Movies and Cartoons - The Aeronauts

I have always been fascinated by early flight.

I have fond memories from childhood of a book my older brother used to have about early flying machines, some of which even managed to leave the ground.

So I was looking forward to the release of ‘The Aeronauts’, starring Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne. Because of my interest in the subject matter, the film didn’t even have to be a particularly good one, the content was enough for me. Besides, I can always find something in a movie that I enjoy, regardless of everything else.

Okay, so the film contained balloons rather than fantastically and fatally flawed flying machines, but that was close enough for me.

I also liked the idea of a large chunk of the film being set in a very confined location - a hot air balloon. Not many other films have done that - just off the top of my head, only really Locke, starring Tom Hardy, comes to mind. I won’t say too much about that particular film here, but it’s basically set in his car with him driving.

Anyway, this occasional series of Movies and Cartoons is about helping to generate ideas for cartoons.

In this article we’re going to cover

• Borrowing scenes from movies

• Using an idea in a different situation

• Recycling previous cartoons

Borrowing scenes from movies

It was while scratching my head trying to think of other films that had featured balloons and early flight, that I recall a scene from the 1964 film ‘Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines or How I Flew From London To Paris in 25 Hours and Eleven Minutes’. Bit of a long title that…

The film is set in 1910, in the early days of aviation. A Newspaper offers a prize for a cross-channel ark race which attracts flyers from all over the world.

Two of the rival aviators are Pierre Dubois played by Jean-Pierre Cassel, and. Count Manfred Von Holstein, played by Gert Frobe, who many will recognise as ‘Goldfinger’ from the James Bond movie.

The pair end up having a duel, with the rather novel duelling weapons of balloons and blunderbuses.

Dubois’ balloon ends up being shot down first, and he lands in a pond. The Count stands up in triumph at his rival’s mishap, only to to have the spike on his helmet puncture his own balloon, which results in him also descending into the pond.

That got me thinking about what else could result in a balloon being punctured, which make me think of the following cartoon:

I could have also made a list of 10 things that could puncture a balloon. Making a list is a good way to generate a bunch of ideas. The first few are usually easy, but after that you have to use your imagination to come up with some more interesting and unusual possibilities.

Anyway, this is a good example of how you can take a scene from a movie and then swap out a character or element. You can do with scenes from books, even advertisements

Before movie on from ‘Those Magnificent Men…”, the film also features a wonderful animated sequence accompanying the opening credits, featuring the work of cartoonist Ronald Seattle.

Using an idea in a different situation

Another technique is to take an idea from a movie and then apply it to a completely different situation.

So this got me thinking how balloons might be useful as a means of transport, or how they might help people to get into awkward to reach spots.

Gerald popped up again, this time using balloons to help him to reach a particularly appetising and hard to snaffle flower. I wonder if the balloons survived the trip?

Recycling previous cartoons

I’m a huge fan of recycling previous cartoons and seeing if I can come up with any new ideas based on them.

While looking over some old cartoons, I came across a series of ‘tortoise and hare’ ones I’d drawn a couple of years ago.It made me think about taking the race up into the skies, and so added balloons to the characters and off they went!

Here’s what we covered in this article:

Borrowing scenes from movies

Using an idea in a different situation

Recycling previous cartoons

Back to earth

We drifted off somewhat from the film we started out with, which was kind of appropriate seeing that balloons have a habit of doing that and you’ve just got to see where you end up.

I hope that you’ve ended up with a few techniques you can use to generate some more ideas for your own cartoons.

I couldn’t resist also throwing in one more cartoon, with a nod to Tom and Jerry…

What’s next

I’m currently putting together the ‘Storytelling for Cartoon Strips Course’. If you add your name and mail to the orange box below, I’ll add your name to the Cartoon Newsletter, and also keep you posted of the course as it takes shape.

Creating A Cartoon - ‘Geese Surfing’

Pictured here is legendary Canadian Goose Surfer, Vanda Vonk, competing in the Ontario 500, in which she successfully defended her title. 

Vonk has caused much controversy in the tight-knit North American surfing community by not using Canadian Geese, instead preferring to Luxembourg Black-Tipped Geese, which are both more agile and louder in honk.

