Well, I thought it was funny

Christmas festivities over it's back to reality with a bump, as I see once again that the original caption for my cartoon used in the Reader's Digest 'Beat the Cartoonist' competition a couple of months back wasn't considered funny. Pah!

My caption is:

"Somewhere on a flood plain, preferably."

(it's meant to be a beaver ...geddit?)

The winning caption, by Louise Basham from Sidcup was "I need a project I can sink my teeth into."

..it stood on hen's legs and walked about the yard...

I think it was about this time last year that BBC7 broadcast some readings of Arthur Ransome's ‘Old Peter's Russian Tales’.
A late afternoon walk in the woods yesterday in this snowy weather brought them back to me- in particular the tale of the witch Baba Yaga.
The description of her "little hut which stands on hen's legs" stuck in my mind. With not much else to do I've scribbled up this quick sketch of it-

Might return to the subject one day and do it properly.

No cartoon with punchline this time- sorry. I’ve had a bit of a humour bypass recently, and haven’t thought of many gags for ages. I’ll go out later and watch people fall over on the ice- that’s always good for a laugh- as long as it’s not me.

Tidings of joy

It's Christmas soon- That strange mix of pagan tradition and Christianity.

I'm often accused of having a Scrooge-like 'Bah, Humbug' outlook on the whole thing.

That's not entirely fair. I respect those who have a strong religious conviction and see it as a celebration of the birth of their saviour. I'm also keen on the mediaeval feast day aspect- family and friends snug indoors out of the cold, full of food and drink.

Marvellous.

But I don't think I'm alone in disliking the constant 'BUY BUY BUY- SHINY THINGS-WOW!' message we're hit over the head with from mid October.

Anyway, here's a Christmas cartoon that I couldn’t sell.

Bah!

Brushstrokes

Looking at that cartoon the Oldie used for their latest annual I wish they'd chosen this one instead, as it's one of my personal favourites. They printed it a while back, and as a cartoon it's a bit of a one-off for me as it wasn't drawn on the computer, or with a Rotring technical drawing pen.

Like the lady with the bottom in the previous post it was drawn with a Japanese brush pen- I think it gives a nice relaxed feel suitable for the subject.

It's not rude, it's art

I've been discussing on one of the cartoonist online forums about how I draw everything on the computer these days. I'd like to do more stuff with proper pens, ink, n paper, so today I've been doing some doodling using a Japanese brush pen.

I'm not sure how the following rough sketch came about, but the fact that I was reading an article about Penelope Cruz in one of the Sunday papers earlier is a coincidence- honest.

I see myself as someone who is still learning how to draw, so I know this isn't the best study of the female form- but in my defence it was done without a model (i should be so lucky).

(I've had a go at tweaking the blog template to allow a bigger pic, so If you can't see the image, I apologise)

An Oldie

I recently found out that one of my cartoons is in another book ready for Christmas, or 'holiday season' if you live your life in a movie trailer. The Oldie magazine has re-used the following cartoon in their latest annual (available in all good bookshops etc etc).

This is quite an old drawing, when I was only sending a handful of cartoons off to mags in a not very professional manner. Look at that drawing style- there seems to be no evidence of a body under those blankets. And that appears to be a tape cassette on the floor- yeah, that's what 'the kids' are into...