Learning Cartooning From Calvin and Hobbes

In this first of a new series, I’m going to see what I can learn from various cartoonists, some famous and well-known, the others more obscure.

Today I thought I’d start things rolling with a cartoon strip that everyone can learn a lot from - Calvin and Hobbes, by Bill Watterson.

Trace

First of all, I’m going to trace the above cartoon. Tracing is a great way to put yourself a little bit inside the cartoonists head

Before I started tracing, I took the original cartoon, and went over it with an eraser set at 50%. This will make it easier when tracing to see what I’ve covered and what I’ve missed.

Here you can see I’ve already traced the first panel. Three more to go.

Copy

To make it easier to copy I thought it would help to add a grid to both the original and my copy.

Here’s my copy. As you can see, it doens’t quite match the original!

Rewrite the script

Next I returned to the original and wrote my own version of the script.

What did I learn?

• Bill Watterson uses great simplicity in line at times.

• I am amazed at how much expression he can show on Calvin’s face with with just simple notes for eyes and a line for a mouth. A definite lesson there in how less can be more.

• It’s not easy copying Calving and Hobbes, even with the help of a grid!

• What’s next?

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

Cartoon Minute

Do you ever wish that you could just sit down to draw...

...but life somehow ends up getting in the way?

You’ve probably got a drawer somewhere with a half-used drawing pad in it, or a drawing app on your tablet that you’ve barely used.

If you’re like many other folks, you’ve  got various art  books laying on your shelves bought with the intention of trying them out, but now sitting there unopened and slowly gathering dust.

Maybe you’ve even signed up for a course and stopped part way through...or not even started in it the first place.

You might even feel a bit bad about not getting around to draw, but still it seems difficult to pick up a pencil. For all our best intentions, it can be really hard to start something, and even if we do so, to keep going.

And if  there’s too much to do then we don’t even feel like starting in the first place.

Sometime we might actually manage to sit down, only to find that we don’t know what to draw... 

‘Aaaah! Why can’t I just sit down and do this?’

You might have even asked yourself ‘Why do I always stop and start things?....Why don’t I stick to things?’

It sounds simple - draw for a few minutes everyday - but the reality is we often forget to do things despite our best intentions.

And we usually try to do all of this without the aid of a system to back us up.

The trouble with most things we want to learn is making it a habit and sticking to it.

It helps to have a constant reminder of what we have to do, and to keep on doing it.

It would be good to have an easy-to-follow system that will help you get cartooning on a regular basis. A system that gives you little bite-sized chunks of information that are easy to try out for yourself.

Everyone is busy, however, everyone has a minute and this is where Cartoon Minute comes in.

Introducing Cartoon Minute 

Cartoon Minute provides you with a daily exercise and a reminder to keep drawing.

A cartoon is a combination of an image and the idea, so Cartoon Minute provides you with simple daily exercises on one of these areas. So you get to work on your idea generation skills, as well as your drawing.

Coming up with ideas for cartoons isn’t magic, but it does require consistent practice. Improving your cartooning skills is also equally unmagical but it a a lot easier to do when sticking to a regular  system.

The emphasis is on simple, quick to do exercises, hence the name ‘Cartoon Minute’. You can of course expand on some of the ideas and take them a lot further, but the main idea is to get you doing quick drawings on a daily basis.

Let’s look at a couple of examples.  

As you can see, the instructions are short and to the point - and the exercise doesn’t take long to complete.

Every week you will be a summary of the weekly exercises. So if you miss a day or two, you can catch up whenever you’ve got time.

Here is an example. 

Every week there is a different theme. 

here are some examples:

• using colour

• drawing backgrounds

• cats, dogs

• facial expressions

First establish the habit, mastery will come in time

It’s important to first establish a habit and do it for a while, before developing it.

Cartoon Minute is designed to get you doodling everyday, but if life really does get in the way, then you can catch up, or pick up the pace again when you get chance. As well as a daily email, Monday to Friday, you’ll also get a weekly summary you can use to go anything you might have missed.

