Photo by Richie Mac
In this months art gallery we decided to focused a little bit more on art than on photography. Mike Hughes send over some of his pieces and we were very impressed by his work. His style is very diverse from paintings full of squares to artwork of skatepark/spots. In the gallery you can also find artwork that he did for DIG BMX magazine and BMX companies like BSD and 20twenty. Ladies and gentlemen check out the interview and the very cool gallery by Mike Hughes.

1. Let’s start with a small introduction: where are you from, age, years of making artwork and what got you interested in the first place?

Hello and thanks for having me here. My name is Mike Hughes, 25 and I Live in Aberdeen. I always made drawings as a kid and I think I just kept at it because people encouraged it. Fast forward to 19 years old and I met Alex Eveson. He’s a successful artist and producer. He suggested I go to art school and that was that. I’m now full time artist, part time skatepark staff. I guess there are worse ways to pay the rent!

2. How can you describe your style and what you spend your time doing?

Well I am both an illustrator and a painter but the fine art stuff is a long conversation so we’ll just leave that aside for now. I mainly work for BMX companies at the moment. I’ve been really fortunate to get involved with the industry, it just comes from meeting good people and being persistent. If I were setting my own briefs I’d be making figurative scenes with multiple layers of witty visual metaphors. With BMX I end up drawing exploding brains, goat skulls and giraffe heads amongst other things. That’s down to what will look good on multiple products and being recognizable. With that being said I love the process. It’s like any craft and I just want to make the best product I can. The actual inking process is probably what defines my work. It lives and dies on the strength of the line art.

3. Who or what inspires you in your personal life and in your pictures?

Illustrators-

Owen Freeman, Tomer Hanuka, James Jean, Pat Perry

Painters-

Fiona Rae, Kristine Moran, Toby Patterson, David Schnell, Ed Ruscha

Bmx-

Chris Currie

Skateboarding-

Haydn Morgan

You can see them as one person HERE-

Creative bro’s-

Richie Mac, Alex Eveson

Cool People to work for-

Grant Smith, Mike Ellington, Fred Murray, Joe Coleman

4. What’s the best part of being an Artist?

Without a doubt seeing things get printed. Product or editorial it’s like Christmas.

I still get hyped when I see somebody I don’t know wearing a tee or something with my work. Makes me want to go give them a high five but that would probably confuse the hell out of them!

5.What’s your current setup?

Pen (various brands/sizes). Photoshop. Redbull.

6. Any advise for all the artists out there starting out?

Style only gets you so far. Having good drafting skills will make you way more employable. So draw all the time. Keep a sketchbook. Once you can draw in your sleep. Learn to hustle! Send e-mails, make phone calls and follow any leads on whatever you can. The most important thing though is to make things happen your self. If you do cool

things then people will take notice. So go put on a show, make a zine or do something even better. You are responsible for your own success.

7. Where can people check more of your work?

My website http://www.m-hughes.com or on Instagram (@Badnewsmikehughes)

You can also get me on twitter @Abusedhughes, that one’s just about how much I dislike the bus though.

8. Who shall we feature in the next ‘Art gallery’?

Sam Longmire or Garethcostello

These guys take some pretty good photo’s.