Cartoon advent calendar:Day 8. Arty Christmas

"It's my homage to Picasso."

Here's an art cartoon for day eight of the advent calendar. Drawn for a local paper last Christmas. That's three snowmen cartoon so far, and there's more to come.

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Exhibition cartoon: Marriage à la Mode

Last night I went to the opening of the exhibition Marriage à la Mode at the Cartoon Museum in London. I've got a couple of cartoons in the show, including the one above.

The exhibition ties in with the upcoming Royal Wedding, though it is subtitled "Royals and Commoners In and Out of Love", so it is probably unlikely to get the thumbs up from the palace.

This cartoon, which was in Private Eye in 2009, is owned by the journalist and radio presenter Libby Purves, also a patron of the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation, who kindly lent it for the exhibition.

And as if that's not enough middle-class namedropping, my other cartoon in the show was included in a preview on the Radio 4 Today show website.

Marriage à la Mode features some very funny cartoons, from across the ages, and is well worth seeing. It's on until May 22. Oh, and the museum shop is selling copies of my book if you want to save on postage! It's also available to buy online here.

[Cartoon Museum pic from the excellent blog Tired of London, Tired of Life]

Picasso cartoon at the BBC

Radio 4's PM Blog was looking for some free art, as a bit of a joke after the BBC was criticised for using licence-payers money to buy art. So I sent them some. Click the image to enlarge or go here. The cartoon was originally in Private Eye back in September.

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Art cartoon: I'm so very sorry

Picasso's "Weeping Woman", Picasso's lesser-seen "Pull Yourself Together, Woman"

It is traditional when producing cartoons based on works of art to put "After ..." followed by the name of the artist. Out of respect, this often takes the form of "Apologies ..." which I have used here.

It's genuinely felt too, because I love Picasso's "Weeping Woman". It's an amazingly powerful work, particularly when you see it in a gallery. The painting is about bereavement in the Spanish Civil War, and I wondered whether it was a suitable subject for a cartoon.

In the end I decided not to let my liberal guilt get in the way of a cheap gag! So here it is, and sorry again Pablo. The cartoon can be seen in the current Private Eye.

It was drawn with coloured brush pens, as I thought that would be better than using Photoshop. And yes, I used a lightbox to get the "Weeping Woman" right. It was quite a lot of effort to go to for an on-spec gag, much more than is usual, so I'm glad it sold.

Royston's portfolio website