CCGB #178

Clint...

CCGB #177

CCGB #174

CCGB #173

CCGB #172

Little Chtulhu's first day at School...

Quick pencil sketch of Little Cthulhu, finished using Spectrum Noir Markers.  Note to self - use a paper that bleeds less...

Two cartoons this week.  The first - "Get the Cat!" - was inspired by a conversation on facebook with my good mate Chris...

 

The Second - well, it's been a bad week!

Both cartoons are rendered using Spectrum Noir & Promarker Markers.  I love these things - I seem to get so much more finished...  :)

Watchdog - why you should TALK to your engineer...

Something got me quire riled this week.  The BBC's "Watchdog" program did a piece on a Computer Support company that ripped off it's customers, and as part of the "undercover investigation", they nobbled a PC so that it could be fixed by an engineer.  So far, so good, until they showed how they nobbled the PC in the first place.

They chose to remove a jumper from a disk drive.

I take affront to this test for several reasons.  Firstly, it's not a "natural" fault that would occur during normal use, instead, it's a fault that should only occur if a) the user has been fitting hardware, or authorised someone else to fit hardware (like a new disk), or b) on the day the computer was built.  Secondly (and perhaps more damningly), the "user" (an actor in this case) was instructed to tell the engineer some cock and bull story about the machine getting slower and slower, before it stopped altogether - at no time mentioning that the case had been "opened".

I'm sorry Watchdog, but you're out of order.  I don't doubt that the company concerned were a bunch of cowboys (you just had to see the prices they were charging), but this evidence misleads the public.  Engineers rely on the information that the user gives to them to make an accurate diagnosis of the problem - in this case, your information was not just incorrect, but deliberately misleading.  A computer engineer is like a doctor - both have to make a diagnosis based on reported symptoms and tests.  It's like swallowing lots of laxatives, experiencing a bad case of Bombay Belly , and then complaining to the doctor that you feel unwell, you wee a lot, and then showing surprise when he says you might have Diabetes...  

CCGB #169

ccgb #168

Gallery Of Mo

it's the time of year - Movember is here!

Yup - it's the time when we all grow a moustache to show our support for those promoting and supporting the charities that deal with mens health issues, such as prostate cancer.  I'm doing my bit, by offering my cartooning services for your delectation.  You can get a portrait by me by going here...

http://www.galleryofmo.co.uk/the-artists/artist/shaun-raven-340

...and if you don't like my style, choose one of the other amazing artists! It's all in a good cause...

CCGB #167

ccgb #166

ccgb #165

Movember, Moustaches & Me...

During November, I'll be one of the participating artists for the Gallery Of Mo event.  For those who don't know, Movember is the time when lot's of men grow moustaches to promote awareness of Men's health issues - primarily Prostate Cancer.  I and a few like-minded artists are supporting this by offering to draw portraits to raise money for charity - you can ask for a portrait (or take part) at the Gallery Of Mo.

CCGB #163

Quick one for this week's compo...   - it got 10 points  :)

"Can we keep him Sarge?"

Bit of experimentation here.  I started by drawing the trooper on paper, scanning him into Inkscape, and converting him to PDF, for exporting into Xara.  Once he was in, I though he needed something else, so I drew the rest, and added colours in, Xara.  I found out a couple of useful things here - firstly, when inking the characters, I found it easier to keep the line settings to one of the standard line types, with NO pressure input from the pen.  I also found a great way with Xara 2013 to add shadows to characters - simply add a black shape covering the whole character, set it's transaparacy, and then erase what I didn't need using the shape eraser tool.  It all works great!

Parp-Pants

My family NEEDS this item...  ;)

Selfish B**stard

"Below the elbow..."

Apparently, the St. John ambulance brigade must have bear arms below the elbows - but mistakes can happen...  :)

Poodle Biker

Actually saw this happening today - had to cartoon it!

CCGB #153

CCGB #152

Quick one this week - overrun with work...

CCGB #151

CCGB #150

CCGB #149

Roy Hodgson

CCGB #148

CCGB #147

CCGB #146

CCGB #145

Theme: BAD CHOICES
Quick one this week...

"Laugh it up fuzzball..."

I was intending this to be a new t-shirt design - but zazzle refused it.  Ah well...

CCGB #144

Subject:PHONE

New items in the shop...

Zazzle store now open!

Yup - I've gone and created my own zazzle shop!

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/voxtoons*

And here is the first T-Shirt!

http://www.zazzle.co.uk/please_dont_mind_me_tshirt-235668404274325548

CCGB #142

The cartoonist with no name

Me, as "the cartoonist with no name"...  A  little private piece I did to promote my my new site...

OOOeeeOOOeeeOOO....wah-wah-waaaaahhh....  :)

CARICATOONS is Live!

The new online shop for custom cartoons for that someone special is now up and running!  If you're looking for a unique gift, why not have a browse?

http://www.caricatoons.co.uk

CCGB #136

GluvZilla

This is our Family "Glove Monster" - people think we're weird... :)

CCGB #135

A bit of explanation?  British animators warned this week that unless the government introduces significant tax breaks, the British animation industry could disappear from the UK as it moves overseas to cut production costs...

CCGB #134

I've got two ideas for this week's caption - and I've finished both. Which one gets used will depend on which one my family likes...

CCGB #133

I'll admit - this one takes some explaining... :)

The theme of this weeks competition is "HOPE". I'm currently a moderator on the CCGB forum, and I've run the competition in the past. It's been a running joke that the Competition Moderators need tin hats to protect them from all the flack that they get, as well as an optional gold lame dress (it's a glamorous competition you know). My Avatar on the forum is a cartoon of me in a tin hat, watching out for incoming missiles, so the person in this cartoon is me, dressed in my CCGB finery, holding the winners trophy that i HOPE will win this week - geddit?

CCGB #132

Cold Snap

CCGB #131

Samuel L. Jackson

Clever idea

Something that's been mentioned over at the CCGB forums recently is selling original artwork. For someone like me, who works mainly digitially, this is a bit of a nightmare, as I obviously have no original artwork to sell (unless I create it again). The wonderful Steve Bright has come up with a hybrid solution for us digital creatives - for colour cartoons, simply print the colour layer, and then ink over the top of it.

It's so simple, it's brilliant! Why didn't I think of this before...

CCGB #130

CCGB #129

CCGB #128

News, news, news...

Firstly, happy new year everyone! I hope you all had a good christmas (mine was pretty good overall) and an enjoyable new year.

Secondly, the news. Exiting things are happening at Raven Towers. As I mentioned previously, I did some commisions just before christmas, and the response was such that I'm in the process of setting up a new website just to deal with the commisions side of my work. I can't say too much at present, as it's still in the planning stages, but hopefully, it'll be up and running before March. keep an eye on this blog, as I'll be announcing it here first.

I've noticed that my cartooning speed in increasing. This is good news, as it means I can produce more, including possibly submitting some more cartoons to Private Eye (I did recently, and got a lovely note from Ian Hislop, no less).

On the hardware side, my tablet now has Manga Studio EX4 (thanks Shelly), which will give me even more cartoon creation options than ever before. I'm also in the process of trying cartoons on canvas, using acrylic paints (more on this when it happens). All in all, January / February is going to be a very exiting time for me, cartooning wise.

My day job however, is making increasing demands on me - oh well, I suppose I'd rather be busy than bored... :)