I've Been Pretty Lazy With My Camera This Year. Flickr Has Become Merely An Image Host, & I've Not Adorned

Wondering what the moon's up to next year? This Lunar Calendar I designed for Tiny Showcase has got you covered. $25 for 366 moons (leap year!) in a five colour screen-print.

Order before Thursday 26 November if you want one in time for gift-giving.

a portrait of our cooker for a few days. pasta, corn, fried eggs, veggie burgers & baked potatoes. thankfully alan actually knows what he's doing when it comes to campfires. our pillows smell of smoke.

soon

on sunday night, i went down to london on the sleeper train. on monday night i came back. it was nice to have a day to wander around, meet people & be all self-indulgent with my drawing (a perfect example of the "nothingness" that this article berates, & that this response from lizzy stewart celebrates). as a result, a zine. but not for another few days; once i've finished doing drawings for other people. then i get to be self-indulgent again.

print pre-orders

i'm pretty excited to finally have these two prints up for pre-order in my shop! after a bit of a delay, botanic I & botanic II are now on sale. these images are two of my favourite things i've done in recent times - i don't often put my own work up in my flat, but i'd rather like to get these two framed & on the wall. you can buy each print individually or buy both for a discounted price.

alongside these two brand new prints, i'm also bringing back a print from a long-sold-out edition in digital form. i often get reprint requests for a few items i've run out of, but i don't have much interest in bringing many of them back, mostly due to feeling that the image doesn't reflect my current work/style/thoughts/feelings. however, i've always had a soft-spot for this little bison, & am pleased to offer a new version of it.

i'm pretty pleased to now have this print in my shop. i created this image last autumn (the message "hang out with some plants" can be found on the prints that will be given out by the project) for advice to sink in slowly, & i've been planning to create a poster of it as a way of offering a piece of larger art for a small cost ever since. finally, it's on sale, costing £5/$7.50. if you've been looking to fill up some space on your walls with a lady wandering through some plants, then today's your lucky day.

tree

sketchin'.

have decided to take part in fun a day dundee this year - i'm going to draw a girl throwing shapes every day in january. here are the first three.

this post is slightly different for me, as i've deviated from writing about things that aren't work-related over the last couple of years. however, the image above is related to what follows, so there's a connection to my usual blogging.

christmas 2011 was simultaneously my best & worst christmas (in fact, i think christmas 2012 has trumped it as best as nothing bad happened). alongside all the good stuff on the day, my left ear randomly started ringing later in the evening & it continued to do so as i lay in bed that night. dealing with the unknown when the unknown is something i can't control is quite the catalyst for my becoming an anxious wreck, so when i woke up on boxing day & the sound in my ear was still there, i began my decent into a week or so of fretting, not eating & basically solely looking forward to going to sleep, which was the only time i didn't have to listen to the constant noise.

i could go on about the situation (the doctor's predictively dismissive tone; on how i found comfort in sounds that aren't usually enjoyable, such as the washing machine, the extractor fan in the bathroom and the humming of my computer at work), but after a while i realised that the best way to deal with the noise was to keep busy & listen to lots of music & podcasts. i'm not sure whether i simply got used to it or if the ringing did actually get quieter, but for the greater part of the year i thankfully didn't really notice my tinnitus. in fact, it was mostly only audible when i was stressed out about something unrelated, & it usually quietened down again once i'd chilled out. i feel like i've been pretty lucky with the whole thing.

so why has it come to the forefront of my thoughts again? well, the last couple of days have seen the sound of the ringing being dialled up & the noise is also now available in surround-sound - joy! alongside the original ringing in my left ear, my right ear is now emitting a variation between two tones that are less likeable than the original (& i didn't even like the old ringing to begin with). however, the increased ringing has coincided with (what i think is) mild tonsillitis that i've had since mid-last-week, & i'm hopeful that the sounds will fade along with my other symptoms.

anyway, since the start of last year i've wanted to illustrate my tinnitus somehow, but i've not been sure of how to approach it without just doing a drawing of me feeling sorry for myself. then, earlier today, i listened to the latest episode of this american life, entitled mapping, that had a story about mapping ambient sounds (the kind of sounds that i originally found some solace in when my ear started ringing). you can listen to the segment here.

throughout the piece, a keyboard is used to demonstrate the notes that are emitted from objects. & i realised that the noise in my head sounds a bit like a little keyboard, constantly playing the same note. & so, the above image formed.

the concept of the story - that sounds can affect the mood of a person - is a little disturbing to someone who has no control over the noise they're subjected to. however, i'm focussing on enjoying the piece as an interesting story, rather than something to worry about. plus, i got a drawing out of it, so it's not all bad.

Just a guy and his cabin. Another one for this.