Towy---A New Speacialist Strip

I've produced specialist strips before.

Normally, when doing this kind of work, it is best to have more than a passing understanding of the subject matter in hand; ie: if you wish to do a cartoon about classic cars, it would be a good idea if you have either had a classic car, re-built one or at least attended classic car rallies as a genuine enthusiast.

That said, if your mind is as fertile as mine, and you are willing to research with diligence the subject of your choice, then any specialist strip is not completely beyond your grasp; one such case in point is the Towy strip below---a new strip that I am about to start touting around all the specialist horse and countryside magazines world wide.

Now I have never owned a horse and only ridden one briefly, and even then not very successfully---due largely to the fact that the saddle wasn't properly strapped on---and after a few short minutes in the saddle, neither was I.

Anyway, that was a long time ago and since that day I have had nothing to do with our equine friends---other than to admire them in fields as I pass by on my way from point A to point B via almost every other letter in the alphabet and a few stray Greek ones---but all that was to change when I met Jayne.

Jayne and the real Tywy

Jayne, put simply, is the love of my life and a horse loving fanatic. She has two horses of which one in Towy (or to give her her correct spelling Tywy---the Welsh spelling---I just changed it to Towy so it would be easier to read and definitely less confusing for all you none 'Welshies' out there).

Anyway, after spending much time with these two beautiful horses and their crazy owner, I began to see the comic possibilities in them, and a the gags began to write themselves.

Initially Towy was going to be a full page cartoon with no words, but after completing them I decided to re-do the lot only in the more traditional comic strip format. I did this as space is always at a premium and a big issue for editors, and if they liked the cartoon and were teetering upon the precipice of buying my strip, I didn't want 'space issues' to be the door by which they escaped from. I also changed Towy's colour from black to brown, simply because the horses expressions would've been too confusing if produced in black.

Towy then became the independent, free thinking, mind bending, vet hating, farrier flirting, none-fool suffering, free spirit she is now. She has an owner, although that is a laughable tag, as any horse person will tell you that when you own a horse, the last thing you are is their boss. At best you are their cook, masseur, exerciser, unpaid slave and producer of Polo Mints and other tasty treats; and Towy personifies all these traits and many more in my strip.

Anyway, without anymore preamble, I give you the six sample strips I will be sending out to any and every market available to Towy.

Enjoy

Okay, so on an extra note, and purely for your whole behind-the-scenes-insight-into-a-cartoonists-working-patterns-and-mind-set thing, here's a few of the full page, pantomime (techie word for 'silent strips') pages.

Annual Scribblings from the Past

Filler art for the Dandy Annual

Sometimes its just nice to share an indulgence, a labour of love.

Most of you who are regulars here, and have seen my portfolio page, will know that I used to work heavily for the children's comic market in the UK, and part of that gig was the regular annual work.

Over the years this would normally consist of longer comic stories, filler art or puzzle pages. But if you were really lucky you got asked to produce the frontispiece or end pages. These were large pieces of art that usually depicted a big scene or a silly situation.

I can say that over the years I was blessed with being asked to produce these 'honour' pictures quite a few times .

You always know when a commission turns into a labour of love. Its a magical moment, the clock stops, sounds of the outside world just melt away and all you have left is you, a piece of paper, pencil and pen and the hum from the computer. It's bliss.

The picture below was one such piece of art. I would have been paid the same amount for this picture whether I had produced a few characters running from one or two adults (which was the brief), or if I had gone over and above the call of artistic duty; which I eventually did. But once I started this picture I just didn't want to stop and I knew I was about to produce something above my game.

I loved the the way the size differential dynamic worked with the kid characters and the way the adults were clamouring over each other to get at the wayward children.

Without a doubt this has to be the singularly most pleasing piece of art I have ever produced for a comic and it has lead me into wanting to produce a lot more pieces for poster art and on larger and more varied themes.

But until that day comes---and you will be the first to see them here at Diary of a Cartoonist & Writer--- I thought I'd post this frontispiece and give you a taster of what is to come.

As usual if you want to study it in more detail---and I hope you do--- then click on the image once then click again.

