The Last stage 45 minutes later in two parts..Snowy Owl

Made the sky more red and grey..added water to the Owl which looses some details..



Then the last 15 minutes I add my pencils back to the drawing..then sign it..

I'm pleased with my choice of colours for the sky..good reds and greys..so pleased with the results..
So that is my process to draw a water colour pencil animal drawing and how long it takes....

The next Hour in two parts..Snowy Owl

I must admit it has been hard to show the workings of a drawing every half hour..
At this stage I've put masking fluid all round the Owl and quickly drawn in watercolour pencils the sunset sky and then added a wet brush..
As you can see the sunset was a bit faded and the trees weren't quite right..not dramatic enough,,




Next Half Hour I've done some more red yellow blue black penciling for the sky and it is looking better..the trees are now more in the background and faded..taken the masking fluid off which always rips the picture:( But I'll touch that up with drawing and shading in the next Half Hour also the Owl needs a wet brush next..
I also might make the top of the picture a bit darker..and add more yellow to the sky..

Half hour drawing see it develop..The Snowy Owl

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3788&start=30
See the first Half hour of my drawing at the link..Seeing John Stokes Marney the fox with a beautiful drawn owl inspired me to draw one myself..
I thought I would show the progress in short spots...As you can see I do draw quickly..



1 Hour
I've made the face wider and moved the leg more back to push it forward more..
The Owl in my photo does have longer wings then I've drawn But I feel in art you can emphasise what you feel is more important for me its the face..But every artist is different..



1 Hour and 1/2

I've adjusted the wing to make it longer and started on the other wing..still debating what kind of background to do and whether to do it in colour..I sure do love the yellow eyes Snowy Owls have..

My Cards are on sell outside Kim's Bookshop Chichester..

My animal drawn cards are now being sold outside Kim's Bookshop in Chichester.
28 South Street
Chichester

Which is a big break for me..now all they have to do is sell them to be paid..:)

I am a regular customer there being a collector of old comic annuals..

On my main website (www.pgcartoons.co.uk)I'll be shortly adding paypal to my animal cards so you can buy them online for £2 each..postage free.

http://www.kimsbookshop.co.uk/

Buster's Big Chief Pow Wow by Leo Baxendale

Buster 19th July 1969


Buster 3rd May 1969
I like the large lettering effects..


I must of missed this Leo Baxendale strip so here it is..
it gives a good idea if Leo was still drawing The Beano's Little Plum into the late 60's what it would look like...very good..

http://www.bustercomic.co.uk/bigchief.html

My Poster cartoons when I was young..1986-87

These last two were inspired by a Beezer annual 1983..

I was born in 1974..so you can work out the age I did these..:)
Was very inspired by early 1970's Beano comic annual covers which were painted loved the 1972..and when the best of Beezer came out with those amazing Banana Bunch poster pages by Leo Baxendale..also my Dad who did busy picture cartoon scenes..

This all lead to my creation The Giggle Gang..which I'll put up next time..

Robert MacGillivray comic work..

A wonderful, truly original strip. Anybody who thinks that Doctor Who's police box is the ultimate in weird conveyances has obviously never seen this series!

- Phil Rushton

Returning to the amazing Mr. MacGillivray, here's the first episode of the very sinister 'Balloon of Doom' - surely one of the most disturbing children's stories ever to appear in a comic - or anywhere else for that matter!

...Brrrr!!! In my humble opinion that balloon exudes malevolence to a degree that makes Voldemort look like Harry Potter's kindly old uncle!

- Phil Rushton

Here to begin with, then, is the very first episode of the aforementioned 'Belle of the Ball' from 15th September 1979, showing how Belle Brown's ball first gained its amazing properties....Phil Rushton

Yet more MacGillivray weirdness - this time from the issue of Bunty dated September 19th, 1981: a kind of 'Honey I Shrunk the Kids!' in reverse'. No doubt it would have appealed to plenty of little girls who suffered from overly bossy mothers - especially if they also had an especial fondness for playing with dolls! Phil Rushton

See the whole stories at the comicsuk forum link..

Fairly certain the artist is Robert MacGillivray who did a great deal of work for both Thomson's and Fleetway. He was working for Thomson's as early as the 1930's eg 'The Tickler Twins in Wonderland' (Magic). One of his longest running strips was
'Lucky's Living Doll' in School Friend / June & School Friend. Kashgar

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=127&t=3779

Topper late 50's..

