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!

Toby Jones

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

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

Wills and Kate

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



Not much more I can say really....