Modern art is often a puzzle and sometimes I wonder if it is really art at all?

Above is a cartoon I did that represents this, it is a cartoon showing a guard looking after the 'invisible' painting, a modern piece that 'transcends art' on so many levels!

You see what I mean...!

Gag Cartoon

One from the archive about facebook.....

Facebook is still growing and developing and is turning out to be a social AND business network!

You can find me on there and why not add me as a friend!

Happy Children!

Children usually love to be drawn and I am often popular with the kids!

It is always great to see the kids smiling once they have their drawing!

Wedding Fairs

One way of meeting customers and talking with them about using caricatures as a form of entertainment for their wedding is to have a stand at a wedding fair.

Above you can see myself in action as I draw a young man at a recent wedding fair!

It is a great way to show what you can do and also make a booking with the customer!

Wedding fairs usually happen at the beginning of the year and also during the Autumn season.

International Society of Caricature Artists

Watch this very cool video all about the ISCA of which I am a member...

Logo design

I sometimes help people with their logo design requirements.

This is one I did recently for a friend of mine who is a wedding planner, she is working on redesigning her website and this has helped her with that work!

You can see her website by clicking here

Off on holiday, again!

Yes today we fly to Sri Lanka for a weeks vacation followed by a second week in the Maldives, which are located south west of Sri Lanka! Nice!

My wife and I are looking forward to our first visit in Sri Lanka and a chance to see the beauty of the country, meet the people and catch some time to see the Elephants there too!

GREAT Video's on drawing!

Yes, you MUST check out this YouTube video channel from Mark McDonnell:

Click here

Mark shares with us how he warms up with sketching and just watching Mark draw makes you want to pick up a pencil and sketch!

Tokyo

If you ever get the chance to visit Tokyo, then I highly recommend that you do! It is a wonderful country and very very beautiful.

The people are amazing, friendly and hold true to their culture and traditions.

Click here to visit a website that has more on the area where we have stayed a couple of times

The mix of modern life and the very old temples and traditions actually complement each other.

So treat yourself to a holiday of a lifetime and visit Japan!

Red Rock Canyon

Just outside of Las Vegas is Red Rock Canyon.

It is a place that is very worthwhile visiting.

The red rocks flow through the canyon and the geology is wonderful.

It is a national conservation area and there is a purpose built scenic route that takes you around the canyon in a one way direction. There is no problem with traffic and along the way there are stop/view off points to take in the beauty of this place!

Click here to see the website

Mort Drucker

This artist is a legend. Mort has influenced everyone I know in the world of caricature and he has played a huge part in my own development of drawing caricatures!

Mort has been drawing for MAD magazine since the dawn of time and if you pick up any copy of MAD magazine, there is every likelihood that his work will be in there!

Click here to visit the website showing his work and a video of Mort drawing!

Mort has this fantastic ability to draw in his own unique style and yet retain such a strong likeness to the subject he is drawing, so that when you first see his work, you would think it is more like a portrait, but then upon closer inspection you can appreciate the subtle flow of his line to produce caricatures and cartoons that have strong illustration aspects and are simply pure quality!

Mort is a true artistic legend

Bruce Blitz

Would you like to learn how to draw great cartoons?

Then visit Bruce Blitz's website where he will help you do just that!

Click here to visit Bruce's website

I first met Bruce back in 2002 in Las Vegas, where he was giving a presentation on cartooning. Bruce, in his presentation, showed everyone there a lot of very cool techniques to cartooning that I had never thought of before. I learned a lot that day!

Bruce is a really nice guy and always great fun to be around. Bruce used to be in a band way back in the 1970's and he is a very good piano & keyboard player to boot!

The guy is full of talent!

So make sure you visit his site and enjoy all thats there!

Save the Woodsman in Basildon

Please join the faceboook group to Save the Woodsman in Basildon.

Back in the middle to late 1990's a local artist & sculptor, Dave Chapple, created a sculpture of a woodsman out of oak and donated it to the Basildon, the town where I live. The Woodsman stood close by to the Council offices of the town and was enjoyed by thousands of people. Recently the Council removed the Woodsman from its display and relocated it over 4 miles away from the town centre, where it had been all this time.

Dave Chapple the artist very sadly passed away last November but his family are upset by what has happened and how Basildon Council have handled this matter.

The Facebook group about this in support of saving the woodsman from a terrible end, has attracted over 1600 members!

But we need more support and I would encourage you to visit the facebook site and join us in supporting our cause to have the woodsman put back into the town centre of Basildon.

Just type Save the Woodsman in the facebook search window and you will soon find the group

Please join as a member of the group and support our campaign!

