 Annoyingly, the year after I moved away from Aylesbury, an arcade opened up in town! It's probably for the best, as if it was on my doorstep, I'd be there all the time spending my coin. After my first visit, I shared some photos online, and it wasn't long before they approached me with the offer of some wallspace to display my art. Of course I took them up on it, as it is the perfect environment for my gaming art! Here are some photos of the awesome venue... My Personal favourite game is The Walking Dead. This is a zombie hunting experience you won't get at home, unless you have £18,000 to spend on your own arcade machine of course. The best option is probably just to pop over to The Arcade and play it for a quid. Ok, I actually ended up sinking a tenner into it the other day... I REGRET NOTHING. My other faves are the Jurassic Park shooter, the Space Invaders shooter, Time Crisis 4 (can you tell I like shooters?) and the 4 player Ninja Turtles machine (updated from the original).
If you like videogames (and why wouldn't you), I highly recommend checking it out if you're ever in or near Aylesbury. https://thearcadeaylesbury.co.uk/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thearcadeaylesbury/ Market Square, Aylesbury, Aylesbury, HP20 1TB, United Kingdom 01296312855
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Recently I made quite a run of small bead portraits. I decided to challenge myself to make them fit A4 frames, to make them affordable, as well as take up less space on the wall. After all, any beader worth their salt can make a beautifully detailed pixel portrait if it's huge, as this automatically provides the size for plenty of detail. I have been working with black & white for most of the portraits, although I have also been playing with colour for some others. If you could see any of the above on your walls, please take a look at my Etsy page, where they are all listed!
I've recently been working through a portrait phase. Every now and then I get inspired by something different, and having done a lot of videogame art for markets this year, I decided to make some portraits for a change. Here is a selection of my recent work: Some are available for sale, some not. None of the above art is on Etsy yet, so if you are interested in any of it, drop me a line and we'll talk!
Hey there, pixel fiends! I thought I'd finally write another blog post, as I haven't gotten round to it for a while. So what's been happening? Markets I've had stalls at 2 markets this month... and had my lowest takings of any events I've worked to date! The first was the RetroPlay Festival in Leighton Buzzard - I didn't expect much from this one, as it's a family event in a small town, with a focus on cosplay and vehicles from the movies. I made some sales, which was all I expected, so I wasn't disappointed. The Leeds Retro Games Fair however, is a different story. I expected to do much better there, as I had done in previous years. I hadn't been since 2016, when it was in a different venue. This time, my stall was in a bit of a dark corner away from the main hall, and there didn't seem to be as many people as in previous years. The weather was also really good, which may have been a factor in keeping people from the market. Whatever happened, money-wise this was my worst market to date - I made about 5 sales, when usually I make about 30 at these kinds of events. It was a little disappointing, as I feel like I had some of my best artwork with me. What do you think? Take a look for yourself below and let me know your thoughts! My last market of the year is the Nottingham Retro Games Fair, organised by the same folks who put on the Leeds market. This is the first one to be held in Nottingham, so I'm hopeful there will be some interest from gamers who can't make it to the other events. Anyway, this market is on 5 October at the Britannia Hotel. Check out the Facebook event page for more info.  Online Store I have been adding to my online listings at my Etsy shop - I now have over 60 items and counting! There is more to come, and I will be adding them over the coming days/weeks. Please take a look here... if there is anything else you'd like to see me make, just let me know - I do take custom orders!  And lastly, I thought I'd share a pic of my workspace. It's also a playspace, due to the number of games consoles I have stashed there! It's my favourite room in the house and it literally is the Cave of Pixels.  Recently my art arrangement at The Hubbub bar/theatre in London came to an end. They asked if I could take my art down as the owner wanted to paint the walls. Fair enough I thought, and went and picked up my art, thinking in the back of my mind that maybe this was their way of saying they wanted to go in another direction. I remember being over the moon when the manager had asked if I would be their “resident artist” (I had to clarify what he meant by “resident artist” when he suggested it - he said that meant my art would be the only art on his walls) a while back, but after a few months this began to seem fairly meaningless, as every time I visited I noticed other artists’ work on the walls as well as mine. Anyway, sure enough, weeks and months passed since I removed my art, and silence from the landlord (he was never the best at communicating to be honest). Realistically, I can’t complain – I had an awesome venue in which to display my art for a couple of years, and they asked for no commission on sales. I can’t imagine I’d get that kind of deal anywhere else. Even so, I can’t help but feel disappointed by the way it ended – they could at least have been straight with me. Which brings me on to the topic of this blog post. I have 15 or so pieces of art I’d like to display and hopefully sell. They aren’t gaming-themed, and some of them are a bit too big for me to comfortably sell on Etsy, so I’m not sure what to do with them to be honest! Please note - the props (DVDs, CDs, wife) are not for sale.
