..right, lets take this seriously....

The thing I have always struggled with is ideas.  To be  a cartoonist being able to draw a funny looking person or thing is only part of the equation, and is probably the least important element.  The main thing is the idea, without a funny idea a cartoon is nothing.  A genuinely good idea, a funny line will survive a pretty scrappy, sketchy, stick-man drawing.  There are plenty of cartoonists who have built a career with very simplistic, naïve or scribbly drawings, by ensuring the ideas behind them are genuinely funny. By contrast the most fantastic, detailed, beautifully crafted cartoon will mean nothing if it is not funny.  I really admire those cartoonists that can turn in a genuinely funny gag with a beautifully crafted picture.  One of my favourites in this line is Mike Williams, who consistently produces cartoons that you'd be happy to hang on any wall, whether they were funny or not, but the bonus is they are invariably very funny indeed.  My personal favourite is this one:

 

...any way, back to where I started, getting these 'killer' ideas is the really tricky bit (in fact for me, getting any ideas at all is a bit of a problem).  But whilst browsing round the local 'Oxfam' book shop I came across a book, entitled 'cartoon workshop: How to create humour'- which seemed to be the answer.  Its not a book about how to draw cartoons, I have shelf full of those, but about how to generate funny ideas.  So I invested my £2.49 and I plan to work my way through it and see if it works.  as a bonus it contains some really funny examples of cartoons including some classic Mike Williams - result!

 

 

First post, and little bit about me.........

........I have always drawn pictures.  When I was a little boy I drew on any bit of paper I could find.  I remember that there was a paper shortage (it was the seventies, there was always a shortage of something...) and my brother told me I was responsible. Then I remember watching 'Blue Peter' (john Noakes/Peter Purvis era) and there was some young lad who drew cartoons.  They were so simple, but effective, that I thought "I could do that"..... so I started drawing cartoons. I used to draw whole comic books (but never showed them to anyone).  At school I would draw cartoons to amuse my mates, and swap them for badges and such. I got a couple of my cartoons published in comics and magazines, but I never actually thought that people might actually make money (or even a living out of drawing funny pictures). So I never really stuck at drawing and gradually stopped doing any regular drawing......

......until our two little girls arrived and I started to draw again to amuse them, and started to enjoy the act of creating funny little drawings.

So with a little bit of encouragement and a lot of assistance I've started this blog to get into a routine of producing sketches, drawings, cartoons and other bits and bobs and sharing them with the world.....

So here's the first.  Following a visit to the wonderful 'Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre' I did this Quentin Blake inspired sketch of the family.........