Austrian trip

Liz and I travelled over to Austria (via Switzerland) recently to visit family who have upped sticks and moved to a lovely house in Austria. So, one morning with nothing much else to do, I sat myself down in their garden and drew this scene (which is only a small part of the spectacular view from their house) in a sketchbook I had with me. Should do more of this really as it was very enjoyable....

Comedian Stewart Lee

Here's another caricature from my 'comedians' series and so here is my take on Stewart Lee. He has an interesting sort of smirk that you know has appeared as he's let loose another barbed and intelligent witticism.

Comedian Milton Jones

Here's a quick caricature of the comedian Milton Jones who's appeared on Mock the Week etc etc and seems to have developed the Ken Dodd comedian old school approach to hair dressing!

Comedian Jack Whitehall

I spent some time during the recent Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival talking to the caricaturist Jonathan Cusick (follow link to his blog at bottom of this blog) and we got talking about decent sketchbooks. I should point out that most cartoonists/caricaturists don't use such things and so it was good to discuss such nerdy topics with a young professional! In the course of the evening I complained about the lack of weight in most available sketcbook papers as they always 'cockle' i.e. buckle when the watercolour is added and doesn't smooth out again which is REALLY irritating. Anywy Jonathan promised to forward links to various art suppliers with decent weighted paper in their sketchbooks and I recently bought a new book. The quick caricature of the comedian Jack Whitehall is the first one in the book and, hoorah, not a cockle in sight. Thank you Jonathan!