Post expressive...JUST BLAZE!!!

I've been in a Japan mood since I've been prepping & working on the "Jugoya" character designs.
I've been digging through more of my old artwork and archived custom work and I found some pics of customs I did during my Manhattan Records days. These were customs done for an album release of a Japan only exclusive by Just Blaze. Shout to Take and the gang in Shibuya.

*Click to enlarge

*Click to enlarge

Digging through the archives... The Teletubbies Venture...

I think back to how many pairs of custom sneakers I've done and I've totally lost count. I'm honestly well over the 200 mark that much I know. I do a bi monthly "wade through the water" of my design files to trim the fat and get rid of duplicate or old files I no longer need & 9 times out of ten I stumble across an old design or photo I forgot about. It usually goes about this way when I'm organizing something for a client to show and after it's done it goes back to my hard drive for the archives. This go around I'm showcasing more custom work my old crew and I did for the 10th anniversary of the Teletubbies.

 Photos basically show the progression of how things came to be. It started with the pair of Brainy Blings I did. I did these sneakers on a whim. I though it would be funny to do a pair of Pinky & the Brain sneakers with a hip hop flair, So I fitted The Brain with a track jacket and a fresh pair of Swarovski crystal designed grills.  This in turn led my then partner in crime Rival LV to come up with his own pair & influence... this led to his themed Oscar the Grouch and Grungetta "Trashy to Classy". These 2 pairs were our "frontrunners" for display when the crew (Then known as the Dassler Rebellion to then turn to Rebellion Customs) went out to Las Vegas to see about networking. The shoes caught the attention of a PR rep for Ragdoll LLC (Stacy) and she came to us with the proposition of doing some customs for the 10th Anniversary of the Teletubbies in conduction with a charity event for Cure Autism Now. Once back on the left coast the crew and I set about doing concept mock ups for the event with some of the images they provided as well as going off our own creative juice. We knocked it out with quality and creativity (Skrybe, Rival LV & Dave Mass, the extra men on the team) and showcased them in Philly as well as at the event in downtown Manhattan. I still have my La La antenna... *click on images to enlarge the pics. 

The Brainy Bling... Still one of my favorite pairs...

I gave the Brain the "Bishop Don Juan" look on the inset. 

The Trashy to Classy's by Rival LV

Still one of my favorite pairs designed 

Who doesn't love Oscar the Grouch?

The concepts we came up with & the design crew with our Ragdoll contact Stacy. 

The crew with the Teletubbies Actors. 

Yucking it up with the Dipsy. 

Po and La La out of costume

The Tinky Winky Customs by Skrybe

The display at the store. The La La's sold so fast I didn't even get a pic of them. 

As the night drew on the alcohol made us look dumber.

MrTroy & I worse for wear

A class all our own

This became our flagship sneaker under the Rebellion Customs handle concept by Skrybe

Displays from the Philly Event 

I stuck with the Homegrown Westbrook

The works of Dave Mass

Skrybe liked Reggie

Rumblings from the lab...

I'm still trying to get used to this new layout for the blogspots. All in all not that bad, but I may end up going back to the old layout. The portfolio overhaul continues & I seek to wrap up the bulk of it this month. By mid November the workspace will get a complete overhaul to make room for the baby. This means I will have to downsize my workspace & free the area of items that no longer hold importance. I still for some reason feel the need to hold on to some of my older sketchbooks. Save for nostalgia I suppose. I'll have to scan and post some of my college scribbles on here when I get a chance, but for now I'm posting the finished product of the Dilla &  Boondocks sneakers. I put these together for a couple out of San Antonio, TX. Congrats on the Wedding Rockie & Allen. I hope you enjoyed the sneakers. I don't know if I stated it before, but  working on Adidas sneakers produced out of India always seems to give a bit of grief.  This was no exception. The leather produced there seems to always have problems absorbing the paint. This was a case of do what you can and less is more. As usual, for those that want to get a closer look, click on the image to get a larger view. People interested in orders for customs email me at @barrongraphics@gmail.com

Boondocks 4th on Indian leather Stan Smiths...  

The "Dilla got his fingerprints all over it" custom

Just a peek...

Keeping true to the tune of updates, I've got a few snapshots of some of the final work that I started up in the last post. Full detailed pics are soon to follow, but only after I've shipped them out. I've been slowly making my return to the custom sneaker world, but I made the resolution not to come in with the same style mindset as I left it.

This latest Dilla sneaker is the first in new artist period I'm going thru that I have dubbed "Liquid Steadman"... sounds like the name of a band or something I know, but it's the first thing that came into my mind to sum up what I'm pushing for with the brush. The raw energy of Ralph Steadman's Gonzo brush splatter style influenced my latest style of focus. Combine that with my technique and a looser sense of coloring and I think I can achieve my goal. This stems from the fact that a lot of people when they see my work they don't think that it is painted on, but rather screened on. While I take it as a compliment, it got me to thinking that perhaps I should go in a different direction to give them more of a "painted" feel.

The challenge is to work quick to get these effects. To get this look takes a quicker hand than what I normally use, because of the looseness and drying times. The challenge came in trying to get this effect i desired out of a "black and white" image. To get those levels of texture & shade with grays became a bitch, but what is life and gratification without struggle & challenge to set the stage for it all?

And with that... enough of the yapping. Updated Boondocks & Dilla sneak preview...

Back in the saddle again with some fan favorites...

It's been eons since I've posted on this thing, but it's long overdue & time to throw up the latest things I've been "doodling" over. It's back to sneakers for me. I get requests for sneakers I've done in the past to get re produced, but I always make it a point not to repeat the same design twice. I feel I have to present something different every time I go to work on a pair because I want that person that wears that sneaker to have their own "identity" or personality or style. It adds to the exclusiveness of it all. "One of one! You ain't got these pairs!"

A return to the Boondocks! After that, a stop over to Dilla camp. This will mark the...4th(?) Boondocks custom I've done. It's funny because the pairs I've done I have sparse pictures of them, but photos still & I'll post them for all to see. I get a little nostalgic because it's like painting animation cells. An added bonus because the process is faster.

Dilla shoes... this one's a touchy subject with me. I'll always regard the first pair I did as my favorites. Every shoe is a labor of love, but those I put a lot of mojo into & it showed. I have other design concepts for Dilla sneakers that have stashed away for the prospect of me producing a 3rd design. The 3rd design I would compose would be exclusive only to John Yancey or Ma' Dukes Yancey. I turn down requests for Dilla sneakers for the simple face that when I do drop a pair, I want them to be a rare gem... like Dilla's music. However this request I can't refuse because the guy that wants this pair came with the tools to the table. I can't refuse a client who has the images he/she has in mind for their pair ready to go. That's a plus for me because it saves me design work. At the same time this also retires another iconic Dilla image. So in a effort to put some more substance to this page, I present a few snapshots of the other Boondocks requests of ole & some current "work in progress" snapshots of the current pair. ****Note if you click on my images they will show up larger for viewing.***

More updates soon!

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.