The Mad-Badger

Bertrand Russell OM FRS

2012-01-18T10:17:00.000-08:00

Here's a caricature of the english mathematician, philosopher, educator, social critic, political and peace activist and possibly the first television intellectual. And he was a Nobel Laureate...

Amy Winehouse

2012-01-12T02:33:00.001-08:00

Amy Winehouse and a caricature of a very troubled soul.

Heston Blumenthal

2012-01-10T02:22:00.000-08:00

Known for his bizarre taste in foods I thought I'd show the man making brick and dust consomme.

Bill Nighy

2011-11-29T02:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a recent caricature of the actor Bill Nighy - he can be a suprisingly dark actor sometimes.

Judi Dench caricature

2011-11-25T05:52:00.001-08:00

Have you noticed these days that on the radio every actor or actress is described as "Britain's Best Loved Actor"? Well they can't ALL be the best - they can certainly be ONE of Britain's Best Loved Actors etc etc. Anyway, enough I hear you say, below is a caricature of one such "Best Loved" i.e. Dame Judi Dench

Harry Hill caricature

2011-11-14T03:24:00.000-08:00

This is a very quick caricature of the comedian Harry Hill in pen and ink with watercolour. I wasn't sure when I drew it whether it actually looked like him but the more I look at it again, with fresh eyes, I think there is something there....
I'm trying to move away from the highly polished (overworked) studio caricature and I'm trying to get more 'life' into the line and keep everything fresh. Ah well..

Mark Gatiss

2011-11-07T03:23:00.000-08:00

Here's a quick caricature of the actor/comedian/writer Mark Gatiss.

Old Sketch book

2011-10-28T05:37:00.000-07:00

I discovered an old sketch book the other day and so I thought I'd show a few images here. The first one is of a statue of some French general - can't for the life of me remember where it was but I was rather struck by the stance etc and so had to draw it.

The next one I remember I drew on a tram which resulted in the very shaky lines but quite pleasing all the same!

This final one was of a row of beach houses on Camber Sands. We stayed in one of these houses for a week's holiday and one morning I wondered down onto the beach and just stood and drew the view. The hoilday was ruined for me because, although the house was delightful, the burgar alarm kept going off on the first night and so I didn't sleep at all. Not a good start to the holiday.....

Welsh Rugby

2011-10-20T05:34:00.000-07:00

I've been an avid follower of the current World Cup in New Zealand and have been very impressed with the new players in the Wales squad. The captain, number 8 Sam Warburton, has been immense in this tournament and he and the whole squad have won a lot of respect from the Rugby-wise New Zealenders (not known for being easily impressed!). There's not a lot further to be said about Warburton's sending off in the semi-final and subsequent three week ban. Anyway, here's a quick caricature of him...

I couldn't resist having a crack at a caricature of the Wales defence coach and ex Rugby League supremo, Shaun Edwards, who seems to have instilled a tough defensive attitude amongst the squad. When asked if his attitude was too tough and that surely he wouldn't expect his boys to carry on if they were seriously injured he replied something along the lines of "Well, no, if they had a broken leg or something obvioulsy.....but I'd still expect them to get up and make the tackle!" That's the mind-set he's given them.....

Live stuff

2011-10-11T02:51:00.000-07:00

I've been very busy lately and I actually remembered to take my camera to some daytime events and take some photos. Taking photos of these caricatures is quite a good way of seeing how good (or not) the caricatures are - you can't tell at the time so it's useful to look at the photos a few days later....

Exhibition

2011-09-09T06:58:00.000-07:00

I've just got back from spending a few days in Aberdeen working at a huge Oil and Gas Industry exhibiton drawing digital caricatures. It's a slower process than working with the old pen and paper method as you have to add colour (slow) and then add the body (even slower) and so I thought I'd show some of the results here:

I should have taken some photographs of these happy people holding their caricatures so that you could compare their faces to the caricatures but time was at such a premium I didn't manage to take any!!

Charles Robinson RI

2011-08-18T02:40:00.000-07:00

While on holiday recently I found myself rummaging around in a second-hand bookshop and came across a book on the work of William Heath Robinson but as we were running late I bought the book quickly and left. However, when I finally had time to look at it more closely, I realised that the book showed the work of the THREE Heath Robinson brothers, Thomas, Charles and William. I hadn't realised that there were three of them and that they were all successful illustrators!
The first image in the book that took my breath away was a watercolour portrait of someone called George Parlby produced by Charles Robinson (he seems to be the only brother not to use the 'Heath' in his surname for some reason) which was a study piece he produced to become an RI. You don't see watercolour portraits so much these days and so I thought I'd have a go at producing a copy to understand (as best you can from a printed page) the way he would have layered the watercolour etc. It took me most of yesterday to paint but very enjoyable none the less. I hope Charles will forgive me for plagurising his excellent work......

