iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

This print is a partner for the Crow Catalogue print I produced earlier in the year. It will hopefully make more sense when framed and the right way up...

Three black on white relief prints hang in a cluttered garage. Each shows a grid of 9 swans in different preening positions.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 18h

I happened to see swans close up the other day on my way back from DMU. They were doing some focused feather care. The positions they got into seemed almost impossible. So, I had to try a new print design. It's not finished yet. But here's the state of play.

Kitchen table with a mess of art stuff. (Not much room left for eating). Prominent in the foreground, a vinyl relief print block showing nine swans in a 3 by 3 grid. Each is in a different position. Most are preening. Next to the plate is a test print.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Shadow of fly. Beacon Hill. 2 days ago.

A beech leaf in the woods, back lit by the sun, more like stained glass than plant. On the other side of the leaf a fly has landed. Its shadow darkens the lit green of the leaf. Even the fretwork of its wings is rendered in shadow.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Season of mists and fruitful pumpkins.

A minature pumpkin is held in a hand. Both pumpkin and hand are wrinkly.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

It's that time of year again. My favourite season.

A minature pumpkin dappled dark green on yellow is held in a wrinkled hand against a plain wall. The light is soft and diffuse.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

This poster is apparently up in the Central Library in Leicester. I feel very honoured to be included.

Poster in the style of the cover of Sgt Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band. But the drum in the middle reads Made In Leicester. The collaged figures are of people associated with Leicester. Including the Attenborough brothers, Thomas Cook, Sue Townsend, Filbert Fox, Tanky Smith and many more.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 23/09/2026

Another experiment with over printing different colours of ink. This time on Ho-sho paper with oil based ink.

Relief print of two swans under a fantastical moon. The injs are mottled with several colours.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

But do I want empty calories? On balance, right now, yes.

A packet of Seabrook salt and vinegar crisps lies unopened on a kitchen table.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Trying something a bit different in my printing technique. Using the tooth of the paper to incompletely lay down colour. And printing several layers of different inks from the same plate. This is an experiment.

Relief print of two swans and the moon. Highly stylised. The print is roughly inked in black, blue, green and yellow. There are many white speks where the paper shows through.

Low angle shot of a blue vinyl relief plate in the process of being carved. A cutting tool lies out of focus behind the plate.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Getting ready to do a workshop at Edge Lit on Saturday. What has this to do with world-building, you may ask. Come to the workshop and you'll find out.

Three identical copies of an 'optical illusion' picture. A forked construction seems to have three tines at one end but two at the other, depending on how and where you look.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

I just unrolled this painting for the first time in many years. It was given to 'S' and I by the principal of a school in Muzah, Taiwan, after we'd delivered an environmental education workshop there. The painting shows the great caligrapher Wang Xi Zhi and one of his geese.

A painting of the great caligrapher Wang Xi Zhi reclining in a blue garment, observing one of his beloved geese. The goose looks back at him. There is Chinese calligraphy in the traditional style to the top and left. The painting is in a Chinese impressionist style.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 13/09/2026

"I'd like to buy a country please." "I'm sorry sir, that's not legal." "But I'm obscenely rich." "In which case, may I suggest buying an election instead? It's very much the same thing, but has a veneer of legitimacy." "Wonderful. Do you take crypto?" "That'll do nicely, sir."

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 08/09/2026

Messing around with framing up old work for fun. Just to see how it looks framed.

Framed square decalcomania abstract in blue. It could suggest different things to different people. A wave? A mountain? Moon rise over a strange planet? Closeup footprint of a turtle in wet sand?

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Waiting for the number 13 bus, I had a lucky encounter with these beautiful shapes and colours.

Seed pods hanging from a tree. They are green and yellow. They curl to form helical shapes. The individual seeds show through as lines of bumps. The background is branches and leaves and sky.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

Plotting a novel feels very much like trying to neatly fold a fitted sheet.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 02/09/2026

The whole ‘learning to cut mountboard’ thing came about because of this print - The Crow Catalogue. I've now, inexpertly, framed it up. I still have lots of learning to do. But the imperfections are the mark of my hand, so I'm not too displeased.

