Earnest Pitchforker

By day, this librarian bohemian is both gentle and brutal, much like her death metal-themed cupcake business. She loves nothing more than a beautiful folk ballad, ideally one with harmonies gleaned from the natural call of a rare troop of Appalachian mountain lions, but is swift to gobble up blog posts on obscure new techno acts, simply so can she reject them with a swift, “over it”. Her default homescreen is Pitchfork – she sighs dismissively when anyone mentions it, because if there's one thing she's most over, it's Pitchfork, ever since they gave her beloved Gallant Panda Tent's last EP 4.7 – but still checks it 215 times a day. When she is not mulling over the big issues, such as whether Lana Del Rey's post-backlash backlash cancels out any future backlash, she is scouring Tumblr for well-lit pictures of Bon Iver, taken with extra-grainy Hipstamatic effect. She is thinking about buying cassettes again.

Spotter's Guide
Provenance: bedroom, coffee shop with wifi
Age: 29
Heroes: Psychedelic Horseshit, Evian Christ
Villains: popular music
Distinguishing marks: horn-rimmed spectacles (without the glass)
Most likely to: roll eyes

Earnest Pitchforker is one of ten music tribes illustrated for Q magazine. Art direction by Daniel Knight / Salman Naqvi.

Bro stepper

Squeezing his muscular moobs into a tight white top for his weekend shifts at his local sports centre, this dude has his way with the gym's soundsystem whenever his supervisor pops out for a fag. “It's the drop!” he shouts at the baffled treadmill army, waving his fingers out of time, secretly unsure what exactly the drop is (though he suspects it's the good bit when everything goes mental!). At the end of the day, he scrubs up and goes out to the club in the next town along with the lads, where he spends hours body-slamming to the beat. The head-hammering womps rattle his brain and make him stick out his tongue and salute the air with devil horns. It feels good to let loose and bump bare chests with his bros, all sweaty and rubbed in neon paint. Sometimes they cup each other's balls. You've got the wub.

Spotter's Guide
Provenance: gym, dancefloor
Age: 23
Heroes: Skrillex, Skream, Chase and Sk-atus
Villains: Dubstep purists
Distinguishing marks: happy grin, perforated eardrums
Most likely to: perspire on you

Bro Stepper is one of ten music tribes illustrated for Q magazine. Art direction by Daniel Knight / Salman Naqvi.

Little Monsters

Since she got a Blackberry for her 13th birthday, this rabid teenager has dedicated every spare moment to obsessive popstar devotion, BBM-ing her fan-forum friends as soon as their shared object of worship tweets/posts/sniffs/sighs. Before school, after school, in between lessons, and whenever the teacher's not looking, she encourages her early-onset RSI with aggressive Twitter-based street-teaming, all conducted under the banner of her star-bestowed fan-nickname, be it as part of the Heartbeats or Barbz or Navy or Beliebers or Rampant Hormonals. The internet is her battleground, a place to pour love on their object of pop desire like 1000 times a day OMG and to eliminate any perceived competition, be it fans or rival acts, using smear campaigns conducted with the kind of vicious precision politicians can onlydream of. Do not provoke.

Spotter's Guide
Provenance: shopping centre, school canteen
Age: 14
Heroes: Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, One Direction
Villains: Madonna
Distinguishing marks: Mascara, streaked from sobbing
Most likely to: post video of sobbing on YouTube under the username MRSRIZZLEKICKS4EVA69

Little Monster is one of ten music tribes illustrated for Q magazine. Art direction by Daniel Knight / Salman Naqvi.

Brick layers

Antenna magazine asked me to illustrate a range of layered looks for winter 2012. The first look - Party Prep - mixes colour and pattern to create a professorial soiree style. The second - Basic Bean - follows a lumberjack and stevedore trail combining basic jeans, Bean boots, plaid shirt and a Bean sweater. The third - Winter White - takes white jeans and adds heavy boots, Chambray shirt, a field jacket and warm scarf. Style by Jon Alain Guzik; art direction by Shanna Greenberg.

Merino man

Outdoor Insight magazine asked me to illustrate a range of merino wool athletic products. Art direction by Francis Klaess.