Geese Surfing has never really caught as a mainstream sport, mainly due to the logistics of covering what is a very long distance event, and also due to the face that competition geese have never been media friendly and tend to bite their interviewer.

Today I’m going to talk through the process of creating this cartoon.

Pictured above is the finished cartoon. I’m now going to break down how I came up with the idea and the step-by-step process of drawing it.

I draw all my current cartoons on an iPad Pro using Procreate.

At the end of this article, there’s also a couple of cartooning tips.

But before I get started with the drawing, how did the idea come about in first place?

It all started with an Odd Dog...

...introducing the Siberian Greyhound...

I have a lot of fun coming up with new dog breeds, such as the red-spotted Dalmatian, and the Extended Dachshund. Amongst this collection of canine curiosities is the Siberian Greyhound pictured above, which I came up with a couple of years ago.

I liked the pose of the above cartoon, and thought I’d use it as the basis for a new cartoon.

During last rainy season in Japan, I was playing around with some Ideas about how to cope with rainy weather, and how you could get about more easily.

Enter Otter Boarding…

One idea I came up with was Shelley being towed along by a pair of otters.

Following on a year later, I thought it would be fun to invent some new extreme sports. Kite surfing popped into my head and that got me thinking what I could substitute for a kite.....and Geese Surfing was born.

Why geese?

Well, they fly in formation, and I thought that the honking might come in handy for comic potential.

So let’s get started with the drawing.

Initial rough sketch

Here’s the initial rough sketch. I went for three geese as it was enough to convey the idea, and I thought that any more would clutter the picture. This one was sketched out on my iPad Pro using the 6B pencil. I’ll sometimes doodle an outline in a notebook while travelling on the train and then take a photo of it later.

I thought I would change the angle of the cartoon from the otter boarding for the new version. I thought it would look a bit more dynamic than the side-on version.

Inking the characters

I’ve now inked in the main characters. They’re not yet positioned exactly how I want them, but that’s easy enough to fix, as it’s a doddle to move characters around.

As you can see, I’ve now added the board the harness. This was draw on four different layers, consisting of

• woman

• geese

• board

• harness

After checking that they look okay, I’ll make a copy of the individual layers to keep, and then merge the layers down into one. I like to keep separate layers of characters and objects for future reference, and also to create new cartoons.

The character layer now sits on top of the background outline. The layers are transparencies, so that’s why you can see the background through the characters.

I duplicated the character layer and then filed in the characters with white, so to stand out from the background.

Colouring the characters

Due to the somewhat eccentric nature of the “sport”, I decided not to have the woman dressed in any sort of traditional sports wear. Due to the fact that it is water sport, I thought I’d have her in a mackintosh and boots.

Colouring the background

I coloured in the background using mainly digital watercolour washes. For the water, I used the turpentine brush as I like the effect it produces.

Adding the sky

I again used digital watercolour to wash in the sky.

I forget to colour the board! It’s funny how you can sometimes overlook something, even though it’s sitting right under your nose.

Adding the water splashes

I used the turpentine brush to add some water splashes.

Changing the board

A friend suggested that it would be a good idea to alter the angle of the board to give a better impression of it being towed.

I also added a big and number on the surfer.

And that’s the cartoon finished, and Vanda Vonk is all set to compete in the next Geese Surfing event.

But just when I thought I was done with the cartoon…

Alternate prehistoric version

The same friend suggested that it would be cool to have a pterodactyl towing the board, so I couldn’t resist swapping the geese for one, and also the woman for a caveman. Perhaps the sport of Geese Surfing has some very old roots indeed.

Quick Cartooning Tip

When you draw geese make sure that they don’t merely look like big ducks…

That’s basically how I drew geese for ages, until I realised that I’d been honking up the wrong tree.

Quick Cartoon Idea Tip

Either after you’ve completed a cartoon, or when you take a moment to look back over some of your previous drawings, thing about if any of them could form the basis of a new cartoon.

You could also think what might happen if you were to substitute one character for another. That basically happened a few times in the above examples. It started off with a dog, then it was swapped out for a pair of otters, then a gaggle of geese, and then finally a pterodactyl.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter with an assortment of daft characters and silly stories, as well as some occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Car Cartoons

I thought I’d put together a collection of cartoon cartoons that I’ve drawn over the last couple of years.

