Saturday 3 October 2020

Inktober2020 - Wisp

 

Wisp Revisited
(markers and digital colour)

So far, I'm enjoying following the official prompts from Inktober2020, though there's no doubt that with my determination to revisit each black and white drawing and apply colour, I'm giving myself quite a bit of work to do.

Wisp
(markers in sketchbook)

Thursday 1 October 2020

Inktober2020 - Fish

 


Fish (Revisited)
(markers and Photoshop)

It's hard to believe it's been a year since I last drew a cartoon, but then it's been a pretty weird year so far. Despite all the controversy around Inktober, I thought I'd give it a go again, so following the first prompt, I drew the Fish below. 

Not content with that, however, I reworked it again with digital colour and a photo of fish I took in Valencia, and the result is above.




Tuesday 8 October 2019

Inktober 2019 - The Castle Drawings


Well, Inktober 2019 came round and because I'd missed Inktober 2018 by virtue of being hard at work in Crete, I determined to give this year's event a go. However, I have a poor track record in keeping up with challenges and even this first drawing came unwillingly. I simply sat down and drew what came into my head. 

And that's how it went for a week, but I became conscious of how much thought I was actually giving to each successive drawing, willing it into a series. And so, after a week I gave up. I'll post the other six drawings below, but as they're so clearly cartoons rather than serious drawings, I'm also posting them here on The Cartoonist's Hat as well as on Boogie Street.


All were drawn with a Pilot disposable fountain pen in a Pink Pig square sketchbook.




Wednesday 24 April 2019

Whimsical Town


Whimsical Town
(Watercolour, watercolour pencils, markers, 
coloured pencils in 195x195 mm sketchbook)

Here's my "Whimsical Town", produced quite quickly this afternoon for the Sketchbook Revival Facebook Group.

Tuesday 23 April 2019

Pavement Crack Creature

Pavement Crack Creature
(mixed media in 195x195 mm sketchbook)

I'm having fun with some projects set up by the Sketchbook Revival Facebook Group. The challenge here was to find a creature by following the cracks in a pavement photograph. 

For a Monster from the Id, he's not too frightening.

Wednesday 21 March 2018

Curt's Coffee Cups

(Black marker and digital colour)

I did this for a fanzine article but sadly missed the deadline. So here it is, devoid of context, just because I like it.

Saturday 10 February 2018

Illustration Friday - Olympics

(marker and digital colour)

Illustration Friday provides another opportunity to rake around in the cartoon barrel and dig up this old one for this week's topic - Olympics.

Saturday 3 February 2018

Illustration Friday - Mythology


(Black marker and digital colour)

Still digging into the archives for this offering to Illustration Friday for their topic - Mythology.

Friday 2 February 2018

Illustration Friday - Blue


(Black marker with digital colour)


The logo I did for a convention, now slightly reworked for last week's Illustration Friday's topic: Blue.

Monday 8 January 2018

Illustration Friday - The Letter A


(Black marker with digital colour)

Previously published here as "The Definite Article" just for the fun of it and now conveniently recycled for this week's Illustration Friday challenge - "The Letter A".

Wednesday 3 January 2018

Map

Map
(Black marker, collage and digital colour)

While I'm waiting for the flood of comments on my recent suggestion, here's a contribution to this week's Illustration Friday brief - Map.

Can't Have Your Cake and Eat It



The Last Cake before the New Year Diet
(black marker in 14x14 cm sketchbook, digital colour)

Happy New Year to one and all! 

In Another Place, I took a little time to count up the paintings and sketchbook drawings I did in 2017. For various reasons, the grand total came to around 30, not a particularly impressive number but I expect next year's to be better.

And then I thought:

"Maybe I should do the same thing for my cartoons." 

Hmm. Can it really be that I did none in the whole of 2017? I know I reworked one or two and added some digital colour to some others but it does seem as if my Cartoonist's Hat fell down the back of the sofa at some time.

At the top of this post is yesterday's sketchbook drawing of a cake. I've posted it here because I think it could also come under the heading of "Illustration" and one of the things it illustrates is the way I think the strands of my work are gradually drawing together.

So: does it make any sense to continue running two separate blogs? My inclination is to close this one down and simply post everything on Boogie Street. Cartoons and paintings are just as much a part of what goes to make me as were last year's daily entries from My Dad's Diary.

Comments welcome.

Wednesday 8 November 2017

Greetings Cards




Time to announce that you can now buy Greetings Cards based on my paintings and cartoons from LoveFromTheArtist.com

Go on, you know you want to!

Friday 12 August 2016

Beam

























Last month I was asked to provide a cover for the tenth issue of the fanzine BEAM, edited by Nic Farey and Jim Trash. Nic gave me the general brief (and the photograph of the crossed searchlight beams) and left the rest up to me.

I realised this was an opportunity to use some pages from my Sketchbook Circle book (see here) , so I combined the photo and the drawings, in the process having to work with umpteen Photoshop Layers for the first time, then coloured the whole thing in Photoshop.

The fanzine has now been issued, so I can show the cover here. I'm pretty pleased with the way it's turned out, as I hope the editors are. By the way, for those slow on the uptake, or without Nic's Classics background, the crossed beams show an "X" for the tenth issue.

Monday 4 July 2016

Michael Foreman Masterclass

























Me and the Monster (WIP)
(Fine line marker and watercolour)

One Saturday in May I went to Seven Stories, the National Centre for Children's Books based in Newcastle, where I'd paid for a Masterclass with Michael Foreman, the great children's author and illustrator.

It was great fun. Michael told his life story, illustrated with family photographs and pictures from his books. He's a good storyteller with a fund of stories from his life and it's clear that his childhood has informed much of his work.

The final part of the day was a workshop and Michael admitted this was the first he'd held for adults. That became clear when he asked us what we wanted to do, rather than giving us a project. What he eventually settled on was "Draw yourself as a child, then draw who you thought you'd be when you grew up".

I don't think he could quite get to grips with what I drew (see above). I had to explain that I never had any idea of what I'd be when I grew up, and that's pretty much how I feel today. When I grow up, I might have a better idea.

Not knowing what I wanted to be, I drew a monster next to me, because that was what I liked when I was that age (and, of course, I still do).

I didn't have time to finish the watercolour work, or even get the feet right, but in due course I will.

Friday 4 March 2016

Onion Head

























Onion Head 
(Mixed media in A5 sketchbook)

One of the potential difficulties with having my work split between this blog and Boogie Street is that occasionally there can be an overlap. Were it not for having completed this image in a sketchbook in a Sketchbook Circle which is definitely at the Fine Art end of the spectrum, I'd almost certainly have posted it here as an Illustration.

Well, nothing's perfect.