Archive

A Tireless Hand

Adventures in traditional art with the dread technology of the abyss

Apple Cake

Got apples? Then make apple cake!

There, I did it!

A print, a veritable print! Also rose-print-FINAL-v2-LATER-FINAL-v3

Attempting Intaglio

Intaglio! Intaglio! Can you handle the pressureio?

Typestamped

A very, very long blog post describing a long project that wore me out

Sun Box

The sun, in box form

Dodecahedron Blossom Box

A box for platonic blossom, and how I made it.

Winter Leaves Box

A miserable winter's day inspired a marquetry box.

2022

(Almost) everything I made in 2022.

Bits Bits Bits

Working on things

Emboss!

I tried dry embossing and it just worked. Amazing.

Solstice

It's all up from here.

Wheeze

The smoke has some air in it, just about.

Frozen Garden

We had frost at last and the garden is decorated with sparkling ice

City

Thinking of times I used to go to London

Lemons!

Lemons are ripening in the greenhouse and I am very happy about that.

Muted

A record of all the times I got grumpy enough on Twitter to mute something

Jovian Skies

The sky was full of Jupiter's colours

The Yellow Season

The leaves are such a bright yellow on the cherry and pear trees

Five Moons

I took a photo of our moon and of the moons of Jupiter (how sci-fi does that feel to type)

Still Harvesting

Red peppers and red leaves

Jackdaw

A distant jackdaw on a roof

October Garden

Roaming the garden looking at all the flowers and spiders.

Four Quarter Moons

Four pictures of the moon, all taken around one in the afternoon today and adjusted differently

Tomato!

The last of the tomatoes from the greenhouse, made into sauce

Once More Onto the Beach

Lovely eroded bricks and sand and tide pools

Snap Snap Snap!

Some recent photos

Autumn Blast

Motivation lost, motivation… maybe returning

A Writing Box

I bought a very worn out writing box and fixed it up. This is how.

Boxed Advent

I made reusable advent calendars, and I've finally written about it

Anniversary

So many wonderful years

Carousel

A full write up with lots of photos of the wind-powered carousel I made.

I Like Index Cards

Not much more than a test post, but! Index cards!

Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!

Painting and decorating a set of pandemic matryoshka eggs

Smooth booze

I made fake Baileys. It's a close substitute, I think it's actually a bit better.

Sound The Trumpets

Normie normie makey makey thingy wingies

All of it

Annoyed at all the techno-admin

Oh!

Unexpected joy and hope

Nopetober

Not-Inktober, not-UK, not-London… but pro crepe paper and fluffy drag.

Canvassing

Longer post than usual. A painted canvas, more projects, hoarding cheese, professional professionalism and planting bulbs.

Circles and Rectangles

A sense of surprise at finishing something so physical and practical.

The Great Outdoors

A world made of multicoloured brick-shaped paving slabs.

I should have written it down

Colourful concentric concrete circular casting.

Dig Dig Dig

Digging holes into endless dependencies. And birds.

Soft Concrete

If it's in a week then it's a weeknote. This time on concrete.

Toast Sandwiches

A quarter notes. Stuff I did and made, and yes, actual toast sandwiches.

Anchored

I made an actual thing.

Time Enough

My Mom died at the end of April. It was quite sudden.

In These Adjective Times

Making arts, assembling twigs, that Hockney thing and grumpy-git grumbles, The Thing That Is Happening, shopping and a bit of hope.

Superlatively

News, news and not-so-news, spring springing a bit early, temporary art and gold frames.

Coronalolapalooza

More things happening than That One Thing. Art, daffodils, illustrated months, frames, tarnishing brass and the end of the world, maybe.

February

Painted months, Welsh in a Week, more Welsh in more weeks, Victoria and Albert as hoarders and an idea for defunct wind turbines.

Multiples

Hospital success, cars ruining everything and technology ruining what's left.

Painter

Alt-ish text: A full-page image of watercolour blocks and a man climbing down through them.

Diabolical Chess

Ouchie

Apples and pears, a punctured palm, fresh rose and hopping hungry birds.

Year & Decade

A decade that was.

On The Up

Increasing daylight, too much food, relaxed festivities and friendly dystopian exploding taxis.

Oh Dear

The sound of cold rain falling

Good Grief

Computering like it's 1997, a burgeoning forest garden, and understanding a retreat to software design emotional safety.

Atlas

High volume plastic reduction, glorious seclusion, springy non-weights and hardcore gloopy adult weird art with knobs on.

