PENCIL PUSHER
Artist Alex Frost is bringing his skate-inspired illustrations and personal ponderings to butt cheeks near you
How did you get into illustration in the first place?
I always enjoyed drawing growing up and at school, but it wasn’t until university that I started drawing the ‘shitpencil’ style. I went to university to study literature, but in my third year I got stuck with a handful of mandatory modules that I hated to the point I didn’t turn up to any of the lectures or seminars. As I wasn’t turning up to half of my course I had a lot of free time and not much to do with it – I had a small handful of friends at university but never really met anyone who I really clicked with. Too wet to skate, bored and a bit lonely, I started scribbling silly characters, animals with accompanying captions or quotes. I’ve always been fascinated with the idea of imagining your own world, characters and rules. ‘Shitpencil’ is just that, its own world.
How would you describe your style to people who haven’t seen it?
Simple and minimalistic drawings based on passing thoughts and feelings.
Much of your work is skate-related – why did you decide on this as a base topic?
In 2017/2018 I got really sick. Towards the peak of this I was meant to go on a skate trip to Barcelona with some friends, but I had to spend the week in hospital instead. I used the money I saved from not going abroad to buy an iPad Pro so I could draw digitally.
Eventually, I was discharged and prescribed a high dose of steroids, which meant I was extremely weak and couldn’t skate. It was pretty scary, I remember going to the skatepark one time during this period when I started to feel a little better and I could barely pop the board. I went to leave the park, said bye to my friends and, as I went to push away, I sorta just collapsed and fell off.
Everyone laughed, including me, but I do remember being terrified that I wouldn’t be able to skate ever again properly. After this, I think I just tried to stay sane by skating through drawing it. I drew some skate-inspired bits before, but this period definitely put a large focus on it.
Do you have any major influences on your work or an illustrator who inspires you?
I think my largest influence style-wise was illustrated poetry books I read as a kid. I often think of one stupid one I had called The Spot on my Bum, illustrated by Julie Thompson. As a kid, I loved all the crude, silly poetry accompanied by the surreal, sometimes innocent, sometimes quite grotesque, but always simple illustrations. I think this is why my drawings are often childish in style but can explore adult and darker themes.
Have you ever been commissioned to create a piece – if so, what was it?
I’ve been commissioned to create art for a couple of skate brands, a few clothing companies, tattoo designs for people – they’re the main three groups of requests I usually get, but I’ve had a few other quite unique ones, too. I had a lot of fun working with a DIY fingerboard company (@variantdecks) on a series of designs in 2019. I’ve drawn a few bits for musicians, too, some merch designs and album covers. Always grateful and stoked for every opportunity I’ve been given by people who like my work enough to pay me.
There also seems to be a real movement of people using your pieces as tattoo art. How do you feel about this?
Always stoked, I feel proud every time someone sends me a tattoo they’ve got of one of my drawings. I really love that my work can resonate with someone enough for them to want to wear it with them forever. Some people alter the designs a bit – I don’t really care, people can do what they want, really. Someone once got one tattooed across their head, which was pretty wild – they changed the design quite a bit, added a skate logo to the tee and eyebrows, shading and a few other bits. I wouldn’t normally reshare a drawing that alters the design this much, but I couldn’t help it with that one!
Someone once got a massive tattoo of my ‘flip the police’ design on their arse and a couple of people got matching arse tattoos.
What is your proudest moment so far as an artist?
That people like my drawings enough to get them tattooed.
