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.

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.

Journey

"With hope in his heart and all his worldly goods on his back, he set off on his great journey."

An illustration for this week's Illustration Friday topic - Journey.

War

This week, the Cartoonists' Forum Competition asked for something using the given caption "Of course you know this means war."

I've taken an old fanzine illustration and given it a retread.

Tree

Tree at Grasmere (Marker in sketchbook)

Not a cartoon, of course, but this blog also carries illustrations and this week's Illustration Friday brief is - Tree.

Toy

As a boy, young Rob took a keen interest in the health of his toys.

This week's subject from Illustration Friday is Toy. An old illustration given some colour in Photoshop.

Moly Time Again

In March I announced my involvement with the Moly Totem Pole project. For various reasons, I haven't been able to carry on with it. Until now. Here's my addition to Lauren's Moly, done in a combination of coloured pencils and markers: