There is a style of illustration that takes you back to your childhood, which rings of nostalgia and, at the same time, does something innovative, making you stop and peer in, like Alice looking down the hole after the white rabbit.  Bristol based artist Dave Bain captures this style like Alice could never capture that hastening cottontail.

Dave Bain’s illustrations and drawings feature slightly dark, warped faces, like wax works beginning to wane in the light of a sunny window. Eyes stand out, shining from the tangles of hair or thorns, black and piercing like scarab beetles. His Birdboy Drawings series is reminiscent of Sendak’s early drawings, which I loved as a child, and still to this day. These works are fairytale-flavoured, shot through with the dark bitterness of the Brothers Grimm. 

With each image a new scene begins, featuring characters in the form of birds and figures, shadowed and entangled by thorns and textured markings. The story could be seemingly mundane – a peek into someone’s daily routine; or it could be an intricate plot set in a dark forest, whose trees and birds seem personified by inquisitiveness.

Bain’s composition when portraying the human figure is unusual, often snippets of the everyday, but captured in a moment that is not frequently committed to paper, or indeed art, because the pose of the subject is not quite as presentable as we usually like it viewed. It’s like seeing a photo of yourself caught quite unflatteringly mid-sentence, and though you cringe at its frankness, the picture portrays the truth of a moment free of inhibition. For their sincerity, these photos are sometimes the best.

When I asked Bain about his inspiration for this style of drawing, he said: “Raw drawing has always appealed to me and is the starting point for any project.  I love digging through old photo collections and finding odd sections of pictures or an unusual pose.  'Stretch' is an adaption of an image I came across.  I've elongated certain parts of the girl’s body with the aim of leaving the viewer unsure which way up she is, or what part of the body comes first.  It's fun to play with body shapes in that way, yet represent them with an observational and detailed drawing style.”

Unlike many artists, Bain boldly uses white space, with the effect that some of his drawings form natural frames. And they are just that – natural. Other than the subject matters typifying nature, the formations composed often seem organic, not perfectly aligned or straight, but often awkward or seemingly askew. Here lies much of its charm.

Attracted to symmetry, as we are, I had never before challenged the notion that a drawing had to take centre-stage as a rule. Yet, Bain’s offset compositions complement his style and subjects, enhancing his style of the skewed, and aptly timed for the current fashion of asymmetrical shapes in design.

When asked about his use of space in Looking for a Way in, Bain explained: “I'd been experimenting with the idea of creating a jigsaw-like effect with birds in my sketchbook in the lead up to drawing out this piece.  I wanted to give it some form of meaning and through the sketching process develop a story about the one bird, separated from the rest of the crowd.  Drawing birds also allows me to indulge in my love of using texture in an expressive way.”

Finally, I asked Dave what project he’d love to dive into if it were free of temporal and monetary limits, and where nothing was implausible: “I've recently been working with two talented VJs (Video Jockeys) and a music producer on a new form of live drawing.  It's a combination of live drawing being fed into VJ equipment and then manipulated in sync with a musical score.  I think it's really important to develop the notion of drawing and explore what illustration means in relation to advancements in technology.  I don't want to lose the traditional methods of creating images, though, and I believe those methods can remain, but be integrated with modern display and manipulation. I'm excited to see what sort of equipment will come onto the market to help bridge this gap between traditional and new.

“My dream would be to work with a digital equipment surface that responds and captures an immediate organic form of drawing, no matter what different materials and processes are used... and to capture that clearly and precisely.”

Bain has exhibited in galleries around the country, including Saatchi, he’s had many of his works published and is highly recognised by the Macmillan Children's Prize. I strongly recommend a visit to his website, where you can take a step into the wonderfully wacky world of Bain. His work will also feature in the exciting Decked Project, 15th - 29th August at Coningsby Gallery, London. After this Dave is exhibiting at Inkygoodness 4 - "Play".