It’s not easy to draw at night in the pitch darkness of Monhegan Island off the coast of Maine. This last summer I found that the best approach was to use my iPad Pro. I could set it at the lowest illumination, and by doing so I could sketch the night sky and the shadowy shapes of islands, rocks, and buildings, even on moonless nights.

Naturally, the light from the iPad attracted a horde of bugs, so my sketching sessions were combination of drawing and slapping: Draw-slap-draw-slap, and so forth.

I would sketch out landscapes in the dark, then work them up into Lino-cut prints in the daylight – I’m not quite ready to wield my razor-sharp cutting tools while it’s still dark.

I usually make twelve prints of each design, with the expectation that I’ll sell maybe four or five, but the Scorpio print sold all twelve copies within a couple of weeks. I now have to start again, and recut a second version.