More reliable than a VW full of hounds

More reliable than a VW full of hounds.

VW Beetles have a naturally comical appearance about them, so it was an easy choice to include one in a cartoon.

Spring trip to the countryside

Drive by flower grazing.

This one features Gerald the Goat and Granny Mills. The car is based on a Triking, which is a modern-day recreation of an old Morgan Three-Wheeler.

The Extended Dachschund

If you’ve got a stretch limo you need a stretch dog.

A touch of Gothic

A touch of Gothic.

I was going to something quirky and atmospheric with this one. The car is a Czech Tatra 87 produced from 1936 - 1950.

Is it a plane? Is it a car?

The Leya Hélica.

This contraption, which looks more aeroplane than car, was an actual vehicle, the Leya Hélica, built in France in the 1920s. Methinks it might not be road legal these days…

Infested by Weasels

I’ve always loved Jaguar E-types, so they occasionally feature in cartoons.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter containing a whole host of characters as well as occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Story Minute - Geese Surfing

In today’s story minute, we’re going to look at the obscure sport of Geese Surfing

Pictured here is legendary Canadian Goose Surfer, Vanda Vonk, competing in the Ontario 500, in which she successfully defended her title. 

Vonk has caused much controversy in the tight-knit North American surfing community by not using Canadian Geese, instead preferring to Luxembourg Black-Tipped Geese, which are both more agile and louder in honk.

Geese Surfing has never really caught as a mainstream sport, mainly due to the logistics of covering what is a very long distance event, and also due to the face that competition geese have never been media friendly and tend to bite their interviewer.

Origin of the sport

No one is quite sure when geese surfing originated. Some believe that it’s roots are very ancient indeed, and perhaps predate recorded history. Archaeological evidence suggests that humans have been harnessing flying creatures.

Controversies

The renowned cad Terrence Dastard-Leigh planned to sabotage the 1938 Dover to Calais race by using a pair of hawks to frighten the geese and thus effect the the outcome of the race. He stood to win a fortune as part of an illegal betting circle.

However rumours of his plan were leaked by a fox formerely employed by Dastardly-Leigh, who had enough of his ex-bosses conniving ways and decided to seek revenge.

All of the competing geese were informed of the plan and sought to sabotage it before it could be put into place.

While traveling to the race, a huge formation of geese descended on Dastardly-Leigh’s car and covered it in droppings, forcing him to go immediately to the dry cleaners to try and salvage his suit.

How you can take up the sport

The general requirement is to have a flock of geese and a surf board. Although Erma Widget of Ohio was able to improvise with a formation of wood grouse and a converted ironing board.

Professional geese surfing

Due to the fact that the sport has never really managed to take off, and that fact that it has consistently failed to attract commercial sponsorship, it is extremely hard to make a living geese living. The only exception to this appears to be in Denmark where it is the country’s seventeenth most popular sport and boosts two professional leagues.

Want to try creating your own silly stories?

I’m putting together a course on Story Telling for Cartoon Strips. Add your name and mail to the box below and I’ll send you more details.

Racing Car Cartoons

Vroom…Vroom!

Seeing as I recently saw the movie ‘Ford vs. Ferrari’, starring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, I thought I’d put together a brief collection of racing car cartoons.

The film featured the Ford GT40, so I thought I’d draw one and then see what ides I could come up with.

Rallying is huge in Scandinavia, and seeing Moose themselves are also pretty huge, I wondered what might happen if one strayed onto the road…

‘Fast Red’ the squirrel.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter containing a whole host of characters as well as occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Lion Taming Cartoons

I’ve always liked the dynamics of the cartoon lion and lion tamer. There’s the pair of characters; one human and one animal, the striking red and black of the tamer, and lots of potential fo gags generated by the relationship between the pair.

I have to admit that this tamer looks a little Harry Potter-sequence. I guess that any character with round glasses gets associated with J.K. Rowling’s character.

This is Blanche, and she’s actually based on a minor character from one of the James Bond movies.

