I went to his wedding all those years ago and I’ve seen him quite often ever since. We shared ‘accommodation’ in Manchester at Art College. My memory of him in Manchester is him turning up on the first day in a black and white checked jacket and red trousers! I helped him and his new wife Eileen to move to Kent after our time in Manchester, I drove the truck carrying him and his belongings and furniture on the condition that we skirt the Centre of London This was years before the M25! As we approached Baker Street I turned to him … Continue reading What does 50 years of marriage do to a chap? Don’t ask me, ask him!

I’ve had some very pleasant responses to my recent series of drawings and was particularly gratified by a remark from my good friend Rosalind Forster who is a printmaker of note, who suggested that I offer some of them for sale on Artfinder. I explained that the colour versions are locked in digital netherland and exist only as digital files so far, unless I make them into prints and offer them, which I might! My intention at the outset was to try and replicate screen prints. I love screen prints, but have neither the aptitude or the funds to go down that … Continue reading Orkney Washing, where to from here?

This is in Scotland, and is the last of the ‘proper drawings’ for the time being. I hope you enjoyed them. I feel a need to do some more of this stuff, and take a break from cartoons. Most cartoonists can do more than draw cartoons. In fact, I’d say that all of them can do more than that. The ones I know are painters, sculptors, photographers, designers, graphic designers, website designers, typographers, art directors, animators, writers, teachers, jewellery makers and designers, cooks and bottle washers. But by far and away the most respectable of these skills is, to my mind, … Continue reading ‘Proper drawing 10’

Miserden in Gloucestershire. Closer to home. Continue reading ‘Proper drawing 8’

Near Sheffield, really! Continue reading ‘Proper drawing 7’

Same farmhouse and drawing as yesterday, different weather outlook. Continue reading ‘Proper drawing 6’

Farmhouse Scotland, looks like rain. Continue reading ‘Proper drawing 5’

Same drawing as yesterday, different mood. Continue reading ‘Proper drawing 4’

Near Stonehaven in the East of Scotland. Continue reading ‘Proper drawing 3’

This is in the Orkneys on the way to the Old Man of Hoy. A version that is unfinished, as if any drawing is finished! Continue reading ‘Proper drawings 2’

I heard my dear Aunty Anne tell someone this when I was making a decent living as a cartoonist. She meant well, but considered cartoons less seriously than ‘proper drawings’, which is just as well as they were not to be taken seriously. In fact they were meant to be laughable. It also ignored that fact that there was no way on earth that I could have made a living from what might be termed ‘proper drawings’. I suspect also that she might have thought that cartoons were not terribly respectable, which she was. I doubt that she would have … Continue reading “He can do ‘proper drawings’ too you know”