His boys

     Following the recent cat series that I appear to have accidentally slipped into, here are Gray’s (you know, that fella I drew a couple of weeks back) two boys Ny and Ghost. I’ve had a few requests for these cat pictures now, thinking I might go into the pet portrait business. As long as your pet is a cat I’m good to go.

Murderous Villian

   Inspired by the events of a few weeks back, here is a picture of my own cat, Theo (a.k.a Theophilus P Wildebeest). This version is tame compared to the bloody horror I was actually faced with. He’d come sauntering down the garden looking like he’d auditioned for the part of Carrie, having taken out a lovely, plump breasted pigeon in the back garden. I would show you the picture I took but it’s kinda gross. He really didn’t enjoy it when I donned my marigolds and hosed him down in the bath afterwards mind you.
    Seems karma did make him pay for his crime as he picked up a UTI after that. Maybe my next picture should be of the cat being haunted by a mangled pigeon ghost, the murderous villain.

To whisker or not to whisker.

       With so much going on in the world, how has it come to pass that I’m spending my time pondering on whether to give the marmalade cat whiskers or not, like it’s of vital importance in the scheme of things. Any thoughts on this matter would be appreciated. It is pretty important you know.

Bots

       Sometimes I just have to bury my head in sand, ignore the news and all the turbulent goings on
                                   and produce a page of robot friends. Beep boop.

Post Eurovision Doodling

        Every year I fancy my chances at being able to live tweet doodles of the Eurovision and every year I end up frustrated at my inability to be able to successfully create characters quickly enough. I can never keep up and my drawings are scrappy at best. Each year I watch as some amazing art is produced on my twitter feed at lighting speed. Check out @neilslorance’s fabulous posts from Saturday night as an example of what I mean.
        So I’ve decided that instead of moping about the whole thing, I’m going to work on creating little characters and getting ideas down, slowly at first of course I’m not a bleedin’ magician. Any tips for this sort of caper would be most welcome. Hope Monday is treating you well. 

#CheersSimon

       Fan art of a different sort. A memorial service was held today to celebrate the life of journalist Simon Ricketts. I only knew him through Twitter and was sadly never fortunate enough to have met him in person, but he always came across as such a kind, caring, funny and clever man. He is greatly missed by so many, including myself.
        This evening a will join a whole host of Twitter users, his colleagues, friends and family, all that knew and loved him, in raising a glass in his memory at six pm. Love to all xx

Frawg

       A happy frog for you on this sunny Tuesday morning. Hope you’re all having a good day.

The SATS Monster Cometh

       It’s that awful time of year again where I really feel for the poor souls at the school being forced to go through these unnecessary and stressful tests. The rest of the children have to tiptoe about the place in an attempt to help them concentrate. All makes for a rather nervous atmosphere. I’d have been awful at them back in the day, unless they’d let me illustrate my answers instead of writing them down. Good luck to all the children out there, bless you.

Community

      This morning I did some snooping around to find friendly online art communities. I feel I need like minded types to boost my creativity and help me to focus on the cartooning. It’s not always easy when you’ve got two jobs, children to think about, and a home to run on your own the majority of the time. I’d like that extra nudge to keep me going.
      I joined a site called Doodle Addicts, seems pretty nice so far. If you know of any others I could try I’d love to hear about them. I have to admit I’m definitely ready for a change from the current atmosphere of Twitter. I’m sorry to say I’m finding it trying, which is a huge shame because it used to be my go to place. Instagram has been a much better fit for me in the last year or so, from an artist’s point of view. Haven’t quite figured out Pinterest as yet and I’ve always felt a bit lost on tumblr.
       Trouble is of course with extra social platforms comes the need for extra content. Can’t very well be sharing the same stuff on everything now can I? Or can I?

     

Cartooning Diploma

    I’m proud that I managed to be awarded a merit for my Diploma in Cartooning course that I finished in the autumn last year. When I look back I realise I should have gone to art college thirty years ago but teenage me was a lazy, smartarse who couldn’t wait to leave school and bum around Norwich. Idiot. Anyway, here are a few of the pieces I submitted during the course.

   

Library Posters Project

  When I started my job as school librarian I wanted to try and make the space more colourful and jolly, plus put my stamp on the place. Took me a fair few hours to come up with the thirty six images that made up the posters, but I have to say I enjoyed the project very much. Many of the characters were copies of some of my favourite children’s book illustrators/artists so I won’t share those with you, copyrights and all that. Here are a few of the characters I illustrated myself though. Hope you enjoy them on this rainy Wednesday.

 

Caricature Doodling

                         

Critters

May the 4th / Revenge of the 5th