Enjoy and cheers

If you like my blog and the things that I say and do, please tell your friends; mention me on Facebook, Twitter and any of the other fine social media networking sites you use. I would love to have my work reach a much larger audience and although I could no doubt eventually get there under my own steam, I'll get there a lot quicker with your help, so please, please spread the word.

Thank you

My First Children's Book Project

Seeing as its World Book Day, today, I thought it would be a perfect time to announce that I've just started a children's book. A book that was initially meant as a Christmas present for my grandson, Ryan, but is now going to be a birthday present instead. But the other good news is that I'm so happy with it I'll be offering it up for sale through LuLu.com

Some of you may know that I've been limbering up for a big Kindle launch on my novels--- and I'll be talking more about that as the glorious day approaches--- but for today I'm just happy to announce that my first children's book---written and illustrated by myself---will be due for publication, and therefore purchase, around the middle of next month.

Its going to be called Ryan's Dinosaur Dreams and will, through 22 vibrant, action filled full colour illustrations, depict what Ryan dreams about while he sleeps at night.

Ryan, my grandson, is absolutely obsessed with dinosaurs; he has every toy, model, video and book you can imagine. At the age of two he could name at least twenty species (I kid you not, we would all be left open mouthed as these highly complicated Latin names came tripping off his tongue), but could also tell the subtle difference between an Allosaurus and Tyrannosaurus Rex.

So when it came to writing a book for him there could only be one subject: Dinosaurs.

I've added my first illustration as an exclusive to you, my loyal readers, and will whet your appetite over the next few weeks by posting a few more; then when its all complete and uploaded to LuLu, you will be the first to know!

Page 12 from Ryan's Dinosaur Dreams

I'm hoping for it to be a 24 page book, size 7 x 9 inches (landscape) and retailing at around £8.99, although the price could change.

So with a regular weekly updates of my ever popular webcomic, Brabbles & Boggitt, plus news of my new children's book, Ryan's Dinosaur Dreams, tutorials, humorous tales, the introduction of my Kindle novels--- and short stories projects--- plus all my usual posts about what I'm working on and developing, you'd be crazy to go anywhere else for your insights into the mind of an oddball cartoonist and writer.

Don't forget to come back tomorrow for the next mad cap installment of Brabbles & Boggitt in the Goldilocks Affair

Cheers

If you like my blog and the things that I say and do, please tell your friends; mention me on Facebook, Twitter and any of the other fine social media networking sites you use. I would love to have my work reach a much larger audience and although I could no doubt eventually get there under my own steam, I'll get there a lot quicker with your help, so please, please spread the word.

Thank you

Brabbles & Boggitt Page 6

I must apologise for last weeks posting that reliably---or as it would turn out---unreliably informed you that this week would see Goldilocks...I got my pages wrong. NEXT WEEK will see the arrival of Goldilocks and all the trouble and skull-duggery she will eventually pour into our little heroes world.

Anyway, here's part 6, so enjoy and I'll see you next week for more

NEXT WEEK: Goldilocks...honest it is...oh, and the local constabulary.

If you like my blog and the things that I say and do, please tell your friends; mention me on Facebook, Twitter and any of the other fine social media networking sites you use. I would love to have my work reach a much larger audience and although I could no doubt eventually get there under my own steam, I'll get there a lot quicker with your help, so please, please spread the word.

Thank you

Another update

Just to let you know, I've posted a few more pieces of art to my Deviant Art page, but just in case you can't be bothered to go and visit it, I've made it easy and put them on the Portfolio page to.

Also as my 50th birthday rapidly approaches--- Jan 7th for all those who need to know---I still have plans to launch a new webcomic. Its not a definite, as my previous post will amply explain, but I've still not given up on the idea.

The probable reason why I want to pursue this project with such vigor is A: I've always wanted to produce my own comic strip as its been a dream of mine since about the age of seven and B: I'd like to mark my half centuary with something other than too much alcohol. And also for every birthday, from this point on, to be a double celebration.