A framed relief print rests on a bookcase. The print shows 9 crows in different positions of flight, arranged as a grid.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 31/08/2026

Learning to cut the 45 degree bevel on mountboard. I'm slowly slowly getting better at it. Happily, I have a bag of offcut mountboard pieces from Gadsby's to practice on.

Widescreen rectangle of purple-grey mountboard propped on a bookcase. Framed within it is a print of three figures in expressionist style. The 45 degree bevelled edges of the cut are neatly regular.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 30/08/2026

Trying to learn to cut my own mountboard for framing.

Relief print of three figures in expressionist style. It lies within an inexpertly cut rectangle of mountboard. There is a 45 degree bevel on the cut.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

It's difficult to catch a moment with a novel, in those 3 minutes while my tea steeps. But with a handy pile of scrap paper on the kitchen table and a box of homemade willow charcoal to hand, I can make a mark or two. The results may not be much to write home about. But the process gives me joy.

The reverse, blank, side of a college worksheet lies on a table. On it rests a stub end of charcoal. Lines of text are dimly visible through the paper. Two charcoal lines have been made on the paper, giving the vague sense if swan.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 25/08/2026

Taking a charcoal line for a walk

A charcoal line on a sheet of scrap paper. The line curls around on itself repeatedly, making a pattern that could be 6 faces, heavily distorted in an expressionist style

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

I have fashioned some weirdly misshapen but tasty and gluten free objects.

Seven misshapen chocolate meringues on a cooling tray. More like abstract sculpture than a Bake Off handshake.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 21/08/2026

Shouting: 'This is not news' at the radio.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 20/08/2026

Why is the top story on the BBC news about a family deciding to move back to Britain? My mistake... the top 2 stories...

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 19/08/2026

An experiment in printing on driftwood.

A hand holds a piece of sea-worn timber on the flat side of which which a white layer gas been painted. Over the white is a printed design of three men in an expressionist style. The black of this printing has been softened and eroded by the weather, giving the impression that this may be a relic from another time or place, which has been worn down by tide and weather.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

'I'm also just a Thailand-based crypto billionaire standing in front of the leader of a political party asking him to love me.'

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 15/08/2026

'And is the establishment in the room with us now?'

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

Seeing this pic of Infantino today gave me flashbacks to the 1980s. Can't think why. #Infantino

FIFA boss Infantino pictured in front of a harshly striped black and white background.

Image of the fictional character Max Headroom in front of a harshly striped background.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 14/08/2026

I find it impossible to 'separate the art from the artist' when the artist is using the profits from their work to fund campaigns that persecute vulnerable minorities.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 05/08/2026

A very late birthday present has arrived for me. (Ordered in plenty of time but taking months to get here...) I'm really interested in the work of this artist, Sybil Andrews. I suspect the book may have been shipped from Canada.

A hand holds the book On The Curve- The Life and Art of Sybil Andrews. The cover is illustrated with on of the artist's prints. It shows a tractor ploughing and many seagulls. The style is modernist, speaking to a early to mid 20th century aesthetic.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 01/08/2026

Very pleased with the position of my print The Lemon Counter in the Sock Open exhibition in Loughborough Town Hall.

Five pictures of very different sizes hung on a gallery wall. But all with muted browns to blacks to makea pleasinggroup. Bottom right is A black and white relief print in black frame. A figure counts outsized lemons.

Wide shot of a gallery hung with many beautiful pictures.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 31/07/2026

Abstract expressionist design - a creative collaboration between the sports court behind County Hall and the dusk sky a few days ago.

Nets and the grid of wires making up a fence are silhouettes of intercutting lines against a sky that pales from blue above to peach below.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 29/07/2026

Delighted to have had my print The Lemon Counter accepted for the Sock Gallery Open Exhibition in Loughborough Town Hall. The exhibition opens 1st August and runs for a month.

Black and white relief print of a man holding a lemon with a pile of lemons behind him. The wall behind is patterned with rectangles of different sizes. The image is expressionist in style.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 27/07/2026

A bit of left handed sketching practice this morning. (Don't worry. The right hand isn't too bad. Just giving it a rest after aggravating a strain yesterday.)

