Wear Your Art On Your Sleeve: Russell Taysom

Born in 1981 Russell Taysom studied art at his hometown Hereford college of art before moving on to Brighton University. In 1998 Russell started making fanzines and gig posters, since then he's moved into other areas such as tattoo design, animation and record sleeves. Having recently designed the artwork for Fever Fever's 'Monster' and contributed some spectacular work for the next issue of Artrocker Magazine, we spoke to Russell for 'Wear Your Art On Your Sleeve'.

What visual art/graphic stuff are you into?
I'm really into cartoons and comix. I love Robert Crumb and Daniel Clowes and also painters like Otto Dix and George Grosz. There's so much amazing visual stuff all around from sweet wrappers to cartoons on TV. There's a comic from called Eyeball from Bristol that has lots awesome stuff in it that I really like too.

What did you use? Anything other than the ubiquitous Photoshop?
The face is drawn in chalk pen and the lettering in brush tipped pens.

Were there any rejected ideas or have you got any preliminary sketches that you could scan and send us? [That's the art school, "Show me your sketchbook" question!]



How much, if any, input did the band have?
They were great because they knew exactly the sort of mood they wanted the cover to convey but let me come up with the image. It was inspired by the lyrics and by the tension in the music.

Did you do it specifically for the record or is it something you'd done already that the band/label saw and liked?
I did it especially for the record. I loved the song so I just put it on repeat and drew what it made me feel.

How did the band/label find you?
My band Micropenis were playing in Norwich and Rosie was doing the sound. She was really cool so I looked for Fever Fever who I thought were amazing. I ended up doing some posters for them when they played REPEAT nights in Cambridge and from that they asked me to do the single cover.

Tell us one other thing you've done. You're favourite one.
Another thing I did recently was this poster for Betty and the Werewolves. They're another band I really like and I was pleased with how it came out.



Russell Taysom www.russelltaysom.com