The cartoon strip will be called 'Tales from 'Toonsville' (sample above) and is based largely on my observations on life. I will have regular characters that pop up from time to time; characters like: Granny Apple, the long suffering octogenarian, Bib, L'Enfant terrible, Damien, the archetypal child of Satan and bane of all those who come into contact with him and his ideas, Chairman Meow, the worlds unluckiest black cat, plus spoof send ups of all the latest movies, books, fads fashions and things old and ancient.

Brabbles

Boggitt

Also, as from this Friday 14th and every Friday afterwards, I will be running an entire graphic novel--- that I wrote and illustrated---  page by page, week by week. The story is from my Brabbles and Boggitt graphic novel. It's about two little misfits I created for the European market and sold  through my Dutch publisher--- primarily for children--- but which adults also enjoyed. 

The stories are set loosely around well known fairy tales but were given a modern day twist. For example, The little old lady who lived in a shoe who had so many children she didn't know what to do, became a big brother type story that had the subjects of the Land of Once Upon a Time voting the children out, one by one.

But this first tale is based loosely on Goldilocks and the three bears; more of which I will not say, I'll just let you enjoy. So come back Friday for the first installment; I'm looking forward to seeing you then!

Well that's that for now. Hope to see lots of you coming back and please, please, if you like what I do, tell your friends about it, post my articles on your Facebook, Twitter and Stumbleupon pages, plus any other sites you are a member of. 

The more people see what I do, the happier I will be and the happier I am, the more tutorials, crazy stories, free cartoons and oddball stuff I'll post here on my Diary of a cartoonist.

Cheers for now.

Trick or Treat

It's Hallowe'en folks and I've carved this pumpkin for you out of pen and ink... Am I good to you all or what.

My day has been a nightmare of local government form filling, and during the process of trawling through this linguistical quagmire, I came across a question which surpassed even the levels of mind blowing banality normally accredited to your average local government worker. On the form I had to answer a variety of questions like: if I was claiming for this or that, had I any properties abroad, did I have off shore accounts, was I a carer for an elderly person; what country did I live in (they sent me the form so I'm assuming someone wrote an address and licked a stamp), but the question that made me stop and stare with in open eyed incredulity; and with it take the award for the most obscure question on a questionnaire was this:
Do I now, or ave I ever suffered from CJD (Creuts Jakob Disease) and have I received a payment for it.

I mean, what has that got to do with housing? And at what point in their meeting on 'what to put on the form' did someone pipe up and say 'Oo, oo!! Better put the Creuts Jakob question in there.'
And all the other boneheads at County Council HQ actually agreed; not once did anyone say 'What the f**k are you jabbering on about.

So I put down 'no but I've known a few mad cows in my time' and left it at that.

My other reason for this post is to give you a viewing of the only other piece of art (besides the one that adorns the top of this post), that is remotely 'Hallowe'eny'. I did it a long time ago for the Dandy; it has Frankenstein, a monster, lightening and an evil genius...what more could you possibly want for Hallowe'en.

Have a good night, stock up on the sweeties and don't get into any conversations with overly hairy things.

By the way, if you are in need of books, DVD's, games, electrical goods and you're going to use Amazon to buy them, please click onto it through my site on the banner advert to your right; for every person that does I get a payment from Amazon, and if you order from that click then I get a commission on what you buy. It doesn't cost you a single penny extra but it does help fund this blog, enabling me to carry on giving you free cartoon advice and stories.

Please remember, every click you make helps me entertain you! Thank you

Colouring an editorial cartoon in Photoshop

If we go way back, and by way back I mean waaaaaay back, some of the more persistent members of my little coterie will remember that I published a post called how to draw an editorial cartoon and I seem to remember making some vague threat that I'd be posting another tutorial---probably the next week if I'm true to form---about how I colour it using Photoshop.

Well, the good news is, boys and girls, that week has finally arrived; I have completed it and here it is. Well, to be honest with you, I completed it a while ago; on the day I drew the cartoon to be absolutely accurate; but its taken me until now to find it---due to the fact that there's an awful lot of work on my hard drive and I can never remember what I name these damned things and so generally loose them to the ether within seconds of saving them. So in the grand tradition of all things of this nature, I found it yesterday while looking for something completely different...which, for the record, I didn't find.

