The Forty-First Doodle (sort of...)

Oh Wuss 'n Boots, how I love you so. 

For those of you who don't know, I have been drawing Wuss 'n Boots since 1998. So, what, 14 years. Since I was 11. Mental.

I know some people know what it's like to be completely dedicated to one thing for so long from a young age; sports men and woman, musicians, other artists. But even I am baffled when I see it written down. I have been drawing these characters since I was 11. That's one hell of a long time.

Of course, they have developed and changed dramatically over the years. But what surprises me when I think about it is the fact that their personalities have rung true for so very long. Yes, there have been moments of shock in behaviour (oh my, I'm talking about them as if they're real) but in essence, they still behave the same as they did when I was 11, 16, 21. They have come and gone as I have grown up, but they are always there, sat in the back of my head. Funny stuff happens and I am instantly converting it into a cartoon in my head. How would the boys react to this? What would they say.

Mental right?

Perhaps I see little change because, when you get down to it, they are each one half of me. And noticing change in yourself is tricky. Boots is sarcastic, sometimes withdrawn, a little proud. Wuss is silly, imaginative, thoughtful. Sometimes I feel like every reaction I have is not mine, but theirs.

Mind you, neither of them can draw to save their lives.

So this here Wuss 'n Boots desk was made as a gift for my fab baby niece. If you are interested (even if you're not, I'm saying it anyway) it was done with acrylics on wood, and took 2 days all in all. See how clever I am, do I get a lolly?

I love that, while the boys can be very sarcastic or a little cruel in their humour and observations at times (yes, blame me for that too), they can also be all about joy. Just pure, unadulterated joy. 'Cause what's wrong with that ey?  

The Fortieth Doodle

If this makes no sense to you, please refer thine eyes to doodle number Thirty Seven. 

I recently took a commission to draw out a card style king and queen tattoo, which I then turned into an illustration too. I actually had so much fun with it, I thought 'Oh buggar, I want to do all four suits now. Damn.' (I mainly thought damn because things are so mad busy at the minute, and I'm just giving myself even more work to do! I am a tit.)

So here's the line drawings of all four suites, spades, diamonds, clubs and hearts. They are obviously all quite similar, yet I strived to make sure each face had it's own characterisation, each outfit had it's own quirks. I look at loads of examples of old card designs, and sort of amalgamated all the aspects I liked into my drawings. 

I cannot wait to get a chance to finish them all off. As a set, they are going to look SICK.

The Thirty Ninth Doodle

Oh Wuss 'n Boots. How I love you so.

It's been a while since I've done much with these marvellous boys, I'm sure every illustrator and artist gets the same. Things come in cycles sometimes, and something you don't do anything with for ages can suddenly explode out again from nowhere. 

This is a photo of a golf commission I took, and I really did have a lot of fun with it. I had to come up with 4 humourous golf themed drawings with captions which were then to be printed and used as gifts for each member of the golf club. And apparently they went down a storm!

Those golfers obviously had well good taste.

I'm now thinking of expanding them from 4 cartoons to 12, into a proper set of funny golf themed drawings. I think other people would really like them too!

The Thirty Eighth Olympics Doodle

So I had to go there. The Olympics was just, quite simply, wonderful. I do confess, as a Londoner myself I was quite worried beforehand; worried about travel issues trying to get to work, the city getting horrendously busy, all those sorts of things. But in the end, London did incredibly well. And I was lucky enough to go to see the athletics, and the atmosphere was amazing! Everyone was chatting and having a laugh together, didn't matter where they were from or who they were supporting, who was winning and who wasn't. 

FYI I am yet to see this sort of friendly attitude at football matches in the UK.

You know us Brits though, we love a loser. The races I saw had a few runners who seemed to suffer injury so they fell very far behind, but the crowd cheered them on all the way round. It was just fab.

Yeahhhhhh team GB :-D

So I'm working on a wee tribute to our amazing athletes and our amazing city, the whole of the UK. Aren't we marvellous. Keep your eyes peeled for more soon!

The Thirty Seventh Doodle...well, sort of

So this is pretty funky. Seeing one of your doodles being tattooed on to someone. It still delights me when someone sees something I have done, and they think 'Yeh, that's awesome, I'm gonna get that inked on to me for the rest of my life'. 

Hardcore. No pressure then.

So this was my line drawing that was commissioned. The dude wanted a card style king and queen, but he didn't want the suit or an outline, which I agreed with, makes it seem a bit too stiff like that. He brought me a few examples but they were pretty shoddy, so I did some doodles and here was my result.

I have to admit I was so chuffed when I saw the final thing, it's very hard to know how your work will translate onto someone's skin! Though obviously this very careful line work is generally not my thing, so here it is again as a full on illustration in my very distinctive style-

A really good project I had a  lot of fun with!