After yesterday's pic featuring the two Labs towing a chap in a boat, I thought I'd post this one of another Lab watching his dinner being consuming by the household cat.
Time for a change from the fishing cats that have featured during the last three days. However, I will be staying with a watery-theme with this pic of two Labs towing a chap in a boat.
Two more fishing cats
Here are two more from the Fishing Cats series. This time featuring waves interferring with the days fishing.
More fishing cats
Here are a couple more fishing cat cartoons. In the last post I showed the cats in anthropomorphic form, so today I thought I would show them on their usual four legs.
Whether you want your cats to look like regular cats, or if you'd like them to see them on two legs copying humans, I'm happy to draw them for you.
Drop me a mail and let's have a chat.
Fishing Cats
I did a book of fishing cartoons last year and have also drawn a couple of books featuring cats. The idea came to me to try putting the two together. As cats love fish and images of my cats pawing at the fish in pond came back to me, I thought why not have an entire book of cats fishing? I thought there might be some fun possibilities for new gags as well as modifying previous ones.
In the two pictures in this post the cats have been anthropomorphized, I'm not sure at the moment whether to stay with this format or to have them on their usual four legs, or even to have a mixture of the two.
Commission a Cartoon
Been searching for a cartoon?
Are you having problems finding a picture that's just right?
Althought there's a gazillion pics out there, sometimes you just can't quite find the one the exact one you need.
Maybe you have the image in your mind but no search result yields the one pic that's specific to you.
This is where I can help you.
Commission a cartoon and get exactly the picture you need.
Need an octopus holding a bunch of hydrangeas? - Done that.
How about a spaniel doing the Charleston? - No problem!
Perhaps there is an exact facial experssion you beed or some in-joke between you and your friend or loved one.
Even if you are not quite sure what you want, I can help by suggesting some ideas.
Contact me today and we can have a chat.
When I'm cleaning windows revisited
window cleaning cartoon, cleaning cartoon, rainy day cartoon
I'm not sure if this is working...
I did a couple of window cleaning cartoons previously and was trying to think of some alternate gag ideas. It's sometimes fun to try and think of a gag for situation that you don't often see in cartoon form.
I also used this picture as an opportunity to practice drawing rain.
I used a grey background and then air-brushed in the white and blue raindrops on top. I used a transparent layer while adding the rain so that I could easily adjust it as I went along.
Sign up below for monthly new cartoons.
Cheers!
Zebra code
Here's an old one that I've redrawn a number of times over the years.
For this latest version I've kept it in monchrome - the grass was green in the last one - as I feel it works better this way.
As the idea is such an obvious one for the taking, I'm sure that other people have used the same idea before. Nothing new under the sun after all.
For the latest monthly cartroons, please sign up for the newsletter below.
Cheers!
A drop too much...
Here's one I gave a wine-loving friend as a birthday picture last year.
Cheers!
The aardvark sat on the pomegranites
This one was also part of a recent 'The cat sat on the mat' series that I did for a newsletter.
It's always nice to go out there a bit...
The cat sat under the mat
This is a cartoon from a newsletter that I've been putting together recently around the theme of 'The cat sat on the mat'.
If you'd like to receive new cartoons sent directly to your inbox, please sign up below.
Rainy Season
It's rainy season here in Tokyo and then after that the heal heat of the summer cuts in. To be honest, I've never been really impressed with rainy season. Sure, there is some rain , but coming from a country that prides itself on it's rain, Britain, where talking about the weather is a national pastime, I do feel it's overratted somewhat in the Big Mikan.
Anyway, here are a couple of pics to match the theme.
The cat sat on the other cat's mat...
I came across this quote from John Le Carre, 'The cat sat on the mat is not a story. The cat sat on the other cat's mat is a story.' and thought that it was crying out to have a cartoon created about it.
I wonder what will happen next?
Maybe there will be a sequel...
Goat cartoons
My friend tipped me off that goats were becoming quite popular. I had a look through all my pictures and discovered that I'd only ever drawn one goat before, the image above, which was originally used for a Valentine-themed caroon book. The book never made it to publication...evidently it was a bit too cynical about the whole romance thing....
