Setting sail for the Herne Bay Cartoon Festival

I drew the poster for this year's Herne Bay Cartoon Festival. Click to enlarge. You'll need to, I packed a lot of jokes into it. Some of them are even not about Covid.

The main festival exhibition is now up at Beach Creative, I've got a few cartoons in there. Some of them are even not about Covid. And there's a Giles exhibition at the Seaside Museum. The live event takes place on the Pier this Sunday (August 1).

You'll find all the details you need over at the Procartoonists.org blog.

Royston cartoons exhibition now open

My cartoon exhibition Long Time, No See is now on at York Street Gallery in Ramsgate. It runs until midday on May 12. There are more than 70 top gags from Private Eye, The Spectator, Reader's Digest etc on Covid and much else. Most are signed and framed prints plus there are some originals for sale and books, cards and postcards.

Due to Covid restrictions I can't have a private view/opening but I'm aiming to be in the gallery at various times on Saturday and Sunday, and possibly other days too, so get in touch if you want to have socially distanced cartoony chat.

Long Time, No See: An Exhibition of Cartoons by Royston is at York Street Gallery, 22 York Street, Ramsgate.

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon books

Micro cartoon exhibition at micropub

Pic: Brian Green

I have an exhibition of cartoon prints, which runs throughout July, at the Four Candles in Broadstairs, Britain's smallest brewpub.

Rather conveniently, the micropub (they're very small but big in Kent) is at the end of my street, so it's easy for me to drop off framed prints that have sold and oh go on then I might as well have a quick one while I'm here.

This is not the first time I've worked with the Four Candles. I designed a label for the beer Voter's Choice, during the snap general election of 2017, and I drew a large cartoon board describing the brewing process when the pub first started making its own beer in 2015, which is still on display alongside the casks.

It's not cartooning but I even drew a new version of the pub sign when the old one became too weather-beaten. This was created digitally (there is literally no need for me to be up this ladder, pic by Brian Green again) so when it fades or wears out a new one can be printed. 

Sales of prints in the micro exhibition have been good and I've managed to raise a few quid for Macmillan Cancer Support, which the pub regularly supports.

Unsurprisingly, this major cultural event made it to the Thanet Extra (below, click to enlarge) and the Isle of Thanet News.

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon books

Herne Bay Cartoon Festival 2015

Having helped organise the Herne Bay Cartoon Festival on 2 August, and having put together articles for the Procartoonists blog and the Cartoonists' Club magazine about it, I thought I should probably put something on my own blog before the month is out.

The photo above by Gerard Wyman, in which I'm contributing to one of the "communal" boards, sums up the day for me: I'm wearing a silly hat to keep off the sun and sitting on the ground, knackered after an exhausting but hugely fun day. There's a lot more on the aforementioned Procartoonists blog, but here are a few other Herne Bay bits and pieces.

There were many cartoons about nuisance seagulls -- as they have been in the news recently and this was a seaside cartoon festival -- here's one of my contributions. Pic by Karol Steele.

This photo by Kasia Kowalska was taken at the opening of the Martin Honeysett exhibition. I mentioned to Tim Harries that we look like the worst ever blues duo, so he made this. 

I'm not sure that it would be easy listening, to be honest.

Talking of easy listening ... here's a cartoon from the main festival exhibition. Yes, I am a ukulele player but I do understand that the ubiquity of ukuleles these days is, er, not appreciated by everyone.

Cuttings from the Herne Bay Gazette. Click to enlarge and read

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon books

Cartoonists off to the seaside again

Here's a cartoon I submitted for the exhibition Cartoonists Beside the Surrealside which can be seen at the Beach Creative gallery, Herne Bay, from Wednesday 30 July until Tuesday 12 August. The show celebrates the town's link with Marcel Duchamp, like last year's event, so many of the cartoons will be art-themed.

I'll be one of the cartoonists taking part in the live drawing element of the event, which will be on Sunday 3 August (midday-5pm). Here's a picture of a bunch of us from last year.

Left to right: me, Kipper Williams and Chris Burke. Photo by Kasia Kowalska

It was a glorious day both in terms of weather and enjoyment, so we're hoping to do it all again at this year's event, which is supported by Arts Council England. Here's the event poster (note: the exhibition dates have been extended since the was made) drawn by Ian Baker.

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book

At the 2014 Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival

I attended the 11th Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival last weekend, the 9th consecutive one I have been to. Below is my Big Board cartoon (the boards are 8ft by 6ft) drawn at the event. It's a compilation of cartoons I've drawn over the years of Nipper the HMV dog, as the festival theme was Music. Click to enlarge and see the gags.

As well as the Big Board I contributed to the instant cartoons exhibition in the Market Square, drawing music cartoons on the spot. Here's me being indecisive over which pen to use. (Photo, and the one at the top, by Kasia Kowalska)

And here's a very silly music-themed gag from the instant cartoons exhibition, which seemed to go down well, as very silly cartoons usually do.

