Illustration Friday - Captain

The captain, or head honcho, of this army is none other than the Grand Old Duke (or god for short) of York.  His physique suggests that he feeds on a diet of soldiers rather than merely leading them.

Anyway, he's a very good argument in favour of socialism.

Wow! Doesn't time fly ...

And not just time, but here's a picture of some blackbirds flying:

 
This is also the chief explanation as to why it's been so quiet on here recently.  All my energies have been taken up with controlling characters like this:


Which at times has felt a bit like this:



And has been ...



... uphill all the way, and it's all the fault of:



But very soon, a dummy version of:



will be on its way to someone who will send it to someone else who might want to publish it.  

But I've got a couple more spreads to do first.

All good clean fun, but so consuming of time and little paint brushes.  And thanks to everyone who's been on here in the last month or so ... please don't go away!

This is how Falafel's doing, these days

Falafel's plumes are coming along very nicely;  they quickly turn into dreadlocks if I don't brush him every day, but otherwise he's very proud of them.  I hesitate to take photos of him, because he gets upset by the flash - I caught him mid-wash here, but he still doesn't look very happy about it.

Illustration Friday - Geeky

This is a doodle inspired by Leonard of Quirm, who features from time to time in the Discworld novels.  Actually, I suspect that Leonardo da Vinci bore more than a passing resemblance to Professor Braynstawm ...

Some of this would be funny if it wasn't true.

I've just been reflecting on the craziness and absurdity of recent events ... imagine being the traffic warden who towed away the car packed with explosives because it was illegally parked.  Poor guy - I wouldn't like to be having his nightmares - but if this incident had happened in a Tom Sharpe novel it would have been hilarious.  To me, it has the same absurd quality as the condemnation of the shooting of Juan Carlos di Menezes on the grounds of Health and Safety legislation.

I see that 'The Satanic Verses' has recently hit the headlines again.  I'm not qualified to judge whether Rushdie should have been knighted on literary grounds.  I will say, though, that I am the only person I know who has read 'The Satanic Verses' from cover to cover.  When it was first published I was so effronted by the demands made by (a few) Muslims that I wrote to the then Home Secretary about the issue of free speech.  Then I read the book.  I have to say, it isn't an easy read, and it took some doing.  Never one to quit,  I ploughed on regardless.  

The supreme, supreme irony in all this is that the main themes are the problems faced by migrant communities, and I ended up feeling very compassionate towards well, not only Muslims, but all immigrant communities to hit these shores.  I certainly hadn't anticipated this!!!

The point is that any controversy is not about the book - very few people seem to have read it, and many of the people involved in the riots of the 1980's were illiterate anyway -but more about the clash of two value systems.  And while both sides are 
convinced that they are 
right while the other is wrong - the clash will continue.

And look - Blugger was obviously starting to get bored with this post and has decided to do its 
own thing with the layout - just for fun!

Ignore no-mobile-phones notices at your peril; the coloured version.

This piece is actually for the Cheltenham Illustration Awards (thought I'd better make that clear, cos if I put CIA this may be misleading), and the brief was 'Cautionary Tales'.

Well, I finished the piece, scanned it and then tried unsuccessfully to print it out last night.  The printer obliged with the top 2" (approximately), and then printed out loads of gibberish, similar to those spam emails you get from Eastern Europe, on the next few sheets.  Until I removed all the remaining pieces of paper before it could get to them.

However, the noble printer obligingly obliged, this morning.  Then I heard there was a postal strike, so I ended up taking the stuff down to Cheltenham myself.  Problem is, once it gets into the postal system it could stay there for 30 years, for all I know, and there's no guarantee that this illustration would be relevant to future themes when it eventually gets there!

Though there is a lot going on here, and I dare say it could have tenuous links to all sorts of things ...

Following on from the 'Cars' post ...

I heard on the news today that there are thousands of drivers out there, ostensibly with full licences, who are actually NOT QUALIFIED TO DRIVE.  This is because they have hired criminals to sit their tests for them.  Some of these criminals have taken 200 tests, impersonating someone else;  apparently one of the reasons for this scam is that lessons and tests are so expensive these days  that it's actually much cheaper to hire someone to do the test for you.

I have several reactions to this.  Firstly, there are drivers out there with totally bona fide licences who are B****Y dangerous, and shouldn't be let loose near anything with more than one wheel.

Secondly, I am filled with admiration for the criminals.  All the blood, sweat and tears which went into me passing one test (I'm not telling you how many goes it took.  Suffice to say it took more than one.  And if you're supposed to have one driving lesson for every year of your age, I'd have been drawing my pension for years and years.)  But these people have passed 200!!!!! I think that's something of an achievement in itself.

Anyway, I expect some of these characters feature in my illustration below ...