pumiced you a miracle

Thought I might have missed the boat with this one- it being based on a fad for piscine foot pampering which is no longer that popular (it was when I drew it). Reader's Digest has it in their latest issue.

For some reason I found myself making "arr!" pirate utterances (of the Robert Newton type) as I drew it.



skinny genes

I'm not sure if I've written on this blog that much about how I draw these things...maybe I have, but I've forgotten- such is the way of old age...sigh.
Anyroadup- wot I do, like, is scribble things into an ancient version of Flash, via an equally geriatric graphics tablet, and then spend ages tidying the resulting mess into something half decent- finished off with a bit of digital watercolour. I can spend hours tweaking a nose- sometimes days amending an elbow- just to get that 'dashed off in a minute' spontaneous feel.
It drives me mental.
But...sometimes…I get lucky- and the initial scritchy scratchy sketch is just right in my mind- such as this one. It's in the latest Prospect magazine.
Think this one took a few minutes.

It's always nice when an editor chooses your stuff- but they have layouts and things to consider- so I suppose it’s understandable that they had to squish and stretch my skinny design into a column width.
What you see above is the original skinny design. With this sort of gag I couldn’t see the point of adding superfluous detail- it’s all about the relationship between the two characters.
I dunno- I s’pose I could have added a sofa or something...?
Meh!

Song of the South

Getting a few cartoons in print again- here's one from the most recent Oldie magazine.

Could have done with a pair of running shoes last night- a friend and I ended up legging it around a multi storey car park in Windsor, trying to rescue a wild baby rabbit, who had somehow found his way to the 3rd floor. Yes, it was after visiting the pub, but we were sober, so it was no hallucination.
Brer rabbit was eventually caught- we released him where other rabbits hang out- so it was a happy ending.

Freeze

Friday morning was a slightly hungover wander around the Damien Hirst exhibition at the Tate modern, London
I think he first made an impact on the art scene back in the late 80's/early 90's.
Which is approximately the time I drew this cartoon- I think it appeared in Punch magazine (not 100% sure, though)

Rare work of art this! Ink on paper, rather than computer vector graphic on flat screen monitor

I hate you Butler

Pah!
Here I am watching Reg Varney's comedy genius on 'Holiday On The Buses' via Channel Berk, and my enjoyment is ruined by ads every 10 minutes- some halfwit shouting about "PAY DAY LOANS EVER SO EASY NOW JUST ASK US FOR MONEY WE WON’T ASK FOR IT BACK(*small print "this is a lie"*)!!!!"- or some perfect family grinning inanely at each other as they eat JUICYMEATINABAGITSSOJUICYYUMYUM (and somehow their cut glass English accented words not quite fitting the movement of their Euro mouths).

TV has become what we used to laugh at when Chris Tarrant or Clive James poked fun at rubbish foreign telly back in the 80's.
Hey- but at least it's in 3D Hi Def, right? Woop woop!!

This made it to the Australian version of The Spectator- so, it must mean telly is as bad out there too...but at least they have the option of going outside and catching some sun instead.
Pah!

waffle

I haven't been posting much recently- it's the usual 'not a lot in print' excuse.
Also, the past month or so was a bit of a non cartoon time- I couldn't think of any ideas- so, rather than sulk, I tried to improve my drawing techniques: lots of charcoal sketching- dip pen stabbing- getting angry with water colour ineptitude.
I eventually got fed up with that too. So, to try and give the part of my 'brain' that deals with visual stuff a rest, I broke out the music gear- I am an excellent guitarist! but only in the way that Dave Lister is (you'll have to Google that, probably).
Eventually the neighbours came round and set fire to my amplifier.

Back to the toons- forced myself to sit down and have a thinking session, and somehow managed to come up with some stuff- just got to draw the damn things now.
It'll be a while before anything appears, so in the meantime here's a reject- came about after noticing how people on trains are no longer happy with just their own thoughts and staring out the window.

Just realised how bad this cartoon is- that's meant to be a tube train- how'd they get a signal???
Useless.

Why Don't You...

I think summer has been and gone- those couple of weeks in March- hope you took advantage of it!
Of course, weather was much nicer back in my youth- although, I think I just stayed in and watched telly mostly.
Fresh air is overrated.

A cartoon from Private Eye-