Jordan Moody’s drawings are a technicolour take on London’s streetside scenes

Although the artist and designer Jordan Moody likes to start out his eclectic everyday scenes by looking over photographs he’s taken of the people and places he loves, pictures themselves are far too “dull” a mode for him. Colour is the creative’s favourite toolkit to choose from when it comes to translating his surroundings into vibrant, otherworldly drawings.

Through Jordan’s windows into local kebab and corner shops, London’s V&A gallery and street side scenes in Peckham, the artist likes to adorn people with “clothes that are a bit more jazzy”, in order to “make them feel happier”, he says. A grey and dreary London ceases to be in these densely patterned scenes, bursting with loud, cloudless hues.

As well as treating people’s white t-shirts like blank canvases, the artist often finds new configurations for the spaces and architecture that frame his figures. He finds particular joy in making things that nobody usually pays attention to – like floors – and redrafting them into technicoloured tapestries of abstract forms. “I think people make the floor too boring,” he says, “it’s a great place to add colour.”

A lot of Jordan’s current pieces are a way to get to know the people and places around his studio in Peckham a little bit better. Finding moments that captivate him in the mundane, he likes to watch snapshots of day to day life unfolding: people busy “working, cooking, shopping and spending time with friends”. When it comes to the sketching stage, it’s all about figuring out how many of these people he can fit into one piece. He turns to soft chalk pastels to colour the scenes, before rigorously making the addition of all the smaller details “for people to look closely at” with coloured pencils that carve out his sharper outlines.

When asked about a favourite drawing of his at present, Jordan mentions his piece Alex in the Kebab Shop: it’s the result of one his trips to get a kebab “as a treat on a Friday”, on his walk from the studio. The piece is up there with his favourite portraits simply because he loves to work from pictures of people cooking: “because they are making something nice for other people to enjoy”, the artist says.

Outside of his love of drawing, Jordan works across a range of media at his current studio space at Intoart in London. Intoart is a multidisciplinary art, design and craft studio based in Peckham that operates as an evolving alternative art school and pioneering programme to 'champion the equity, leadership & visibility of learning disabled and autistic artists, designers and makers.' “I’ve also designed some lovely products like a cap, socks and lampshade with my work on”, Jordan tells us – all of which can be found in the Into Art Shop.

Whatever it is that Jordan is working on he’s always found that, for him, everyday people take centre stage in any creative pursuits: “I enjoy documenting people because I like seeing everybody doing their own thing”, he ends, “I like everyone being happy and having a good day.”