Is that a criticism? Yes, it is usually. It assumes that it’s not worth its place on the wall if it seems a “bit cartooney”. I’m not sure where one draws the line, ‘scuse the pun, but being cartooney was a criticism all those years ago when I was in art school. It’s a favourite of up-themsleves-art -tutors. I found it also prevalent amongst some art directors and designers, and I naturally avoided them as much as possible. Fortunately, they were in the minority. Is there a retort to it. Perhaps: ” That’s a bit fine arty” might be one, … Continue reading Far too cartooney.

One is not supposed to like one’s own work and, in general, I don’t like my own drawings. This may be because I know I can do better. It’s a phrase that teachers always used to use on me all those years ago at school. ” Davies, you know you can do better”. There was a nub of truth and there still is. Or perhaps I’m suffering from “post school traumatic teacher disorder”. Whatever it is, it’s stayed with me. Now here’s a drawing that I should n’t like. Looks like a splodge to some. But I like it a lot. … Continue reading I should n’t like it but I do!

I’ve been a busy bee getting together a selection of artists who I’m happy to call friends and trying to make their work a little more available. I’ve had the joy of making a shopify  site for them, which has been remarkably straightforward. Above are small images from their larger pieces.You can see them all on the site by clicking just here. We are hoping that there will be a large selection of their work available soon. All you can see here will be available as prints, and will look good on any wall! Please take a look and let … Continue reading Looks good on the wall…

This one is about how to apply soft pastel to a line drawing. Or to be slightly more specific, my way of adding soft pastel. I’m sure that many artists use different methods, but I just like to get my fingers dirty. For the text for this one please hop over here. I’ll let the video do the talking!   Others in the series are right here: Continue reading Film clippie and dirty fingers

Another in the series of “Heritage Drawing Methods”. This one is quite simple and just about how I sometimes use chinagraph pencils over the top of linework. It’s very quick and can be quite effective. The line drawing done on layout paper is then glued to 300 gsm uncoated white board and then the half tome added. I then scan the drawing at 600dpi and the digital part of this work can go from there. This series is simply about getting it to that stage. Like all the drawings in this series this one is about Cotswold Wildlife and will … Continue reading China black!

The application of paint! The little video here shows this drawing without the half tone added here and before the paint has been applied here and there. So the version below is almost the final thingy. It’s one of my series on Cotswold Wildlife for Cotswold Life magazine and will appear there in due course. I’ve added the text so that you can hopefully see the sense of it. Once the line work is complete, then I generally add and amend with a bit of this paint, which will obliterate almost any marks. This and all my methods are not … Continue reading Complete white out?

      So here’s the drawing after it’s been mounted on to card and had some half-tone added.In this instance the half tones are soft pastel, though I do use chinagraph pencils sometimes. There will be a video about each of these. All the hand work is now done and it’s a digital file where it can be cleaned up and faffed with for evermore.For the techies around I scan at 600 dpi on a flat bed scanner but have sometimes been known to photograph larger drawings so that I don’t have to then stitch them together in photoshop. As … Continue reading Stick this one on!

Heritage Art Videos on the use of these sort of things and the resulting drawings.Every morning for the coming week, I suppose this is a trailer of sorts. Continue reading Coming this week…

I plan to post a small series of videos quite soon on how I get my drawings looking like they do. Here to give to a start is what I call my cartoonists kit. Not included here is the grey matter used to think of the drawings in the first place, you can’t buy that. This is just about everything that I use to get the drawing done. After it’s done it does go into my Apple mac for some judicious cooking. The joys of digital artwork mean that I can then fix what I think might be mistakes. The danger … Continue reading Coming soon, a series of the inner workings…

This is the first of a small series about how I do my own cartoons. For those of you who’d like it in black and white, here’s the plan. I scribble on layout paper, or any handy piece of paper, the first idea. If that works out ok, and I think the idea is worth taking further then I go over the first drawing on layout paper. If I think it still has legs then I redraw, again on layout paper. I don’t use pencils and stick to black Pentel Sign pens, pens I’ve been using for many years. They are … Continue reading Number 1: How did I get here?