Though he’s already well known throughout the surfing industry for his gnarley board art and sprays, flipping through Christian Chapman’s portfolio is like climbing inside the abstruse mind of a lingerie-clad SAS sniper – one minute you’re being seduced by a perfectly detailed fantasy beach scene, the next you’re hit straight between the eyes with a gory death metal inspired piece.  Christian uses a melange of airbrush, aerosol, paint brush and free hand stencilling to produce his eclectic mix of work. We caught up with him to find out more about his unconventional ways and his love of heavy metal.

Tell us about your background, you started spray painting surfboards at 16... That was a hell of a learning curve, it taught me a lot about art.  I’d describe it as my University stint because you really have to develop quickly. (laughs) I was shocking at first, one of my first sprays took 12 hours and my boss was saying, ‘I don’t know if we can employ you at this rate’, but after a few years everything speeds up.  It’s a big confidence thing too - just learning to be confident on a surfboard or a canvas, at first you’re really tight and everything’s really detailed and
you panic you’re going to stuff up.

How did you develop your technique without any formal training, your work has a lot of
depth to it with light and shade, was that hard to develop? Absolutely, I’ve studied light a lot. You need to get that definition of light and dark, contrast and shadow to portray a real depth and 3D sort of look. I’ve also learnt from doing surfboards for years and watching my mum when I was young. She’s an amazing figure artist, she can draw anything. 

What mediums do you use? Everything from aerosol cans to airbrush and paint brush, I’ve been combining them, doing hand paint brush to do all the detail, then using an airbrush to do all the soft stuff. I don’t stick to the traditional ‘oil on canvas’ way and I don’t want to be controlled either. I don’t want to be told ‘this is the way things are meant to be’. I think at the end of the day it’s a visual thing and I don’t think there should be any rules or regulations as to what mediums you should use, it can get really clichéd, and there’re so many other things to use.

How would you describe your style? A bit of everything really, I do stencils and I love the freedom of urban murals with loose aerosol cans, drips, abandonment.  I’m starting to get into transparent metallics on aluminium, they’re activated by the sun or halogens and it creates another world of depth, it’s unreal.  Canvas is universally accepted so that’s why I’m trying aluminium; I want to put different slant on things.

Where are you hoping to go with that? Big arse galleries!  But it’s not the be all and end all for me; art is just one tangent of what I do.  I love surfing and music and I don’t want to be Mr Famous Rich Artist – but I’d like to make a living from it.  I like to see people’s reactions to my work, good or bad, you learn from that.

So was that a definite direction you decided on before you started the aluminium collection, or did you give it a try and then think ‘hey this could work’? Um... I’ve seen a lot of art out there that I just didn’t like, and then there’s the amount of money they charge for it.  So I thought ‘bloody hell why can’t I have a go at that?’, and make a living through my art instead of surfboards.  I love large scale, like murals - the bigger the canvas, the better the impact.  With surfboards the size is a bit restricting and they don’t last forever.  But a painting is going to be a feature on someone’s wall forever and you can really put your heart and soul into it.

I’ve noticed a lot of your work features some incredibly hot women...where has that come from? (laughs) Um...not that my wife approves, but I do draw her a lot.  Others I just dream up, they’re just fantasy, or if I see a photo I get inspired and use aspects of that.  I never copy the same face, I always change it.

Do you think you have two definite creative sides? Totally, I used to be a full blown hippy and everything was rainbows and sunrises.  Then I started getting into heavier music and started doing some darker pieces, so I do have two sides for sure.  I love heavy metal music and I like painting death and the dark side as well.

Which side do you think wins out? It’s weird; I could listen to the hardest metal, and paint an ocean sunrise.  It’s calming for me, as strange as that sounds, and it keeps me moving.  I like the energy of it but a lot of people think ‘how can you listen to that’, they think you’re an angry person but that’s just how I roll. 

Does music influence you or help with the creative flow? Absolutely, it just stimulates the whole process.  Without music the atmosphere can be quite sterile, I’m not that inspired and don’t loosen up.  But as soon as I put on Slipknot or something like that, the paint brush just goes, everything falls into place.

Do you draw your stencils free hand or do you trace them? Depends on the day, sometimes I just make stuff up, or I’ll get a cool reference and just go by sight and cut it out, and then sometimes I’ll trace around just to get the proportions right and freehand blade the rest.  It’s a lot of trial and error in the beginning, there’s lots of little joins and it’s easy to go too far and the whole thing falls apart. It’s like working with negative and positive you have to keep focussed on what stays and what goes.

Any tricks for those who are struggling with designing and cutting stencils? Just cut sick and get into it.  The less you think about it the better and the more spontaneous it’ll come out, just try and be quick and blade it.  The more you work on it the tighter they come out, and the quicker you are the freer they are.

How about tips for anyone wanting to get into the surfboard spray game? Don’t do it! Ummm... can I just leave it at that, don’t do it (laughs).