Not only that, but there’s also a monthly round up.

So basically, you get lots of reminders to help you keep drawing.

I’m not sure that I’ve got time to do this everyday, what if I fall behind?

You can catch up at any point with the daily emails. There’s also the weekly summary email if you want to save all the exercises for one go. There’s no course schedule that you have to keep up.

I can’t draw! Can I still do this?

You don’t have to be a great artist. If you’ve ever doodled a few faces on a scrap of paper, then you’re good to go. 

So give me another minute, and let’s get you started.

Add your name and mail to the orange box below, and I’ll send you further details.

Name The Outfit

The Ringmaster and the Dragon have been appearing on a weekly basis to help illustrate my current course ‘Story Tails - Storytelling for Cartoon Strips’.

Can you guess where I got the pattern from for her jacket and the dragon?

Drop me a mail if you know!

In The Idea Kettle

I’m currently playing around with some ideas to create a longer story around the Minute Greyhound.

Here are a couple of the ones I’ve come up with so far.

What’s next?

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter, with a whole host of characters and canines. If you’d like to see what happens next to the Minute Greyhound, along with all the other critters, add your name and best email address to your orange box below.

Cartoon Clinic - A Better Catch - Amended

A couple of days again I posted the above cartoon that I wanted to try and improve.

I indentified a few areas to work on:

• Her fishing outfit might be a bit on the bright side and tend to grab the attention. She’s wearing a yellow mac, red gloves, and green boots, all of which as bright or brighter than them pink of the pelican, which is where I want the attention to go.

• Her fishing road bisects the pelican, I think this would be better if she was holding it at either a higher or lower angle.

• I think I can do a better job with the sky.

• The water can be improved as well.

Here is the amended version:

Here are the changes I made:

• Her outfit is now a lot drabber.

• The rod is now angled downwards.

• I added an annoyed look to her face.

• I added a bit more motion to the water, and some white clouds to the sky.

• I added a coastline element in the background

I’m not 100% happy about the background coastline element, but I does think it connects the two characters.

What’s next?

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

Name The Mascot!

I created this friendly-looking, furry-tailed bestie as a mascot for a cartooning course I’m currently running.

As the course is called ‘Story Tails - Storytelling for Cartoon Strips’, I wanted some sort of creature with a long tail to fit the title.

Since creating him/her I haven’t actually used it since and so I thought I would revisit it before the end of the course to see if I could think up a name and so background about them.

Any suggestions are welcomed!

Cartoon Clinic - A Better Catch

In this first of a new series, I am going to look back over some of my cartoons and see how I can improve them.

I’m going to look at the following areas:

• composition

• colour

• expression

• writing

I'm sure I’ll think of some more points to cover as well.

The first picture I chose was the fishing one pictured above.

First of all I identified a few areas to work on.

-I thought that her fishing outfit might be a bit on the bright side and tend to grab the attention. She’s wearing a yellow mac, red gloves, and green boots, all of which as bright or brighter than them pink of the pelican, which is where I want the attention to go.

-Her fishing road bisects the pelican, I think this would be better if she was holding it at either a higher or lower angle.

-I think I can do a better job with the sky.

-The water can be improved as well.

-I might also add another element to the background.

To be continued in the next post!

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

Three-Act Story Structure In Four Panels

I put together the following series of images for the ‘Story Tails - Storytelling for Cartoon Strips’ course that I’m running at the moment.

What’s next?

I put together a Cartoon Newsletter featuring a whole host of characters and critters, including the odd pelican or two. Add your name and best email address to the orange box below, and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Lesser-Known Dog Breeds - The Ontario Slobberer

When you think of dogs originating from Canada,, you might think of the Labrador or the Newfoundland. However, few of you will have heard of the breed with the biggest tongue of any dog - the Ontario Slobberer.

You may well have encountered dogs that drool before, such as the Bulldog, St. Bernard, or the above mentioned Newfoundland, but none of those breeds will have prepared you for the ocean of saliva splurged forth from a Slobberer.

