The Evolution of evolve, sort of...

So sometime in high school I really got into graffiti art and murals. I started copying styles that I would see around and in graffiti videos and through black books that would sometimes be passed around every now and then in art class. Also, from guys who were going out there and actually doing things in the street. Though I was never really one to go and write myself, at least not in the conventional manner. The influence is seen a lot in my art from high school, and can still be seen in some of the characters and colors I use.

Anyways, I got really into it in high school and somehow started writing evolve, which later became evolvemikl (the mikl short for Michael). I never really got into, and wasn't really out there putting stuff up, it was more of a hobby and a way to hone my drawing skills. I just liked the way the letters looked and it really didn't have much to do with any political or religious implications (evolution versus creationism).  Although now that I really think about it, I was going through a faze of drawing gorilla faces, monkey faces and hybrids of the two. And other tribal-like figures.

The first 4 of the following drawing were done probably about 5-10 years ago. And I think I've managed to retain the same style more or less. The first evolve piece below is an older one and you can see evidence of some of the primate figures that are recurring in some of my older sketches.

The next one is alot cleaner and I think I used a ruler, which I actually don't use much anymore because I like the way a natural line looks in that it feel more organic than when using a ruler. Also, without the ruler there's a lot more room for mistakes.

This one I like a lot because I'm not really that good at block lettering but I think I was able to pull it off pretty good on this piece. Mostly though because it's all filled in black. Plus, the stereo I also used for a while drawing and pieces and did different interpretations of it (the painting in the last post).

And this one is one of my favorite, if not my favorite evolve piece that I've done to date. This I would have to say is my signature style. It even has an early example of the arrows I used for a while. Everything more or less connects and it has a looseness to it and is probably why I think it is my favorite. I'm actually thinking about redoing it on better quality paper and making it bigger than the 5-6 inches that this is. It was cropped from a bigger piece from an old sketch book that contained the three previous drawing above.

And the final evolve piece is a more recent one, maybe 6 months old. Around that time I really started working with copic markers, so it isn't really that good, but I still kind of like it. It was cut out using an exacto knife. Although, I really don't know why I even cut it out, I think I just didn't like the shape the rest of the paper was in.