Chosen as one of the artists to display work at the Brooklyn Honours Spike Lee art exhibition (he created the amazing ‘Mo Betta Blues’ piece) which opened this month, Ron was the brains behind the infamous ‘O Face’ T-Shirt by Undercrwn. Check out his portfolio below.
Introduce yourself
Peace. My name is Ron Ackins. You may have heard me referred to as RonDiggy. Im an illustrator. I can’t remember when I started drawing but I’ve always done it. You might recognize my work from UndrCrwn. I did the O-face tee(Obama dunking on McCain) and every other charicature tee they’ve sold. I’ve worked with Harris Publications, they do magazines like XXL and Slam.
I completed a small collection for Nike and Mitchell & Ness as well. These days I’ve been focusing on illustrating comic books. I’ve got a few things in the works with a couple of companies. I cant really go into details just yet.
Favourite lyric from a song
Thats a very hard question! I have so many favorites. One that sticks out is from Run Dmc’s Down With the King.
“Only G-O-D can be a king to me.
And if the G-O-D be in me then a king I be.”
Who and what inspires you
A handful of people inspire me artistically. People like Kadir Nelson, Thomas Blackshear, Olivier Coipel, Spike Lee, J.C Lyendecker, Travis Charest just to name a few.
Alot of music inspire me too. The music I play in the background will influence what I’m working on alot. I usually rotate artist like Muhsinah, Taz Arnold & Sa-Ra, Mf Doom, Black Milk, Tanya Morgan, Miguel Atwood-Furguson & Carlos Nino’s Suite for Ma’ Dukes…I’ll stop there because I could keep going till the cows come home!
What inspires me about those people and what they do is the simple fact that they arent afraid to do what’s on their hearts. You can tell they are putting themselves into their creations. Alot of people say that’s what they do but I rarely see anyones product reflect that.
The nublack philosophy/mantra according to Ron Ackins
Follow your heart and trust your gut. If something feels wrong, it’s probably wrong. If something feels right, it’s probably right.
Check me out:
Website
Myspace
Facebook: Ron Ackins