The Slobberer is a large, gentle-natured breed gifted with an extraordinarily large tongue, and phenomenally productive salivary glands.

These gentle giants really love people, and visitors to the home of a Slobberer should prepare themselves for a warm, if wet welcome.

Origin

It is unclear as to the exact origin of the breed, as the only attempt at researching the breed ended in a soggy mess.

Noted dog historian and Ontario Slobberer aficionado, E.M. Twangly, spent twenty years, and his life savings, compiling the definitive account of the Slobberer. Shortly after completion of this Herculean act of scholarship, Twangly’s dog, Slubley, managed to get into his study and proceeded to wreak two decades of writing with a hour spent drooling over his desk.

Twangly never recovered from this setback, and turning his back on canine studies, went on to become a banjo player in a travelling skiffle band.

In the 1920s, the Canadian Postal Service experimented with employing Slobberers as stamp lickers. However, more often than not the stamps were rendered unusable due to saturation by saliva.

Quirks of the breed

Due to the general messiness of these dogs, you may find that your social circle is extremely limited, unless of course your friends have vinyl flooring.

Bizarrely enough, the Slobberer is particular about hygiene and will usually refuse to eat from a dirty bowl.

Keeping a Slobberer

Make sure to provide plenty of water for your Slobberer, as adult dogs are fully capable of drooling up to a gallon per day.

It is also a good idea to keep a mop on hand to clear up after your pet.

While out walking your pet, it is highly advised to wear wellington boots as as to avoid wet legs.

Notable owners

Notable owners include the crime writer,  Kirk Dampley, who had a permanently runny nose which was the source of much social ostracism. When younger this caused him to shut himself away from people, which resulted in him spending a lot of time writing, eventually leading to his literary career.

Seeing as a lot of folks object to the Slobberer due to it similarly messy habit, Kirk felt that he had found a kindred spirit in the animal world.

Breed Facts

Colour:

Colours include black, Black and Tan.

Weight:

Females: 45 - 54 kg, males: 59 - 68kg.

Dogs have been known to put on up to 5kg over night as they tend to drool far less when sleeping.

Height:

Females: 71cm, Males: 66cm

Health

A Slobberer that has stopped slobbering is a sure sign that something is amiss with the dog.

What’s next?

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter with a whole host of hounds, folks, and other critters. Add your name and best email address to the orange box below, and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Using A Notepad To Draw Cartoon Strips

I’ve written previously about how a simple notepad can help you with your cartoons. Today I’m going to look at how it can help you doodling cartoon strips.

With the examples in this article, I used a small notepad that could easily be slipped into a pocket or bag.

On one of the pages, I drew a crude template for a cartoon strip. Don’t draw this on the first page of the notepad, but two or three pages in. Use a thick black pen, so that you can see the faint outline of the template showing through on the first one or two pages.

You’ll notice a certain roughness with all of these examples. The point is that it is way more important to start doodling than it is to worry about the quality at this point.

The blank template now serves as a reminder that you are going to practice drawing cartoon strips. You don’t have to draw on top of this template, simply draw on the page preceding it, you can also trace the outline of the panels if you wish.

Not knowing what to draw is one of the blocks to starting drawing, so I’m going to seed the cartoon strips with a quick doodle of a man in a hat walking. During the day, the task is to complete the cartoon strips with some sort of idea.

Another layout you can try to force you to think up a variety of ideas is the following pattern.

The idea is that the first you draw the first two panels, and then think of three different ways for the story to end.

You can also take this a step further.

Here you have to think of three different middle panels, and then again three different last panels. For a bit more variety I’ve added a dog in a hat instead of the man.

I hope the above acts as a prompt to get doodling cartoon strips.

What’s next?

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

Comparing Peanuts and The Perishers

Part of the Peanuts gang. From left to right: Franklin, Lucy, Snoopy, Linus, Charlie Brown, Peppermint Patty, Lucy.

