Text and Pencils

Clip Studio Paint on iPad Pro
Drawing in Clip Studio Paint on my iPad Pro.

I’ve been wanting to write one of my Dalesman Wild Yorkshire nature diaries about Bilberry Wood for a while. I’ve taken plenty of photographs of the trees, mosses, ferns and wild flowers and read up about the history of woodland in the Dales but I’ve struggled not to make my regular style of article sound like a botanical survey. Which it is, I guess.

Pencil rough drawn in Clip Studio Paint on my iPad Pro
Pencil rough drawn in Clip Studio Paint on my iPad Pro.

As an experiment, I’m trying a comic format, putting myself into the picture instead to get over a sense of how much fun it is to yomp through a sometimes rather boggy Dales wood, instead of going for the detached all seeing, all knowing narrator that I’d normally aim to pass myself off as in a magazine article.

rough of page
Starting inking and dividing the page into frames.

Dry Leaves

dry leaves
Drawn in Clip Studio Paint on my iPad Pro

After drawing so many cartoons, I wanted to draw from life for a change, so I picked up a few dry leaves which had blown into the corner by the front door.

A Walk in the Woods

My first attempt at animation using Adobe Fresco. The man’s walk consists of 8 individual frames and his progress across the screen follows a path added to the man’s layer in the animation.

Spoon Talk

cartoon

When this year’s live performance children’s Nativity play at the local church proved impractical, my sister Linda devised a cast of fourteen wooden spoon puppet characters: angels, shepherds, Mary & Joseph, the Three Wise Men and, rather stealing the show, two officious Roman soldiers with punkish plumes.

Despite the on-stage shenanigans, the Romans, angels and shepherds proved to be the best of friends at the after show party.

In fact the entire cast is getting together again for a scaled down private performance at a family Christmas party.

Advent/Birthday Card

As Ralph has his birthday on the run-up to Christmas, I’ve gone for a combined advent/birthday card this year.

Surprises include, in box no. 4, my copy of a Beano-inspired portrait of Ralph’s mum, Abby, drawn by his sister Ivy.

birthday card

The traditional Selfridges hamper was a Christmas box from work for Ralph’s dad, James. Since the family moved a year ago, Ralph has developed a habit of trying out boxes for size, a human jack-in-a-box.

Ralph opens his card
Ralph checks out the card with Leo and Ivy.
Ralph
He liked his card
cartoon characters
Published
Categorized as Drawing

Archer Hill

As we walked across the deer park at Wentworth Castle, two fallow bucks looked up then decided we were harmless and went on grazing as we passed them. The does and fawns were more wary. One made a show by ‘stotting’: prancing off stiff-legged, alternately putting the two front legs, then the two back legs down. This behaviour is thought to be a signal to predators that the deer is so fit, with its fancy footwork, that it won’t be worth the trouble of attempting to catch it.

Archer Hill Gate (all three arches of it: I’ve framed it with the tree to show only one of them) stands half way up the slope between Wentworth Castle, a Georgian mansion, and the ruins of Stainborough Castle.

Drawn at Diana’s

sketches of mugs, vases, lamp and clock

Drawn at Diana’s this afternoon, sadly P.C. the black cat is no longer with us, as I usually drew him when we visited.

Babylon

cartoon mouse

Some of my Night before Christmas mice have been drafted in for a comic strip version of the nursery rhyme How many miles to Babylon?

mouse hiker cartoon

Although first published in 1801, it’s possible that the rhyme originated in the 1600s as a Scottish Border folksong.

How many miles to Babylon cartoon

Scottish Borders is the setting I’m going for.