Photo: My cartoon is due to reappear in the Church Times again next week. Yesterday I spent a few hours sitting in the CT / Hymns Ancient and Modern production department, mainly doing some drawing, but also discussing how the cartoon will appear in the paper. These are mock-ups of possible font positioning, colouring and size for the title. I’m thinking blue Gill Sans Light aligned right, but no final decision made. The plan is to drop the ‘Guide to the church’ label, thereby giving me a bit more scope to draw other things.

Posted by Dave at 10:31 am on January 19, 2013 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, Cartooning, Photographs.

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Photo: Tea (in black and white for added dramatic effect).

It has been suggested that I write a bit about cartooning and the details of how I do it. So here is tutorial No 1: Make yourself some tea.

My precise tea specifications: I currently drink caffeine-free redbush tea but I will now, after many months of not doing so, drink caffeinated varieties (Going decaf was a health-related experiment that has now been abandoned, though I still don’t drink coffee). No milk or sugar. It can be in a pot, which means you get several cups for your money, but this isn’t essential. A cup and saucer is OK, but I prefer a mug. Ideally one without too much of a pattern (though cartoon mugs are fine).

It may still be possible to draw cartoons if you don’t follow these precise instructions, but I can’t vouch for it working.

Posted by Dave at 12:17 pm on January 18, 2013 and filed under Cartooning, Cartooning tutorials.

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Photo: My Sempé books

Today has been one of those days when blogging time is minimal – a late train this morning followed by a full day at work in London. Punctuated, I should say, by a very pleasant lunch with colleagues during which I told one or two people what a boost to my spirits my blog commenters are.

There is a lot of work to be done at the moment with freelance jobs and restarting Church Times cartoons, which is a good thing, but there is quite a bit of pressure.

I’d quite like to sit down with a Sempé book (Google if you haven’t come across him), but I am off to a church group. I can’t really complain about that, as the group in question is a help to morale.

Thanks for listening.

Posted by Dave at 8:51 pm on January 17, 2013 and filed under Cartooning.

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…about blogging.

I started this daily blogging lark on a whim, and after two weeks I am still going, so I might as well carry on. I enjoy doing it, daily creativity is good for me, and there are some faithful readers who have said kind things leading me to think that they at least enjoy it too.

So, I have bought a book on the subject. The motive behind this is that it will give me some ideas to keep things fresh and interesting. I have been blogging for ten years, but there are always things to learn and new approaches to try. Also I had some book tokens to spend. Unfortunately the graphic centre in London (I won’t tell you its name) where I bought it doesn’t accept book tokens as they are not a book shop (fair enough). But I bought it anyway.

Having read a small portion of the volume on the train I am starting to come up with a list of topics that I should include as part of my daily blogging:

• Cartoons – finished ones, added to one of my sites
• Rough sketches from notebooks
• Fascinating developments – new things I am doing or have made, etc
• Links to other things on the internet I find generally interesting
• I am pondering some sort of cartooning ‘How to’. Unfortunately I don’t really know ‘how to’, but I plan to appear as if I do.
• Video. Well, why not?
• Photographs (when all else fails)

The problem I have found thus far is that I do not do, create or notice one sufficiently interesting thing every day. So further ideas would be welcomed. Is there anything else you’d like me to write / draw / talk about on the blog? Please do say. Thank you.

Posted by Dave at 8:15 pm on January 16, 2013 and filed under Blogging.

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This is the door to my room at Moorlands College, at the edge of the New Forest, Dorset. The date is approximately 1996*. This is where I first started cartooning, and this door was the place I stuck the drawings as I did them. I had done quite a lot of art up until that point, but this was a new thing that I tried for my own amusement and for those walking along the corridor, who formed a ready-made audience. It was more fun than the things I should have been doing – studying towards a degree in applied theology, which I never attained. There’s a lot more I could say about my time at Moorlands, and perhaps I will in another post.

Yes, that is a sunflower.

I may well dig out more photos in an attempt to keep this daily blogging habit going. Day 15 – that is somewhere in the region of half a month.

*Could well be 1997, thinking about it.

Posted by Dave at 10:16 pm on January 15, 2013 and filed under Cartooning, Photographs.

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This is a one minute sketch for a commission I am doing. Please excuse the geography, various missing seas, etc.

