Just to let all the people who are participating in my 'Mail Art Portfolio Swap', I have just recieved my first submission! You still have around a month to get yours done ;) Still working on the box design that will hold the prints. For those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about you'll find out in around a month...Stay tuned!

I just realised yesterday that this Julie Doucet book is completely different from ‘New York Diary’…As she does do foreign editions of her book I thought this title was just that, a foreign new york diary that translated something like ‘chronicles of new york’, or ‘new york chronicles’…But it’s actually lino cuts and sketches…I would really like to get this and also her other book of lino cuts called long time relationship. I also came across another book called ‘Journal’ and also some info about D&Q publishing some stuff soon. Wouldn’t it be awesome if D&Q printed doucet Bell and R.R.Jr next year, the mind drools…

For illustrationfriday.com

Just wanted to let everyone know that a book I contributed work to called ‘Operation funny bone’ is printed and available now in select stores. Basically it is a fundraising book for the peter Mac cancer centre. Thanks go out to Glen Shearer for doing a phenomenal job putting this book together. Check out Ian C’s site for more info

My wife has gone home for Christams to visit her family in Canada. So it' s just Ash and I living it up!

I need to get more of Ron rege Jr's work. Every time i read it or see it I'm blown away. Didn't realize D&Q were printing him, but now I know what I'll be spending my christmas money on...

Forgot to mention I recently bought a copy of the new Yorker which had a three page colour comic by R.Crumb and his wife Aline. Looks though he’s used his watercolour technique on these ones. If I could meet anyone in the world it’d be Crumb!

Here's a photo of June investigating the chirping noise in the wall. I hung one of my prints in the hall and I'm happy how it looks there (better than when it was in the gallery!)

'Imagine' post for illustrationfriday.com

So far I have received three prints in the mail from the print swap I’m involved in. Also we’ve been having some very interesting discussions as to the definitions of the term ‘print’ and peoples personal feelings and aesthetics towards different print mediums. One big point that keeps coming up is people want to see differentiation between mediums and for them not to all be labeled ‘prints’ I’m not sure how I feel about this as I think it’s just like the term painting that has further subcategories ie acrylic, oils, water colours, inks and all sorts of other non art substances. Another problem I see with being too strict on definitions is that it doesn’t account for cross pollination of mediums, there is such a thing as a digital woodcut! The main thing I think some printmakers are worried about is that if digital takes over their methods won’t be respected, valued, or understood as much. But I don’t think that just because there is a digital option, it will take over…it’s just like

Just got Mandy Ord's newie in the mail today, 'Birthday Bitch'. It's an excellent read and I highly recommend you track yourself down a copy! Write to her address, 'mandy_ord' (you'll just have to add, '@hotmail.com' to the end)

Check out this website with a collection of prints from the artist Frans Masereel (1889-1972). Click on the picture to advnace to the next. Warning there are 100 of them. original link here

What a surprise I didn’t draw this! Appropriation is the word I believe. Until next week :) Although this advent calender is pretty boring, considering some others I've seen. Maybe next year...

Feeling really inspired today. Thinking about making books, paper colours and thicknesses and such. As I said earlier for Honours next year I will exclusively be working with publications books and posters, got all these ideas swimming around. I think one of the main differences with the stuff I’ve done and some of the things I’ll be doing next year is that I won’t be as concerned with mass production or making my money back (I’m going to be giving a lot away) So I can put more time into finer details and they’ll have more handmade personal quality to them. I’m also involved in a print swap at the moment with people from all over the globe called SSNW (Southern summer northern winter print exchange) which is really exciting me. I’m in the process of making a print with an edition of around 50 that I will be sending out to people. I will then be getting 40 prints back in the mail from printmakers around the world! God I love mail art… In other news I noticed Chris Ware has a new book o

A lot of things have been changing lately, and it happens in such a smooth manner that it's hard to even notice. So I've gone from thinking 'you can't put you foot into the same river twice' to just 'going with the flow'. Who knows what unchartered seas lie ahead... for www.illustrationfriday.com

Thanks heaps Anon (See previous posts coments), I really appreciate your input as you’re someone who has a lot of printmaking experience, but is also keen to look at different methods, like your blog. I should say that I still love other print making techniques and I can definitely see their appeal and intrigue. For me, like I may have mentioned before, I went through all this agonising over which acceptable printmaking method I was going to use for my drawings. Everything I thought of would of used photocopying, especially stuff like solar plate and screen printing. But I didn’t think I could just use photocopies, I got over it when I realised it was only minor technical concerns that could be overcome. (I was reading a photocopied comic I bought the other day and I had to smile as I noticed the black areas had a slight texture that you could feel as you run your fingers over it, so a photocopy also has texture in some instances). So far the prints I have made have been hand colour

I’ve been meaning to post on this topic for awhile now. It’s become more of a topic burning in my mind for two reasons 1-I’m going to be focusing on the use of the photocopier for my honours year. 2-I had a heated discussion with some people (One an artist) who disagreed with me that a photocopy could be used an art print. The latter has confounded me. I expect the everyday/layperson to think this, but I copped it from two intelligent creative people. So here are my arguments for a photocopy having the possibility of being Art: -Done on the right paper and or the use of varnish, a photocopy is just as archival as other print mediums (It’ll outlive a human lifespan most definitely and hold up to 50% of it’s strength 500 years from now, which is considered archival) -A photocopy is not dissimilar to a photograph in many respects. It is relatively cheap and easy to produce, but depends a lot on the person behind the camera as to if the resulting print. It could be a disposable happy sna