Album review Illustration for "Woodcut" by Big Big Train in PROG Magazine. This was a great opportunity to work in traditional pencil on toned paper.

Big Big Train’s Woodcut is a landmark release marking the band’s first ever full-length conceptual piece. The story isn’t set in any particular time frame, but it’s about The Artist, who is struggling with life. He takes a stroll and finds this piece of wood and creates something that he considers beautiful and different. Maybe it’s a dream or maybe it’s real life, but he finds himself stepping into this woodcut world. Woodcut sees all seven BBT members making stunning contributions, with frontman Alberto Bravin taking the lead as producer.

I ran with a reverse concept of the woodcut artist carving out the music as it were, elements of the illustration such as curled wood and markings nodding to the recognisable woodwind and strings of Big Big Train. The addition of frontman and producer Alberto Bravin also emerging from the woodcut. My process began with sketching out the concept, moving into layering Faber Castell Polychromos pencils on Strathmore Toned Paper. I felt my resolve strengthen with this project, against the odds of the scaremongering that has grown around the illustration and design industry this year. It was doubly satisfying to note that the album’s narrative grew from the band visiting a 2023 Edvard Munch woodcut exhibition in Oslo. I feel that this album successfully communicates a solidarity and appreciation coming from creatives at this point in time, the plight of the musician inspired by the dogged visual artist and vice versa.