Nick Tankard
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nicktankard.bsky.social
Nick Tankard
@nicktankard.bsky.social
1.8K followers 810 following 3.2K posts
Bloke & sometime Illustrator (I illustrated The Woman in Black by Susan Hill, published by Vintage Classics).

Banner illustration: A copy I made of the rumpus in Where The Wild Things Are

Bradford

nicktankard.co.uk for prints, originals and portfolio.
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nicktankard.bsky.social
Cartoon human shaped gap in a wall on a recent walk. Like a spooky Tom & Jerry 👀
Sunlight through a hole in a brick wall that is shaped like a tall person. Tree and undergrowth next to the wall.
November 13, 2025 at 8:47 PM
nicktankard.bsky.social
I’m away from home at the moment as I’m dog sitting, lovely views here so that’s helping me to push on with new work, the change of location is doing me some good (when I’m not being commanded & instructed by my furry overlord).
Blue sky over a patchwork of farm fields, hills with clumps of trees clinging to the tops. Trees and bright red berries in the foreground. Big sky, big view.
November 13, 2025 at 2:38 PM
nicktankard.bsky.social
I’m selling original artwork like this, an unpublished illustration I made for The Woman in Black. I’ll post the originals & their prices on here & you can also purchase giclee prints for £75 (Free P&P - UK only - but I also ship internationally) visit nicktankard.co.uk to see more.
A black & white illustration in cross hatched pen and rolled printing ink on white paper. The dark shape of a woman stands over a man sleeping in a bed. The room is Edwardian in appearance, metal bedstead, old style quilt, framed pictures on the floral wallpaper. The man has his head buried deep in a pillow, he looks troubled. The woman is silhouette against the moonlight shining into the room, she is imposing and creepy. Spooky and atmospheric.
November 12, 2025 at 7:23 PM
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Right, I’ve had enough of this silly bloody creative inactivity (of nearly two years!). My room is tidy, I’ve put the heater on (it’s feckin cold in here) I’m lighting nice candles, popping on spooky podcasts & I’m not coming out until I’ve made a start on commissions for friends & family. ENOUGH!
My very small but cosy workroom. Red brick walls, a small desk tucked in between a book case and a window, shelves and window sill full of assorted collected treasures from travels. A warm light from an Anglepoise lamp. The room is ready for action, I’m dusting down my own personal cobwebs and making myself ready for action!
November 11, 2025 at 10:38 AM
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I’m off to see this! See you later 👋🏻
The poster for the new Alan Bennett scripted film The Choral. A man with a beard, a tweed suit and brown hat stands with sheets of music in hand. Other images from the film around him…three soldiers with their heads sticking out of a bus window, three grumpy looking men dressed in black, people cycling over a moorland track and tweed suit man with a group of women singing.
November 10, 2025 at 5:21 PM
nicktankard.bsky.social
Suitably gloomy & overcast weather for packing & shipping my gloomy & overcast prints. You too can hang this on that part of your staircase that creaks or that spare loo that nobody likes visiting. £75 (P&P free UK only - but I also ship worldwide) Check them out at nicktankard.co.uk Thank you
A section of one of my giclee prints, frame label and one of my business cards about to be packed in black tissue paper. The print is of a large Victorian house (Eel Marsh House from The Woman in Black) in a marshy landscape. A lonely figure stands in front of the house on a cart track.
November 10, 2025 at 2:47 PM
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We’re off to see The Choral tonight. I’m really looking forward to it because I’m a big geek and I watched them filming it in Saltaire last year and I love Alan Bennett.
A film crew and cast filming scenes outside a grand Victorian building. The cast (including Ralph Fiennes) wear period clothing. Two people in period clothes cycling down a road in a Victorian village (Saltaire).
November 10, 2025 at 10:39 AM
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Banishing the blues on the allotment this morning. Taps are off and everything looks a bit worn out. I know how it feels. Finding colour and joy wherever I can🌞
The sun rising behind trees and houses, allotment plots in the foreground. Sheds, grass paths and plots looking a bit tired. Morning dew on the grass. Bright red small round berries growing on a small tree on an allotment plot. I don’t know what they are so I’ll play it safe by not stuffing them into my mouth (also, they’re not on my plot).
November 10, 2025 at 10:27 AM
nicktankard.bsky.social
Stuff of this mornings walk.
A canal towpath. Autumnal trees either side of the path and canal, leaves on the ground and floating on the surface of the canal. The trees reflected in the water. A Heron having a nose (a beak) about near a fast flowing weir. Graffiti on a crumbling old red brick farm building. Sunlight shines through a human sized hike in the wall. Undergrowth all around. A small farm track descends towards a flatland of trees. A drystone wall on one side with winter trees arched over it, more trees on the other side. A hazy morning sky with a hint of sunshine through the broken clouds.
November 9, 2025 at 10:30 AM
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Morning walk 🍂 🌞
A misty early morning landscape of fields and trees and a small northern town in hazy blues in the distance. A large leafless tree in silhouette with the sun behind its branches in the foreground. A half cloudy half clear sky. Peaceful.
November 9, 2025 at 10:15 AM
nicktankard.bsky.social
My favourite things from the V & A Storehouse East the other week. Ronnie Barker = big hero of mine and they’ve even dragged in and erected a ruddy beautiful ceiling!

