Group caricature

I've been working all over the place since Friday - Cambridge, National Game Fair at Alcester, wedding at Wrenbury Hall, Nantwich and a corporate event at Wolverhampton Racecourse! So, just to show you some studio work, below is a recent group caricature I was commissioned to do.

Another teapot

Here's another strange teapot that, with the best will in the world, would be quite impossible to make or build.

AV Referendum

I wonder if this will be the scene witnessed across the UK when we all wait, with bated breath, for the televised results of the coalition Government's referendum on AV voting system?

Character development

This is something from my sketchbook - some design work for a children's book.

Weekend madness

It's been a very busy weekend (700+ miles travelled!) and so I thought I'd share a few images with you from it. The first photo is of my old friend (the relationship is old, not him!) Harry Robson, magician extraordinaire, who worked with me at an event in Saltaire, near Bradford. If he looks tired it's becasue, even though this photo was taken at the BEGINNING of the 5 hour event, Harry had been working the previous night in Eastbourne - what a tart! Anyway, it's always great working with Harry as it's always a good laugh and we both have a great time with the guests while working! He also kept the massive queue I had all day entertained so thank you Harry......



Now, you'll notice the big screen behind Harry? - this was used to project the digital caricatures I was drawing that day. I produced full colour caricatures (which people could see being drawn on this huge screen) which I could then drop onto pre-drawn bodies of their choice. See a few examples below:


This fella wanted to be Darth Vader (obviously!)


While this lady opted for Catwoman!


But life is full of suprises doing this job and this little lad (about 5 years old?) wanted to be drawn as ballet dancer! I think living in Yorkshire and watching Billy Elliot had been too much of an influence on the little chap and I hope this image doesn't come to haunt him in later life! The guests were given an A4 colour print of their caricature and the files were later saved and were burnt onto a CD for the client to distribute to their guests later. If I do digital caricatures at exhibitions etc then the files are saved as the stand visitor's email address so that the company running the stand can email the images to the visitor later.

Another gig was at a wedding in the Midlands where a groom from Mauritius was marrying a Russian lady which made for a really brilliant day's celebrations. The bride was a stunning looking young lady and all her Russian female friends were all blonde, leggy and stunning looking!! Hard work my job y'know, really hard work....... See for yourselves from a photo of the happy couple below.



It looks from this photo as though it was only them at the wedding but behind me was the bar where the 90-odd guests were all cheering while watching me draw them.....

Image or caption?

When thinking up cartoon ideas (and I'm sure most cartoonists do this) I think of the situation or gag, come up with a suitable caption and then envisage the final artwork. If the image doesn't work then you try it another way and usually you get the image right but sometimes, just sometimes, you have to let the gag go because you can't come up with a suitable image i.e. it just desn't work. Then it's the caption's turn and I find that I usually stick with the very first caption I come up with. I was talking to one well known cartoonist who told me that they NEVER use the original caption and always fine "tune it"....
When drawing or doodling in a sketchbook on the other hand the image obviously materialises first and I start playing the 'think of a caption' game to suit the image. These are never good enough to sell but I find it an amusing pastime. So, I drew the image below one day and came up with the caption "When a chimney sweep cleans his teeth". Not hilarious, obviously, but quite a humorous image. It could also be called "When you push things too far!"



Then I started to analyse the gag itself (always a humour killer this one!) and wondered whether a chimney sweep would actually clean his teeth this way around i.e. wouldn't he do it the other way around? So I came up with the image below:



NOT a humorous image - quite obscene actually but I do prefer the drawing!

Two judges

The drawing below is of two judges at a livestock show and I thought they'd make an interesting image. Although they're wearing bowler hats you somehow suspect that they are not city types!

More silliness....

I've always liked drawing old buildings and I certainly drink a lot of tea and so it's not so suprising that I come up with an image like this while doodling in a sketchbook.

Sketchbook image

I thought I'd dip my toes in the seemingly warm waters of blogging and, albeit deep waters, I've decided to show examples of some experimental work from my sketchbooks. Caricatures (well, in my case anyway) have been the result of re-working the image until I think the likeness/caricature is correct but it often unfortunately results in a 'dead' image where the life seems to have been wrung out of it - it's lost it's spark! Live caricaturing forces the artist to capture the likeness in a matter of minutes but I think it also has a liveliness to it and so I thought why not try this in the studio? So, below is an example of a caricature drawn without any initial pencil work i.e. it's drawn straight onto the paper and if it doesn't work then start again! It's a caricature of the pin-eyed BBC's Political Editor Nick Robinson. It's caricaturing by the seat of your pants......