The main cast of the Perishers. From left to right: Maisie, Wellington, Boot, Marlon, Baby Grumpling.

I thought it would be interesting to compare the cartoons strips ‘Peanuts’ and ‘The Perishers’. Both were highly popular strips and the the Perishers certainly owed a lot to it’s American cousins.

The Perishers appeared seven years after Peanuts and took a lot of inspiration from it, and here are quite a few connections between the two strips. 

First of all a bit of background.

The Perishers

The first strip from 19 October 1959.

The Perishers first appeared in the British Daily Mirror newspaper in 1957. It was written by Maurice Dodd and drawn at first by Dennis Collins, and then later by Bill Melvin and even Dodd himself. The strip continued until the death of Dodd in 2006. 

Maurice Dodd, with Boot on the drawing board.

Peanuts

The first strip from October 2, 1950. From left to right: Charlie Brown, Shermy, and Patty

The name Charlie Brown and a dog similar to Snoopy, first appeared in the Li’l Folks cartoon Strip that Charlie’s Schultz ran in a local newspapers from 1947 to 1950.

Due to a name dispute with another cartoon strip, the strip changed its name to Peanuts when it was picked up by the United Features Syndicate to be distributed around the US, and later the world. Schultz always hated the name Peanuts and regarded it as a source of humitlation.

Charles Schultz at the drawing board.

Schultz both wrote and drew the strip himself.

Peanuts is of course known and loved throughout the world, and continues to be popular. whereas The Perishers was largely restricted to the UK and hasn’t stayed in public consciousness much since it’s end in 2006.

Both strips featured a cast of kids with dogs featuring prominently. Adults rarely if ever intruded into the world.

Both strips could get quite philosophical at times, although with the Perishers it all seemed to be more tongue in cheek. They also occasionally veered into politics. The Perishers had the interesting dynamic of the characters seeming quite conservative, and yet the newspaper they appeared in, The Daily Mirror, was very left-leaning.

I thought it would be fun to compare and contrast some of the characters. Let’s look at some of the pairings from the respective casts.

Charlie Brown and Snoopy, Wellington and Boot

For Charlie Brown and Snoopy read Wellington and Boot.

Both boys have loyal, if somewhat independently-minded dogs - Snoopy the Beagle and Boot the Old English Sheepdog.

Snoopy has his on/off Pal Woodstock, whereas Boot frequently encounters a variety of other dogs and other creatures. 

Snoopy fantasises himself as a World War I flying ace, whereas Boot regards himself as the reincarnation of an aristocrat.

Lucy and Maisie

Charlie Brown and Wellington both have to put up with bossy girls in the form of Lucy and Maisie.

These two could easily be twins with their shared bossiness, frequent bursts of anger, and violent thoughts.

I even think they look quite alike!

An ongoing storyline in The Perishers was Maisie’s pursuit of Marlon, who is featured below.

Peppermint Patty and Marlon

Both strips prominently feature two characters that always seem to be a beat or two behind the others: Peppermint Patty in Peanuts, and Marlon in The Perishers

Peppermint Patty is noted for her persistent habit of profoundly misunderstanding basic concepts and ideas that most people would consider obvious. She always seems to get a ‘D’ in class.

Marlon is definitely not the sharpest kid around. He enjoys inventing things, however, most of his inventions have already been done, such as the wheel, the horse and cart... Marlon‘ said most famous invention is the inch-thick ketchup sandwich

Supporting Characters

Both strips employed quite extensive supporting casts. Here are a few of the more regular ones for both strips.

Peanuts

Sally Brown

Younger sister of Charlie Brown.

Schroeder

Music lover and almost always featured playing on his toy piano.

Marcie is bookish, and a good student.[70] Schulz described her as relatively perceptive compared to other characters, stating that "she sees the truth in things".[71] The writer Laura Bradley identified her role as "the unassuming one with sage-like insights".[74]

Pig-Pen

A really City boy, usually surrounded by a cloud of dust.

Franklin

A character introduced to represent African American kids.