You may recall one of the series most memorable baddies, Jaws, as played by Richard Kiel. The giant actor bugged Roger Moore in both The Spy Who Loved Me, and also in Moonraker, where he ended up changing sides and helping Bond out.

’Dolly’ was played by the French actress Blanche Ravalec. As I was looking for a lion tamer, who didn’t really look like a traditional lion tamer, I thought she would fit the bill.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter containing a whole host of characters, as well as occasional cartooning types. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Jaguar E-type Drawings

As a bit of an experiment, I thought that I’d try some different versions of the same cartoon changing the main colour each time.

Here is the image I started off with. For the colour swaps, I decided to omit the hatching that appear here.

Silver.

Primrose. This was an actual Jaguar E-type colour option.

Desert Rose. Another official colour option.

Red. I think I should have made this a bolder red.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter, containing a whole host of characters, along with occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange one below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Jaguar E-type Cartoons

I’ve always loved Jaguar E-types, and so I thought I’d put together a collection of the ones that have appeared illustrations and cartoons over the years.

This cartoon, along with the following one, were drawn using the Sketches app on the iPad Pro. I was going for a bit of a Giles effect with these.

For those of you who don’t. Know, Giles was a legendary British cartoonist whose cartoons appeared in The Daily Express newspaper for over fifty years.

This one is not actually a Jaguar E-type, but it’s forerunner, the XKSS. Jaguar had run a successful sports car racing program, whose victories included several at the Le Man 24 hour race. They decided to produce a small run of road cars based on the D-type racing car. Movie star and car racerSteve McQueen was a high profile owner.

I thought I’d produce three versions of this one using different angles.

Zooming out and replacing the background.

And a close-up one.

What’s next

I produce a Cartoon Newsletter, which contains a whole host of characters and some occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Cartoons Set On The Train

I have a pretty long commute time, and so I end up doing a lot of drawing on the train.

Also due to spending so much time on trains, I find myself drawing cartoon in such setting quite a lot. I thought I’d compile a few of the train-based pics together in one spot.

This one was the first appearance of Fenix the fox. I’m not quite sure where the idea of having a smartly-turned out fox came from, or having him being an afficiando of the arts.

Fenix ended up appearing in a series of pics illustrating a couple of different articles about drawing on the train.

Here Harris the Hare is helping out by keeping the commuters at bay.

The background and lady traveller I’ve used previously in a couple of different cartoons. I’m a huge fan of recycling different characters and backgrounds to create new pics.

With the final one we have Fenix setting up a travelling gallery.

The Toad on the Train

I remember reading an article in a British newspaper once, talking about the experiences of commuters. On one of the lines folks were complaining about the fact that about 40% of them couldn’t get a seat in the morning. As someone who lives in Tokyo I found that highly amusing, as in this part of the world, it’s more like 98%.

The trains of Tokyo are usually awash with greys and blacks, so it’s a highly usual occurrence for someone to have a splash of colour about them.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter with a whole host of different characters, as well as occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Crocodile Cartoons

So much for the chef’s idea to simply tap the croc on the head an put it in the pot…

I had some vague recollection of a cartoon featuring a croc in a kitchen, so I thought I’d do my own version.

I came up with this one when trying to think up a Christmas card for a cricket-loving friend. Seeing as crocs have very tough skins, I thought they would be ideal to stand up to a sustained spell of fast bowling.

This one was playing around with the idea of ‘when one door closes, another opens’. I wanted a creature long enough to stretch between the two doors, and I thought the croc would fit perfectly. As to who might be behind the two doors, I’ll leave that up to the reader.

Admitedly this one is an alligator, rather than a croc. That was more to do with the species name fitting in with the caption. I guess that ‘The crotchety croc’ might have also worked.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter featuring a whole host of characters and critters. Add your name and mail to the orange box below, and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Leopard Cartoons

I’ve always been fond of drawing leopards, so I thought I’d put together a brief collection of leopard cartoons here.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter containing a whole host of characters and critters, along with some occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Great Snooker Players of Yesterday

Lord Charles Chalkstone - The dapper dandy of the snooker halls. 

 Gentleman potter Lord Chalkston was always immaculately turned out. Although deadly serious when competing, things lightened up considerably when he won, as he invariably blew his entire winnings on champagne for his opponent and the audience.

