Auckland Fair 13th March 2016 - What can you expect to see from MRLEONTAYLOR?

 Hello,

I am Mr Leon Taylor and I am really excited to be apart of my first #AKFair 2016.

What to expect at my Table and things you can purchase. All are on high quality 300gsm , Matte finish card/paper and have come up exactly how I wanted them to. All art comes in sealled plastic so it can travel safe and well for you on the busy day. I have put a few of the selected prints that I will be selling on the day from $5 - $20 with a 10% discount for students and seniors. I really like to think I have made my prices so everyone can take home a little piece for them and something they love. I am super friendly and approachable human who takes interest in why you like my Art. So come say Hello I will be at Stall 38! I love where Auckland Fair have located me and look forward to meeting everyone and all other Makers!

Photography: $10

ART Prints Movie / Music based: $10

I loved Deadpool, a lot so have done a small run of ten for the event only $10. These will sell fast.

 I am a massive Basketball fanatic so it was only a matter of time before I did Lebron James about to throw down a monster Dunk. This is On A4 ($10) and will have one Framed for the day ($25).

Celebrating Chinese New Year - Year of The Monkey 2016 - To celebrate my birth year on the Chinese Lunar calendar is exciting. I have made 49 of these all numbered as these numbers are Lucky for those born in the year of the Monkey 4 and 9 or when the numbers are put together. These are on large A5 card with a glossy finish $4.99 ($5)

Sickelodeon Series One Pack of Four, I am doing for only $5. There is only 50 of Each all numbered by me and signed of course. One awesome Person said " thanks for destorying then rebuilding my childhood memories with 4 pictures" I loved hearing that haha.

ABSTRACT PAINTS OIL/Acrylic - Family Greenstone 3 of 3 - 38 cm x 76 cm - stretch canvas $180 each 0r all 3 for $500.

Mini desk paintings , with easel: $10 - I made these so you can have a small piece of art and the colours are to increase mood and look away from the screen. The green one is called " NZ Greenstone" the red is "West Coast Sunset". These are on 6x4 canvas using Acrylic and Oil blend.

Also have a selection of prints from unseenmonsters.com : 

Mr Leon Taylor - Auckland Fair March 2016 - Question and Answer

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED MAKING YOUR WORK?

I started creating art as it was something I did not always do, nor could do, but definitely had a calling to.

As a member of the corporate and service industry workforce for 15 years, I was not drawing anything more than a few skulls every now and then when I had a chance to relax. I realised I had no true happiness on that path…so I went in search of happiness.

I chose to study animation for, four years. This meant drawing every day and a challenge I knew I needed, in order to get where I wanted to go. Three years after study I find myself: working from home, at my dream job, working for myself, creating every day. From designing album covers or restaurant bars to creating commissioned pieces for private clients and businesses. Sometimes I’m working on collaborations with other artists, musicians or photographers, such as the unseenmonsters.com project. Or perhaps I’m creating chalk pastel mural pieces, short videos, songs and loops or crafting little creatures in fabric or modelling mediums.

I love drawing most, but I also very much enjoy painting with traditional mediums or digitally in Photoshop.

I am a one -man Production Company with a high standard in regards to the work I achieve. Some of my current clients include Forbidden Cider Co., who recently won Champion Cider of New Zealand 2015 at theBrewers Guild Awards. I’ve worked with Forbidden on their logo, label art and design, bar design, digital graphic work and even custom created the front cover for Forbidden’s  2015 feature in New Zealand Business magazine. For music venue and promoters The Powerstation and MuchMore Music, I get to edit television commercials, create custom art tour posters and graphic elements for the web like gifs or banners, for top touring New Zealand and International music acts.

DESCRIBE HOW YOU WOULD LIKE TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS IN THE NEXT FIVE YEARS

In the next five years I’d like to do more, more of everything! More of all the current pieces I create for my variety of clients plus the ability to work on my own creative projects and inspirations. I’m looking forward to doing stacks more fairs and markets too, in and around Auckland but also around New Zealand and the world. I’m looking to get into a bit more live art demonstration and forging new collaborations with artists and creatives in other fields.

