Check The Method
If you walk around Manchester or Sheffield regularly, it’s quite likely you’ll recognise the work of this month’s featured artist, Marcus Method. Coming out of the graffiti scene, Method’s work has recently moved more towards character-based graphical illustration, with big, bold designs and bright colours to match.
Currently painting all over Europe, as well as spearheading his own clothing brand featuring his work, Method is a busy man, so we were grateful to get a few minutes of his time to talk about his craft.
What got you started as an artist?
I’ve always been into drawing for as long as I can remember, but I started to get into graffiti around 2004. I painted mainly traditional letter styles until around 2012, when I began to go in a more illustrative / graphic direction, and slowly the letters became less and less prominent, as I created characters and started to incorporate more pattern work.
About two years ago I decided to take my artwork a little more seriously and decided to make it into a career, as that was all I really wanted to do and my office job at the time was getting in the way of that.
How does your approach differ between painting and illustrating?
I go through phases with both my painting and illustrations in terms of how I create them. I often don’t have a really strong vision of what I want to create, but it sort of just comes out as I start to draw. A lot of the time I will start with an object on the page or wall and then work around it. If I can get into the right zone the ideas just flow and it is almost like the piece builds itself, although my work can also be a little more premeditated and I may look up a reference points, like a logo or an object I want to include in the drawing or painting.
You’ve been moving into clothing recently. Tell us about that.
I’ve done a few clothing projects over the years. One of these was a project called Up North Mate, which was a collaboration with my brother and has been the most successful, with notable people such as Toddla T, the cast of People Just Do Nothing (BBC) and Maya Jama, among others, wearing it. I have recently decided to apply my knowledge learnt from Up North Mate to create clothing featuring my own artwork. The designs generally feature collage-style designs with cultural references, which usually come from current events or things which were influential on my style or are relevant to my formative years as an artist. Up North Mate will also be re-released in the upcoming months.
Where have you been painting in the last few months and where would you like to paint in the future?
The last few months I have been painting a lot in Manchester and Sheffield, but I have also travelled to paint in Spain for a week or so. Over the next few months, I will be painting in Nottingham, Berlin and hopefully Barcelona.
