can't chuffing wait play with my old pals again. I used to sing, play drums and toot on the mouth organ with The Showband. Shaun (who played guitar and helped me out with the wailing) moved to Taiwan to teach kids how to talk like Jimmy Nail a few years ago, but he's back in the UK for a few weeks and we hastily organized a couple of days in a practice room and these gigs in Sheffield with the help of our pals up there.

Here's us (circa 2007) in a photograph taken by our friend Nicholas Newman..

..Left to right there's Simon, Shaun, me and Saul. We played a shit load of shows between about 2005 and 2008.. In 2007 we toured Europe in a blue transit van. We all got shitty, drunken tattoos of the van, 'Stinky Blue' while we were staying in Marseille. That's the weird squiggle thing you can see in the middle of the new poster.

Here's a couple of old songs of ours you can listen to through the magic of Soundcloud..

In other news, I'll be shooting down to Bristol in between those two gigs for a live drawing event with my new band of brothers from different mothers, The Dead Sea Mob.

Here's the poster that Godmachine smashed out for that..

..Basically, it's gonna be awesome, but if you want more details than that then check the facebook event page by clicking on this link..

The Dead Sea Mob's 'Asylum Harbour'

AND, if all that wasn't enough, the Totem Pole I painted on for Inkygoodness is returning home from being exhibited in Berlin, and will be exhibited again at The Custard Factory in Birmingham alongside its Character Totem buddies which were painted on by loads of other amazing artists in a show that kicks off at 6pm on Thursday the 21st of July.. Sadly, I won't be able to make it down to that as I've got all the other stuff I just mentioned going on, but if you're down in Brum check it out. Here's a link to the facebook event page for that..

The Inkygoodness Character Totem Homecoming

If there's anyone left reading this EPIC blogpost, here's another look at the fancy gif I made of the Totem.. (There's more on the Totem from when I first blogged about it HERE.) Toodlepip!

Mobster Lobster

2011-07-07T05:38:00.000-07:00

Here's a drawing I just did for The Dead Sea Mob's new Artist Series T-Shirt collection. After the classic DSM logo tees (which've been selling out fast!), this is the first release of different designs that'll be popping up on the recently opened Dead Sea Mob Shop.. They'll soon be more on the way over the coming months from the other Mob members and from special guest 'Mates of The Mob' artists.. Keep 'em peeled.

The 'Mobster Lobster' tee is limited to an edition of 50 and it's a top notch white ink on black t-shirt job from the folks at White Duck Screenprint.

The DSM Shop is just part of The Mob's brand spanking new website, which hit the World Wide Waves yesterday thanks to our very own Buster Chee and Cap'n Carla AND the awesome people at Clutter Magazine.. Get it checked out..

http://thedeadseamob.com/

Boys Entering Anarchistic States Towards Internal Excellence

2011-06-17T02:11:00.000-07:00

I don't think it's generally noted that the word 'BEASTIE' (at least in the case of The Beastie Boys) is in fact an acronym. No doubt a hastily assembled after thought from a time when many Hip-Hop artists were seeing what they could stretch out of their adopted monikers, but nevertheless, its full meaning now serves as an almost entirely unrelated title to this Blog post.

In December 2010 I designed a series of images intended for an imaginary children's t-shirt range for the style website WGSN. The 'LITTLE BEASTIE' collection served as inspiration to folks in the fashion biz who paid to subscribe to the subscription only website, and so I've been contracted not to show the images until now.. Six months after I drew them.

It was really interesting to work on images intended for kids. I wanted to push the perceptions of what they'd be able to handle and not offer up something that was overly cutesy. This had its initial difficulties as my first attempt at this Multi-Coloured Tiger Snake was rejected by WGSN due to his teeth and the end of his tail being "too scary"..

..so I yanked out the poor chuffer's fangs, replacing them with some child friendly, Goofy style teeth and brightened up his rattle a bit..

The snake was finally accepted and next came this Unicorn Rhino guy with an onomatopoeic word describing him chowing down on his favourite plant snack..

The next one was about as cutesy as it got, but hopefully it still retained some sort of mysteriousness. I was attempting a simplified interpretation of some kind of Big-Foot character, but I wasn't too concerned when that idea got a bit lost along the way..

The last one's got this faceless dinosaur dude. Something around the 'Doyouthinkhesaurus' type vibe, but perhaps with a bit more abstraction about it. The use of all the colours in this project was quite a challenge for me. That was a big part of the brief that took me out of my usual "black & white n' red all over" comfort zone, so I'd be interested to see what people make of these.

Glastonbury: Stick int' Mud

2011-06-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

These are gonna be printed up as part of a limited edition, numbered set of artist designed stickers that'll available to buy at Glastonbury Festival next weekend.. I'm in great company too 'cos the other artists who've designed stickers for the series are Nick Deakin, DEDass, Martin Bedford and EMA.

