Latest etching of 'Scary Trees'

Here's the latest print, based on Levens Hall topiary garden, showing the insides of their huge hedge which you can just about crawl inside, giving the impression of a Sleeping Beauty style thorny hedge. The print is 30x33cm and uses intaglio line work, which took a day to carefully scribe (first image), and then aquatint with an element of open bite (second image).

Cross Process and iPhone photo apps

During the frost I discovered a photographic technique called Cross Process. If you are a photographer you will know about it, but to laymen it is processing positive colour film (slide film) in colour negative chemicals. Beautiful and other-worldly colour mixes are created, often involving happy accidents. I discovered a way of doing this in Photoshop, and applied it to my frozen plant pictures.
This is the link if you want to try it yourself:
Cross Processing in Photoshop - color negative art effect | PhotoshopSupport.com

These are my images:

Blue cross process

Brown cross process

Green and brown cross process (my favourite)

If you have an iPhone4 there are a bunch of apps which help this process and save time. 

RetroCamera and Mill Colour are pretty good. PictureShow is loads of fun and does all sorts of other natty things, the image below was made with it.

PictureShow 2.3

My favourite app is Hipstamatic, which has lots of lenses, films and flashes to use and experiment with.

Hipstamatic iPhone App - Digital Photography Never Looked So Analog

'The coldest winter EVER' say the papers

North Yorkshire (*map) has experienced the hardest frost since records began. Temperatures dropped for several days to -18ºC at night and laid a fluffy crust of frost crystals on every plant. During this period I went to the printmaking studio and discovered the water in the bath and pipes was frozen hard, and the heater could puff out warmth only 12" before Jack Frost pushed it back with his giant shield of chilled air. So I went home. Booo. yes, but I will return, hopefully Monday, as the temperature has risen to 6ºC! 

To keep the work flowing and find new print ideas I waded into the garden and took some photos of the frost (cue the Edward Scissorhands music).

*map of UK with North Yorkshire

One print, two stages

These two are the first and last stages of a small etching. If you know my prints I like em dark and moody! Some may say that its too dark, but its just my old goth nature expressing itself in the work.

The print size is 30x13cm.

The King's Head pub, Crouch End

This the final drawing done while in Crouch End. I drew it while supping a lemon cooler in All Bar None, across the road from The King's Head pub. It is 33x29cm and drawn with Tombow brush pens and watercolour.

Remembered sketches of Crouch End

I've just been using my Neocolour I crayons, and embellishing some drawings. These are drawn in a rough and carefree way while being carried along by Janelle Monáe's The Archandroid album.

This picture is the typical house in Crouch End, kind of made to look like an island.

This picture is the views as I walked from the flat to Finsbury Park station (not in any order of course)

1.The Blue corner shop, 2. The blue corner shop with eccentric choice of painted gates.

3.The tunnel down to the platforms at Finsbury Park Station. 4. Outside the station, with The Railway pub on the right. 5. Waiting at the bus stop with the eery green lighting under the bridge. 6. The view down the hill, showing the Emirates Stadium in middle distance and the City of London in the background.