Dave Kennedy aka CherrySheriff
May 2017
Dave
Dave
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Dave Kennedy is a commercial artist based in the North West of England. I first discovered his work at a Star Wars event in Manchester where he had a stall set up. Dave himself is very affable and chatty, with a big personality, something that aids his face to face sales at such events.
I was immediately impressed by Dave’s pictures. His style is very clean and for the majority of the artwork I have seen it can best be described as illustration based, featuring a single character or vehicle usually set against a white or pale background. I have subsequently met Dave at two consecutive Star Wars Fan Fun Days in Burnley (2016 and 2017) and over the last two years I have had the pleasure of seeing more of his artwork and hearing him speak about his passion for art. I now own six of his prints (all signed). There are all from his ‘Bounty Hunter’ series, comprising: Boba Fett; Dengar; IG-88; Bossk; 4-Lom; and Zuckuss. This is an awesome set of drawings and when arranged together present a fantastic collection. Whilst Dave does draw a range of subjects and genres, he has a particular fondness of the Star Wars universe and repeatedly returns to the galaxy far, far away for inspiration. From having spoken to Dave he deliberately draws his pieces in a perspective and pose not seen within any of the films or spin off cartoons. In his own words, he wants to represent his subjects in new poses rather than reproduce scenes that are already familiar. One thing he manages from his approach is a sense of dynamism in his drawings, with the characters caught in motion. With the release of the new Star Wars movies Dave has released two excellent Force Awakens pictures featuring Rey and Kylo. These two pieces show off the dynamism of Dave’s style exceedingly well and both are less single character pieces and more contextual paintings with colourful backdrops. I love these two pieces and I am sorely tempted to buy. But then, there are a number of his pieces that I would love to own. He has a small range of imperial walker drawings (an AT-AT and an AT-ST at present) that I really like. The two pictures are very different in style to each other, with the AT-ST appearing much more of a comic book drawing, whilst the AT-AT is more of a serious illustration. But both are excellent and capture the nature of both vehicles. For instance, the AT-ST is sometimes referred to as a ‘chicken walker’ and there is a definite sense that Dave has gone for a bird like pose to the walker in his picture. However, the drawing of the AT-AT is very different, and conveys the implacable and ponderous advancement of the walker, with Dave posing it heading directly towards the viewer. This anthropomorphism of the two walkers is such a clever interpretation of characteristics that we all see from the movies. Pricing for his pieces is very reasonable, with an A3 print of any of these pictures priced at just £10. Prices go up from there depending upon the size of the print but remain ‘fair’. Another recent addition to Dave’s collection is his Millennium Falcon. Done as a plan view looking down. The style Dave has adopted in the presentation of this drawing is unique, in so much that he has had the illustration reproduced as a print in colour (black, grey and red), but then meticulously hand finishes the drawing with a silver pen, adding highlights and picking out particular details on the drawing. This makes for an end result which is unique and personalised for each reproduction. This approach is fantastic and a great way of adding a personal touch to each print making each a bespoke item for its owner. The added personality of this print, coupled with the huge size (70cm x 100cm), means that the sale price for the piece is £180. But for a personalised, bespoke piece of artwork on this scale that is very reasonable. Dave also undertakes commissioned pieces for fans and welcomes any potential customer to request pieces they would like to buy. To say I am a fan of Dave’s work is an understatement. I would gladly have any number of his pieces on my walls at home, and I look forward to adding more to my collection in due course. |