The Now Show

2011-08-12T02:15:00.000-07:00

I like listening to the Now Show (Radio 4, Friday night) mainly because of the humour of Hugh Dennis and Steve Punt. Below are recent quick caricatures I did of them both:

Hugh Dennis

Steve Punt

I wonder why we don't see that much of Mr Punt on the telly?

Foghorn cover

2011-08-04T06:58:00.001-07:00

This is the cover I drew for the latest issue of Foghorn. My attempt at getting back at those neer-do-wells in ThatLondon..

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Visualisation

2011-07-26T03:06:00.000-07:00

I was recently asked by a Management Training organisation to spend a day with a group of Interantional HR Managers who they had spent the last 9 months working with as a group on various HR projects. I was asked to join them to help visualise their conclusions to enable them to present these to various invited colleagues later in the day.
In the morning I spent about 20 minutes listening to one group and started jotting images down in a small sketchbook (which I gave them at the end of the day). Here are a few of my scribbles:

These images (not all those I drew during this period are shown) won't mean much to you but it does show my 'quick' style.

I was then asked to help the various groups produce images to assist them in their presentations (rather than use PowerPoint) which I don't have copies of to show you here. What I then did, during the group's presentation, was to take 'visual notes' i.e. I drew images that just 'poppeded-up' into my head while they were talking which recorded the various points. Below is a (rather poor) photo, taken using my phone, of the end result which took about and hour and a half (?) :

Holiday (brielfly)

2011-07-25T12:31:00.000-07:00

Liz and I spent a few days at a Landmark Trust property (Wilmington Priory) with some friends last week and so I took my sketchbook along as usual and tried to do a few drawings in the time available.
The first is of our bedroom - well, a view from our bed, which I didn't have time to add colour to..

The Priory had very nice shutters on the windows and so one afternoon I thought I'd draw them.

I then decided to go outside and have a go at drawing the old Priory....

It was good to spend some time with old friends and catch up with what's happening. Our friend's daughter is one of the fine ladies of the Puppini Sisters - Kate and her boyfriend are just such good company and they joined us for a few days. She'd only just flown back from LA after spending a few days at a recording studio over there. Ooooh the people I move and groove with daaahling.....

Commission

2011-07-15T02:36:00.000-07:00

Occasionally you get a request to quote for some artwork or other and the other day a request came in from a manufacturer who required approximately 160 individual pieces of artwork which were to be completed in 8 weeks. The images were to be of either London landmark buildings (drawn in a cartoon style) OR caricatures of famous Londoners or Olympians. For you non-mathematicians out there it's a matter of producing three images per day, 7 days a week! This isn't allowing for amends or re-draws of course! So, I decided to have a go at drawing two such London buildings (from photographs unfortunately) to see just how long it would take me.

The first was the London Gherkin:

This took about an hour. The second was St Pauls Cathedral:

Which took a couple of hours at least.
I sent the client a quote (substantial) and suggested a turnaround time of at least 12 - 16 weeks. I heard nothing back......

Dubai trip

2011-06-27T13:23:00.000-07:00

I was recently booked to work for Samsung for four days at an event in Dubai and I thought I'd force myself to keep some sort of visual diary of the trip. With this in mind I spent some time at the airport (who doesn't these days when flying!) and did these two drawings:

I suspect that the pen I was using was too fine. Anyway, here's another one:

I eventually arrived at my destination and got to my hotel. Now, because of a breakdown in communication with the client I unfortunately spent most of the next day in my hotel room but I very quickly learnt to have a rather loving relationship with the air conditioning system. So much so that I sat in that room and drew it so that you could see the a/c vents!! The air vents are clearly visible at the upper reaches of the far wall - I found them unnaturally attractive by the end of my visit even if they were rather noisy.....

I should point out at this stage that the midday temperature outside the hotel was about 45 degrees C and so it was with great trepidation that I made my way to the top of the hotel and stand (in a shaded viewing platform) to draw the Dubai skyline. It's a very complex view with a hotch potch of small buildings shoved into any available space. I just concentrated on the the main buildings.....

The large sail-like building in the distance is the Burj Al Arab hotel which is a 7 star establishment and I was informed by the taxi driver that they won't even let you in unless you have a reservation there!!

The final drawing I'm going to share is the inside view I had of the Airbus 380 which I've never flown on before. A rather large plane with rows of three window seats either side of a central row of 4 seats (10 seats per plane row) and, after watching all the movies I fancied I started to draw this image just as turbulance struck the aircraft.... you'll notice that I ommitted the window seats on my right hand side as I was starting to suffer from exhaustion after my four days of working!

Not a breathtaking series of images I agree but my excuse is that I WAS on a working trip and it was just far to hot to wonder around the place!

