Guest Artist: Sophia Swift

The Guest Artist section is a place for artists to talk about their work, techniques and materials. I am sure that one artist explaining how they solved a problem will help other artists and I hope that a community evolves where artists will assist each other with their artistic dilemmas, share ideas and technical information as well as make connections and give each other friendly support.

To join the conversation please add your comment below. It will be great to have some interaction!

Here today to share her art with us is Sophia Swift who paints in North London, UK, doing graffiti-style cityscapes and comic-style art. Thanks Sophs!

Sophia Swift painting on canvas with Montana spray paint and Posca markers

Sophia Swift:
I’m an artist. I live and love art. I feel incomplete if I don’t get to do my art, it’s necessary for my survival. When I create art I feel like I’ve got all 5 bars charged.

I use mixed media and experiment with anything I can get my hands on, but my passion is Montana acrylic spray paints and Posca acrylic marker pens on canvas. I like to create sharp lines as building blocks with card stencils and Montana spray paint. I use mostly Montana sprays and photo stickers mounted on foam board and posca pens to create a comic-like style on canvas to tell a story, a thought or emotion in a one-shot image from my life. (Which consists of my bestest buddy tkmaxxxxx and all my crew!! Aka blabbermouth, rene c, costine, mr warren, the lovely lovelock in da house, the one and only walter, the beauty freeman, the new star dannyboy… MAD LOVE.)

The challenge for me in creating this work is the fast drying of the paint. So I recommend preparation as the key to using Montana sprays and Posca pens – to have everything set up with fresh caps for sprays and a clean rag to hand for quick repairs of nozzle clogging. Also, I always have a piece of card near and before using a can I like to kick off a spray loosely on scrap card to make sure I have a nice clean application of pigment. Also for the Posca markers- you will need to pump the pen every now and then when the nib starts to dry out, so that there will be a new flow of acrylic onto the pen tip.

I believe art is an AWESOME gift and think you should just love it always.

One of the websites that Sophs recommends for graffiti fans is Pure Evil.