Forks and Spoons

Dull winners, modern Versailles, gorgeous 45 year old designs, a sideways N on a chapel and a potential resurrection of a ministry.

Proper Rainy

Wheeze, hack, cough, dubious opening chapters, rain, rain, rain, dubious inter-colleague communications and magical medical gunk.

That in Particular

A finish to Inktober, a blissful erasure of sound, alarming side effects and more sparkly TV, but with a darker edge.

Inktober

All my Inktober 2019 drawings and the story I made to tie them all together.

Mellow Dampness

In which our intrepid correspondent draws some things, puts up a shelf or three, stretches some rubber in place of pumping iron and then watches some sparkly shiny TV.

Rounded Silver Pot

Almost-nothing medical things, too-soon software upgrades, could-be-shinier shiny trinkets and farcical security circuses.

Wet Jalapeños

Fairytale stories in ink, giant edible spider webs, jalapeños, pruning and a terrible book printing service that can’t print books.

Unexpected Outages

Unplanned unconsciousness, sudden illness, sunny coastal walks and Inktoberish planning.

Myths & Sagas

Inktober planning, medical mysteries, a photo diary and feeble justifications of occasional consumerism.

National Discordance

Inking stories from random words, the increasing horror of our government, medical anxieties and a glass house full of spiders.

General Anaesthesia

Glorious unconsciousness, bats, and please won't somebody think of the children.

Resurgent Plums

Trees regrowing, plot holes in German castles and Euclid’s Elements.

Poor Susan

How did Susan get her black eye, the benefits of soaking soy, first tomato harvests and a moth murder mystery.

St John’s Wort

St John’s Wort in our garden

Buttering Flies

Insect vision hacks, rapid-fire photography, some beautiful books and the world of type, calligraphy and cartography again.

The Value of Nothing

Touchbars, remote working, sketchbooks, beautiful windows and surviving politics.

Bumblebee!

The bees like poppies.

Seventies Focus

Red and blue flowers, wild gardens, precise and perfect older technology and failing new gadgetry.

Prehistoric

Stupid prehistoric technology tropes, badly implemented good things, incredibly beautiful creatures, great TV series and hacking magazines to bits.

Cherries On Top

Cherries! Lots of cherries! A red and blue flashing heart, and flesh-eating flies. Nice.

Bin Berries

Berries from bin juice (maybe), London Planes, tomatoes, biscuits and some fab technology again.

Honeysuckle

Videos on photos, sporty pens, annoying technology and really good technology.

Fiddlesticks

Custardy custardness, and some sharp photographic portraits.

Weeknotes 22

Bees! ALL THE BEES. And a roaming London, illustration reference, and a butterfly.

Weeknotes 21

A shit club sandwich this week. Good, bad, good, bad, etc. A couple of Procreate brush recommendations though.

Weeknotes 20

London trees, misapplied information technology and towering pillows.

Weeknotes 19

Asparagus people, online deliveries, an English seaside postcard and yay Eurovision.

Weeknotes 18

The relentless march of time, interviewing, doctors and local wildlife. And not being impressed by not-cheese.

Weeknotes 17

Holidays, moral erotica, thrilling tales about books and that thing we want to just stop.

Weeknotes 16

Retro easter eggs, planting crops, that terrible fire and playing cards.

Weeknotes 15

Frankenstein's apple, the jackdaw's share, illustrating and food watching.

Weeknotes 14

Chunky dandelions, flowering trees, annoying TV memes and patriotic ordure.

Weeknotes 13

Wearing your heart (traces) on your wrist, a comic at last, flowers and the greenhouse finally being built.

Weeknotes 12

Worthwhile workshops, grouchy greenhousing, zombie politics and a carnivorous flower.

Weeknotes 11

Health scares, caffeine, sports and a legend in woodlouse lore.

Weeknotes 10

Viennese waltzes, lemon pancakes and annoyingly porny design sites.

After the storm

Camellias and greenhouse vs Storm Freya.

Week 9

Climate-catastrophe daffodils, an imagined exploded pigeon and algorithmic achievements.

Rain

A procreate drawing of moorland nearby.

Week 8

A greenhouse, Lego and neuroplasticity.

Red Glowing Eyes

All watched over by machines of baleful intent. Actually no, not really, but it's a good line, right?

Weeknotes 7

Malfunctioning technology, remote investigation and personal development.

Achieving

The slow, sweaty and often unrewarding quest for health

Week 6

A week of daffodils, fish, scarves and books.

January

A kind of weeknotes, but for a month.

Magic Gadget

The amazing illustration tool that is the new iPad Pro.