Austrian Teapot

2011-06-02T01:56:00.000-07:00

I discovered this pot house on a recent visit to Austria. We actually flew to Zurich and so I was expecting to find a number of teapots in Switzerland but we only stayed there overnight so really there wasn't much opportunity to explore. We discovered the pot below in one of the many beautifull valleys just over the Swiss border in Austria. It dates back to around 1810 and was manufactured in Vienna (by a company set up by an Scottish entrepreneur in 1784) and was well known for their elaboratey decorated and delicate looking handles and spouts. The drawback to this design was that the living quarters were quite small (a major drawback to the large Austrian families at the time) but the tea volume was vast. These pots became the forerunners of modern cafes as they produced/held more tea than any family would need and so travellers/villagers would be able to drink (at a price) the excess beverage.
Many pots of this time were personalised and this one had the following engraved over the door:
"Welcome here to all Malcolmtents for this Be a Holmes for all".
Cryptic, but this is a translation from the old Austrian text!

Another gem...

2011-06-01T03:06:00.000-07:00

This little beauty was found nestling in a little coastal village somewhere on the Lleyn penninsular (in North Wales for those not in the know) and was in excellent condition. I mention its condition because normally these teapot houses were rendered in pebble-dash which, rather than protect the surface, corroded them! There was also a tendancy to strip out it's innards to install the dreaded kitchenette but luckily this doesn't seem to have happened here....
The pot house dates back from about 1825 and was manufactured in the the South Wales - probably Port Talbot and became very popular almost immedialtely. They were particulary favoured due to the very delicate and yet very strong spout and handle. The spout had a new design (quite revolutionary in its day) which meant that it didn't have the dreaded drip running down the outside of the spout when pouring. The metal casing had a high copper content which was said to explain why this particular model had exellent tea-making characteristics and the internal dimensions allowed for a substantial amount of living space as well as tea volume.

Austrian trip

2011-05-30T08:13:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-22T02:47:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-10T02:16:00.000-07:00

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

2011-05-03T10:25:00.000-07:00

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!

Toby Jones

2011-04-28T10:10:00.000-07:00

There are some faces that just cry out to be caricatured and I've always thought that the actor Toby Jones was one. So I've spent some time on trying to caricature him and I found it quite difficult which was all a bit of a suprise. I should point out that I try to draw staright onto paper with black ink these days i.e. I try to capture the likeness in just a few minutes (no initial pencil work) so that I can capture some sort of spontaneity in the drawing. I know what I wanted to do with this caricature in my head but when I tried to draw it it just didn't work.....just didn't look like him. I'm often asked at events "Are some people easier to draw than others?" and I always answer that, as a caricaturist, some are a godsend while others are what we call 'potato faces' i.e. no outstanding features which can be exaggerated (potato faces are usually very good looking faces by the way!). Anyway, I thought Toby Jones was a godsend of a face which just goes to show how wrong I can be!!

Neighbours

2011-04-26T04:26:00.000-07:00

This is the reaction I would have expected from my 19th century neighbours on seeing me move in next door!

Wills and Kate

2011-04-23T09:00:00.000-07:00

Here's my take on the Royal Wedding which was published in the last issue of Foghorn:

Not much more I can say really....

Robert Pattinson Actor

2011-04-21T03:01:00.001-07:00

This is a quick caricature of the actor Robert Pattinson (Twilight) while watching the box in the corner of the room.

College of Knowledge

2011-04-20T09:48:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I did a couple of years on a part-time BA degree course in Children's Illustration at a local art school. If nothing else I think it helped my drawing and I'd have to say I really enjoyed it although it ceratinly wasn't everything it was cracked up to be!

Anyway, I came across some of the work I did for various projects and thought I'd show something of them here. One of the projects was to get hold of an old copy of a children's book and have a go at re-illustrating it. The book I chose was "My Dad's Got An Alligator" by Jeremy Strong. The first thing to do was a bit of character development for the alligator and here is what I came up with:

The alligator in question had just been helping himself to the soap hence the bubbles by the way...
These illustrations were to be in black and white only and here's what a page may have looked like:

Then the problem of the cover illustration reared it's ugly head and I did have great difficulty with this one and here is my first attempt:

This didn't work as such (not dynamic enough as I recall) and so I eventually came up with this:

I came up with an image for the dad in the story and coloured it up because I liked it so much:

Some of the lecturers unkindly claimed it reminded them of me (well, I suppose I did have a moustache and beard at the time!)

Roger Waters, Pink Floyd

2011-04-18T08:55:00.000-07:00

I've just spent a great weekend at the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival where I met up with some brilliant compadres from all over the place!
So it was difficult today to get myself back into work mode (at least with a modecum of enhusiasm anyway) and so I thought I'd draw a quick caricature of the man behind Pink Floyd, Roger Waters. I thought he had a great face to 'warm up' on. I suppose I should get on with some real work now.....

