Motorbike Beat: The Lustrous Scratchy Line Art of Chris Watson

'A motorcycle on full noise is a glorious sort of musical instrument for those with the right ears.'

Chris Watson's passion for motorbikes is evident in much of his illustration, drawing as it does upon the timeless lore of the road, the romance of the 'lone-wolf' rider and the darkly defiant 'live fast -- die young' ethos of the ton-up tiger. Indeed, 'Ton-Up' is the name he has given to his own T-shirt label featuring many of his bike-related designs.

Born and bred in the heart of Scotland, Watson studied drawing and painting at Glasgow School of Art, then spent time variously drawing comic strips, attending motorcycle rallies and busking on a tea-chest bass before taking the well-worn route down south with his Glaswegian girlfriend (now wife) Lorna, also an illustrator and comic artist (featured in Nude issue 3).

He says of his time as a student,

'I noticed a lot of students treated their art as something entirely separate from their personality and their lives, producing dry work in homage to the latest trends in conceptual austerity but for me, real art feeds on the ripe flesh of life and not from some stale academic notion.'

Consequently, Watson's 'lustrous, scratchy line art' directly reflects his own personal obsessions and broad artistic and cultural influences, which aside from motorbikes, incorporate pulp fiction, Cubism, folk art, Tex Avery cartoons, German Expressionism and bandes dessinees amongst other things, with further inspiration drawn from an eclectic sweep of musicians old and new, which include Gene Vincent, Captain Beefheart, Ray Charles, Serge Gainsbourg, Link Ray, Miles Davis, Stereo Total and Broadcast.

As you might expect then, his own personal illustration style is similarly varied, ranging from colourful and cartoony caricatures of Marilyn Manson, to leaner, more evocative and atmospheric pieces full of beatniks, beautiful women, leather and of course, fast machinery -- though not necessarily in that order. It's also often peopled by cultural icons, both legendary and obscure, such as Brigitte Bardot and the bebop vocalist and one-time hep-cat around town, Babs Gonzales.

This is an edited extract from a longer illustrated feature on Chris Watson, which appeared in issue 2 of Nude (Dec 03/ Jan 04).