Category: cartoon

The Birds of Paris

Paris birds cartoon

The original Collins Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe included bird names in Dutch, French, German and Swedish. The rose-ringed parakeet didn’t get a mention in my 1967 edition. Since then its made itself at home in Paris and on just one occasion we watched a pair briefly visit our bird feeders.

Happy birthday to Antonin.

Dancing Brass

Dancing brass cartoon

Okay, so I struggled to draw the massed instruments of the Castletown Silver Band dancing at their annual rave. If AI is so clever, let’s see what it can do with the words ‘brass instruments dancing.’

Brass dance AI

I typed the words ‘brass instruments dancing’ into Adobe Express BETA version. Time taken to come up with eight finished illustrations: 45 seconds. Some do look rather odd, but this one comes pretty close to what I had in mind.

But illustration is like music isn’t it? It’s the little imperfections that bring the performance to life! That’s what I’m telling myself 🙂

Adobe Express
Adobe Express

Happy birthday to Zoe. Keep on raving.

The Covenanters

Covenanters cartoon

Happy birthday to Dave, who recently found himself at the sharp end of a charge by the Covenanters. Admittedly they were armed only with traditional muskets and pikes but still a formidable fighting force if they’re hurtling towards you.

The Hospice Gardener

hospice staff cartoon

A final round-up of hospice staff for my project and the last one, the gardener, is my favourite, probably because I’ve had so many uniforms to draw. This is my third of fourth attempt at the gardener. Originally I had him wielding a chainsaw, which wasn’t really suitable for a group photograph, then I tried him with a pair of shears, which didn’t work because he then needed a little shrub to trim, which I didn’t have room for. The potted plant, garden fork and olive body warmer work fine for my hospice staff group.

The Hospice Team

hospice staff

I’m aiming for a fairly generic version of the hospice staff but inevitably the individual characters keep asserting themselves.