Wedding

2011-04-14T07:28:00.000-07:00

I was working at a wedding over the weekend - the bride's parents had seen me working at another wedding they'd attended and so kept my details - lovely!
Anyway, I did three hours for them and I drew about 50 caricatures, mainly couples and so I thought I'd put a few photos up here for you to look at:

The bride and groom plus another couple of guests....

and more guests......

and a few more.....

and some more....

Anyway, the photos aren't brilliant because I forgot to use the flash but I'm sure you'll get the idea!

Scientific journal

2011-04-13T08:29:00.000-07:00

I have a regular slot in a monthly medical biochemistry newsletter where they ask me to illustrate some scientific article or other being published that month. This month it was an article about phlebotomy (the taking of blood samples to you and me) and the various interesting points that had been concluded from a recent study. The two main poinst that grabbed my attention were that some hopsital patients are bled so often that they become anaemic i.e. have a severe lack of blood and the second was that phlebotomists (those peolpe who take the blood samples) often take a spare sample 'just in case' and so here are the cartoons I drew for them:

and here is the second regarding the taking of spare samples:

Exhibition Digital Caricatures

2011-04-12T12:49:00.000-07:00

I was working for three days last week at the NEC in Birmingham drawing digital caricatures and so I thought I'd show some of the caricatures here. The first image is a photo of the stand itself which shows the 52" plasma screen that I link my computer up to which attracts the visitors onto the stand!

Just to explain what I do when drawing digital caricatures - I have pre-drawn bodies onto which I put the newly drawn caricature (after the 'victim' has told me what body they want!) and I print it off for them. I also save the file as the client's email address and then hand these over the the company I'm working for at the end of the day for them to email the images to the visitors.......get it?....I hope the visitors do....!!! Anyway here are some of the visitors with their caricatures:

As you can see James Bond is VERY poular with the gents!

In the eye of the beholder

2011-04-11T03:45:00.000-07:00

Now, here is a little conundrum I found myself in recently. I was commissioned to produce a very last minute caricature for a CEO who was due to retire in a few days time. The client sent me three photographs but pointed out that they were taken abour 5 years ago but that "he hasn't changed much - maybe a bit thinner in the face and his hair is lighter". I had time to get an intial image/rough over to them for approval and they thought I'd 'pushed' the caricature too far i.e. it didn't really look like him. So, I had another go and came up with the caricature below which I posted to them.

I received an email a few days later saying that "Unfortunately it really doesn’t look at all like Richard (the photos are 5 years old but he hasn’t changed much)" and asking if I could have another go... I asked for more recent photos and got the reply that the ones I had were the only ones available. In a situation like this what is the point spending more time drawing another caricature from the same photos if you can't see what's wrong with the one you've just produced? I asked for the artwork back and retreated backwards out of the situation!

Many thanks to all those colleagues whose advice I sought as to where they thought I might have gone wrong and was inundated with similar stories from clients who reported a 'lack of likeness' - so it's not just me! I DID wonder if it was a similar case to that reported by the great Tim Leatherbarrow who went through the same process only to be told a few days later the client had "unfortunately sent the wrong photographs" i.e. they ones they'd sent were of a different person!!!

Count Leo Nikolayevich Tolstoy

2011-04-01T01:25:00.000-07:00

Since I've been working my way through War and Peace I thought I'd have a go at caricaturing the great man himself. He seems to have been a total thorn in the side of the Russian State over his lifetime and stirred up much unrest that probably laid the foundations for the Russian revolution. Tolstoy had 13 children, was a pacifist and was excommunicated by the Russian holy synod. What a guy eh.......?
Judging by his looks though you can tell that Leo wouldn't have been a natural as a stand up comedian.

Soren Malling, The Killing

2011-03-31T07:31:00.000-07:00

Saturday night (well, Sunday morning actually as I'm usually working on Saturday night!) will not be the same now that the series, The Killing, has come to a breathless end. Can't wait for the new series (which apparently is only 10 episodes this time) to start. What happens the 'old' characters in this first series? - we'll probably never know but we do know that DI Sarah Lund's sidecick, played by Soren Malling didn't make it (he was shot and then died in what we call 'suspicious' circumstances.....)
Anyway here's a caricature of said Malling....

Employee caricatures

2011-03-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

I have a client based in the Manchester area that, when they sign up a new employee, ask me to draw a caricature of them for their website. As they are solicitors, and since a number of their emplyees are ladies, they always ask me to 'tone it down' when it comes to the caricatures. The one below is the latest arrival and so thought I'd put this caricature up for all to see.