Goats have a reputation for butting things, and in this case it's a fishing cat. I did an earlier book of fishing cartoons, as well as several book featuring cats, so the idea suddenyl came to me of combining the two.
Cartoon Idea Generator - Think of alternative gag ideas for an existing picture.
For this post I’m going to look at an existing cartoon and see how it could lend itself to generating some new situations.
I am going to use a picture that I included in a book, ‘Fishing Girls’, last year.
I was starting to put some ideas together for a possible sequel and I thought I’d revisit the book and see if some of the cartoons could be used as a basis for some new gag ideas.
I got the idea for the pose above from a picture of someone sleeping on a subway train. I actually wondered whether it looked a bit too much like her left arm was suspended in space and whether it would be a good idea to have it instead propped on a branch or a bush, but decided to keep it anyway.
I liked the pic of the fisherwoman having a doze, oblivious to all the fishing swimming nearby, but started pondering what else could she be missing while slumbering away?
I started brainstorming different things that could wander into the frame or suddenly appear out of the water.
The idea of Nessie popped into my head, or at least a smaller version of her, swanning down the river with the only witness to her existence at that time and place off in the land of nod.
I next started thinking about things appearing from the river. Still with the idea of Nessie in my mind I thought of having some sort of monsters hand reaching out of the depths to steal away her catch.
While drawing this one I immediately thought of the idea of the hand bearing Excalibur reaching out of the river. I then thought that this might be more effective if she were awake and looking stunned.....or perhaps even more effective would have been to have the sword cutting the line.
Continuing this line of thought, but now started to veer off on a different tangent I started imagining someone having a sword fight with a sword fish. Which made me think of cartoon I drew a couple of years ago.
Anyway, back to the river bank...
And then started thinking about what else she could have been dreaming about, perhaps fishing in some more exotic locale? To make more of a contrast between her correct situation and the dream one I decided to make the current one more miserable by having a rainy setting. This time I also chose to alter her by making her a bit more weather proof, while keeping the same basic pose and background.
So try it out for yourself.
This could apply not just to pictures but any existing ideas. Take an old idea, revisit and see if you can reflect on it it a new way.
Joy cartoons
I have recently been working on a book with the working title of 'Joy', the idea being that all the cartoons within it would try to express joy in some form or other.
I think that the pug one above is just about the most joyful so far, although I think the labrador one below runs it close.
The previous pictures on this blog have all been sans borders, but I thought I'd present these two in the form that they will eventually appear in in the book. I do rather like the no border from as it seems to give the characters more space.
Spot the dog
I've always found Dalmatians to be very aesthetically pleasing and just plain fun to draw. The first time I really encountered one was many years ago when my friend Conrad was sharing a cottage with a woman called Lizzy and her Dalmatian. It sounded like something out of an Enid Blyton book, 'Conrad and Lizzy and Dilly the dog at Apple tree cottage'.
The picture below I first drew a few years ago. I've always liked the dog in the middle linking the two people together.
When I'm cleaning windows...
I was walking down the street and came across a couple of young guys setting up to do some window cleaning. They had all the gear laid out on the pavement - the ropes, buckets etc. I'm guessing that there was a good chance that they might have been climbers and cleaning high-rise windows was their way of supporting themselves. Anyway, it started me thinking about how could you reach up to do the windows if you were lacking the ropes or a ladder.
A music teacher contacted me about using the picture below for his college's journal. As far as I know he never got around to using it. I was really curious how a cartoon about window cleaning was going to fit in with the music. That's one of the pleasures of doing illustration work, I never know what I'm going to be asked to draw next.
The Maestro
A bit of a musical theme today. Is the cat yowling out of tune or is it the case that everyone else is out of tune with cats? Of course cats would say the later, as they couldn't possibly be doing something incorrectly...
I got the idea for the picture below a few years ago. I was pondering what a cat would be doing while Nipper (the HMV dog) was listening to the gramophone.
The Mad Cat
As this is the first blog post on the site, I thought it only appropriate that I introduce the 'Mad Cat' that gave me the idea for name of the site.
He originally appeared in the picture below.
I thought that he needed a madder colour, and at first I thought of making him a ginger tom, but then I thought that wasn't quite mad enough and red was far more suitable.
I'm sure that he'll keep popping up on the site from time to time.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the site and the forthcoming posts.