About: Benjii

My impression of Benji is a kind guy and a great artist. And yeah, he is! As both members of NFG crew, I watched his dope work, using posca's, a brush and some water to make them colors fade. He takes a couple days to make a piece but when that piece hits, you'll be amazed! Well, this is Benji's backstory, the founder of the 228 Magazine!

We actually haven't traded yet but immediatly iniated a digital collab! I liked your character and how you managed to combine it with lab themes. Hoe did you come up with your character ?

 Thankyou for asking me to get onboard with this interview. I came up with my character through wanting to be able to and wishing I could draw portraits but being terrible at proportions hahaha it also helps that it's a pretty basic character to fit in with almost any lab! The lack of jaw makes it a struggle for anything involving labs focused on the mouth but I always figure it out some kind of way.

 Does your art and the 228 magazine have a deeper meaning to you ?

 In all honesty mate, no. I just enjoy doing all types of art, pencil work, watercolours, tattooing etc the 228 magazine is just a way of giving all artists who work on labels another extra platform to showcase their dedication and skills in a physical format for everyone to get a piece of. As the 228 community know, chances are you're not going to ever get a lab back but you can still have a physical copy through the mag.

What do you like most about what you do?

Mmmm that's a tricky question. I think it's the challenge to match themes on labs or just the painting style I use as I can apply it to help me improve on my tattooing side of artwork by getting more practice/accustomed to blending, light sources as I do more labels than tattoos but it still helps. I struggled answering that one so I'll leave that as my main point. 

What markers do you use? And why?

I use posca or tooliart mainly mainlyfor the fact that with a brush and water I've got a paint set without having a palette of wasted paint or tubes of paint everywhere just a very unorganised box of pens thrown in.

Actual marker pens on the other hand got to go for windsor and Newton. Love using them! Excellent for using as a base coat to apply pencil on top (crayola) creates a kind of melt/softening affect on the wax creating solid blends....100% give it a try if you get the chance 

You are the founder of @official228mag and your mag is pretty famous within our community. Could you tell us more about the history of the magazine ?

Too kind sir! I started it as there appeared to be a big gap in the 228 community for any type of mag. I knew dhl and the hermes labels had a mag, so I jumped at the chance and bring everyone something that they'd get chance to be involved in. I asked, now nfg crew mates, world of Wallace for more of the character lovers and Nowe_1er for the more the graff side of labels so had 2 strong artists appealing to different tastes. Small interests in it but is was early stages. I played about a bit more in issue 2 with layouts brought in more artists, got more recognition. Asked Levxnk ( he wanted to be silent partner but this is a great opportunity to thank him!!) for help, he created the page and helped out massively getting this thing rolling. Now it's at a stage where I've fined tuned it all to a standard I'm happy with. I appreciate everyone for getting involved! Without you guys creating the work there wouldn't be a mag, it's as simple as that! Big ups to you all with a big thankyou to the guys taking a gamble letting me use their work for the taster issue! 

Got anything more you want to say?

Keep up the amazing artwork everyone and don't get stressed on trying to get lots of trades out, like i was at a certain point which killed my motivation, limit work to a comfortable time frame for yourself, people will wait as I've asked this to my nfg crew mates and they re affirmed just to take time to enjoy it.