Marcie

Friends with Peppermint Paty and pretty much her opposite in approach to school.

The Perishers

Beryl Bogey

A ‘friend’ of Maisie’s. A big girl used as an enforcer.

Dirty McSquirty

The Perishers’s equivalent of Pig-Pen. He’s always accompanied by a cloud of flies.

Fiscal Yere

A millionaire’s son. He’s always complaining about being rich.

The writer Maurice Dodd once said that he introduced an Old English sheepdog character (Boot) and ended up getting one himself. He then had Wellington develop an income by making buggies (go-karts) and ended up getting one himself. He then introduced a rich kid. It didn’t work.

B.H. Calcutta (failed)

A bloodhound with no sense of smell. This is the closest Boot got to a regular sidekick.

The Crabs

Every year the kids go off to eye seaside on a camping holiday. Boot explores the rock pools and the crabs within it regard him as some sort of God, ‘The eyes in the sky’. Evidently some of these storylines would go on for quite a few strips, resulting in occasional complaints from the editor as to when it was going to feature the kids again.

Setting

The Perishers

The strip is set in a fairly drab rundown looking town supposedly in London. Some of the backgrounds resemble more of a northern industrial town though.

Peanuts

It is debatable where the strip is set, however, it has eluded to being set in Minnesota.

Backgrounds

Peanuts generally kept things fairly simple.

The Perishers on the other hand sometimes went for very elaborate and detailed backgrounds, often in the form of polyptichs, which are a single continuous background divided into two or more panels.

Using Photos To Get Ideas For Cartoons

Claudio Roddaro is seen here enjoying a drink at a cafe with a friend in beautiful sunny Monte Carlo.

Nothing particularly unusual about that, until you notice the racing car parked outside the cafe in the background. Or former racing car, as it has now been registered for road use in Monte Carlo. Sounds a bit insane, but in the exotic world of Monte Carlo, where Ferraris and other supercars are two-a-penny, it takes something special to stand out like Claudio.

The Porsche 917 was designed to win the win the Le Mans 24 hour race which it did so, and was never intended to be driven on the road. However, after deciding that your average sports car was just too plain vanilla, Claudio set about working to make the Porsche road legal.

Picture credit: motoringresearch.com

It was another picture of the same car in action that caught my eye and instantly got me pondering how I could use it in a cartoon. There was something about the incongruity of the sleek racing car and the vans in the background.

In this article we’re going to look at how you can use photos to get ideas for cartoons.

Here’s what we’re going to cover

1. Using mindmaps

2. Borrowing ideas

3. Putting two ideas together

Mind Maps

I put the photo in the middle of a blank page and then started brainstorming idea associated with it. I liked the idea of the racing driver having changed careers and it was then the delivery business struck me. I liked the absurdity of the totally impractical racing car being using to cart things around.

2. Borrowing Ideas

I then started thinking about if there were any ideas that I could borrow from the world around me. I started looking around the house, the neighborhood. It suddenly struck that a friend of mine has an occasional removals business, so what about the absurd idea of using. A racing car to help people shift house?

3. Putting Two Ideas Together

I liked the contrast between the usual way of moving furniture compared to using a racing car to do so. And of course the sheer silliness helped, so I decided to put to the two ideas together.

Here’s the finished cartoon.

Isn’t this cheating?

Remember that there is nothing new under the sun, and that most ideas have been tried out before in some shape or form.

Over To You:

Try this idea-generating technique out with a photo that catches your eye. As you write down possible ideas, don’t pause to think about them - just write whatever pops into your mind.  You can even pose some questions about the picture as well, like I did in the above example.

What’s next?

I have a Cartoon Newsletter that I put out seven days a week. Add your name and address to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Lesser-Known Dog Breeds - The Italian Minute Greyhound

Everyone has heard of the Greyhound, those sleek and fast dogs that have graced many a household. You may also have heard of it’s smaller cousin, the Italian Miniature Greyhound. However, few of you will have heard of it’s more more remote cousin still, the Italian Minute Greyhound.