 He should have won the Open in 1924, but was thwarted in the final frame when his Bryl Cream melted under the lights and smeared his monocle.

James ‘Beaky’ Dawson - He had a nose for a good pot

 Dawson was blessed with an unusually long nose which he used to great effect to help line shots up. He had a peculiar quick of adding chalk to the tip of his nose as well as his cue, swearing that it helped his game.

 Dawson’s success as a sportsman began to peter out in his early forties, but he retrained and went on to become a highly successful sommelier through the wine regions of Europe.

“Wide Bill’ Willamson - Canada’s ever-cheerful cueman

A former lumberjack, ‘Wide Bill’ made his own cue using a tree branch he whittled down. Much loved by fans and fellow professionals alike, his exhibition matches were always packed out. The highlight of his shows was always when he knocked the cap off a bottle of beer from twenty paces using the cue ball.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter, with a whole host of characters and occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Lesser-Known Big Cats - The Slush Leopard

Everyone has heard of the beautiful and elusive snow leopard, but very few have heard of its close relative - the Slush Leopard.

While the snow leopard thrives in cold conditions, the slush leopard prefers both cold and wet. Its favourite time of year is when the edge is coming off winter and the spring thaws arrive, creating its ideal habitat.

New York Central Park Zoo’s resident slush leopard, ‘Lydia’ once escaped from the zoo and was able. To successfully adapt to urban conditions using the huge slush puddles that form by the sidewalks by melting snow.

Lydia would lay in wait, almost completely submerged, waiting for a passing shopper to leap over the puddle and hopefully drop something good to eat.

What’s next

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter with a whole host of curious characters and critters. Drop your name and mail into the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Dalmatian Cartoons

Hatching

Hatching

A row of lines all facing in the same direction.

You can overlap them if you want the area to appear darker.

A brief interlude - Great Snooker Players of Yesteryear

Lord Charles Chalkstone - The dapper dandy of the snooker halls. 

Gentleman potter Lord Chalkston was always immaculately turned out. Although deadly serious when competing, things lightened up considerably when he won, as he invariably blew his entire winnings on champagne for his opponent and the audience.

He should have won the Open in 1924, but was thwarted in the final frame when his brycream melted under the lights and smeared his monocle.

Cross-hatching

The lines rose cross-crossed.

Contour hatching

Follows the contour or form of the object.

Another Great Snooker Player of Yesteryear

James ‘Beaky’ Dawson - He had a nose for a good pot

Dawson was blessed with an unusually long nose which he used to great effect to help line shots up. He had a peculiar quick of adding chalk to the tip of his nose as well as his cue, swearing that is helped his game.

Dawson’s success as a sportsman began to Peter out in his early forties, but he retrained and went on to become a highly successful sommelier through the wine regions of Europe.

Scrumbling

Lots of tiny squiggly lines.

Stippling

Many, many dots.

A further Great Snooker Player

“Wide Bill’ Willamson - Canada’s ever-cheerful cueman

A former lumberjack, ‘Wide Bill’ made his own cue suing a tree branch he whittled down. Much loved by fans and fellow professionals alike, his exhibition matches were always packed out. The highlight of his shows was always when he knocked the cap off a bottle of beer from twenty paces using the cue ball.

Here are the six examples together. You can use this image as a reference if you like.

What’s next?

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter featuring a whole host of characters, along with occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Pelican Cartoons

I first started drawing pelicans a couple of years ago and have very fond of drawing them from time to time.

This is the first one I drew.

I decided to do another cartoon based on a similar idea to the first cartoon.

The thing in the water

This one and the following one I drew as part of a ‘word of the day’ challenge.

How Using A Piece Of Paper Can Help Your Willpower

“Aargh!.......that chocolate cake looks really tempting....it’s got to be about a bazillion calories though.....resist! resist!”

Sally was in training for a race coming up next month. She was usually pretty good in watching what she ate, but today she was sitting at a new coffee shop and the cakes there were so good...and so big....She was wrestling with whether to order a piece or not although she knew that she shouldn’t.....she also felt that it was becoming increasingly difficult to resist the call of the chocolate...