Dead Reckoning

2011-06-15T12:25:00.000-07:00

A somewhat delayed blog post here for The Dead Sea Mob's last show, which took place up in Whitley Bay at The Pure Gallery.. Big thanks to Ric and Lindsay at the gallery, Buster Chee for putting us up and Cap'n Carla for making it all happen for The Mob..

I painted these handy sea serpent characters at either side of the main gallery wall..

Godmachine boshed out this awesome lookin' octopus on the wall space next to where the prints were hung..

And Drew Millward smashed it with his piece across the front of the counter..

Twisted Loaf couldn't make it to this show so he faxed his head through to the gallery and I strapped it on and spread a few Tom Hovey vibes..

Each of us produced some prints exclusively for the show. Here's the first of mine. The original ink drawing I did was exhibited too..

Then there was this 'Ship in a Bottle' print I did..

I printed up ten smaller copies of the ship image in different colours too, and popped 'em inside some bottles. They sold out n' all, which was nice..

I also exhibited some smaller original drawings which I'd drawn with Posca pens..

And finally, a word from our sponsor..

SPEEDBALL..

2011-06-15T06:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a new logo for my mate's 'SPEEDBALL' shindig that he hosts at Bungalows & Bears in Sheffield. You can see the old one I did a couple of years ago HERE.. I went for a bit more of a Rock n' Roll vibe this time with the greased up quiff, hot-rod pipes and switchblade nose.

Now n' Then

2011-05-13T10:57:00.000-07:00

I've just finished this t-shirt design for Sheffield mag, Now Then.. They're gonna print this up along with another design by Michael Latimer and they'll be flogging a limited run for very affordable prices very soon.

Now Then's a great magazine who've always supported the stuff I've done so it was great to be able to do this for 'em.. I was the monthly guest artist for them back in September '09 and you can read my blog post from back then and see the cover illustration I did, HERE.

I tried to reference the cover in the new drawing with this character who's got something growing out of his head.. This time it's an artichoke. There're also some bits of ginger roots knocking about his siamese-twin-head, and there's a nod to a bit of the nautical stuff I've been churning out with The Dead Sea Mob, as he's cramming a somewhat distraught shark into both of his mouths.

I'll try n' blog up some photos of what me and The Mob got up to in our last gallery show up in Whitley Bay soon.. Until then you can see some snaps HERE, and you can see some straight up imagery of mine (without all these waffling words) on my new tumblr page...

http://tomjnewell.tumblr.com/

The Log of Love

2011-05-03T10:56:00.000-07:00

I didn't get a photo of this thing when I painted it last year, but I've just been sent this one so here it is.. I was commissioned to paint this wedding portrait for some nice folks to give to their pals as a wedding gift last summer.

They supplied me with a lovely bit of wood and a few snaps of the happy couple and I painted it on there with Gesso and Indian Ink.

LOG x LOVE

Angel of Death

2011-04-13T11:14:00.000-07:00

I popped back to the 55dsl store yesterday and painted summat in their changing room. The Dead Sea Mob show upstairs in the Studio 55 gallery is gonna come down next week, but this piece should be sticking around in the London Flagship Store for a bit longer.

I got it done in a few hours using a couple of black Poscas and it's based on the original 55dsl logo (above).. Godmachine pointed out the angel silhouette in the negative space of the '55' so I got carried away with that as an idea.

I also wanted the piece to be a tribute to the moment when Drew Millward boshed Slayer's 'Angel of Death' out on the shop's stereo when we were installing the show... scaring off a few of the more sensitive customers in the process.

55DSL x TOM J NEWELL x THE DEAD SEA MOB

(DSM 4 LIFE)

A Shot Across The Bows

2011-04-01T15:37:00.000-07:00

The Dead Sea Mob assembled for the first time the other week and set to work decking out the Studio 55 Gallery above 55DSL's flagship store just off Carnaby Street in old London town..

I took my starting point from a Dr. Octagon song, which mentions a half shark/alligator, half man character.. Without having much time to prepare for the stuff that we were painting directly into the space, I pretty much made my wall piece up as I went along. I sketched these fishy lookin' characters and set about boshing them out in Poscas..

..Me, the mighty Godmachine and your man Twisted Loaf were all up on this shelf scribbling out nautically tinged nightmares..

..The force known as Drew Millward was set up across the other side of the space, smashing out a 'Shot Across The Bows' title piece at an awesome pace..

..My progress was inching along at a much slower speed, with my accursed quest for clean lines and symmetry pushing my sanity to the brink well into the caffeine-fueled night..