Christianity teaches us about loving our neighbours as ourselves. Who are our neighbours in this interconnected world which we have made for ourselves? I find, quite often, when in church, that in sermons and intercessions we rarely consider or take any interest in those beyond the Basildon borough council boundaries. Occasionally we might venture down the A127 and keep going until we get to Westminster, but that is about as far as it goes.

Yes, I know, I should volunteer to do sermons and intercessions myself if I think I could do them better.

Posted by Dave at 10:54 pm on January 14, 2013 and filed under Cartoons.

2 Comments

The photo above shows a knee and huge glove out cycling this afternoon. I am drawing attention to the fact I went out in very cold conditions today so as to appear more intrepid than I am. Note to self: buy new, warmer overshoes.

So, cycling cartoons. The site and associated Facebook and Twitter feeds have been very quiet, I realise. I have been attempting to find a way of making part of my living from it and some progress has been made, but I still haven’t quite managed to find the right company/organisation to pay me to draw a weekly or biweekly cartoon. I haven’t kept posting new cartoons as I don’t want to use up all of my material, but be assured that there, will, in time, be more cycling cartoons on their way.

On the plus side I have been working with one well-known bicycle-related company on a cartoon-based project, and there will be something to show for it in a few weeks time.

A cycling-related aside: If anyone is thinking of going to the London Bike Show next Saturday then do let me know. (I think we are going on Saturday, but not 100% sure yet…)

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Posted by Dave at 6:20 pm on January 13, 2013 and filed under Cycling, Photographs.

1 Comment

Notebook drawing, February 2012

I have all sorts of scribbles like this in all sorts of notebooks. This drawing is to do with the fact that although we are better connected than we have ever been, this often means we feel less connected than we have ever been. This will, I’m sure, be nonsensical to many – please ignore and continue with your activities.

Posted by Dave at 9:40 pm on January 12, 2013 and filed under Cartoons.

2 Comments

I’m pleased to be able to announce that I’m going to return to doing a weekly cartoon in the Church Times newspaper.

Hopefully I should start again in a week or two – quite possibly the 25 January. The plan is for the cartoons to cover a slightly broader range of subjects than they have until now, so although some will be on my usual ‘things that go on in churches’ theme there will also be some more topical ones too. That is the idea anyway.

I was in two minds about it, I must admit. Doing the weekly cartoons wasn’t doing me any good, and I thought, for various reasons, that the series might have run its course. But on the other hand there are people who do really enjoy them, and I think I might still have one or two things to say. And in any case I really can’t do anything else.

I’m going to need quite a lot of help if I’m to avoid collapsing into a miserable heap like last time. Talking to other human beings in actual real life is the main thing that helps my creativity, so I need to find new ways to do so. Perhaps meeting up with people individually or in a group for a chat, I don’t know. Though receiving ideas though electronic means helps too. Suggestions as to ways I can do this welcome.

Thanks to everyone reading this blog for your support.

Posted by Dave at 2:31 pm on January 11, 2013 and filed under CartoonChurch progress, Cartooning.

25 Comments

The church in Whitby has been in the news today because the graveyard has had a landslide. I thought I’d post a couple of photos taken there this summer – in particular the three-decker pulpit with associated ear trumpets. The photos below explain all.

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Posted by Dave at 11:09 pm on January 10, 2013 and filed under Church, Photographs.

2 Comments

These are the travel adaptors I won in the Hymns Ancient and Modern staff Christmas raffle. As you can see there is one adaptor, and then another adaptor with another adaptor. Thereby making a total of three adaptors.

My life was very limited before I had these adaptors. I very rarely visited Europe, India or parts of Brazil because I had no idea whether I would be able to plug my electrical devices in when I got there. On the rare occasions that I did visit Europe, India or parts of Brazil I certainly didn’t dare take more than one electrical device with me. But now I will be able to visit Europe, India or parts of Brazil freely, knowing that I will be able to use electrical devices without fear of incompatibility. Thank you Hymns Ancient and Modern!

Posted by Dave at 9:38 pm on January 9, 2013 and filed under Mundane, Photographs.

3 Comments

Notebook drawing, 2012. Apologies if I have posted this already.

Posted by Dave at 11:16 pm on January 8, 2013 and filed under Cartoons.

4 Comments