The breeds has it’s origins with “Big Syd” Burns, a somewhat dodgy, not let me correct that…a completely dodgy character and greyhound afficiando. Big Syd was involved with various illegal dog races throughout London, that is until new police inspector “Gripper” Barnes started progressively shutting down all the illegal dog racing operations both in the capitol and beyond.

Facing the end of this highly illegal, yet illegal “business”, Big Syd hit upon the idea of breeding a new type of smaller racing dog that could be slipped into a pocket and taken for a race anywhere.

Choosing the smallest Italian miniature greyhounds from various litters, Big Syd progressively bred an even smaller variant soon.

Big Syd’s Plan almost fell at the very first hurdle, when at the first race, the rabbit that the hounds were supposed to race, ended up in pursuit instead.

Burns continued with his scheme for a few years, until he was involved in the North London pug wrestling scandle and ended up doing porridge as his crimes finally caught up with him.

Ten years later and now fully reformed, Big Syd has put the Minute Greyhound to a more wholesome use, taking around the tiny pooches around to help folks who are scared of dogs of more regular sizes.

Big Syd’s brother, “Big Vic” is also a Greyhound fan, but has decided to take his efforts in different direction entirely by breeding the Italian Giant Greyhound.

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 best email address to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

How To Create Cartoon Strip Panels

Drawing a cartoon can be a bit of a laborious process. With a single panel cartoon, it’s so much simpler: one pic, one panel frame, one caption, and you’re good to go.

Because a cartoon strip, even a short one of three or four panels, requires more time and effort, it can be a bit off-putting. This is especially true if you intend to draw the cartoon on a regular basis, and not just a one-off.

This article is going to show how you can make the process a bit more efficient and save you some time which you can then put into the fun part: the thinking of the ideas and drawings themselves.

I work with Procreate. You can use the same ideas with other drawing apps as well.

Create the frame

First create a rectangle like this.

The measurements should be: 3 7/8 by 13 inches 9.84 by 33.02 cm 372 by 1248 pixels. This is a standard size based on traditional newspaper strips, although you will se other sizes as well.

Once you’ve created it, you can then shrink it down or expand it accordingly keeping the same ratio.

Create panel dividing lines

On a separate layer, draw two parallel lines like this. These will be used to separate panels. Like this.

Keep all of these layers as a separate artwork or file. Copy them each time you create a new cartoon strip.

Now let’s look at a cartoon strip in progress.

I use the frame and the dividing lines to give me an idea what size the characters need to be and how to space them out.

There are a number of layers here:

1. The frame

2. Panel dividing line #1.

3. Panel dividing line #2.

4. Panel dividing line #3.

5. Gerald and Rob

6. Gerald and Rob

7. Rob

8. Gerald and Rob

9. Text

I like to keep the elements on separate layers as it makes them easier to move around until I am happy with the layout.

Once I’m happy with the layout, I’ll then erase any overlapping elements.

You can also save your strip time and signature as a separate layer as well.

What’s next?

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

Drawing A Cartoon - “Heavy”

For a while I was part of a group doing a ‘word of the day’ challenge, where everyday we would have a different adjective to illustrate.

Seeing as I’ve always been a bit of a rock music fan, I thought I would interpret ‘heavy’ as in ‘metal’, and couldn’t resist drawing the rocking dog.

Initial sketch

I originally thought of having a cat playing the guitar, but I liked the idea of a dog’s long ears flailing about inthe air, kind of like a rocker’s long hair.

There was really only one choice of guitar for the power-chording pooch - a Gibson Flying Vee.

It just says hard rock to me more than any other guitar. I also thought the dramatic shape suited the pic.

Adding the background

Had to be a bit stack of amps,shaking about with the volume.

Colouring the characters

I thought I’d have the guitar in a nice bright colour to stick out from the more muted tones of the dog.

Adding washes

Using a digital watercolour tool, I added washes to the amps and also under the characters for shadow.

