Artwork by the children of Wildground

Just finished the enormous task of photographing a couple of hundred paintings and drawings by the children of Wildground Infant School for their mural. Some were to cumbersome or crinkled for flatbed scanning, so had to be snapped instead. The image above is a tiny fraction!

Smiles all round as the project kicks off

Yesterday saw the beginning of a HUGE art project with Wildground Infant School on the edge of the New Forest. Their headteacher, Mrs Mullett, asked about me painting a mural on one of the hall’s walls, but after some discussion it became apparent that we could do something a little more …challenging. We identified an area that ran horizontally across the hall about a metre down from the ceiling that made an impressive space to set the artwork. However, it was too high to paint, and possibly too large as well, so I suggested we created something separately and look into getting it fitted onto the wall once completed.

This meant we didn’t have to do a conventional mural. We could get the children involved to contribute elements of the picture and I could build the artwork in Photoshop. The aim of the finished piece is that it will represent the area in which the children live, following the course of Southampton Water, and feature every single one of them amongst the landmarks.

So my visit yesterday was to ask the children to contribute their part to the artwork. They were all asked to produce a self portrait each, and then each class was given a specific task to draw aspects of different sections, such as boats for the water, local shops and New Forest animals.

There’s an enormous amount of work to do, so I plan to post updates now and then so the children can follow its progress. Better get started then…

It doesn't count that she's just disabled her firewall

Have just completed these two fire safety illustrations for St John Ambulance. They wanted this particular vector-drawn style, so I had a bit of fun knocking these up in Adobe Illustrator. They’re for training purposes where participants must spot the potential fire hazards.

Spot those warehouse fire hazards!

Me and some of my CCGB chums

I’m a member of the Cartoonist’s Club of Great Britain, and the club’s main aim is to be social with other cartoonists. I thought I’d do my bit by inviting them down my way and sharing some of the techniques I use when using Photoshop with my cartoons. I hired the community room of our local secondary school, Applemore Technology College, set up my iMac and Wacom, and went off to meet the attendees for lunch at the rather splendid Pilgrim on the edge of the New Forest.

Once we were fed and watered we settled down to look at, amongst other things, scanning to Bitmap, airbrushing colour, creating masks, drawing direct to the screen, using layers effectively, when to use RGB, and much more besides. It was certainly a two-way street with a few tips and shortcuts being thrown my way too. A good event, and considering our nationwide dispersal and it being a Monday, not a bad turn out either. Thanks to everyone who made the effort, and to Applemore for looking after us.

So who was that strange looking man mumbling into the microphone and awarding rosettes for fancy dress costumes in Whiteparish yesterday? Er, it was me. The carnival’s theme was children’s books, so I was invited along wearing my local author hat and had a rather splendid day to boot. There were some simply gorgeous costumes, from the Gruffalo to the Famous Five, and even one girl dressed as five (count ‘em) Harry Potter characters. It was tricky to decide the winners, but everyone was positive about the difficult decisions I had to make, with plenty of polite applause and smiles. After the judging and the parade I got to dish out envelopes of prizes (surprisingly satisfying), before announcing the fete’s opening and attending my own stall to sell my children’s books and draw cartoons. Thanks to everyone for being so immensely friendly and welcoming, and ensuring we had such an enjoyable time.

Father, daughter and book signing stall at Whiteparish fete

Went across to Portsmouth today to visit a lovely little school in the heart of Southsea - Southsea Infants. With the two Year 2 classes we looked at some cartooning basics to help prepare them for creating their own superhero character and, ultimately, their own cartoon strip. Love Girl, Goo Man and Super Squirrel were just a tiny handful of creations to explode onto their sketch book pages.

In the afternoon I was with Year 1 having fun with pirates. The children shared their knowledge of pirates with me so I could draw one (that was lots of fun) and then they had a go at drawing what their versions looked like. Some wonderfully inventive drawings followed, from a pirate covered head-to-toe in scars to a dandy of a captain displaying pink boots and long eyelashes. What was remarkable was the number of children who had memorised, step-by-step, what I’d drawn twenty minutes before and who then went on to reproduce it on paper. Shiver-me-timbers!

Thanks to Ros for sending me through some pics of yesterday’s arts festival event in Southampton’s Palmerston Park. In the end my stint felt a bit brief and it was a genuine shame we couldn’t have gone on for longer. We even had to turn away several families right at the end, but it seemed to be enjoyed by all those who took part. Particularly impressed with one lad who was determined to fit an A3’s worth of detail on to an A4 sheet! That boy has a future!

I'm the funny looking bloke in the hat

Me sharing some cartooning tips

They're big!

I’ve just this morning taken delivery of two roller banners! The idea is to use them when I’m doing school visits or workshops, or selling my children’s books, and they’ll get their first official airing this afternoon at Palmerston Park in Southampton at the arts festival where I’ll be helping children with their cartooning. Huge thanks to Stewart at Splash Display (find out more about him here - top fella!).

The afternoon session was completely sold out with over 20 children in the room aged between 8 and 12. We spent the first hour looking at techniques and ways to cartoon, with the emphasis on that really, there wasn’t a right or wrong way, just that you approach your drawing with confidence. We had a brief visit to the Burgerman exhibition upstairs and then it was back to the room and out with the boards. Each board is a little over A3 in size, so that’s a lot of space to cover, but because cartoon doodling is all about spontaneity it’s by no means impossible. We had a good mix of age and abilities in the room, with some more relaxed about letting go and drawing than others, but there wasn’t anybody who wailed about being unable to do it - everyone had a good go at it. I can’t fit every piece of work in here, so I asked my daughter - who falls in to this age group - to choose a few to share.

A lot of work gone into this one

There's a lot going on in there...

This session featured 5 to 7-year-olds, and due to it being 3 hours long a parent was asked to stay with their child (but they got to join in too). Over the last couple of years I’ve met some astounding children in this age group who draw utterly spontaneously, at speed, and with utter confidence, and it’s rather gob-smacking to watch. One particular boy in this session managed to complete two finished pieces followed by a string of additional doodles, meaning I was struggling to think up of new challenges for him. I hope for his sake he can cling on to this positive attitude with his work as he matures as he shows a lot of potential. And that’s not to say that the others didn’t do well, working steadily and thoughtfully throughout. Enclosed below are some of the results of the doodle session.

One of the mum's work

I love the mice on this one.

Millie was aiming for a Where's Wally scenario here.

This is one of my favourites of the day - check out the footballer!

Another mum's work - I think she surprised herself