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!

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!).

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!