Howard Jacobson

2011-03-26T03:48:00.001-07:00

I thought I'd have a go at capturing the author (and let's not forget a Man Booker Prize winner) who also happens to have a very interesting face! It's a lot easier caricaturing such faces of course.....

Just William

2011-03-23T06:11:00.000-07:00

Some people are born to be caricatured and William Hague is one of them! He's not been doing so well recently and I'm sure that he's not high on the SAS birthday card list! Time will tell to see how he copes with the Libya crisis....

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Another commission

2011-03-22T11:09:00.001-07:00

Here's a recent commission for a very good client of mine for someone who's about to retire from their ranks. Admittedly he looks young in the caricature but he did actually look young in the photo - about in his mid forties so, unless they're reiting folks early from this particular business, he's a very young looking older man! Anyway, they wanted him portrayed as a hippie complete with guitar and campervan.

Harry Redknapp

2011-03-11T01:51:00.000-08:00

There's little doubt that Mr Redknapp is a very successful football manager (some suggest he is already earmarked as the next England manager) but for me, as usual, it is the face that is of interest. The strange right eye and the heavy eyelids.....fascinating.....and so below is my caricature of him.
I refer to my previous entry where I suggest you can see the boy in the man etc etc but I don't know what it is about these managers but they seem to revert to their school days and have their initials plastered all over their clothes - a sign of a caring mother I expect.....either that or it's early onset Alzheimer's and they keep forgetting who they are!

Ken Stott

2011-03-10T02:45:00.000-08:00

I've always thought that Ken Stott is the perfect actor for the role of Rebus, the fictional detective created by the author Ian Rankin, and has a brilliant face for displaying the very dark emotions always lurking close to the surface of the character. When he smiles though he reminds me of what my wife Liz says about some adult men - sometimes when some men smile they have a certain mischevious look and you get a vision of what they were like when very young so when Stott smiles I can certainly see the young Ken running around in short trousers!This is what I've tried to capture here in this caricature even if he is tucking into his usual fag and a pint. Okay, maybe Liz and I are just weird......

Author Sebastian Faulks

2011-02-28T07:51:00.000-08:00

I saw part of Sebastian Faulks' program over the weekend and so I thought I'd draw a caricature of the man in pen, ink and watercolour. So that explains what I was doing in my spare time this weekend!

a recent commission

2011-02-25T09:59:00.000-08:00

This is a recent commission for a client that I'm working for next month. I believe he was very pleased.....

Latest commission

2011-02-09T10:47:00.000-08:00

I don't normally agree to draw pets but in this case I didn't have much choice (too long to explain) but I did have some rather good quality photos of the dog so it seemed churlish to refuse!

Leaving present

2011-01-06T08:11:00.000-08:00

This is a caricature commission I recently completed for a company as a colleague's leaving gift. It went through a few changes on the way but I think we got there in the end!
Happy New Year everyone!

December so far

2010-12-13T10:50:00.000-08:00

Okay, I thought I'd try to catch up and say exactly what I've been doing so far this month:

On the 2nd December I found myself fighting the snow in Elland, Yorkshire at a corporate event which went very well. Nearly got stuck in the snow on a side road though.....

The 3rd December found me at the Royal Welch barracks in Chester working at one of their NCO's events - great fun!

The 4th December saw me working in Manchester for British Gas at the Manchester Ramada Hotel which was a great night.

On the 7th December I was actually working at a restaurant in Knutsford (hoorah!) at a private party where I THOUGHT I had to draw 28 people in total and so I'd allowed myself three hours. When I arrived at the restaurant I discovered that I had a total of 32 guests to draw and I drew the lot (in VERY cramped conditions) in under two hours.......not bad eh?

The 10th December saw me working in the morning for a recruitment company in Central Manchester (I did a similar event for them last December but this was at their new, swisher offices) and then I had to drive down to London for an evening event at Gresham College for a Patents Company which was great fun but a totlly knackering day as I didn't get back home until 1:30am-ish!

On the 11th December I worked for a call centre company (Moneypenny) at an event in Wrexham. I only had to do two hours (although I was booked for 2 - 3 hours) and, even though it was during the meal, I still managed to draw 36+ guests! I must be getting faster at this malarky!!
I should really make an effort to take some photos at some of these events.
In the meantime I'm working through a great pile of studio work.

Teapot in Bristol

2010-11-30T05:46:00.000-08:00

I found this beauty while travelling in the Bristol area recently but it's actually not a product of any local factoriy. It was in fact manufactured by a company based in Manchester call Mann, Webb & Co in about 1842. They were a rather unique company in as much as they were tea importers as well as pot manufactures and were very successful until the late 1860's. I really like these pots as you will notice the fancy flags or banners visible on the upper level of the structure - these were the (original) tea advertisements for the company's tea importing side of the business and the company greatly reduced the purchase price in exchange for displaying the banners on a permanent basis.
This pot is a beautiful design in as much as the tea compartment was quite large (the windows in the upper area are 'level guages' and not windows for looking out of!) and the living quarters were really very comfortable even for the large families of the day. The little structure on the side has often been mistaken as a common garden shed but was actually both the coal bunker and tea caddy. Not many of these 'caddy bunkers' have survived.

