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.
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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?