French Connection

Yet again a long time since my last confession, oops I mean blog! although I do feel I have sinned when I do not write something each week? The weather has been pretty awful for everyone in the UK ,I know we are renowned for it always raining here but I think this year has and will beat all records even for us. Anyway that said,  at my place of work we have a French student come and do work experience and as a goodbye gift from me I did 3 caricature's of her in 3 different styles and from different view points.

Because of the language barrier, that is I speak no French what so ever, I was not sure whether she liked them or not. They will probably end up at the bottom of the Seine when she gets home?
I also was playing around with some water colours and the face of one of our talented Salesmen, (that is he could sell you your own clothes off your back and you wouldn't know?) and I think he came out a bit scary??

Again he is a nice guy, but I got mixed emotions from him when he saw it. I don't do them to win friends or favour as I am sure you can tell, I use to get bored doing nice drawings of people at the theme parks but as I do not get paid for any of these I feel everyone is fair game!
  As a poor starving artist I have never owned (until now) a real Moleskine sketch book!!! I have always got very cheap versions from Asda or other well known stores, as I am far to thrifty to spend that sort of money. My eldest Daughter has rectified this and bought me one as a present? How,  I do not know, as she is a poor starving University Student. I must be doing something wrong. Now I own one I can compare the quality and see the huge differences between. I also now own one of the best Pencils I have ever owned and biggest which you can see in the picture below, it is fantastic to draw with especially quick large sketches.

Not to leave my other daughter out she bought me these HOT sauces at Christmas and I have put them on a wide variety of meals over the last 6 months. If you are into hot food as I am these will blow your socks off. They come in different strengths and really add a kick to any meal. I am the only one in the house hold who likes HOT curries/chilli's so they are always made Mild and I just add a few drops of these sauces to spice it up a bit.

Unfortunately they have all run out now and like the sauces I have to go as well.
 Best Wishes to all.

Long Time No Write

I have finally found myself at a loose end after just completing a gift caricature for someone, and thought I would have a go on my computer which is Free at the moment! I suddenly realised I have not put anything in my blogg for ages! around 5 months. This is the problem of having a Job that has nothing to do with art or caricature, you seem to get amnesia of what is really important. Anyway I am still dreaming of one day becoming a full time artist but it will probably be when I retire, although under the current government who knows when that will be?

I have still been doing gift caricatures/  cartoons to keep my hand in and practise still quite a lot. Some recent works to look at below,

Well I shall keep this short as my other job is calling ? Its the Dad Taxi Service, Day or night any distance and its completely Free. The things you do for your kids although mine are quite old now! wouldn't have it any other way though.

Best Wishes.

Merry Chrimbo & Happy New Year

Strewth , it has been an age since I  have had a chance to get on this computer! so much has happened it is hard to know where to start. I have had to get a "Real Job" as most of the people I know tell me? I finished at the Theme Parks and then could not get enough Fairs/ Fetes and parties to pay the bills, so I had  to take the plunge in to mundane work. I am now a Service Engineer for a Health and Safety company? Unfortunately a normal Job seems to suck all the artistic life out of me, leaving very little time or inclination during the rest of the week to do anything!
I now have to pin my hopes on a lottery win, so I do not have to work, and can feel artistic again,  unless I could find a job that combines drawing/Art and work all together that would pay the bills and doesn't need any art qualifications higher than A level, so if you know of any in the Oxfordshire area please E-Mail or comment and I will have a look.
I have just struggled to do a few things such as this face  to be used as a Beer Sign at a do.

 and this is an old T-Shirt picture I  knocked up some 11 years ago now while I was on detachment in that wonderful world of OZ.

 a Quick pencil sketch of my new boss? I am still their so he must of liked it?

 and finally one of my usual Cartoon Style caricatures for a lady I work with who is a very good photographer and produced amazing Framed photo's of everyone within the company as Christmas presents from our Xmas corporate day out.