Right hand in a brace hovering over a charcoal sketch, which is obscured.

Charcoal sketch of a bearded man. Very rough an unacomplished. (The sketch not the man.)

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 26/07/2026

Took my camera and favourite lens to Beacon Hill yesterday, under clouds and with the tantalising feeling that it might rain for the first time in many weeks. Or it might not. The landscape tinderbox dry.

A fern frond, dried and browned to look like beaten copper. Only one part of it is in focus. In the background, milkily out of focus, other fronds are just visible. A few are green.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 25/07/2026

Having a lovely relaxing 39th wedding anniversary. We went for a walk around Beacon Hill. Passed this old friend along the way.

The trunk of an old chestnut tree, surrounded by undergrowth. Grooves in the bark twist around as they travel from ground to branches.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

A brief trip to Loughborough this afternoon. Past the Sock Man to the Sock Gallery.

Photograph of Loughborough's SockMan statue.A rounded figure sitting on a low rounded plinth, with one leg stretched out, the toe pointing away from hom. He seems to be admiring his sock.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 24/07/2026

It seems to have taken me most of the day to prepare two prints for submission to an open exhibition.

Two black and white lino prints in an expressionist style are leaning against a book shelf. One shows a man and a pile of lemons. The other shows three men in a row under a dubious moon. A label can be seen poking out from under each picture frame.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 20/07/2026

I framed up the print so I can leave it propped up in the hallway and catch glimpses of it unexpectedly from time to time. That's the only way I know how to decide if I like it. How do you try to achieve objectivity about the things you create? I'd love to know.

Two framed prints leaning against book shelves. The prints show stylised head and neck designs. The nearest one highly abstract, the other expressionist.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 19/07/2026

I think this is the final iteration of the design - for the time being. I've printed up two, with slightly different background variations. I'll need to frame one up and live with it for a few days before knowing if I like it. But that aside, I've learned a lot through the process. #Printmaking

Two prints hang from a line in a cluttered garage. Each shows a stylised head and neck. Something vaguely Easter Island about the design. Also a roughly drawn circle, bottom right. The background of each shows angular patterns, which radiate from the circle.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Latest test print from this design. The border has been ditched. And a colour has been introduced. If I'd the capacity to visualise, perhaps I wouldn't need to go through so many iterations to get half way there. (If, indeed, I've reached the half way point...)

Stylised design of a head and neck, as if the head is glancing down at a roughly drawn circle. All in black relief print on grey white paper. A bar of pinkish red angles up from the circle and across the face, fading as it goes.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 17/07/2026

Early test print. Provisional title: The Moon is Born. Not sure what I think of it yet. But I really neede to make something.

Relief print. Highly stylised heads and neck. It seems to be looking sideline ay a roughly drawn circle on the ground.

Blue vinyl with a design marked onto it. A carving tool rests on top. The design is a highly stylised heads and necks with a roughly drawn circle near the ground.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

I'm really enjoying the freedom of charcoal and scrap paper. The 'scrapness' of the paper is key. I'm reticent to waste anything. But having a stack of paper half-used, so to speak, allows me to make bad art without feeling bad. (Of course, the act of making art can't be bad.) #charcoal

A sheet of scrap A4 paper on which single line has been marked in charcoal. The line curls round on itself, forming the stylised image of a head and neck. As if an Easter Island statue were to angle its gaze down with a skeptical air. A stick of charcoal lies on the paper next to the drawing.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 16/07/2026

A glimpse into my visual art practice, which is fuelled be home made charcoal and heaps of scrap paper.

A kitchen table on which many sheets of A4 have been laid. On each has been drawn a pair of highly stylised heads. A stick of charcoal rests on the nearest one.

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Rod Duncan @rodduncan.bsky.social · 13/07/2026

The view over Borth from the top of the back road from Aberystwyth. #Borth #Ceredigion #Cymru

A road. A hillside. In the distance, the sea, the low village, the distant mountains. All this in golden-hour light.

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