I like to promote the attitude of having no boundaries or expectations with my work, so I don’t box myself in. If it’s creative and it feels cool and fun to me – then I wanna have a go at doing it myself!

WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT YOUR CREATIVE SPACE, WHERE YOU MAKE YOUR WORK AND WHY?

I’ve worked hard to create the perfect home studio and office. Perhaps what I love most about my creative space is my reference library. I’ve got a lot of fantastic reference books that inspire me just by being around for me to enjoy or thumb through. But they can also help with things like creating some of my wacky creatures and monsters, when I need a bit of a biology reference. My creative space is filled with natural light and I like to keep it pretty simple, clean and tidy with everything at my fingertips that I might need in order to create pieces.

WHAT CAN PEOPLE EXPECT TO FIND AT YOUR STALL ON THE DAY?

I’ll be bringing along a bunch of fun items that will include: A4 and A5 sized art prints of various designs such as ‘Doughnut Vader’, ‘Sickelodean Series 1’, Wylie Coyote / Mad Max Fury Road mash up, selectedunseenmonsters.com  images and more. I’ll also have abstract, pop culture and portrait themed painted canvasses in different sizes for sale. I’ll be bringing along a bit of a new project I’ve been working on too, some fun fabric monster buddies. There’ll be all sorts of goodies and treasures to check out at the Mr Leon Taylor table and because I believe that art should be accessible to as many people as possible, I humbly offer a 10% discount on all items to any Senior Citizen or Student Association card holders.

WHAT WAS THE BEST BUSINESS ADVICE/TIP YOU’VE BEEN GIVEN ON YOUR JOURNEY?

Author Malcolm Gladwell says that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. This concept is something I like to think about regularly as it helps to motivate me to keep working on projects, ditch self-imposed boundaries and to not take anything I create too seriously if possible, while I work on clocking up my hours.

Dream Tarot Cards - Personal project -

I wanted to make an exercise that could start with drawing skills and end with photoshop skills. So make it almost like and endless Personal Project I went with the Idea of "Dream Tarot Cards". These are all from the idea that they are different from other everyday Tarots and even more truthful.

Here is THE ID - You inner most desires and motives behind your existence.

Face them or die by them, it is up to you how you narrate your time on earth. But tread carefully, because even living to 100 will still feel too short. 

Mr Leon Taylor

KAIJU vs JAGER - Pacific Rim Fan-Art 2015 - BACKGROUND PROCESS

This was a collaboration by Me ( Mr Leon Taylor) and Matt Haworth for the Event Overload NZ

I put together a rough compostion of the area with the background and Kaiju, that I later sent to Matt and who later roughed in the Jager in before we decided on the composition. I wanted to make mine aggressive as possible and charging at the Jager after he had made his way through the city.

KAIJU vs JAGER - Pacific Rim Fan-Art 2015
Below is the finished piece, to follow is the rough and process I have taken through the collaboration. 

The rough Design and composition I drew up, that Matt Haworth later inserted his WW2 style Jager.

The First pieces of Line-work for the huge Kaju vs the Photoshopped Coloured Version with light bounce and elements be fore adding to the background.

 MR LEON TAYLOR

- BACKGROUND PROCESS-

1)Get the prespective ready and general landscape.

2) Add inn intial light  and lights in city.

3) Map out the distruction from where the Kaju has come from and add moon and background lightining.

4) Work on clouds and light source and smoke over the city.

5) Add the cold vs warm tones to match Characters and add contrast to the battle.

6) Clean up city area make it feel like it has more depth and a shore line give the clouds more volume.

7)  Burn that city down, make it feel like terror has been and that it is about to colapse and add movement in the ocean where the Jager and Kaju will be.

8) Add the rays of light that will be hitiing our characters.

9) Insert Kaju and then look work with Matt on a final composition.

This was a great challenge and I got so much from it. I live to collaborate and especially with people who have a similar background and love to finishing projects.