Well I must leave now,but would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, and hope that 2012 is a better year, for not only this mad world, but for all of you and just maybe, me?

Summers over.

Hi all, it looks like after that last late small heat wave, our summer is over. The seasons do seem to be going a bit out of sync of late. Anyway here are a few of my daily sketches I do to keep my hand in, I draw with what ever comes to hand, pencil , marker, Biro. I don,t always get a good likeness but sometimes the reference photo is not that good either, but it is all good practice and style forming. They should be the Hoff, Mr Doherty (Big Bro winner), Jeremy Kyle, and finished with Steve Jobs (RIP).

I better start my winter preparations around the garden before the snow comes! Bye for now.

September Blues

The caricature drawing in the theme parks has come to an end for me, so I will have to find other avenues for my pens to let rip. I was lucky enough to do Charlbury Street fair last weekend which was great fun and one of the best organised and pleasurable village fairs I have ever been to, it took me back to when I was a lad and lived in a little village. The weather stayed nice as well which made the day.

To practice I generally just draw any head that springs to mind and cover an A3 piece of paper although the bottom character(with black hair) was based on a caricature artist called Mike Carlon.

I have tried to post last week but could not get any pictures to load up so left it in frustration in the end. This week things seem to be working better. Below is a quick theme park style drawing of one of the staff.

I also was asked to do a quick jokey cartoon of a couple of Chefs, so I did theme park style heads and put them into Photo shop over a picture? not the best but time was short.



Finally managed to get something down on this blog so I am going to quit while I am ahead.
Best Wishes to all.

Fruit -Catures

Hi All, it seems an age since I have had a chance to blog, but I thought I would get a quick rant off now why I had a few moments alone on the PC. I never seem to get a chance to get on the main house PC as I have 2 teenage children who although they have their own laptops always have to do work on mine because its attached to 3 different printers and 4 different scanners although everything is WiFi, they tell me its about file formats and the like??? Also my wife spends a lot of time on it , so to free up that time I have bought her the Apple iPad 2, which she seems to like and I will no doubt get a go on!
 I like lots of others follow a number of other blogs on a weekly bases, but I have noticed everyone has gone quiet this year as I guess they are very busy working. One inparticular I follow is Pencil Dreams by Steve Hearn who is an exceptional Caricature Artist and daily blogger( well worth a visit). The other day he posted a Banana-cature, which I thought was neat so I had a go myself on a Pear? not just any old pear though, this one was grown by myself. Although I have quite a small garden I love the thought of growing my own fruit, and last year I invested in a pear tree only to get Pear drop and got none. This year I have looked after it and have a small crop of 13 pears, although they are a bit hard?

I have now put him in a brown paper bag to see if it softens and hopefully will taste nice?

Work wise I am still doing Caricatures at Warwick Castle and  just for fun I have drawn the Jester (Barry- Nice guy) below a few times but thought I would do him digitally. This is still a work in progress as I am still learning about backgrounds and Lettering in Photshop.

Time is up for now but  I do hope to be back soon.

Best Wishes.



Theme Park Examples

Had a problem last week adding Photos to the blog, but it all seems to be working at the moment so I will try and add last weeks now. Thought I would just put up a few Theme Park style caricatures which I tend to do while its not busy. I usually rough a pencil sketch on my board and leave it there for 1/2 an hour to try and entice someone to have one? Then I ink it in and leave for another 1/2 an Hour, then colour it in and again , you get the picture ! Not all the likenesses are that great as sometimes my reference is a bit obscure or just crap! I liked doing Ceelo Green at the bottom the best.

I have stopped using the Theme park paper as it is all different at each park and they get upset if I display the wrong park paper? so I am just using blank paper now so I can use them any where , although they get upset with that at a few?

Finally managed to get a caricature I drew of a fellow colleague at Chessington on here I think the file format was to big?

This was just a quick note and attempt to get some drawings on, so Bye for now.