The finished cartoon

Finally, I added a purple wash at 30% opacity to set the tone. I also added the musical notes aa few movement lines.

‘Defening Leppard’

This version of the cartoon appeared after I did a picture for my friend’s wife’s birthday.

He told me that she was a fan of the band Def Leopard, and asked me if I could do a cartoon with some sort of pun on the name. I thought reworking the ‘heavy’ cartoon would fit the bill.

As well as swapping out the dog for a leopard, I recoloured the guitar red so that it would stand out fromthe yellow of the leopard.

What’s next?

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter, contianing a whole host of characters, as well as occasionally cartooning tips. Add your name and best email address to the orange box below, and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Do Not Touch Your Face When You Are Outside

I put together some images to help promote hygiene awareness during the Corona outbreak.

For some reason, the first idea that popped into my head was that of an octopus with all its tentacles squirling around.

After that I thought of a cat, seeing as cats are always cleaning their faces.

I first drew just a plain outline, but seeing as I used to have a ginger cat, I thought I’d colour him it.

What’s next?

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

Drawing The Snoozing Hound

Here’s a quick cartoon dog that I came up with recently for a friend. I’ll briefly talk through the steps I took to create the snoozing hound.

Initial outline

I use Procreate, and for most of my outlining I use the technical pen.

Starting the colouring

For the colouring I used the studio pen and set the opacity at 30%. You can see the pallete that I used.

Building up the tones

I’m now gradually building up the tones and adding different colours.

The finished cartoon

And here’s the finished cartoon again, with some shading and hatching added under the dog.

What’s next?

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

Social Distancing Distancing

I’ve had a lot of fun thinking up some illustrations to promote social distancing.

Unflock

Unflock

I think this was one worked the best out of all the ones I’ve come up with so far. There’s such a strong association of sheep with herding, and so them keeping their distance really brings the point across.

Slinky Sea Serpents Swim Separately

Slinky Sea Serpents Swim Separately

I’m a huge fan of drawing monsters. I’d recently used this background for another cartoon, indeed one also featuring a different monster - a giant squid. And so I thought I would recycle it and add a couple of Nessies doing lengths of the Loch in different directions.

Spaced Spaniels

Spaced Spaniels

Another one where I reused a background. I draw a lot of pics of people walking dogs, and so ther are a number of backgrounds that I use from time to time, this being one of them. The spaniels had also featured in another cartoon.

Honk! Honk!

Honk! Honk!

I’ve drawn quite a few geese over the last year, and so I thought it would be a fun opportunity to draw a few more.

After completed the previous cartoon, I couldn’t resist adding flying gear and scarves to them as well.

What’s next?

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter which features a whole host of characters, as well as occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and best email address to the orange box below and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Drawing the Dazzle Ship

I’m going to go through the steps behind coming up with the idea and then the creation of this cartoon.

I remember way back when reading a book about the First World War and seeing some painting in it of ships that had had dazzle pattern applied to it. At first glance, youthink why on earth would they paint a ship this way, it must stand out for miles.

However, the idea behind this was not to paint the ship and try to have it merge with the sea, but instead to break up the silouette and thus make it more difficult for submarines to aim.

The dazzle paint, razzle daazzle, was applied to both warships and merchant ships.

It’s not the ship you think it is…

If this ship looks familiar, it’s because it is the RMS Olympic, sister ship of the Titannic. She was pressed into service as a troop ship and became the largest ship to have such paint applied to it.

Painting of the RMS Olympic by Duncan Hannah, 2011.

I really liked the tones used in this particular painting, and so I decided to base the cartoon on it.

Initial outline

Here is the initial outline. I traced the picture, omitting some of the finer details.

Adding colour

I’ve now applied solid colours to both the characters and the ship.

Adding washes

I’ve now started to add digital watercolour washes to gradually build up the tones

I added the sky as a solid colour.

Almost there…

I’m now adding a few details, such as the smoke, and the wake from the ship.