We often think that we have to rely on heroic acts of willpower to stop us from doing what we shouldn’t and to get ourselves to do what we should.

As you will have found out for yourself, willpower doesn’t always work and when it fails we usually beat ourselves up - regarding ourselves as a failure and vow to double our efforts the next time....even though the next time is often more of the same time.

This pattern repeats itself in all sorts of situations, whether it’s choosing the right thing to eat, making a financial decision, or whether choosing to procrastinate  or not.

Facing a difficult choice?

Help your will power with pen and paper

What if there was a different way to help us to make the correct decision?

And what if that way was something simple that you could try out for yourself right now?

All you need is a piece of paper and a pen. You could use a phone or a tablet, but it’s more powerful if you physically write it down.

List Choices

Whenever you are in the situation where you have to make a willpower decision, whether it’s to eat the chocolate cake or not, or to finish your assignment rather than watch cat videos, write down your choices.

Circle your choice

Circle the choice that you make, then do it.

This simple practice activates your conscious decision-making ability, which when activated will help you to override your unwanted urges.

Simply seeing the two opposing choices in writing will make it easier for you to make the best decision for you in the long-term.

This exercise will help you to accept your thoughts and to control your actions.

Summary

Part of cultivating mindfulness is learning to watch our own thoughts without trying to control or banish them.

So grab a pen and a piece of paper, and try it out now on something that’s on your mind.

Movies and Cartoons - Ford v Ferrari

I’m a huge fan of going to the movies, and have been toying with the idea of doing some sort of movie review and tying it to cartoons for some time.

Seeing as I recently watched the film ‘Ford v Ferrari, staring Matt Damon and Christian Bale, I thought I’d take the plunge and start writing about film

The film is about The Ford Motor Company’s attempt to beat Ferrari at the Le Mans 24 hours race. Matt Damon plays Carrol Shelby, who was given the job to road the race team, and Christian Bale plays Ken Miles, race engineer and driver.

After watching the film, I started pondering if I could generate any ideas for cartoons from it.

Here are a few idea generating techniques I came up with.

• Borrow an idea

• What if an animal was in the scene?

• Think bizarre

Don’t worry if you’re not a huge fan of cars, I go somewhat off the beaten track, or Rae track in this case, when it comes to to coming up with ideas.

Borrow an idea

Is there an idea from the film that you could use in a different situation or setting?

So in this case, what other situations could you create race scenes?

What if an animal was in the scene?

Captions are welcomed for this cartoons! - Drop me a mail with your idea.

I’m a huge fan of dropping animals into scenes to generate ideas for cartoons. I guess that this might stem from the fact that I’ve always been a huge fan of ‘The Far Side’.

Although the era of motor racing portrayed in the film was basically pre-sponsorship, I started to think about possible wacky sponsors cars might have.

Think Bizarre

Some of the ideas generated already have been pretty bizarre, but let’s press on regardless!

Watching this film made me think back to an article I read last year about a guy in Monaco who managed to get a race car registered for the road. I was struck by the incongruity of the sleek racing machine on the same road as everyday traffic.

Here’s the cartoon that I came up with.

Movies about cars ? How boring…

We’re not all petrolheads. However, some of the ideas in this article you can apply to your own favourite movies, regardless of their theme or genre.

Hmm..interesting, but it would take me too long to draw cars like those…

You don’t have to. A cartoon is all about the idea, rather than great artwork. A car could be presented by something more detailed like the above examples, or something a whole lot simpler like the following:

So here’s what we looked at:

• Borrow an idea from a film and use it in a completely different situation.

• Add an animal to a scene from a film.

• Think bizarre - it’s a cartoon, so you’ve got a license to stretch things a bit.

One extra one that came up was to play around with advertising logos and slogans, in the above example it was the penguin’s car and the Acme fish company.

What’s next?

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter with a wide range of themes and characters, along with some occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and mail to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Sensing, Listening, and Looking

Sometimes it can be difficult to focus and stay in the moment.

Our mind is drifting off somewhere, even though we know we should be concentrating on the task at hand.

Or maybe your mind is whirring around and around….with seemingly no end in sight to its manic twirling.

So what can we do?