..Once I got past the symmetrical shark sentinels, I cracked on with the fish-faced priest, the sacrificial alligator baby, and the decapitated head of its father.. Meanwhile, Godmachine was just straight KILLING it with his scarlet haired skull piece..

..The Millward was first to sign off on his painting. He was heading off back up North for a gig so he never even got to stick around for the opening, but the way that he knocked out this amazing Kraken piece before he jumped back on the train was a sight to behold. The guy's a chuffin' PRO..

..Godmachine's finished piece was incredible too. He smashed it all out pretty quickly, splashed some blacker than black paint around for a bit and topped 'er off with a satanic golden halo. All hail..

..Me n' Twisted Loaf A.K.A Tom 'Mother Fucking' Hovey were painting well into the dead of night. He just piled in the detail, layer after layer and ended up having to tear himself away from his insanely intricate dead seascape..

..It's all about getting up close to Hovey's picture. He's a force to be reckoned with. The twisted layers of detail that he weaves are stacked as high as a frickin' kite..

..My piece was finally finished with the help of Godmachine on some colouring-in duties. He was quick to point out the best bits of the piece, like the black of the central character's robe that he filled in..

..Carla Pino is the hypothetical horse bones that form the glue that binds The Dead Sea Mob together and keeps them on a course, strong and true. As we put the finishing touches to the show, she couldn't resist getting in on the arty act, swiping a stray Posca and quickly throwing up this fresh window piece while our backs were turned..

..I got to exorcise my perfect line demons and exercise my scribble hand with this messy collaborative piece that The Mob knocked up together. I scratched out the scroll and a take on brother Drew's eye-anchor, as he'd already sailed out by this point. Twisted Loaf got busy with the splats n' drips and then the three of us took turns in scrawling out a word each.. Hovey did 'the DeAD', I did 'SEA', and Godmachine finished it off with the pentagram filled 'MOB'..

..55DSL sent their official 'Maintenance Guy' who was a total dude. We were in the background farting about with paint pens and pointing at where we wanted screws screwing from time to time and he just hovered over this stair drop with his ladder like he wasn't even boshed..

..Godmachine's prints on black paper look 'dope'. Everyone just turned up with bundles of these amazing looking prints and we didn't even put 'em all up.. That's how The Dead Sea Mob roll..

..A couple of oldies from me. I got the baby on a fish picture printed up for the show, but it's something that I drew a while back. It's based on a weird Japanese picture I found and I never ended up using it for anything when I first drew it. I got the Owl & The Pussycat picture that I did a while back printed up for the show too and Carla (A.K.A Chairman Meow) snapped up a copy for herself well sharpish..

..Drew's mate Owen Richards is an awesome photographer who usually takes photos of awesome bands and shit like that. He kindly stopped by to take a few snaps of us mucking about in the streets of Soho, and a few days after I bumped into him in my local chippy..

..'Brothers From Different Mothers'..(unless you count Chairman Meow) ..The traffic cone to the right of the picture is actually a lot more comfortable and photogenic than me, but he can't draw skulls for shit so my place in The Mob is safe for now..

..The gratis OranjeBOOM shook, shook, shook the room for about the first twenty minutes of the opening until it was completely annihilated by loads of cool people that I didn't know. Loads of 'em seemed to stick around for some approving nods in the general direction of the artworks long after the free drinks were drunk though, so all in all the Private View was pretty banging..

..The morning after, Carla and Godmachine got everything looking shipshape again before heading off. I didn't actually take any of these photos. I shuffled 'em all together from various online albums, so a big thanks to the snap happy snaps of Carla Pino, Tom Hovey, Breaks of 10, and Owen Richards.. Next stop - Whitley Bay..

The Dead Sea Mob's

'Dead Reckoning'

at The Pure Gallery

Tom J Canewell

2011-03-24T03:31:00.000-07:00

I was invited to mess up one of the walls at Canoe Inc's office on Brick Lane the other day.

Thanks to Tom at Breaks of 10 for the photos.. ( I nicked 'em off his blog post/interview with me that you can see HERE).. And thanks to Joe at Canoe for the time lapse vid.

Totem J Newell

2011-03-15T14:49:00.000-07:00

The good folks at Inkygoodness were nice enough to invite me to be involved in their awesome 'Character Totem' exhibition, which started a few weeks ago as a series of live art events (there's an 'action shot' of me in the photo above) and will end up as an exhibition in the Neurotitan Gallery in Berlin as part of the city's Pictoplasma Character Walk.

www.inkygoodness.com

www.neurotitan.de

www.pictoplasma.com

If you happen to be knockin' about in Berlin next month, the show runs from Wednesday 6th April until Sunday 10th April, 2011. There'll be over thirty different Totems in the show and, as each one separates into three different sections, they'll all be mixed up like a giant, arty-farty game of 'exquisite corpse'!

