Category: cartoon

Voles

Voles cartoon

Voles with impeccable taste for [milk tanker driver] Wayne’s birthday card.
Other dairy products from international farmers’ cooperatives are available but we’re with the voles, we like Arla.

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The Ultimate Chicken Superheroes

Chicken Superheroes

I’ve finally had time this weekend to settle down and hatch out the final version of my Chicken Superheroes commission.

Chicken Superheroes, pen and ink

To get a crisp black and white drawing, I drew on Bristol Board, on Daler Rowney, A3 250 gsm. I was going to use a dip pen but the first time that I loaded up the nib with Nan-King Indian Ink, it dropped ink blots on the paper, which luckily was my roughs notebook, not the final artwork.

lightbox

I brought my various roughs together in Photoshop, added lettering in InDesign and printed out a full size version on two sheets of A4, then traced over this onto the Bristol Board, which despite the name is more like a thick cartridge paper. I made a few changes to poses and accessories along the way.

colour swatch

It’s a tradition for superheroes traditionally wear primary colours, partly because of the limitations of colour printing on the poor quality paper that was used for American comics in the 1940s and 50s. I needed yellow for the lettering and red for the wattles and the mask that I’d decided to give each chicken, so I searched for ‘red and yellow colour scheme’ on Google and came up with these swatches that add two purples/violets to the mix.

Stations of the Metro

Stations of the Metro cartoon

Happy birthday to Richard, who’s so lucky to have such interesting Metro stations around him in Paris. We have to make do with Finsbury Park, Mornington Crescent and Crouch End. But Harry Hill, the I’m Sorry, I haven’t a Clue team and Edgar Wright/Simon Pegg have made the most of those three, although Crouch End was a fictional tube station, featuring in Shaun of the Dead.

Chicken Heroes

chicken roughs

It can be a hard life, being a cartoonist, sitting in the corner of the Capri brainstorming chicken superheroes for Marvel (no, not that Marvel, these are for a chicken-mad superhero fan of the same name).

Attila the Hen

So, lets get them in order this time, in the order they come in the name ‘Marvel’. First up (after RedCap the rooster, haven’t drawn him yet) is Attila the Hen. Could be related to a Marvel superhero who is handy with an axe.

more chickens

Next, meet Vorwerk and E.N.

LegHorn the superchicken

And finally LegHorn, the superchicken, and doesn’t he know it. Colour scheme taken from a Leghorn cockerel.

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Chicken Superheroes

chicken spuperheroes
You know what they say, never work with children or chickens. ‘En and Vorwerk were standing in the wrong positions for this group photo. There goes any chance of a Marvel franchise. Perhaps DC Comics would be interested in the film rights . . .

With a few memorable exceptions, the chickens I have known have been remarkably relaxed, contentedly clucking to themselves, but supposing chickens had another secret life and had to use their superpowers to save the planet (yes, superpowers to save the planet, not superglue).

Morehen

First out of their secret high tech hideout, MoreHen, a muscle-bound hunk of a hen.

Vegan Cookery Cruise

Happy birthday to our seafaring niece Karen.

Rob meets Popeye

I went for a pen and fingerprint technique – using a rubber stamp. Perhaps that’s why Rob looks like a startled vicar.

Popeye

As is often the case I think my rough of the Karen character looks more spontaneous than the final version.

Cartoon Karen rough

I went for a spinach-coloured apron in the final version but I think that the wine red and smoked paprika ensemble would really suit Karen.

Just a shame that we haven’t been able to bake her a Torta di Spinaci to celebrate.