Question Time

Q01. What was the first pyrograph you remember doing?
Q02. What inspires you?
Q03. What else do you do?
Q04. What is your favourite material?
Q05. What's your favourite colour?
Q06. Who are your favourite artists?
Q07. Where do you get your picture references from?
Q08. Do you ever have artist's block?
Q09. Do you have good eyesite?
Q10. Were you good at art at school?
Q11. How do you price your work?
Q12. What's your favourite type of work?
Q13. How long does a pyrograph take?

Q01. What was the first pyrograph you remember doing?
A01. After first learning the basics of pyrography, I seem to remember burning trees. Trees have always been my favourite things to doodle.
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Q02. What inspires you?
A02. I am inspired by nature and wildlife. I also love colours and textures.
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Q03. What else do you do?
A03. I am also a graphic designer and illustrator, I now work as a freelancer. I have also fallen in love with web design, so I will be persuing this new venture!
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Q04. What is your favourite material?
A04. My favourite wood to burn is sycamore but leather is my utmost favourite as it gives such wonderful results but you can't afford to make a mistake as these errors can't be erased.
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Q05. What's your favourite colour?
A05. My favourite colour varies from day to day. Purple has always been my favourite, although now as I've got a little older I am developing a passion for shades of green.
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Q06. Who are your favourite artisits?
A06. I have many favourite artists but the ones that coming directly to mind as I write this are Arthur Rackham and Winsor McCabe for illustration, Velasquez and Durer for fine art and the wonderful Anthony Gormley for sculpture.
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Q07. Where do you get your picture references from?
A07. I am forever collecting pictures and postcards, I now have quite a vast resource of reference material.
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Q08. Do you ever have artist's block?
A08. Occassionally I will get stumped. If this is the case I just take a break, it's amazing what will happen after you have left your work for a while. It helps you to re look at your work with a fresh pair of eyes.
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Q09. Do you have good eyesite?
A09. No I don't! I am very short sighted and can hardly see out of my left eye (a condition I was born with). However this has never hindered me infact I think that it is the opposite! I am quite sure that my myopia has helped me to achieve such detailed work, as when I was a child I was too vain to wear my specs and so used to draw with my nose almost touching the paper!
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Q10. Were you good at art at school?
A10. I loved art at school, infact pottery was my favourite medium, I think I'll have to persue it again sometime in the future!
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Q11. How do you price your work?
A11. Pricing is always a difficult subject, I usually work on an hourly rate.
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Q12. What's your favourite type of work?
A12. I love to work from a customer's commission ideas. It's fantastic to be given a new project in which you are given a free reign to create something new. I love to churn ideas through my brain until I come up with a composition.
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Q13. How long does a pyrograph take?
A13. It all depends on the size and complexity of the piece. A pet portrait for example may take as long as a week as each individual hair is burnt.
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