For the first time I was also on the Melodrawma team, helping draw a live comic strip to the accompaniment of narration, music and bizarre sound effects. Words and photos can't do justice to the craziness of the Melodrawma so you'll have to just go along next year to see what that is all about!

Meanwhile, there's more on Shrewsbury at the Procartoonists blog.

Click here to buy Royston's NEW cartoon book

Art-toonists in Herne Bay this weekend

I'll be at the above event in Herne Bay, Kent, this weekend (poster © Hunt Emerson). It's part of the Duchamp in Herne Bay festival, which marks 100 years since the artist Marcel Duchamp visited the town.

In the pranksterish spirit of the godfather of conceptual art (he's the urinal guy) many of the cartooning events have a certain playful air to them. That's another way of saying I'm really not sure what we'll be doing, but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Cartoons on the theme of art will be on display, many in various Shepherd Neame pub toilets (we're back to the urinal again) throughout the town. Here's one that appears in the slightly more salubrious setting of the official event programme.

There is a heck of lot of Duchamp in Herne Bay stuff going on over the next few weeks, not just the cartoon-based events, and it looks well worth a visit. You can read the programme online or visit the official website.

One for the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival

"So ... where do you see yourself in four million years?"

This is a colour print submitted for exhibition at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, which takes place in April. I'll be attending and will be drawing and painting one of the Big Boards (6ft by 8ft) in the market square. The theme this year is "Time". Click here to see previous posts about Shrewsbury.

Good time to support the Cartoon Museum

"Ohmigod, what big ears she has! Ohmigod, what a big nose she has! ..."

Here's another cartoon from the Animal Crackers exhibition at the Cartoon Museum in London. This is an old Private Eye one. The exhibition has almost a month to run (it finishes October 21) so get along to see it if you can.

The museum took a bit of a beating when it comes to visitor numbers during the Olympics, and has started opening seven days a week to make up the shortfall, so now is the ideal time to support it.

 
I took my kids along to see Animal Crackers recently and they had a great time. There's a "cartoon trail" for them to take part in and plenty of opportunity to create your own cartoons, above. The next exhibition, from October 24, celebrates 75 years of The Dandy, so I'm sure we'll all get along to that one too.

Buy Royston's cartoon book ... also available in the Cartoon Museum shop!

The cartoon that keeps on giving

I've got three cartoons in the exhibition Animal Crackers, which opens at the Cartoon Museum in London today. Go see it if you're in the city this summer, it's funnier than the Olympic Games.

I was chuffed that my penguin and polar bear cartoon was used on the invitation to the private view, above, which I attended last night. For a cartoon that I had zero expectation for when I drew it in 2006, it seems to have taken on a life of its own.

It was originally in Reader's Digest, then it went on an expedition to the Antarctic, and later was used on a fundraising T-shirt for a bipolar disorder charity. I've also used it myself as a business card, a Christmas card and it gave me the idea to do a Pengiun Books spoof for the cover of my book of cartoons.

And throughout its many incarnations, I continue to hear of some people saying they don't get it. Which is fine, you can't please all the people all the time. I myself don't know the answer to one question: which one is in the wrong cartoon?

Footnote: The Animal Crackers exhibition is divided into themed sections. This one is in the Polar Opposites section where I was pleased, and a little humbled, to see it alongside this masterful piece by Mike Williams.

Greetings card cartoon: Here we row again

This cartoon, which was in an exhibition at last year's Henley Regatta, is now available as a greetings card. It will be sold in the shop at Henley this year.

It costs £2.50, with proceeds going to the Stewards' Charitable Trust, which works with schools across the country, encouraging young people to learn to row. Even Trenton Oldfield can't complain about that.

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book

Cartoon for Henley Regatta exhibition

Those of you interested in boating matters may like to know that there's a cartoon exhibition at this year's Henley Regatta, which starts today and runs until July 3.

I've got two cartoons in the show, and as I know nothing at all about rowing they are both Owl and Pussycat jokes! The one above, which was in Private Eye, sold when it was exhibited at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival this year. So a different version will be on display at Henley.

So if you're at the event, and it's "Pimm's o'clock", don't forget to wander over to the art gallery behind the Members' Grandstand to have a look and a few laughs. There's more on the exhibition over at the Bloghorn. Chin chin.

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book

Warning: Contains nudity!*

[*Shameless headline to attract attention] Recently I went to Whitstable to check out this exhibition of nudes on postcards to which I contributed. Anyone could enter and the cards were stuck, unframed, on the gallery walls. A simple idea which produced a huge range of interpretations and a very enjoyable show.

All entries had to be submitted via the mail. So, as you can see, mine is a bit crumpled and some franking is visible. This added to the charm of the entries, I felt. The exhibition, at the Horsebridge Arts Centre, was a gesture of solidarity for staff at the local Whistable sorting office which is under threat of closure.

