Will Doodle for Cash

For anyone who’s somehow stumbled across this blog without ever seeing my portfolio website,

here

it is.

I’ve recently added a pile more content onto it, so pop along and have a look!

For anyone who hasn’t yet been prodded by me into checking it out, go and have a look at Blart, my reasonably new webcomic. It’s a bit of a departure for me in terms of style, being a lot less cartoony than my usual stuff, but I quite enjoy drawing it because of that. It’s also fun because so many of the gags and strips I do otherwise rely on being topical or attached to some current context…but Blart is deliberately not. I choose to call it Absurd comedy, following in the grand traditions of Beckett, Duchamp and Monty Python. But other people tend to call it Stupid.

There’s no overriding storyline, but I hope over time it’ll develop into a reasonably consistent ‘world’. I’m aiming for a certain tone and voice for the various Blart denizens, and pretty soon some of the characters and situations will begin to recur on a more frequent basis. I’ve already posted a couple of dr.vilm strips (here and here), and he’ll probably pop up again.

I’m hoping to get Blart into print sometime soon, so anyone with suggestions for appropriate mags or papers that might fit Blart (or vice versa, I suppose), drop me a line!

But in the meantime, enjoy digital Blart responsibly.

Bach yn slo yn postio’r newyddion yma ar y blog, ond pythnefnos yn ol, wnes i a Iestyn Jones lansio ein we-comic newydd, Planed Roc, mewn gig syfrdanol o lwyddianus yn y Cardiff Arts Institute. Llwyddon ni denu lot o sylw yn y wasg -

cyfweliad ar Wedi  7

Cyfweliad hir ar Radio Cymru

a Wedi 7, unwaith eto, gyda ni ar y noson.

Ond, wrth gwrs, y wefan ei hun yw’r lle i fod, felly ewch a thanysgrifiwch at:

www.planedroc.com

As well as drawing silly pictures, I also occasionally throw some paint at a canvas. The resulting paintings gradually fill up space in my house until there’s nowhere left for them to go other than onto the streets and alleyways outside. These paintings may well go on to lead lives of dissolution and crime, unless channelled in the right direction.

Which is why I’m grateful to Cat Gardiner and the team at the project/ten art collective for taking some of these rogue artworks and displaying them in various exciting pop-up galleries around Cardiff and beyond. Including one very exciting location which I’ll report on in good time.

A few kind punters have even gone so far as to take some paintings home with them, which brings a lump to my throat.

For anyone interested, there’s an exhibition on at Milgi Warehouse off City Road, Cardiff for the upcoming 2 weekends (last two weekends of June) . Here are a few of the pics that I’ll have on show.

UPDATE: Exhibition went well, sold a couple. Project-ten’s next showing will be sometime in September, but we’ve also managed to bag a space at the Wales Millennium Centre Opera House/Concert venue, more details on that to follow.

Heb cyffwrdd a’r blog ma ers tipyn - yn benna oherwydd wi di bod yn rhy brysur, felly dyma chi update o rhai o fy mhrosiectau a ddigwyddiadau ddiweddar.

Yn gynta, falle wnaethoch chi gweld fy ngwyneb bach bert ar S4/C yn yr wythnosau dwetha yn arlunio ar rhaglen Tinopolis “Criced 20/20″. Wel, wedi fwynhau ambell i drip i Sophia Gardens i gartwnio fyna - gobeithio fyddai yno eto cyn diwedd y tymor. Dyma cwpl o luniau:

Y cartwn wnes i am y rhaglen cynta - nath Mark Cosgrove druan gal bach o rough treatment fyna…wedi’r gem, weles i fe yn y Mochyn Du - ond wnes i’n siwr o gadw fy mhen i lawr jyst rhag ofn fod e wedi gael cip o’r llun…

A dyma fi yn cyflwyno caricature eitha wael i Robert Croft - un o fy arwyr fel ffan ifanc o chriced Morgannwg. Wnath e gofyn am y llun wedyn, felly mae’n rhaid bod e’n meddwl bach mwy ohono fe nag o’n i!

UPDATE:

Dyma’r rhaglenni , os i chi am chwilio am fy nghyfweliadadu byr!

Mae’r rhaglen ola yn y cyfres dydd Sadwrn yr 17fed - wi’n gobeithio neud rhywbeth sbeshal iddyn nhw!

…here’s how I feel about the current mess.

Ok world, here’s a new experiment. The following cartoons have just been drawn, but not yet sent to anyone for possible publication. Let’s have some bets on which, if any, are bought. Fingers crossed!

Pick up a copy of this month’s Oldie, and you’re likely to find these little beauties inside. Unless your local newsagent suffers from magazine page thieves, in which case I make no guarantees. Either way, you’ve seen them now.

Here’s hoping there’ll be a Reader’s Digest to take future cartoons…

Over the past year, I’ve variously introduced myself to strangers as an accountant, accountant-cartoonist or cartoonist-accountant. Sadly, those terms are all now inaccurate, having shelved the ‘day job’ for the time being to concentrate on the serious task of drawing silly pictures. I may well return to the spreadsheets in future, but, for now, the conversation begins, “Hello. I’m a cartoonist.” It still feels a bit weird coming out of a mouth used to framing the words “Hello. I’m an accountant”, but the ensuing interest in my work (as opposed to a deathly silence) makes the weirdness worthwhile.

I should really have figured out that finance wasn’t for me ages ago. Leafing through course notes of my chartered accountancy qualification, there were more doodles and pictures than sums. Here’s a small selection:

The day you decide to spend time sketching the Sacre Coeur instead of answering questions in an ‘Accounting for Decision Making’ Progress Test is the day to quit, I’d suggest to my 25 year-old self.