We are going to look at an exercises called sensing, listening, and looking.

Here’s what you have to do

Set a timer for five minutes. 

Take three deep breaths. 

Let’s start with the sensing part.

Sensing

Start by noticing any sensations in your feet. 

Are the sensations steady or do they change?

Stay with the sensations for a few moments.

Now while keeping some of your attention in your feet, slowly move your attention up to include your lower legs...then your upper legs. Notice any sensations and stay with them for a few moments.

Follow the same process and now slowly broaden your focus to include your hands...add your forearms...and your upper arms. Stay with the sensations in your arms and legs for a few moments.

If at any point your mind wanders off, simply bring awareness back to your arms and legs.

Listening 

Now while continuing to notice the sensations in your arms and legs, bring your awareness to the sounds around you.

There might be sounds in the immediate vicinity, such as a clock ticking or an electrical appliance. 

There might be sounds in the background, from traffic or the weather outside.

Whatever you hear, keep part of your attention in your arms and legs as well as being aware of the sounds.

Looking 

Next we are going to start looking around the room and noticing objects around you, while continuing to keep part of the attention in the arms and legs, and on any sounds.

Look around the room. Look at something for a few seconds and then look at something different for a few seconds. 

Look as those you are seeing the object for the first time. 

Don’t fix your gaze on anything for more than a few seconds.

Keep looking around at different objects and changing objects every few seconds. 

While doing this remember to keep part of your attention in your arms and legs, and also on any sounds. Continue until the timer sounds.

So what is this all about?

The body is grounded in the now, rather than ruminating about the past or speculating about the future. Sensing, listening, and looking puts you more in contact with your body - and thus more in the moment.

Try it for five minutes and see.

What’s next

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Mindful Eating and Drinking

Use mindfulness to get out of your daily rut

Chomp...chomp...“Ugh! Why am I always in so much of a hurry? I always seem to be bolting my food down...there’s never enough time...eating like this can’t be good for me...gotta finish this and get back to work...”

Sally was in a hurry at lunchtime - again - and was hardly chewing her food at all. It never felt right eating like this and it often made her stomach feel somewhat unsettled afterwards. She knew that it couldn’t possibly be good for her and yet she always seemed to do it again and again...

I’m sure that you have had one or two experiences that are similar Sally’s. Everyone knows that chewing your food more thoroughly is good you, and taking your time over a meal in general is just way better and more pleasurable than the hurried state in which we often consume food.

Chewing thoroughly breaks down the food more which makes it easier to digest. This means that you are going to gain more benefit from whatever it is you are eating (provided you are eating something healthy) and feel more satisfied.

So let’s look at three simple exercises to encourage a mindful approach.:

• Slow down

• Follow the food down

• The coffee meditation

Slow down

Before you start eating, take a few seconds to look at what it is you are about to eat, savour whatever food is in front of you. Notice the smell - what different aromas are there? You don’t have to spend long at all over this process, but even a few moments will help you to be more mindful of the food and how you eat it. When you start to eat try to consciously chew the food a little more thoroughly than usual. You don’t need to chew each mouthful X times, just be aware of the whole eating process and you will be more likely to slow down.

Follow the food down

As you are eating, try to follow the whole process of the food moving from the plate, into your mouth and then into your body. Usually we are completely unaware of this unless we eat something we don’t particularly like, or something too cold, hot or spicy. This might actually prove to be really interesting to observe.

The coffee meditation

This doesn’t have to be coffee, it could be any drink you are about to consume. For this exercise you are going to deliberately consume part of your drink a lot slowly than you normally would. For the ‘slow down’ exercise you were encouraged to eat a little slower than normal, but for this you are going to slow right down. You might be pondering what the value of this is, however, we can find insights into ourselves in everyday activities if we sometimes do them in a completely different way to normal. “Slow down and direct atten- tion to your food and drink.”

Wrap up

For each part of the process, whether picking up your cup, sipping the drink, swallowing the liquids remaining in your mouth etc. try to make it twice as slow as you normally would. It might even feel a little uncomfortable at first, and you may want to do this by yourself if you think you are going to become self-conscious by doing this in a public place. Afterwards, reflect for a few moments on how you felt it went.