It’s well worth the visit despite the fact that it’s housed in a building that looks like an IKEA on the outside 🧐👍🏻
A BAFTA award that was presented to the great Ronnie Barker. A silver statue of a face on a little cube. The name of the recipient engraved on a plaque on the front. Information about an ornate carved ceiling that has been installed in the storehouse. It is called the Torrijis Ceiling, Islamic influenced interlacing strips of wood from medieval Spain. A beautiful ornate carved wooden ceiling. Islamic influenced patterns in gold and red form a hexagonal shape with support beams running down from the centre. The woodwork outer structure of the ceiling. Seemingly random planks of wood form a peak that is rather clumsy looking on the outside but stupendously beautiful on the inside.
November 8, 2025 at 11:50 AM
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1/2 I’m reading this. I’ve been sidetracked with other stuff this week so it’s early days but…I Love Dark Matter & Thin Air by Michelle Paver but this one is getting under my skin for the wrong reasons. It’s like she’s found a formula & she’s sticking with it right down to the way characters talk 🧐
The cover of RAINFOREST by Michelle Paver. An illustration of a rainforest, brightly coloured flowers, tropical bird, snake, frog, skull. Darkness beyond.
November 8, 2025 at 10:37 AM
nicktankard.bsky.social
Robin Hood’s Bay, window reflection.
A row of red brick and red tiled terrace houses with white painted window frames appears to have the sea running right up to their doors and gardens. Early morning sunrise reflects on the sea and makes the red brick of the houses glow a warm red. A garden shed and hedges seemingly float on the surface of the sea. In reality the sea is seen in the reflection of an open window creating an almost collage effect of houses, sea and cliffs converging.
November 7, 2025 at 8:23 PM
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My favourite old tree/flats combo from a walk earlier.
An old and twisted tree with a few leaves clinging on sits on a patch of grass next to bland red brick council flats.
November 7, 2025 at 1:35 PM
nicktankard.bsky.social
A beautiful foggy autumn trip over the moors to Ilkley this morning 😶‍🌫️🍂 🌞
Early morning sunshine behind a large leafless tree. A chill in the air. A bank of fog hanging over a valley. Blue sky above a thick white clump of fog, a road and trees in the foreground. Hazy mist rolls across very large boulders on top of a hill cloaked in dry and brittle rusty red orange ferns. This is Cow & Calf rocks near Ilkley. Hazy misty sunlight obscures buildings and the end of lane. Hedges and large dark terrace houses either side of the lane.
November 7, 2025 at 1:32 PM
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We went for a late afternoon stroll, a tad too warm for November but the colours and atmosphere were perfect. Hazy and calm.
A hazy late autumn afternoon with a glimmer of pale clear sky through gaps in the clouds, the sun setting behind them creating a faint pink and orange warmth. A silhouetted landscape of Woodland Hills and the lights of buildings in the valley below. Calm and peaceful.
November 6, 2025 at 5:15 PM
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From a lunchtime walk around my local cemetery.
A black and white photograph of the locked gates of a chapel. The gate guards the entrance to a porch, through the porch are the open wooden doors of the chapel, blackness beyond. A close up black and white photograph of the open wooden doors to the chapel. Ornate black hinges on the doors. Darkness beyond. Arched stonework above the doors.
November 5, 2025 at 2:10 PM
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Went for a walk to find some peace.