Ideally I’d find a gallery/bar/market/shop/space in general that would like to display some pixel art and doesn’t completely exploit its artists (I don’t want to have to raise my reasonable prices to cover huge gallery fees). Ideally it would be local (South-East or London), but I’d happily travel a bit if the situation was right. So far I’m leaning towards trying Camden Market, but if you know of anywhere that you think would be a good fit for my art, I'd love to hear about it! Please drop me an email or message me on social media if you can help. Thanks for reading! First off, happy new year! I just realised it's been just short of a year since my last blog post... I have reasons, honest! The main one is that a huge chunk of last year was spent moving house, meaning I had no workspace for beading for a fair few months. The hard work was worth it however, as I now have a fully functioning art studio / games room in the spare room. It's probably also in my best interest to acknowledge my wife here, who has graciously allowed my childhood to continue into my late thirties. Pretty sweet room, right?
My new year got off to a great start when Vintage Is The New Old ran a profile on my artwork after one of their contributors commissioned some sprites from his favourite games. You can read the article here. Last year I only exhibited at two shows - the London Gaming Market in April, and PLAY London in August. Again, this was due to the house move (PLAY London was the day before we actually moved house, just to make things that little bit harder). This year I vow to be at more markets and shows! I have already booked a stall at the London Gaming Market on March 17th - you can RSVP via Facebook here. I have also (finally) updated my Etsy shop, CaveOfPixelsArt with new art for sale, and am running a special offer of 15% off all pieces until the end of January, so don't miss out on some tasty wall candy! That's a weird way to describe art, but I'm sticking with it!  Hello and welcome to my latest blog post! Firstly, a little something I'm fairly proud of... recently The Hubbub restaurant/bar/theatre in London kindly asked me if I'd like to be their first resident artist, so of course I accepted! It's a great honour to be the only artist to have their work featured in this awesome space. It was my local bar when I lived in London a few years ago, and it was only after I moved away that I found out they were looking for more artists to display on their walls. I have my lovely wife to thank for that, as she is the one who spotted it when they put the call out on social media. Since then I have had my art up in the venue a few times, and it's always been a place where my style and inspirations seem to be appreciated by the clientele. I'm looking forward to creating more pieces for the Hubbub, and will post updates whenever I have new art for their walls! Until then, here are some pics of the latest art additions: The Hubbub bar-kitchen is at 269 Westferry Road, London E14 3RS. More info can be found at their website.
My other update is that I am all signed up to be an exhibitor at this year's PLAY London event in August! It's a two day event featuring retro gaming, modern gaming, special guests, arcade machines and more. I can't wait to be there, it sounds like a great event! Check out my Events page for more info. Recently I have been focussing on selling my art online through Etsy again, so here's a little plug for my shop. It's called CaveOfPixelsArt, and allows you to buy a selection of pieces directly.  Currently there is only videogame-themed artwork listed, but I intend to add a variety of pieces as I sort through my stock. Pixel art is only a hobby for me currently, so until it pays the bills I can only give it my attention on my days off from work. Stay tuned for updates!
This week I set up some artwork at the Hubbub Café/Bar in East London. My art will be up for all of February, so if you're in the area, please pop in and check it out! They also do awesome food, so I recommend stopping for a bite to eat. The Hubbub is located at 269 Westferry Road, Isle of Dogs, London, E14 3RS.
The next London Gaming Market is almost upon us, and this time I'm fully prepared! I'll be taking over 100 handmade pieces of pixel art to the Market on 19 Nov, and thought I'd provide a preview of what I'll have available: Frame sizes range from 18x24cm to 50x50cm. A few more pieces will be added to this gallery between now and the 19th, so do check back to see what's new! Also, if you'd like to see any other games represented, please let me know and I'll see what I can do!
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AuthorMy name is Iain and my addiction is making pixel bead art. My main inspirations are comics, video games and movies. Archives
March 2020
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