Sketchbook stuff

2010-11-29T08:41:00.000-08:00

I've been very remiss recently by ignoring my blog - shame on me I hear the cry! So here are are couple of images from my sketchbook.

This is an image of a 'friendly little chap' and below

is your typical iPhone user!

Shrewsbury cartoon

2010-11-05T02:28:00.000-07:00

This cartoon was an idea for last year's Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival which I originally drew to A4 size and it was'nt selected. At a later stage it was thought that we should have more A3 cartoons displayed and so I redrew it to A3 size - it sold believe it or not!

Computer crash

2010-11-03T08:25:00.000-07:00

We're having work done on the house, there are electricians present and they want to turn the main power supply off - hang on, I need to turn my computer off! No problem is the reply from the ground floor and I notice that my computer is usefully telling me that I should NOT turn off just yet as it is updating important software.......the screen goes blank as the computer turns off. Did it update properly or did the pesky electricians turn off the power too soon? Yep, you guessed it - they screwed up my operating software and so out comes the old back-up system while I try to find someone to fix the main system for me. You'll be pleased to hear that it's now well again....
While travelling around (with sick computer in tow looking for a computer A&E) I came across this beauty (below) nestling in the corner of rural England and it is an interesting follow-on from the last pot house I detailed in my last posting. Although this was built by a Staffordshire factory (according to the hallmark in 1836) it is another great example of an early eco-pot. Like the pot in the previous post, this baby was designed to collect rain water which would run down the lovely red and green striped gullies (seen on the outside of the upper part of the house) to be collected at the base (in a tank found just above the living space) thus creating its own water supply. A really clever idea but it had a major flaw - the external water running down the outside of the pot would quickly cool the brewing tea inside. Not good especially when you would obviously need tea during a rain storm. Not many made. Poor show.....

An interesting example

2010-10-05T03:09:00.000-07:00

I found this baby while on a recent holiday in Kent. It's not a British construction at all but was manufactured in Bombay (now Mumbai of course) in around 1810 by a company owned by Sir Abraham Roberts (no relation) who was a colonel in the East India Company at around that time (obvioulsy a bit of a side-line). Bombay at this time suffered from poor water (a piped supply was introduced in 1860) and so Sir Abraham thought that he would build a construction that would catch it's own water supply (hence the odd funnel shaped structure on the top) and he intended these to be produced as housing for those Brits who couldn't funtion in the summer heat of Bombay and who headed for the much cooler hill stations in the Himalayas (probably Shimla). There are suggestions that Sir Abraham put his own money into this venture as he understood that Arthur Wellesley (later the Duke of Wellington) was interested in such a structure as he was known to suffer fron chronic diarrhoea brought on, it is thought, by the poor water in Bombay. It is not known whether the Duke of Wellington bought such a structure but they were manufactured in large numbers and this one was obvioulsy ultimately owned by a very wealthy family as it was transported form India to the UK at some time in it's life!
I have shown the structure from the rear as I particularly like the beautiful rear windows which offer the occupants a lovely view. You can just imagine the views from them when housed up in the Himalayan mountains......

Rocket Man

2010-09-29T03:07:00.000-07:00

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has a big smile but those eyes.... like little coals.... a quick caricature of the man.

More teapots

2010-09-17T02:19:00.001-07:00

This teapot probably dates from around 1790 and is definitely pre-1820 as there are no hallmarks of any sort on the structure (hallmarks were introduced in 1820!). It was most probably manufactured at one of the famous Derby factories and these pots were highly successful due to the spacious accommodation, large tea capacity, along with excellent construction, insulation and durability.
You will notice the large window next to the spout which many people thought was introduced so that the occupants could look through while the tea was being dispensed but of course this is quite incorrect. The window was infact impossible to view through from within as this was the tea compartment! It was intended for viewing from the outside so that the viewer could determine the tea level within the pot - an early example of a level guage in these structures.

Sketchbook sharing..

2010-09-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've been fairly busy recently with live events and studio work etc and so I thought I'd put up a few pages from a sketchbook. The first image is a quick sketch of the view from my bed - this is how I started the day or did I end the day by drawing it......erm....

The next image is just a page a general doodling:

Theatre Poster

2010-09-10T07:57:00.000-07:00

This is a recent threatre poster I was asked to design for the Alan Ayckbourn play, Table Manners, a play from the Norman Conquest trilogy.