Here're some 'gifs' (check me out!) that I made of my finished Character Totem..

Such Is Is and (Uh) Ain't Is Ain't

2011-03-15T07:35:00.000-07:00

..I just drew this EP cover for one of my very bestest pals, Shaun and his band 'The Ever So Friendlies'. They're rockin' hard out in Taiwan so if you find yourself out that way and you like your musical doings done right, look 'em up. I'll post a link to some of the music from the 'Splonderick' CD as soon as it's available to link to.

I'm really into these Italian Fresco/tombstone type shapes at the moment. The rounded top and flat back n' sides seem to sit real swell on the page, and that's probably why I rocked 'em out for Shaun's cover art and for The Primitives gig poster that I did the other week..

The band were chuffed to bits with the prints. I signed and shipped them out a few days ago and they'll be a hundred copies for sale at the shows on their upcoming tour.

Here's the front room mid-signing session with a sneaky peek of my Inkygoodness Totem Pole, which I just finished ready to pack off to Berlin for the Pictoplasma fest.

More photos of all that coming soon.

Primitive Prints

2011-03-04T05:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a photo of a new gig poster print that I designed for The Primitives' 'Never Kill A Secret' March '11 UK tour.

My friend Lauren screenprinted them up for me and they'll be on sale at the band's upcoming gigs. Somewhere in the red triangle shapes it even says 'TA LAUREN' to thank her for helping me out.. I should probably also thank Jonny Strangeways for putting the band in touch with me in the first place.. 'TA JONNY'.

I think Mr. Strangeways will probably be sorting out the Brudenell gig on their tour, which should be a good one. The last two posters I did for him (This one and this one) ended up in this book on the page before Drew Millward's ..who I would later go on to sail alongside in The Dead Sea Mob.

And while I'm on the subject of 'Da Mob', here's a sweet little taster of the awesomeness that is to come from them/us..

http://www.creaturemag.com/3-tweeting-illustrators-pt10/

Mobb Deep

2011-02-21T13:32:00.000-08:00

I've recently become an official crew member of a westerly wind weathered vessel full of decorative draughtsmen who're collectively known as..

..THE DEAD SEA MOB..

In the coming months we'll be hitting up the high seas of visual banality with a series of art shows and live painting events that'll see my humble scribblings teaming up with the dazzling doodles of the other main mob members and an array of guest artists in each and every port.

The rag-tag bunch of pen pushing sea dogs who're anchored in as the four main elements of the mob are..

...

There'll be twitterings for your perusal HERE

..and web shizzle poppin' off HERE.

Lock your wigs on tight.

Mm..LeftOvers

2011-02-05T14:09:00.000-08:00

Right then, as I've recently started work on what is to become the second installment of my comic, Pictorial Showboat, as well as having a few other exciting things in the poop-line, I've decided to try and wrap some things up from last year and 'get shut' of some artwork that I've still got knocking about from my Hollow Legs exhibition.. So, here's the official announcement of my late January Sale/early Spring Clean.

...ART FOR SALE...

(at bargain prices)

Everything I've got left from the show is now up for sale at less than half the price.. Some of it is HERE at my online shop, but if there's anything you see below that takes your fancy contact me/paypal me at...

tomjnewell@hotmail.co.uk

Most of these things (with the exception of the screen prints) are hand-painted, one-off pieces that took me millions of hours to make, but I'm quite happy to part with 'em for bargain prices if they're gonna ship out to nice new homes. I've accounted for the postage costs in the sale prices too, so the prices below are even more of a bargain as they come with FREE POSTAGE!..(UK only)

...

Hollow Legs was a culinary-inspired exhibition of wall ornaments which I served up last summer at The Forum in Sheffield and LCB Skate Shop in East London.

The 'menu' of artworks was made up of 'starters' on plates, 'main courses' on wooden boards, 'desserts' on mirrors, and some side orders of screenprints and hand-painted skateboards produced especially for the Sheffield and London shows respectively.

...

'Head's Gone'

Hand-Pulled 50x70cm Screen Print

Signed & Numbered from an Edition of 10

(of which 2 remain)

NOW ONLY £20 each

WITH FREE POSTAGE

'Hollow Legs'

Hand-Pulled 50x70cm Screen Print

Signed & Numbered from an Edition of 10

SOLD OUT

'Asparagus'

Hand-Painted Decorative Plate

SOLD

'Spring Rolls'

Hand-Painted Decorative Plate

SOLD

'Sushi'

Hand-Painted Decorative Plate

SOLD

'Samosas'

Hand-Painted Decorative Plate

SOLD

'Monster Munch'

(for Mama Cass)

Hand-Painted Decorative Plate

SOLD

'Minestrone Soup'

Hand-Painted Decorative Plate

SOLD

'Macaroni Cheese'