The finished picture

I thought the composition would look better if the seal and gull were on the left. I’ve also zoomed in the frame a little so the ship is closer to them and increasing their awe.

What’s next?

I put out a Cartoon Newsletter, which contains a whole host of characters as well as occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and best email address to the orange box below, and I’ll wing a copy your way.

Illustrated Booknotes - Your Brain On Music

Every month I put together a series of Illustrated Booknotes as part of a book club I’m a member of. This month it was the turn of ‘Your Brain On Music’ by Daniel Levintin.

The intersection between music and the brain

The arts are not meant  to ruin science. They’re actually meant to reinvigorate and allow us to re-experience science. And science is meant to reinvigorate art.

Music activates every region of the brain that has so far been mapped. 

More so that’s anything else, music is a kind of food or fuel for the brain.

Athletes at the Olympics listen to music. Why are they listening to music? The neurons in your brain fire in synchrony to the tempo of the music that you are listening to. So if you’re a runner and you can get music that’s at a slightly faster pace than you would normally run, and then your neurons are firing at that pace, you can actually run faster. Same thing for weight lifting.

Any athletic activity that involves some kind of timing, music if it’s carefully chosen can help you to perform better.

Because of the constant pulse of music, the constant  pulse keeps you going, even when your willpower flags, or you think you want to stop and take a break the constant pulse gives you this kind of momentum and pushing forward.

Music as medicine 

Music does function as medicine in some contexts. For example, listening to pleasurable music releases dopamine and can function in that sense almost like an anti-depressant. 

Sad music can help people to feel better. When you’re sad or depressed, you are usually feel misunderstood. If someone comes along and says ‘you should listen to some happy music’, then t hat’s going to make you feel even more misunderstood.

If you put onthe right piece of sad music, you go ‘Oh, that’ how I feel. That musician has been through it.’

Listening to sad music releases prolactin. This is the same chemical that is released when mothers nurse their babies.It’s a soothing hormone that makes you feel comforted.

What music should Iisten to?

The majority of people use music everyday for mood regulation. We listen to a certain kind of music in the morning to help use get going, a certain of music at night to unwind. There’s a kind of music you use to get through your exercise workout. We use music like we use drugs. 

Music is regulating the hormones and the neurotransmitters effectively the way that drugs do. 

So the answer to music therapy is for doctors and patients, or any of use on our own, is to recognise that music has this power over us, this influence on us and to use it. To be systematic about it. Create a playlist that will help you to do whatever activity it is that you are doing.

The playlists work better when you are the one who are selecting the music. 

People in a preoperative setting in a hospital, were either given valium a benzodiazepine to calm them down before surgery or they were given music. 

They were even given music that the doctor chose for them, or music that they could choose themselves. The people who could choose their own music showed much less anxiety than the people given Valium or those who had the music chosen for them by the doctor.

Why are some musicians better than others?

It’s mostly hard work and it’s not genetic.

It’s merely the amount of time they put in.

He asked many top musicians and asked them ‘where do you thin talent comes from?Were you born this way or did you work really hard. Every single person he asked said that they didn’t think it was inborn, they thought it was hard work.

The most surprising account came from Stevie Wonder. He said he remembered the 1000s of hours he spent struggling, practicing, not happy with the results, trying to go over and  over it again. He estimated he put in 10,000 hours before he was happy with where he was. That’s twenty hours a week, for ten years.

This emotion is inspiring. Any of use, if we are willing to put in the work, can get there. It’s democratising. If we can just put in the work, we can do anything we want.

If we’re willing to put in the work, we can do it. As listeners, if we’re willing to put in the work making playlists, selecting our music, we can really reap the benefits of music in our spiritual life, in our psychological life and our physical life.

Either you’re just born with it and it’s talent. Or you work on it.

Before surgery, people who were able to choose their own music had much less anxiety than the people who either had the music chosen for them or where given Valium.

What’s next?

I put together a Cartoon Newsletter, with a whole host of characters plus occasional cartooning tips. Add your name and best email address to the form below, and I’ll send a copy your way.