Xmas presents

Here are some Christmas presents I made:


This was just an excuse to put a book in the industrial guillotine in my basement in the dead of night. My mum liked it though.



Photo frame for my brother. The papercut is made with an old map, I knocked up the frame in the last 45 minutes of my woodworking night class, then painted it black to hide the mistakes. The photo's just one I had lying around of some owl thing in my room that I got from Muji.



Just a tiddler, about 2" square, that I made for my mum... The image is based on an old woodcut - it's not exactly as I'd like, but it's all learning, innit. Went a bit squinty after this one.

I also made my dad a silhouette picture like in the previous post, but of the Lake District and a little papercut for my sister. My haul included some sexy typography and art books, mushroom pate and a bird box. Score!

Xmas present 1

Hooray! Christmas and all that crap is finally over, so I can post up all the stuff I made for people. Except that those photos are on another computer. So for now, there's just this, which I made for a friend. It's the view from Idwal Slabs in North Wales where we went climbing a couple of months ago, made from layered black paper and tracing paper. The more tracing paper you put in front of the black paper, the fainter it gets - I saw the idea in a kids craft book a few weeks ago. I made one of the Lake District for my dad too - its an idea that lends itself well to landscapes I think.


Oh yeh, Happy New Year. I saw 2008 with a glass of Buckfast and hundreds of drunk punks at the 1 in 12 Club in Bradford... sweet.

and finally

For my last post in this update binge, here's a papercut I made for my grandma two weeks ago. My mum called to say she'd had a fall and was in hospital, but not expected to last long. She booked us a train down for the next day and I got to packing, which left a long quiet evening wishing I was already with her. So I sat down and made her this. It's not perfect at all - I've worked out a 300% better way to stick down papercuts since then, and the artwork is pretty much straight copied from an illustration in a book - but I found the devotional aspect of relatively mindless activity focussed me and calmed me. My grandma taught me to knit and sewed countless quilts for her large family by hand, hence the image.

We drove 3 hours from the train station to get to the hospital at 2am - she actually held on until after I'd come back up north and died on the Sunday morning. I put the card next to her bed - I don't think she saw it, but it was good to be with her.

some papercuts

Super into making papercuts at the moment. I'll have more to post after Xmas when the recipients have seen them.

First one I made, and the only thing I could think of to do with it.

First page of my new sketchbook, a quickie but like it.

detail of my favourite yet - unfortunately a rather private present for someone so this is all you're getting.

Just got a surgically sharp scalpel from Fred Aldous when I was in Manchester a few days ago, so everything is going to get more intricate from now on.

More flyers

Some old posters I dug out. Sorry they're photographed, not scanned.

Summer 2005 - I had this bike in front of me to draw, first time I used any kind of reference in a drawing and it felt like cheating.

Summer 2005 - beginning of my thing for drawing hands.

Drawn with a biro in Barcelona, late 2006. Someone else did the lettering. Drawing with the wrong pens is so painful, and I blame this shonky effort on that.

oldest school

Found some stuff I made when I was a nipper at my folks' a few weeks ago:

My grasp of perspective stalled around this time.

Sewn in my bedroom when bored I imagine. That tasteful fabric was used for my morris dancing skirt at the village fete when I was 7, fact fans.

Sketchbook secrets

Here are some little bits from the sketchbook that I've just finished. I started it when I was living in Barcelona at the end of 2006, pleased to actually fill it. When I was in BCN I pretty much just drew what around me - squats, crust punks and skips. When I was in Israel/Palestine I drew the same because I missed it all. Now I'm attempting to branch out...

If your mind is blank, draw skulls.

From a comic idea I had, optimistically written in terrible Spanish.

A kind of anti-DIY guide.

This is much more recent, when I'd just bought an ink pen and all I could draw was MOUSTACHES.