Seventeenth and eighteenth century memento mori woodcuts are some of my most favourite things to look at. They look fairly primitive yet they have a ton of character and I've been looking forward to making my own version ever since I first saw them. Memento mori is a Latin phrase which means 'remember that you must die' and was a philosophy to remind people that our time on earth is limited and to not take it for granted. The heyday for memento mori artefacts lasted from around the seventeenth century to the nineteenth century.
Read MoreLizard Brain Process
Sometimes when I'm looking for new ideas for an illustration, I ask a friend to throw me a subject as a starting point. One idea that was given to me was the subject of masks, which seemed interesting and was something I hadn't explored before. I then went to the library and looked at a whole lot of books on masks. Mexican, Japanese and African masks appealed to me the most for inspiration. Around the same time, I'd been hearing a lot about the lizard brain and the concept kind of crept into my process and the mask idea evolved into a lizard brain idea.
Read MorePlaying Cards Process
Who doesn't love playing cards? I've seen so many awesome playing card designs lately, I thought I'd do a couple of my own as miniature prints. First, a little history. It is thought that playing cards first originated in China as early as the 9th century. By the 14th century they found their way into Europe. The suit system of hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds that we're familiar with today evolved over time. Starting with systems created by countries from the East, the French simplified the design, which has since become adopted around the world.
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