Don't Panic: Morality

The last Don't Panic competition was a complete bust, despite my best efforts. I'd probably do better and end up less hurt in a DP competition in the porn-film sense (wikipedia) .
It was suggested to me that to be in with a chance with the kind of sheepish scenesters that probably do all the voting on a site like DP! I should just embrace some tired urban cliches and let the people that vote for me think that they're cool.
So I started with the "urban landscape". The side of a building on our way to work (me and Charlotte work in the same building now, by the way). Check the bin bags for the extra touch of poverty-chic.


Then sketched out the kind of , um, "piece" I wanted to lay down in Photoshop:

Pay attention to the question mark. It's like, asking a question without asking one. Like, who's really moral, man? Is it the man, man? No, man. It's like the voice of the streets etc. etc.
Then I drew it all out on paper, trying to embrace all the kind of over-used graff memes I could think of at the time: CCTV cameras, sweeping arrows, artificial drips.


Then I stuck that over the wall for instant street-cred graff.


But it just looks really shit. Weak linework will always bring a picture right down, but when it's combined with bad colouring and a poor source photo- a vaguely well turned out office worker on the way to work on a sunny morning- it's almost embarassing. Certainly, that quick sketch works better.
The next morning then we took some more photographs, in more urban places. This time round I tried to capture the kind of playfulness of the sketch. These characters, incidentally, were drawn entirely on a Wacom tablet, a first for me.

First: oooh, shop shutters. "Yeah, don't open up your shop round here, it's too ghetto blud." and so on.
The paint on the steel works well, but Charlotte looks a bit funny and the framing is all off.


And there's this one, boarded up windows perhaps. Charlotte looks good but kind of takes over, and there's not much wood texture coming through.


And then this one, the building site. The characters being much bigger makes them all the more dramatic, and this is the one I decided to enter. It doesn't exactly look like a witty critique of artistic conventions, but I like it.


I was late to join the race though, so please vote for me and help me catch up. Currently Greg's poster is doing pretty well. I voted for it, and if he wins I'll be almost as happy.
Why not look at both of ours and decide which one you like best, then vote for me anyway.
Anything but that Lauren Steinberg idiot who's currently winning!