Blankness

A long overdue update, mostly about silicone rubber and epoxy resin.

That 2017 Thing

A kind of review of the year so far.

Inktober

I did Inktober, and here are the results.

Many Weeks Later

Week 27

A weekly illustrated newsletter

Houseplanting

Stupid stupid packaging for house plants.

Week 26

Wardrobes, plants and paint.

User Interfaces

Stupid shitty little aphorisms piss me off.

Week 25

Stone the crows. Seriously. With rocks.

Week 24

Wonderful, wonderfulness, and late eBay sellers

Bzzzt!

Week 23

The magic of modern medicine

Stormy

A visit to London in the pissing rain and then a glorious sunlit journey home.

Week 22

A late entry, but winning anyway.

Week 21

Singing to bolts while turning.

Week 20

1970s styling, in colour

Week 19

Renovations complete, lessons learned, tubes.

Week 18

Chairs, 1972 Olympic ephemera and hotel concepting

Shading Practice

Week 17

Painting, doodles and fake flowers

Week 16

She wants gin. Not tea, dammit.

Week 15

Week 14

Spring sprang (and sprung) sparklingly sprightly.

Week 13

Beep beep fucking beep

Kidwelly Crows

Crows! Crows! Lots of crows!

Week 12

New font, ripped paint and illuminated curtains

Colour & Light

The colour of the walls, under lighting conditions

Week 11

A spring fresh update, with mention of peacocks with unlikely emotional states.

Week 10

Colours, and blocks. Blocking, perhaps.

Week 9

Getting to the end of building, and a sad thing.

Ten A Day

Something something health guidelines

Week 8

How many clicks does it take to change a lightbulb?

Week 7

Chickens go bok bok bok

Salty

I admire some salt packets from a buffet breakfast

Week 6

Mostly tales of moving furniture and finding hidden hearths

Week 5

Jolly tales of another week in South Wales.

King Street, Hammersmith

A view from the 13th floor in the rain.

Week 4

The renovations begin for real. Really noisily.

Box Unbox

The first hopeful post in a probable series about our renovation work. I hope the rest are as positive.

Week 3

The house redoing begins!

Week 2

Some positivity, at last. Also many faces.

Week 1

The start of the year, and some intensive self-regard.

Eyes!

I started a character drawing course. I drew eyes. Many eyes.

Week 52

A weekly, and yearly update, with a fancy schmancy gif.

Week 51

It's Christmas! And so on.

Winter Solstice

In which I eulogise about the scientific aspect of celebrating the solstice.

O Tannenbaum!

We decorated the tree and I got a tune stuck in my head.

Week 50

The weekly roundup, using a different design this time

Just walk…

Pondering using VR to teach how painful some things can be to use.

We got a new fridge

In which the mundanity of life gets a write up.

Week 49

This one has a tit in it.

Week 48

Another week! Anxiety about noise, but I was warm in bed.

Autumn

An excuse to post some pictures of autumn leaves.

Week 47

Week 47, in which I mention Lego, designer books and pain

Sketchy

A sketch/drawing of autumn trees. A bit of relaxation.

Week 46

Week 46! Tempus fugit and all that.

Week 45

Week 45! Historic, in some senses.

Brexit

In which I moan about people.

Dystopian

London looking picturesquely dystopian

Paddington

A photo of Paddington as I'm about to leave London

Paddington 7 Nov 2016

A photo of Paddington just after I've arrived

Week 44

The week 44 roundup

Use Fewer Words

I gave a talk on using simple language, and I have a bit of a whinge about American journalism.

Crescent

Yes, yes, another picture of the moon. What of it?

Train View

A gif I made from a video taken on the train

Week 43

Things in the world of me in week 43

Going East

Photos taken during a trip to London earlier this week

Fragments of a Portrait

I watched a 1966 documentary on Francis Bacon

Week 42

A round up of good and not so good things for week 42.

Apples!

Preserving apples from the garden.

Week 41

What was good and not good this week.

Imps

Imps. They're real, I tell you.

Ice Cream

Experimenting with making sugar free ice cream. With recipes!

Excited

That word. Sigh.

London Panorama

Taking pictures from the hotel room.

London & Back

Some pictures and a (large) gif I made when in London.

All The Sports

Thoughts on the Olympics.

Zooming

New shiny camera!

Dichotomy

Annoyance at the this-or-that nature of debate on the internet (mostly)

Summer Garden

Appreciation of the garden made by the previous owners of our home.

Wales → London → Wales

Mostly a gif I made.

Hello

The inaugural post.