Ben Tallon — Live Event Illustrator, UK

People’s faces light up when they see illustrator Ben Tallon getting messy with a wall mural on location in a retail outlet, at a sporting event or at a product launch. Raw energy and creativity are there before your eyes in living colour, expressively applied using brushes, spray cans, marker pens and more.

The authenticity that is key to Ben’s artwork is unveiled through his live event drawing as he helps clients take their audience beyond the sales lines and slogans. The fun and excitement of it generates curiosity and viewers young and old love watching the imagery evolve. It’s inspiring and reminds everyone how good it feels to express yourself.

Approach

If the live project is location specific, Ben will scout it out first to identify key points of interest and work out ways of incorporating them into his artwork. He’ll also get an understanding of what his client is looking for and sign off a rough direction, but after that it’s all instinct.

Style

Ben’s dynamism and sense of creative freedom really feed into the performance side of his live event drawing. While it always seems like there’s little room for error when painting live, the paradox is that Ben’s style thrives on imperfections and happy accidents – they’re what make it human and unique.

Client list

Ben has drawn live at the British Embassy in Minsk and G-Star Raw outlets around the country, as well as for clients including Landmark, The Premier League, Two Up Digital and Havas Lynx.