Anyhoo, that's enough about me and my lackadaisical attitude to tidiness and tardiness. Lets get onto it shall we; lets get onto the second post, the one in which I show you my process in colouring an editorial cartoon in Photoshop.

1: First off I scan the cartoon into Photoshop, selecting Black and white and 300 dpi as its resolution. Once I've  previewed it I use the marque tool (the bounding box of broken lines that surrounds it), then I click scan.

2: Once the cartoon appears, I select the eraser tool (see highlighted) and start removing all the black dots and imperfections; making very sure that I don't rub out anything important to the finished cartoon.

3: Once the cartoon has been cleaned up its time to create layers. So first off I go to images+mode+greyscale. Then go through the same process again images+mode but this time select CMYK. (if the cartoon is purely for the net you can chose RGB---more about that later). 


Once you've completed that click on the 'new layer' tab (highlighted) and in the box that says 'Normal' change it to Multiply.

4: Next choose the'pencil' tool, select '1' as the ratio, and connect the broken lines. I do this because when I apply the 'paint bucket' tool, and if there are any gaps, the colour will flood out all over your mini masterpiece.

6: Now start filling in the picture with colours of your choice.

If you only want solid colours then your picture will soon be complete, but if, like me, you like to give your images a little more substance, then in the next part we see how I personally build up the colour layers with just a mouse and no tablet

7: First off select the colour you want to shade. In this case I chose the flesh tint. Once you've clicked on it with the 'magic wand tool' then un-tick the 'contiguous' box on the bar above. This will ensure that Photoshop now only recognises the areas that have flesh colour in it (or what ever colour you chose); in other words, if you accidentally went over the edge of the flesh area, the pen or air-brush tool wouldn't make a mess of any neighbouring colours.

7: If you don't want the dotted lines running around the perimeters of your selected colour, select Ctrl+H and they will stay hidden.

Now chose which direction the light is coming from and with the 'Pencil Tool' define the delineation  lines. Once that's done to all the areas of the colour you've selected, hit the shaded side of the lines with the 'Paint-Bucket' tool.

Once completed you must press Ctrl+D to make sure the 'Magic-Wand' tool has been deselected before moving onto your next colour.
Follow this process on until your cartoon is complete.

8: And that is pretty much it. The cartoon has been coloured, save it as a JPeg for the newspapers or what ever format is required, and name it. (that's when things normally go pear shaped and I lose the whole file)

On another note. If you wish to put your work up on the net and you upload it in CMYK, all the colours will look garish and horrible. So to avoid this happening you will have to re-save it as an RGB. That way when you put your masterpiece up on your Facebook or Twitter or any other social media site you have, it will look to others the way you intended it to look.

To make this happen, simply retrieve your CMYK cartoon from your documents then go to: Image+Mode+RGB---once this is done  re-save the cartoon. I normally do it by simply adding 'RGB' to the end of whatever it was originally called. And that's it. Your cartoon is now saved for print and the web.

Phew, well there you have it; how I paint a cartoon in Photoshop. If I have the time, the inclination or I can be bothered, I'll be doing a few more of these to show you how more complicated work is rendered.

Until then; happy double clicking and I'll see you all soon.

Cheers

Karl

By the way, if you are in need of books, DVD's, games, electrical goods and you're going to use Amazon to buy them, please click onto it through my site on the banner advert to your right; for every person that does I get a payment from Amazon, and if you order from that click then I get a commission on what you buy. It doesn't cost you a single penny extra but it does help fund this blog, enabling me to carry on giving you free cartoon advice and stories.

Please remember, every click you make helps me entertain you! Thank you

Acer and Kaos

Here's the latest in the Acer and Kaos comic strip that I've been asked to draw for the new children's comic, Comic Football which is written by the actual real life Acer and Kaos, two new up and coming British rappers.

The strip follows the open ended adventures of these dudes whose cool bubble keeps on getting blown by those traditionally seen as uncool.