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Tudor Teapot

2010-09-07T02:36:00.000-07:00

This is a very rare teapot - it's rarity is not due to the lack of numbers produced (in fact over 1,000 of these were produced over a three year period) but to it's longevity. They were manufactured in Derby by Hardwrights & Co who were at the peak of production in the 1850's and were considered groundbreaking in their designs. The Tudor Teapot was the first to introduce chimneys (the heat from which helped retain the temperature of the tea and those living within) and, of course, as the name suggests, they were constructed using timber and thus adding to the general insulation. Please note the distictive 'ball and claw' feet.

There was, however, a serious design fault where the timbers would untlimately suffer from wet rot and the handle would fall away from the main building. This would result in the structure crashing to the ground and thus crushing (and usually killing) the occupants. The manufacturers eventuallty ceased manufacturing the product - a very early case of Health & Safety amongst these factories.

Non-selling cartoons

2010-09-06T06:07:00.000-07:00

As a cartoonist you never know whether a cartoon is going to sell or not. Sometimes you think that at least you'd be able to get it into a cartoon exhibition or something but the cartoon I drew a few years back never saw the light of day. So below is the little beggar for you to see.....

Now that I'm back

2010-09-01T09:56:00.000-07:00

I've been away for a few days taking a well deserved break from work and spent a few days at a brilliant B&B down in Kent called The Linen Shed - take a look at this reveiw:
http://www.wealdentimes.co.uk/house/wt90_house_of_linen.asp
Anyway, since I've obviously not been doing much work I thought I'd share some previously drawn images with you. The first is a simple set of drawings from my sketchbook:

Not sure what I was trying to do but it just shows the doodling stuff I trun out these days.....
The image below is one I produced as a wedding present for a happy couple - I hope they liked it!

Hugh Laurie caricature

2010-08-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

This is a quick caricature of the actor Hugh Laurie in his role as House. It always amazes me that this is the guy that has that amazingly stupid looking face when acting in Jeeves and Wooster and the Blackadder series and looks so completely gormless and yet when he plays House.........must be an actor or something....oh, hang on....

An unusual find

2010-08-19T07:29:00.001-07:00

When I first saw this teapot I found it confusing as it suggested a persian origin but then I realised that the green larchlap towards the top would suggest a Dutch manufacture. The hallmark on the bottom immediately told me that it was manufactured by the well known craftsmen, the Van Corag brothers, who were at their prime in the mid 18th Century when their factory was based in the outskirts of Amsterdam (it later moved to larger premises in Haarlem). They were well recognised for both creating the perfect internal facilities for tea infusion while still maintaining very spacious living quarters. I believe it was the Van Corag brothers who first introduced the the two way 'frogget' valve which enabled the boiling water (essential for the perfect brew of tea) from scolding those living below. The only other interesting fact about these brothers is that, although they always agreed on the the design of the main body of their structures, they could NEVER agree on the handle and spout and so they designed these individually. One brother was gay and so it was suggested that he always designed the handle but this isn't documented in the factory records.

More photos

2010-08-18T06:38:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share some photos taken of my recent work - they're of various guests at weddings or dinners etc proudly holding up their caricatures for the camera. I hope you can make out the caricatures:

Some people tell me it's very intimidating having me look (stare!) at them as I draw their caricature but I thought I'd share this last photo with you showing how intimidating it can be for the caricaturist!

Wedding caricatures but not as we know them....

2010-08-17T08:23:00.000-07:00

I was recently commissioned by a bride to be to draw a caricature of both the bestman and usher (from photographs) which is not very usual as I normally draw them AT the wedding itself! Anyway, I'd been working on a new technique (for me anyway) where I don't draw any prelimenary pencil lines but put the black ink down straight away and if it works i.e. I think it looks like them, I put the watercolour wash on. The results are below and yes, they only wanted black & white images rather than full colour:

This was the bestman

and this was the usher.....

I've been trawling through the teapot temple images again and I came across this one:

You'll notice that there's been a bit of damage to this teapot between the junction of the spout and the main body which has obviously been very badly repaired. That'll greatly reduce the re-sale value.....

Busy weekend

2010-08-16T05:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy weekend working at weddings etc and so I thought I'd share two emails I recieved last week from a bride's father and the lovely bride and groom themselves who's wedding I recently attended. They said:

"I'm Clare's dad. May I, on behalf of myself, my wife and family, say how much we enjoyed your company at Clare and Paul's wedding. Your caricatures are absolutely marvellous and provided us with a really entertaining evening which everyone loved. So, thank you so much for making it special."
Paul Commane

"Myself and Clare have just returned from honeymoon, and we would like to say how much we enjoyed you being there on our wedding day. So many people have told us how great you were and how pleased they were with their caricatures. We also really love the one you did of the two of us! Thank you so much again.
Clare and Lee Palmer"

wich was all very nice!

