Spent a long but rewarding day yesterday at the Winchester Discovery Centre helping children to cartoon doodle to tie in to WDC’s Jon Burgerman’s Brain Drain exhibition (if you’re not familiar with Burgerman, click here).

My aim was to share some cartooning skills and encourage some spontaneous drawing to result not in a specific finished scene but a sea of inter-weaving characters and objects. None of it is planned, you just start in one corner and get drawing - and see what appears.

The morning session was aimed at younger children (5-7) while the afternoon session for older kids (8-12). I’ll post some examples from each session in second, but meanwhile, here’s one I did prior to the day to show the attendees what I had in mind.

My big doodle ready for the sessions at Winchester Discovery Centre

Waterside Network Group meeting - 20.05.10

I can categorically confirm that these do not represent anyone present at the meeting. Honest.

OIS Full Governing Body meeting - 21.05.10

When I’m in a meeting I have an overwhelming desire to doodle. It’s not that I’ve switched off what’s going on around me - in fact, I find it helps my concentration to cartoon (insert medical explanation here). Usually it’s cartoons on the back on an envelope or meeting agenda, but it can be a sketch pad, napkin, beer mat… Pretty much whatever’s at hand. They’re not planned, they rather just appear in a jumbled mass of (typically) green pen. This was last night’s scribblings at a school governors’ meeting.

I’ll be taking part in two cartoon workshops in the coming weeks. First up I’ll be in Winchester on Thursday 3rd June at the Winchester Discovery Centre. As part of the John Burgerman exhibition I’ll be taking children on two half day sessions to help develop their cartoon doodling. More details here.

Then, on Saturday 5th June at 3pm I’ll be at the Ejectorseat Arts Festival in Palmerston Park in Southampton encouraging children (and adults if you fancy it) to get cartooning and be on hand to lend tips and advice. More information can be found here.

I’ll maybe see you there!

Spent today at Orchard Junior School taking part in their New Forest Day for Year 3. The day was divided into thirds with Sue Palma from the New Forest National Park undertaking map work, Suzy Moore from the New Forest Museum presenting New Forest artefacts, and then myself talking about local wildlife. The three classes were rotated amongst us, so we had over an hour with each. During my sessions we focused on the more unusual creatures of the forest, from muntjac to red-legged partridges, and then finished with a step-by-step drawing. Children’s knowledge of the immediate world around them can be patchy, and with the New Forest, literally, on their doorstep I was expecting a mixed level of awareness, but what was encouraging was that although they may only be able to name a handful of animals (I’m surprised at how many adults struggle to name 20), a deeper understanding of why we need to look after the forest was clearly present. Hats off to some amazing artwork, too.

Just a quick thanks to Hythe Primary for inviting me in on Monday. A flying visit of just two hours, with 45 children per hour, saw a whole host of Beaulieu the Hedgehog drawings, intelligent questions, and a fair bit of fun and laughter too, all at a rattling good pace. Thanks, all.

Just had an amazing time up in London for the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain’s 50th Birthday Bash in the company of fellow cartoonists, their partners and individuals closely associated with the art of cartooning. The club had hired the same pub, now re-named The Witness Box, that the inaugural meeting took place in 50 years ago on the 1st April. It sits just off of Fleet Street and was the natural destination for thirsty cartoonists working in the surrounding area at a time when much of the nation’s print output was emanating from a stone’s throw away.

Today Fleet Street is a very different place, and thanks to the digital revolution cartoonists are able to work pretty much where they please, so 2010’s membership is spread far and wide. That said, many were able to make the trip in and enjoy the fun, filling the Witness Box. We had a comedian, Geoff Whiting (and a brave man to stand-up and do a set in front of so many gag cartoonists), a huge prize draw of cartoon-related material, delicious grub, the most spectacular cake in the shape of the club badge, and were well looked after by Pam and her staff. Shame we can’t have another 50th party next year, really.

Recently I’ve been spending one lunchtime a week working with boys from a local infant school to help encourage their writing skills. On average, boys at this age are not as forward as girls at either reading or writing, so the initiative the school developed was to whet the boys’ appetites and ignite that creative spark. The first session involved me discussing how I go about writing, and the sorts of things they should be looking to add to their stories to make them interesting and exciting. They were encouraged to note down their ideas and thoughts in a rough drafts book, and soon everything from cowardly dragons to heroic ghosts were appearing on the pages. Initially the boys found it hard to break away from the ‘good’ ideas of those around them, so there was a degree of imitation through enthusiasm, but as the weeks have passed the boys have become more focused on their own tales and each have developed imaginative and rounded stories. One more session to go before Easter, so I’m looking forward to the results!

2010's Longdown Activity Farm Leaflet

I’m fortunate enough to get some pretty fun and interesting jobs come my way, and one of the most enjoyable recently has been completely redesigning Longdown Activity Farm’s tourism leaflet. Longdown Activity Farm is a superb hands-on experience in the New Forest, hugely popular with families and schools. Much of its appeal is due to the passionate enthusiasm of its owners and their understanding of why children simply love farm animals. To illustrate this, I proposed populating the leaflet with friendly animal cartoons, lots of colour and vibrancy, and an illustrated map to tie everything together. Traditionally the farm features two local children on the cover, but getting them to sit comfortably and pose with one of the farm’s animals was always a tricky proposition, so this was overcome by sitting them amongst a group shot of cartoon animals. I’m hugely pleased with the results, and I’m happy to report Longdown are too!

Fairisle Infants are on the edge of Southampton and comprise a lively and creative bunch of children and staff. The school were keen that I spend time with every class and had devised a timetable of half an hour slots for Years 1 and 2 and 15 minutes for Year R. Although this is a relatively tight timeframe, it allows for a punchier visit and (I hope) leaves the children keen to try out some creative writing or drawing of their own. I received some lovely praise from the children for the quick drawings of creatures made up of animals they called out, but the gem was a Year R boy who insisted I shook his hand and then said, “Now go home and practice so you can come back and draw us a rabbit tomorrow.” Brilliant.