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Showing posts from July, 2011

FREEFALL

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HERE'S A CARTOON directly inspired by a dream I had early last week: sometimes I'm lucky enough to actually realize that I am actually dreaming : once you have the ability to do this, the next stage is to take control of the events within the dream: you can lunge off a skyscraper, for example, safe in the knowledge that you can't get hurt! Better still, you can even take to the skies like Superman, and savour the surges and sights from a bird's-eye-view. Sometimes these dreams are so exhilerating, they don't last long [maybe just a few minutes], but what a few minutes! Some people are lucky enough to dream like this every single night, but I'm lucky if I can get a proper dream like this once a year....I've joined a site for 'lucid dreamers' [the term for those who can control the events in their dreams] so here's hoping I can attain this 'power' more frequently. Today's cartoon is a depiction of events in the lucid dream I had early l

Extreme Close-Up Series [1]: KOONG KING

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TIME for a brand-new theme within the blog, mereckons, and what better for a nice change than a series of drawings of each character in [extreme] loving close-up..... Most comic strip artists will more than likely tell you that one of their favorite assignments is invariably a zoom-in on facial features, and this approach is certainly amongst my most enjoyable cartoon endeavors. Here we see cool ape character KOONG KING enjoying a bit of attention courtesy of sizzling cat-babe Veronica.  Yet another example of the never-ending potential served up within the cityscape backdrop:  more drawings utilizing this theme have already been started, and they will scattered thru-out the upcoming cartoon examples. A joy to work on, and hopefully this shows in the finished results....

Miscellanea II: that guy who resembles Charlie Chaplin

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An added extra chucked in today: last week I joined a forum detailing the delights of that 'jolly jape' known as World War 2, and I decided I needed a unique avatar related to that theme. I whipped up this one-off inking as a result, and it's been accepted, which strikes me as a bit unusual, as the rules and regulations on the forum itself are extremely tough and inflexible...don't get me wrong, it's a brilliant site with absolutely marvelous detail and data, but my first topic was dismissed rather huffily by the learned Administrators: What if Hitler had Atomic Bombs?! I thought it was a valid, sound poser of a question, but the topic was 'locked' the same day. My heartfelt belief that Auschwitz should have been bombed was also scorned upon, so I have cut back on my postings after only a week. Loads of people have been banned from this site, so how long I will last there, I don't know. Here's the cartoon I done anyway:   Back to Baby Boomer hopefull

Crass Consumerism

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The never-ending supply of useless, un-needed products foisted onto the General Public has never failed to amuse me: it all started in the USA in the 50s of course [at least in a BIG way] and the seemingly unlimited barrage of stuff we don't really need is constantly evolving, into ever more uneccessary, throw-away 'junk' that still manages to hypnotize the vast majority of the public........ myself included! I am just as bad as the next guy when it comes to cramming the house with useless knicknacks and paraphanalia: I'm slowly improving though, and this year has thankfully seen my most modest-ever excursions into buying needless goods, and I definitely feel a whole lot better for it.  Buying the latest 'must-have' goods and accessories  doesn't actually 'buy' happiness: the feeling of contentment is hollow, and short-lived, until the next 'fix' the following week. Still, it's this mentality that manages to keep society going, with peopl

miscellanea: FARMYARD FROLICS

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I AM TRYING OUT different cartoon directions since signing up with an illustration agency.  They advertise work for Greetings Cards artists, for example, so I have been submitting a few black-and-white line drawings on this score. You have to get in quick though, as many of these jobs are snapped up very quickly: some are gone before the ink on the test-cartoons is dry!  Nevertheless,  new opportunities come in every day, so the same designs can be resubmitted to seperate customers later on via personal e-mail: the cartoons will be new to different [potential] customers. I can't use the BABY BOOMER characters at this stage, as copyright has to be handed over in most cases......this represents a fine opportunity to try out different stuff however. I notice in the shops that the most successful designs are those deliberately kept simple, so I am taking a leaf out of this book...nothing ventured, and all that....... My good friend Peter Gray dabbles in the greetings card market, and h