Tom Duxbury Yorkshire Illustrator designed Royal Mail Christmas stamps for 2023

Yorkshire Post

Tom Duxbury is an illustrator from West Yorkshire and has been chosen to design this year's Royal Mail Christmas stamps. His work normally takes inspiration from Baildon Moor.

Transcript

00:00 I'm Tom Duxbury and I'm an illustrator based in West Yorkshire.

00:05 I've been lucky enough to design this year's Christmas stamps.

00:10 So I worked with an agency in Bath, they found me and we sort of spent 18 months sort of

00:20 coming up with artwork.

00:22 It was quite a long process.

00:24 I changed my strategy throughout those 18 months.

00:31 I tried to do lino print at first, I'm a lino print artist, but when they were being shrunk

00:37 down, the artwork, it wasn't translating well.

00:41 So I decided to bring in watercolour to bring a vibrancy that I felt the initial work was

00:48 lacking.

00:49 So there are five stamps in total and they depict the nativity and they're set in Bethlehem

00:59 and they have song carols in there, so like 'Away in a Manger' and different carols

01:07 sort of around the illustration.

01:11 I always get my inspiration from here.

01:16 We are on Bingley Moor.

01:18 It's a very special place for me.

01:20 I'm from Bingley originally.

01:23 My family home isn't far from here and if you spend any time up here you'll realise

01:30 how much magic is up here.

01:33 So I work for a design agency in Leeds and I sort of break up my illustration work with

01:42 that because I can't do illustration all the time.

01:47 I like to pick projects that I like doing.

01:51 I like exploring things to do with landscape.

01:56 I love working with narrative.

01:59 I love storytelling and I love the figure in a landscape and that again relates to this

02:06 moor that we're on, Bingley Moor.

02:08 If you put a person in all of this sort of expanse, what sort of story does that image

02:16 tell and what sort of feelings are evoked from that imagery?

02:22 I'm slightly obsessed with exploring that emotional connection to landscape and to the

02:29 moor.

02:30 It's a bit like a sea really.

02:31 I think people that live by the sea, when they say that they miss it when they don't

02:35 live near the sea, I get the same feeling about this huge expanse.

02:41 It sort of holds my imagination.

02:45 It's never let go of my imagination and I don't want it to.

02:49 It's really exciting.

02:51 I think when it really boils down to it, this is the biggest thing for me is responding

02:58 to where I live.

03:00 This location is everything.

03:02 So the stamps are incredible and I love designing them but I can't wait to share stories and

03:10 more artwork and illustrations about where we are right now.

03:13 I'm excited for that next chapter.

03:17 I love doing book commissions.

03:20 That's my love of narrative.

03:22 I love stories and storytelling.

03:25 I've been able to illustrate books for Philip Pullman, for poets such as Caroline Duffy.

03:33 I have also worked in a publishing house as well designing book covers.

03:38 I just love the book format.

03:40 Who doesn't love books?

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