I was sent scurrying home by this bit of graffiti 🧅 👀
Graffiti on a silver metal plate on a bridge. In red pen somebody has scrawled “ONION TERROR!”
November 5, 2025 at 2:05 PM
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1/2 On my birthday last Friday we met up with my stepdad for lunch at the hotel we were staying at in Robin Hood’s Bay. It was lovely to see him & Silly Sally Dog though very strange to celebrate my birthday without my mum. He brought me this from home. My mum bought herself this at the Saltaire…
A rounded brown ceramic pot with a stylised howling wolf on the pot lid. Another view of the same pot. A rounded makers mark a W with a smiling face next to it near the lid.
November 5, 2025 at 11:32 AM
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I’ve got three commissions from family & friends to get done before Christmas so I’m slowly edging my way back into my tidy workroom. It’ll be a good way to blow the cobwebs off of myself but I am hoping my hands remember how to draw and my head remembers how to think 🤔
My little workroom. A small desk & chair, a bookcase full of books. A small window set in a wall of red bricks, grey carpet. Cosy lamp, cosy room.
November 5, 2025 at 10:32 AM
nicktankard.bsky.social
Good morning!

I’ve been up since 6 drinking more of that delicious (foul) liquid that clears you out ready for the docs to have a good nosy inside.

This suit of armour stands guard at the Victoria Hotel, Robin Hood’s Bay. That bent knee expression illustrates exactly how I feel this morning 😳🥴
A silver suit of armour, the head has a visor, the empty suit holds a red shield with three yellow lions on it. The armour is slightly bent at the knees giving the impression that the inhabitant might be elderly or in need of the loo, I know exactly how it feels.
November 4, 2025 at 8:18 AM
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One last thing before I go (a lot) for a couple of days…this just arrived, I had to purchase it myself as nobody got it for me for my birthday 🫤 it’ll give me something (else) to do during the next 24 hours.

Wish me luck! 💩👍🏻
The cover of RAINFOREST by Michelle Paver. An illustration of a rainforest, brightly coloured flowers, tropical bird, snake, frog, skull. Darkness beyond.
November 3, 2025 at 1:01 PM
nicktankard.bsky.social
The past week in photographs.

Bowzer exhibition at V&A East Storehouse. Birthday on Halloween in Robin Hood’s Bay.

As you’ll see from my recent posts I’ve got an equally busy (but far less pleasant) couple of days coming up, I’ll see you on the other side! Take it easy 👊🏻
V&A East Storehouse, Hackney Wick, London. Objects on public view stored over three levels. People milling about. A black suit with white shirt and bow tie and a black trilby hat as worn by David Bowie in the mid 1970’s. Birthday cards and plastic pumpkins beneath a white ghostly lamp in a cosy hotel room. Red tiled roofs and chimney pots, an old lamp attached to a house in Robin Hood’s Bay, North Yorkshire coast. Blue sky, sunny & cold.
November 3, 2025 at 10:16 AM
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I purchased this card with this beautiful illustration on it from Kemps Bookshop in Malton. I’m not familiar with Tirzah Garwood but I love this illustration and I’ll definitely be checking out more of her work.
A greetings card with a sepia watercolour illustration of a Snow Woman standing in a suburban garden. Snow falls and settles on the garden, winter trees droop over the scene, a hint of misty houses and buildings over the garden wall in the distance. Serene and peaceful. Snow Woman, watercolour by Tirzah Garwood (1908-1951) Eileen 'Tirzah' Garwood was the third child of a colonel in the Royal Engineers. From 1925-8 she went to Eastbourne School of Art, where Eric Ravilious taught her wood engraving; from 1927-30 she exhibited with the Society of Wood Engravers. She and Eric married in 1930, living first in Hammersmith and then in Essex, in Brick House in Great Bardfield with the Bawdens, at Castle Hedingham and at Shalford. Tirzah designed patterned and hand marbled papers, examples of which are in the British Museum and the V&A After Eric's death she took up Oil painting and showed her work at the 'Pictures for Schools' exhibitions from 1947 until her death in 195l.
November 3, 2025 at 9:50 AM
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Halloween birthday treasure 🎃👍🏻
A copy of The Book of Dust, Volume Three, The Rose Field. Two people on camels in silhouette against a hot and rocky desert landscape, an angry looking red sky above. Illustration by Chris Wormell.
November 3, 2025 at 9:40 AM