Bill Holroyd (thanks to Kashgar for info) Topper July 5th 1958

To answer Gerald's comment on Peter's blog, 'Back to Zero' was actually a sequel to the 1957 serial 'In the Kingdom of Zero' which was reprinted in 1967. In this case Ken Hunter was the original artist. Thanks to - Phil Rushton

These two are from The Topper 22nd June 1957



Ken Hunter









The Topper 24th Jan 1959

Hi Peter,

The 'Wakey Wakey' feature was drawn by Jimmy Thompson a fine cartoonist/caricaturist.
Thanks Kashgar

The Topper July 5th 1958

Bill Holroyd's slapstick fun..this is 1958 when chimps were getting ready to be sent up into space for tests..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham_the_Chimp

Ham the Chimp was the first..
He was purchased by the United States Air Force and brought to Holloman Air Force Base in 1959

Malcolm Judge's The Numskulls The Beezer 31st March 1962

This is a very early Numskulls probably the second one?

Its interesting the page layout of an upside down L surrounding Dudley D Watkin's Ginger. In 1962 Beezer there was a lot of pages with more than one character strip to give even better value for money. The problem with this layout is it seems to restrict the artist..the Head closeup is always shown to the right. Its also hard to vary the size of the panel.

Its funny seeing the Numskulls actually causing harm to the man on purpose!
Malcolm Judge also drew The Bad Lads for The Beezer.
Billy Whizz and Ball Boy for The Beano from the beginning to 1989 when he died.

'widescreen' comics: original-format BEEZER and TOPPER

'The Gobbles' (which I remember as being surprisingly similar to Reg Parlett's 'The Crows' in Valiant ). As I've still got that issue to hand here's Leo's other page from the same copy of The Beezer, including a 'Banana Bunch' story which actually takes its theme for that week from the vultures' cactus home.

loved the way that Beezer and Topper used to make sure you got your fourpenceworth by filling up every spare corner of their oversized pages with different marginal features like this (though the adventure stories made full use of the extra space). They may have only had twelve pages to play with but I can clearly remember feeling that the contents of a Beezer (preferably combined with a bag of sweets) could be relied upon to keep me happy for hours on end! Especially if the package included a free gift as well!!

- Thanks Phil Rushton

Three Eggs in a Basket: artwork by RON SMITH/ 'TOPPER, 1966 Thanks to Spy see link for more gems from The Beezer and Topper..

To be honest I'd completely forgotten that Baxendale had drawn the first ten episodes of this strip. Here's the introductory installment from January 11th 1964 (no.417) which, though quite tame by his standards, is particularly intriguing in that it may well be the last new series he worked on for DC Thomson before jumping ship to create Wham! just a few months later: Thanks to Phil Rushton= philcom55

http://www.comicsuk.co.uk/Forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=3748&start=30
Well worth going to this link..Its always a pleasure to see Leo Baxendale comic characters which are new to me.

Spy my internet friend has started this at comicsuk forum..
It celebrates the joy of The Beezer and Topper when it was in a large format..to reading this large comic you had to lie them on the floor..hopeless on a windy day:). The colours and some of the visuals and drawing were so much better in this format. I loved seeing top comic artists like Leo Baxendale, Dudley D Watkins, George Martin, Ken Hunter, Ron Smith, Bill Ritchie etc.. in this format. You can see the panels really clearly and admire there penmanship up close and lovely colouring.

Lew Stringer's Pete's Pimple two greetings!..and Marc and the Creepers!

Buster and School Fun 1st December 1984
Artwork: Pete Dredge
Heres the Marc and the Creepers Lew mentioned in the comments of the previous post..
this is written by Mark Rogers..


Oink 5th March 1988
There seems to be two greetings in this strip..:)
A greeting to Kev O'Neill see link to see more info..

http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2009/02/kevin-oneill-early-days.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_O'Neill_(comics)

Its been fun rereading through my few Oink comics to find this..
I prefer this to Viz it doesn't quite cross over the line..But we all have different tastes..

Greeting messages in the background of a comic story..

(I always wondered who drew this strip.he also did his own lettering..)
As you can see on the third panel is the greeting..a fun way to send out a message on your favourite character..I'm sure readers wrote in what story they wanted the note to appear on..and what a lovely surprise it must of been..






They don't distract to much from the story and as long as the artist doesn't mind I think its a unique and fun idea..could it or should it be used today in comics..?
All images from Whizzer and Chips 2nd April 1983.