July CTF street artist DanK video, interview and pictorial excellence

DanK is an animator, illustrator and street artist. He’s worked for Kylie, The Prodigy and Blur, can paint a photo realistic eye using spray cans, was recently invited to work in The Albert Hall and somehow even finds time to do a bit of work for charidee. Basically, he’s one talented guy as you can see on his website, Flickr and shop.

We caught up with him ahead of his live paint at Chew the Fat! on July 31st.

Interview and pictures below.

Hi Dan. How did you come to have so many different strings to your bow?

I don’t know really, it’s not a conscious thing, I just love trying out new techniques and then mixing them all together. They all cross over into one another and it’s great to be able to step over boundaries and throw different things together, it can create some amazing, surprising results! Drawing is my underlying passion though and forms the basis of everything I do.

And where does your work as a street artist figure in the general scheme of things as you as an artist?

It’s an important part of my art — street art is just a different approach using a different medium, but one that allows me a huge amount of creative freedom. It’s so rewarding being able to work in interesting, unusual areas and on a massive scale quite often! It also allows me to bring my work to an audience that otherwise may have been unaware !

You have a number of recurring characters like the Tank Girl-esqu Jen and your huge robot Guardians which remind us of a lot of Japanese Anime/Manga. Where do you get the ideas for your characters and what kind of books/films/cartoon do you feel have inspired your work?

I get inspiration from daily life and often sneakily sketch the people and things I see around London, on the tube and trains. Ideas can also be sparked by magazines and books, I quite often walk round the shops collecting as many free mags as I can, I find them pretty good for ideas!.

As a kid, I read a hell of a lot of comics, although in truth I’ve never read much Japanese manga. I also watched lots of old war films and monster films, which definitely influence my work today. Generally there’s no logic to where ideas come from, they just happen!

You do a daily speed drawing. What programs or process do you use for these? They seem amazingly complicated for 30 minutes work!

These pieces capture my raw reactions to a subject. I love this intuitive style of illustration, which is really loose and fluid. It’s great to create a piece in just one take, and to capture that initial spontaneous response. If I’m working on an animation, speed drawing can help me to unwind and keeps my drawing skills sharp.

Who are your regular partners to paint with? And if you could work with anyone, alive or dead, who would it be?

I’ve painted with lots of great people including Don, Eyesaw, Snub23, Farkfk and Asbo, to name a few. As for who I’d like to paint with, I’m open to suggestions!

Your show reels got a nice bit of old school jungle with Q-Project’s ‘Champion Sound’. What kind of music floats your boat? Do you have an imagined soundtrack when you create your pieces? They often seem very filmic.

Yes, ‘Champion Sound’ is an awesome track. I like all sorts of music really, although electronic and dance tracks are particular favourites, having been brought up on early rave, techno trance and jungle and then moving into drum and bass and dubstep. I also really like Soundscape music like HecQ, Aphex Twin and FSOL is great for creating dark, moody atmospheres. I also listen to classical as a contrast, it sometimes good to chill to when working and seems so fresh and innocent, I love the huge epic sounds of classical music, helps set a mood to my work sometimes.

Having recently painted The Albert Hall, what’s your opinion of the general acceptance of street art? It’s quite interesting that they gave everyone a wall to put their own pieces on.

The Royal Albert Hall paint was actually more of a set mural than a representation of the individual styles of the artists, but it was a great project to be a part of. I think street art is becoming more far more accepted and now incorporates a huge diversity of styles. I guess maybe there is a danger that the boundaries could become too blurred, but that’s the nature of art movements, the fact that they are organic and transitory and change. If it stayed the same it would soon loose it’s edge. But it’s a really positive movement to be a part of at the moment and there are some awe inspiring artists out there.

Finally, what has been your proudest achievement so far?

I get a buzz from each piece, if I manage to achieve the mood or look I was striving for. This usually lasts until I move on to the next one, so I never have a favourite for long!