Their spirit animal, drawn by hand as a one-of-one mask

Something made just for them. Festival gift guides are full of fun hoodies, tapestries and prints; this is the one thing on the list nobody else can have. A hand-drawn mask built from their spirit animal, their colours and their obsessions is one of one, and it keeps the festival on their wall all year. It works for birthdays, anniversaries and the partner who already has every piece of merch going.

Watch what they already love and how they move through the world. Which animal do they point out on every walk, keep on their phone lock screen or get tattooed? Are they the night owl, the fox who talks their way out of anything, the snow leopard who disappears for days? Nicknames and in-jokes count. If you are stuck between two, send me both: a mask can carry a main animal and a second one hidden in the headdress.

Common associations, not rules: the owl for wisdom and night-time thinking, the fox for wit and cunning, the snow leopard for independence, the lizard for adapting and renewing, the panda for gentleness, the walrus for steadiness and a big heart. What matters more is what the animal means to the person. That is why the brief asks about them, not about the animal.

Traditionally, a mask representing a totem: an animal or spirit important to a family, clan or community, used in ceremony and storytelling across many cultures. My masks borrow the idea, not the ceremony. They are personal totems, a portrait of one person as the animal and symbols that belong to them, drawn in my own psychedelic, symmetrical style.

Art that tries to show an inner world: spirit, altered states, the patterns you see with your eyes closed. It grew up alongside psychedelic music and festival culture, and you will see it on stages, tents and posters across the scene. My masks sit in that world, hand-drawn rather than digital, and built around one real person instead of a universal figure.

The eye goes to the centre line and then gets lost in the detail on either side. Drawing them works the same way: when I step back from a mask, my focus gets caught in the middle like a trap. That is what makes one good on a wall: there is always something new to find.

An original carries the hand that made it. Prints are a great way to live with art you love, and there is a place for them. An original is the one sheet the pen actually touched: every mark, every pressure change, every tiny wobble where the ink met the paper. That is where the spirit of a piece lives. A mask here is designed from your brief, approved by you and inked by hand once, so the one on their wall is the only one that exists.

No. Every line is drawn by hand in ink. The timelapses on this page show the pen going down, start to finish.

Frame it behind glass with an acid-free mount, and hang it out of direct sunlight, which fades ink and yellows paper over time. A mount that leaves a margin of white around the mask makes the detail read from across a room. If you would rather arrive with it framed, ask me when you enquire: framing is worked out case by case.

Yes. You send the brief, you approve the sketch, and they only see it when it arrives. Tell me the date early so it lands in time.