I don't know where these images come from but here are two more from my developing Teapot Temples series:

I think there's a bit of a chinese thing going on with this one:

Loose style

2010-08-09T08:31:00.000-07:00

I was booked to work at the Reebok Stadium over the weekend where Bolton Wanderers had organised a per-season Family funday for their fans. After drawing something like 30-40 caricatures at the stadium I had to get myself over to their Training Ground where the staff and players were holding a barbeque. I'm not a football fan per se but I did recognise the striker Kevin Davis and the Bolton manager Owen Coyle when I drew them. I just wish I'd taken my camera with me for a souvenir photograph!

I may have mentioned before that I've been trying to create a looser style when producing studio caricatures. I do this by drwaing the caricature directly in pen and ink (using no pre-drawing with pencil for example) and if it doesn't work then I have to start all over again. As an example I tried to draw the the football manger of Fulham (now Liverpool) Roy Hodgson and my first attempt is below:

The thing about caricaturing is that soemtimes you really can't tell whether it looks like the person or not when you're drawing it - you have to leave it for a while and come back to it to look with fresh eyes. In this case at the time of drawing it I thought I was close to a good likeness and coloured it up before leaving it for a few hours. When I revisited the image I realised I hadn't 'got' him at all and so I drew him again. Below is the second version:

I think this one is a much better likeness.

Live v studio work

2010-08-06T06:44:00.000-07:00

When you work as a live caricaturist you're expected to draw as many caricatures as possible in the alloted time and so, over the years, I havel become faster at drawing caricatures. All this means is that those watching me draw see me produce a finished caricature in about 3 - 4 minutes. The idea then sometimes pops into their heads that I can do the same if they show me a photograph of someone. "Can you do one from this photo on my mobile phone it'll only take you a couple of minutes?" They sometimes get very irrate when I say I can't because it's not the same thing at all. What people don't realise is that a photograph is only a two dimensional image while a real face in front of you is obviously three dimensional. What people don't realise is that it can sometimes take a couple of hours to draw a really good caricature from a number of photographs (please note not just one!). So that you can see what I mean I've posted below a photo of a man I was recently sent with the words "Please draw a caricature of this chap and if it's any good we'll book you for an event".

Not quite the same thing at all but anyway you can immediately see that the image is not terribly good i.e. not very good resolution and looks quite blurred. Anyway, I realised that there was no point trying to produce a typical studio caricature and, since they were considering using me as a live caricaturist, I thought I'd have a go at doing it in my 'live' style. It took a number of attempts and took considerably more than the 'live' time of three to four minutes!

I don't know from the photo whether he has red hair or not but I added that after sending it off to the client. Did I get the gig? I'll let you know.....

Robbie Coltrane

2010-08-05T06:49:00.000-07:00

This is a recent caricature of Robbie Coltrane. Don't ask me why I decided to put him in a tutu but there you are.

Robert Green

2010-08-04T11:36:00.000-07:00

This is a caricature of the unfortunate England World Cup Goalkeeper, Robert Green, who blotted his copybook by conceeding a very silly goal during that game against the USA. Anyway, this caricature was drawn straight onto paper, with black ink, followed by watercolour (no initial pencil work) in an attempt to keep the looseness of the line (ooh, err!).

Riverboat event

2010-08-03T06:16:00.000-07:00

This was a photograph taken at a recent works event held on a riverboat in the Midlands which was actaully great fun. It's always great working with another entertainer at an event and this time it was a young magician called Ben Hanlin. I was booked to work for three hours but since the boat trip was for a total of four hours it was difficult to get a break. I eventually had to take a 'comfort break' and was just washing my hands in the lavatory when one of the (female) guests spotted me and shouted to her friends "This is where he is - he's in here.......!" Her friends did work out (eventually) that it was not the done thing to crowd into the gents so stood outside the door waiting for me to emerge.........that's popularity for you that is.....

Studio work

2010-08-02T05:58:00.000-07:00

It's been another hectic weekend with caricaturing at weddings and private parties etc but, in the background so to speak, I've been working on a series of four, A5 colour drawings for a client, as a form of storyboard for a wedding gift for a lucky couple. It's quite demanding to put such a detailed image into such a small space like this (well, it is for me) but it was quite fun. Below are the resulting images.

Group caricature

2010-07-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-22T11:44:00.001-07:00

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

AV Referendum

2010-07-21T04:27:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-20T06:49:00.000-07:00

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

Weekend madness

2010-07-19T08:52:00.000-07:00

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?

2010-07-15T01:18:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-14T02:37:00.000-07:00

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....

2010-07-13T04:05:00.000-07:00

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

2010-07-12T03:37:00.001-07:00

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......