Art in Basildon has been neglected by the current council's administration. We are working to change that!

We want ART to be appreciated and enjoyed by everyone in and around the areas of Basildon!

Thank you for your support!

Catch up...

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Had a nice day yesterday at the wedding fair and even though it was raining hard a good number of people turned up and I even secured a booking there on the day!

Catch up today, need to do a lot of work on this blog to get it ready for the coming few weeks as this time next week, my wife and I shall be making our way to the airport for our holiday!

I have recently updated my links list n my main website, why not take a look and see who and what I have listed there.....

www.drawn4u.com

Graphite Drawing

If you would like to know how to create some stunning graphite or pencil drawings, then visit Patrick McMichaels blog!

Patrick draws the most amazing and wonderful portraits in graphite/pencil and not only that, he also shows you how he does it!

So zoom over to Patrick's blog now!

Click here to visit Patrick's awesome blog!

How do you cope with your email?

Email is a great tool to communicate with. But the only problem as far as I can see is the dreaded 'Spam' mail.

There is so much of it. It falls into two types of Spam mail:

Type 1: Fishing - spam of this type is trying to make money out of you but in an illegal way. The spam mail will contain a link that if clicked upon, allows the spam sender to gain access to your computers files and potentially your passwords and any bank account details. Within this category there are also what I would call the 'Cold Callers', these are trying to sell you something but are rarely legitimate.

Type 2: Malicious - spam like these are dangerous as they are virus and maleware carrying emails. If activated by either opening and/or then clicking something within the spam mail, a virus can infect your computer. These are nasty as it will mean, should your computer get infected, going through the motions of getting your computer 'cleaned' and the virus/maleware removed. There are a few viruses that can never be removed and that then requires your computers hard drive to be 'wiped' and the computers operating system and software to be reloaded. A real awkward situation if you should ever find yourself unlucky enough to experience this.

Sadly Spam seems to be with us for as long as we can tell. All I can say is simply becareful when looking at your email inbox. You should have a 'Spam' folder that your email will direct suspicious emails too, but I find I still have to check that folder as some genuine emails are moved there by mistake.

Just do not open any emails your not sure about, delete them!

Busy report...

Hello everyone, yesterday I was drawing at Brunel University in West London, it was great fun and I was non stop from 11am till 4.15pm..!

This morning I had an early Dentist appointment and everything was fine, no work required thank goodness. I am like most people, I do not enjoy the Dentist but I have to say that my current Dentist is actually very good. I have been with him for 3 years now, we both go to the same Church, his technique is not as rough as some other Dentists I have been under! So going to visit him every six months for my check up is not as daunting as it used to be.

I have a busy weekend ahead, a Wedding to entertain at in Southampton tomorrow evening and then the Canvey Island Wedding fair on Sunday, where I have a stand and hope to drum up some more business!

The past few weeks I have been at wedding fairs and so far the response has been great and I have picked up a lot more work with some couples booking for their 2012 weddings! Now thats forward planning!

So I am wishing you all a great weekend and thank you as always for taking the time to read my blog.

I will of course be posting more art and keeping the posts running on a daily basis, so please do come back and revisit or follow my via the blogger/google app or add me in your RSS feed!

Thanks!

Live Wedding Caricatures

Below is a photo of yours truly drawing live at a wedding reception in May 2009. The wedding was held at Gaynes Park in Epping, Essex and everyone had a wonderful time, the venue and their staff were great!

The photograph was taken by the fantastic David Court, a very professional photographer and really nice guy! Thanks David!

You can visit Davids website by clicking here

As you can see from the photo, guests will sit for me while I draw them and others gather around to wait their turn and also enjoy all the fun of watching the caricatures being drawn! We have so much fun!

That particular day was not long after my holiday in Las Vegas. My wife and I had spent a week in Vegas and also a few days up in Minneapolis with our close friends, Tom & Lisa. While there we visited some outlets and I bought the shirt you can see me wearing in the photo!

This coming November we shall be back in Las Vegas again for the ISCA convention for caricature artists. We are really looking forward to being back in Vegas, it is a FUN town!

That trip will also include a road trip as we are flying in and out of San Francisco. We have a hire car and are going to drive down to Vegas over 3 days, taking in the sights.

I am going to take my wife to Lake Tahoe, Virginia City and Sparks (Reno) and then head down through the desert on Highway 95, it will be an interesting road trip.

After the convention in Vegas, we shall then drive back via California taking Highway 1 up along the coast to Montara south of San Francisco, where my old school buddy now lives. So we shall have a chance to hang out with him and his loverly wife and catch up. I have not 'seen' him for like 30 years!