The most excellent Korduroy TV has been around for ages now but it’s only recently that i had a good trawl through the videos on there. I was looking for some advice on making a handplane and stumbled upon this other video about hand-printing a greetings card.

I haven’t done any lino-cutting and printing since scraping a ‘C’ at A-Level art so thought I’d give it a go for the first time in 15 years.

I looked around a couple of stationery shops for the right equipment but with the Korean pronunciation of ‘L’ and ‘R’ being somewhat interchangeable and in-between, I ended up asking, bizarrely, for “Rhino-Cutting” tools. As expected, something got lost in translation but I ended up with a sheet of rubber and some crude woodcarving tools that do the job and didn’t get arrested for animal cruelty, which was a bonus.

The resulting cut  is a bit raw and sketchy thanks to the dodgy tools (you know what a bad workman always blames) and it being mostly freehand and improvised, not to mention created under the influence of cider. All in all, I’m pretty pleased with it for a first go – it’s striking and has a nice textured look.

As you can see, although it looks good inked up, my first few prints haven’t been too successful as I’ve not found any proper printing ink here yet. I tried acrylic paint (as mentioned in the Korduroy video) watered-down acrylic, calligraphic ink, stamping ink, paint mixed with vegetable oil, paint mixed with glue, weird polystyrene paint and all of the above mixed together.

But… I couldn’t seem to get a clear even print that didn’t stick to the paper and pull it up. All this depite my hi-tech printing press that delivers between 55-60kg of pressure (depending on what i’ve eaten that day.)

I will keep you posted on progress and  if/when i finally get a good one I may put a few up for sale on my Droog 79 Sells Out blog to help fund my autumnal van meander along the coastlines of Europe….. All in a good cause.

Greeting to all fellow Drifters and Driftettes,

This blog was established about a year ago as a more considered sister to my stream-of-consciousness outlet for surf/skate/travel musings and inky-fingered antics over at my blogspot.  Unfortunately, the intended prolific gush of beautifully rendered illustration, grainy snaps of far-flung beaches and cringe-worthy homespun philosophy quickly reduced to a trickle and then dried up completely. As some longhaired bespectacled Scouse once said “Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.”

Drifting= A lack of direction?

And that’s exactly what happened to me. So here’s an attempt to kickstart the old jalopy into action again. Please excuse this one-off self-centred coughing and spluttering of the creaking creative motor as normal service is resumed. Future posts will be simpler affairs but a little explanatory perspective seems in order

This time last year...

The intervening year has been one of great contrasts as we’ve moved from living in a stable in a dusty village on the outskirts of Puerto Escondido to the hectic, anonymous urban sprawl of an alien Asian megacity via a few months stopover/tour of the Motherland. Going from the surreal treacle- slow-paced life of tropical heat, salty face and sandy feet to this pressure-cooker of a “conformism-is-king” country hurtling towards the future has been quite a shock to the system, the mental and cultural ‘jet lag’ only just wearing off after five months.

"...colourful dreams of our meanderings through Central America fading."

So, here we are in South Korea, colourful dreams of our meanderings through Central America fading. Instead facing the reality of doing the hard yards to fund the fire of future plans. My desire to draw is still hanging in there but tempered by the tiredness and cynicism from our work in the factory-like English academy where we stuff fragile young minds to near breaking point with grammar and syntax.

Though marooned in a city, inland and bland, there is at least plenty of Kryptonic-friendly tarmacadam to trundle upon and and a few wooden ramps to tumble from to maintain the stoke. And a few miles out of the city, the undeveloped mountains dripped for a brief spell with autumn colour, crisp cold air and the relics of ancient ways that are getting left behind in the pursuit of someone’s idea of progress. These occasional pleasures and the wonder of modern communication with family and friends keep the frustrations of creeping culture shock and that impatient gnawing of ‘elsewhere’ at bay.

"Culture shock" is a misnomer for this slow creeping sense of unease and frustration

It’s easy sometimes to see this year of yearning and learning in cynical tunnel vision: Just killing time before we can do what we really want to do. But if the longhaired Liverpudlian was right, we might just miss out on the wonders around us and what we’re ultimately here for. So as we lurch from escapism to immersion and back again I try to keep in mind the words my Dad had engraved for me on a pewter hip flask: CARPE DIEM.

Wise words for the living, from a language long dead.

The surfing beach. Where you hope for rips because rips mean waves. They're such a rare event that the unfortunates being dragged out to sea on the poster have actually been photoshopped in!

Not an easy language to learn.

A crafty Christmas to remind me of those snowy rolling hills of home

Head In The Clouds - "we lurch from escapism to immersion"

If you’re interested in purchasing anything, drop me a line or visit Droog Sells Out for this and more of my work. And check out work in progress and general musings on Droog79. Get ‘em while they’re hot, before Saatchi snaps up the lot…

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Perfect Day (code: 008PD). One-off drawing; black ink on recycled paper – £80. Paper size: 31.5 x 24.3cm (12.5 x 9.5"). Approx image size: 14.5cm (5.75").

Most of the businesses here in the pueblo are family run, and have hand-painted shop signs – it’s just what they’ve always done and is probably cheaper too. Hand-painted signs are found everywhere from street to beach to taxi with the standard of artistic merit varying from the obviously homemade to the professionally executed. Both ends of the spectrum have their charms and eccentricities. Here’s a selection of the weird and wonderful from Mexico to Guatemala.

Two local chicos run a little repair shack in the backstreets of our colonia Brisas de Zicatela. Their repairs are as sketchy as their sign-stencilling but their surfing is anything but: clean, precise, natural and creative. They’ve both won comps and probably have a pro-career ahead of them for the taking but seem pretty happy out here and out of the rat race just surfing, spear-fishing and swimming all day – these kids don’t have to go to school when the waves are good.

Apparently Jesus is the only solution, but even the Son of God can’t solve the parking problems in San Pedro.

Signs reminding you to save water and not burn plastic. Hand-painted at the local Centro Cultural which runs environmental and community projects and where we volunteer, teaching English to local kids.

Each taxi rank has a different name and logo here. The taxis in central Puerto Escondido all have this poor guy painted on their doors. With his apparently broken board, twisted leg and gnarled up face, he’s true testament to the heaviness of the Mexpipe.

I have no idea what is going on here.

“Talco – for the sweat and bad odour of your feet.” This simple hand-drawn poster gets the message across better than any multi-million Pound ad campaign.

These signs are strung out all along Zicatela where the waves dump on the beach in shallow water then rip you out at an alarming rate when they hit the deep channel. I love the way the guy is smiling broadly despite his imminent end. A classic case of ‘drowning not waving’.

Smells like thirtysomething spirit: The grunge trend hits Guatemala fifteen years late, or is it an early revival?

Another pale gringo happily perishing in the Escondido surf. The signs and flags themselves get washed away when there’s a big swell and high tide.

A cheery karate kid invites you down a grimy alley for a streetfight.

Would you buy a suit from this man? Is it Chevy Chase?

Does exactly what it says on the tin.

A beautifully illustrated sign for a now defunct eatery on Lago Atitlan.

Please also check out my general DROOG79 blog and my art for sale site D79 Sells Out. Enjoy yourselves, and each other.

Crystal Caverns - Inspired by tales of Michael Peterson et al. taking acid before going surfing

Fiji - oil painting detail

The Mistress - A drawing for Dan Crockett's new zine 'The KooK'