The J Dilla Sneakers Connection...

These are my sneaker tributes I put together to honor the late great James Yancey. I did these as a tribute honor a few years back and they ended up finding a home in Michigan with close family friends of the Yancey family. The first pair gained quite a bit of buzz and I decided that I wasn't going to do a 2nd pair. That ended up not being the case.
I did another pair last year that I dubbed "The Plastic Cups Edition" that I donated for a Dilla tribute event. I still have a design for another pair, but if I do decide to make them the only person that gets to have those are Ma Dukes herself.
1 Love Dilla Dawg...

These are the Dilla customs...
The first pair...



And now the Plastic Cups Detroit City Version

I opted to flip these in the Detroit Lions team colors (subliminal flavor).
I've been mulling over if I plan to do the third design or not. If done it would be another ambitious piece. Similar to the design I have in mind for a MJ custom pair I want to do.
If they do get done, you'll see them first here.

A bit of the old mixed in with a bit of the new.

A few weeks back my good friend, college buddy and former roommate requested some scanned artwork from former projects we started up. It made me realize that I really don't have any of my sketchbook work or any of the old work scanned. So I'm dedicating at least 3 posts out of the month to showcase the sketchbook work and the "throwback works" as I like to call it. I think it's only fit I start off with the collabo piece worked on with another good friend a little while back.
This piece was concept drawn by another good friend Ihsan Amin Thompson aka Truth0ne.
It's a classic tale of the perfect storm that I'm gonna get into at a later date, but during our high school years in the suburbs of Philadelphia Ihsan, Joe (another high school friend) & I were the awesome 3. A vivid hybrid of Graffiti, Manga/Anime, & Art Nouveau (even before we knew what that shit really was , hahahaha!)


Justice Sabre - Pencils - Ihsan Amin Thompson. Vector Inks & Colors - Che Tucker(Barron)
More of these to follow... Ahhh memories.

Old Vector piece, new vector piece

Let's start with the art  I did this to continue with my ladies design theme, but I opted to off shoot a bit.
It works out for the better for me because it actually helped put me in the direction I need for my next side piece. It will be a similar theme as far as layout or feel. I did this one based off of Meiko Kaji. She famous for her singing & acting talents over in Japan. Most Americans know her for the song that played when Oren Ishii got Axed in Kill Bill (Flower of carnage). She was always known for her "black widow femme fatale " status in films. No nonsense.
I tried to flip the beauty and the subtle gritty with the blood splatter. I may go back in and add more, but for some reason it fits for me.


This one I did on a whim, back in 2008. I was going make it a poster, but then ended up 86-ing' the notion. I enjoy the work I put into it, I think it fits for Black History Month. This one is more personal to me I guess.