My card is a version of this Private Eye cartoon. I was pleased to see that a lot of the artworks approached the subject with humour.

Footnote: Every time I go to Whistable, I get this song going around my head:



And here's the original version, which contains the line "He don't care about Colonel Gaddafi/He's having a fag down the Tudor Cafe". Genius.

Cartoon for "Post Nude" exhibition

I drew a version of this recent Private Eye cartoon -- yes, now he's totally naked! -- on a postcard for an exhibition called Post Nude, to be held at the Horsebridge Arts and Community Centre, just up the road in Whitstable.

It's open to anyone and the idea is that you create on a postcard an original nude in any medium (photograph, pencil, paint, collage etc -- they didn't actually say cartoon ...) and send it in by post. Seemed like a crazy enough idea, so I decided to have a go.

I'm hoping mine makes it in time for the deadline. I was a bit late getting around to it, being very busy lately, but I actually knew about it weeks ago as a Whistable newspaper commissioned me to do a cartoon to go with an article about the launch of the Post Nude project. I put the two topics of postcards and nudes together and naturally came up with a tribute to the late, great, Donald McGill, right.

Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival gets under way

The 2011 Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival starts today and runs until Sunday. I'll be there from tomorrow, working on a Big Board in the market square and trying to get to see and do as much cartoony stuff as possible.

There will be talks, exhibitions, caricaturing, workshops, the lot. I'll be making Twitter updates -- follow @roystoncartoons -- and will write a full report next week. There will also be up-to-the-minute pictures and tweets live on The Bloghorn courtesy of Matt Buck, Alex Hughes and myself.

If you see me, say hello. And yes, of course I'll be selling copies of my book!

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]

Cycling cartoon: An Olympian effort

Here's a sneak peek at one of the cartoons I have submitted for exhibition at the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival 2011, which takes place in April.

The theme is Olympian Sports, and this is a new version of a cartoon I drew for the Kent Messenger when the Tour de France came through the county in 2007. This version is coloured using Faber-Castell Pitt brush pens, for those that care about that sort of thing.

It was a bit of an Olympian effort coming up with four cartoons on a sporting theme, as it's not a subject I turn to a lot, to say the least. This year I'll also be drawing a Big Board cartoon in Shrewsbury market square, so I need to think of another gag too. That one won't have bicycles in it though. I hate drawing bicycles.

The theme may appear to be a year early, as the London Olympics are in 2012, but it is in fact a tie-in with the Shropshire Olympian Festival, which takes place in June, and the Wenlock Olympian Games, also in Shropshire, in July.

Royston's portfolio website

Cartoons in 'Ink and the Bottle' exhibition

I've got a couple of cartoons in the above exhibition at the Cartoon Museum in London. Neither are quite as colourful as the Donald McGill cartoon above, because they're the original ink drawings that were later scanned and coloured, using Photoshop, for Reader's Digest.

Here's one of them, a spin on a well-worn theme ...

"Bloody students."

As you've probably gathered, all the cartoons in the show are on a drinking theme. I saw it last night and it's very well put together, covering the good and bad points of Britain's favourite leisure activity.

The exhibition is not chronological, instead cartoons are linked by different aspects of the theme. It's fun to see how many similarities there are, despite the different times, between Ally Sloper, Andy Capp, and Viz. Go see.

UPDATE: The Radio 4 discussion on the Ink and the Bottle exhibition is online: Listen here

More HMV dog cartoons (scroll down).

Writing about other cartoonists

Unlike a lot of cartoonists' blogs, you won't find too much stuff about other cartoonists here. It's all a bit "me me me" isn't it? But there's a reason for that, it's because most of my articles about cartoon exhibitions, events etc appear at The Bloghorn, the online diary of the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation.

If you were to head over there now, you'd find a review of the exhibition Ray Lowry – London Calling, right, which I posted today, plus recent pieces on a Martin Rowson auction and the "Alex" show and an article about a cartoonist's football song.

This week I'll be seeing the Modern Toss exhibition, so I may well post something about that on The Bloghorn too.

Big Draw exhibition opens

The Battle of the Cartoonists banner (click images to enlarge) which I helped to create last year, as a member of the PCO team, is now on show at the Big Draw exhibition "Now We Are Ten".

The show opened yesterday at the Idea Generation Gallery, 11 Chance Street, London. This drawing is also in it.

The exhibition includes work by the likes of Steve Bell, Gerald Scarfe, Quentin Blake Tony Husband and Posy Simmonds. Illustrious company. I guess I'm one of the cartoonists described in the blurb as "up-and-coming". I wonder how long you have to be up-and-coming before you get there?

The drawings will be auctioned at 7.30pm on September 17 at the gallery. All proceeds go to the Campaign for Drawing. For more details click here, to see artwork and place bids online click here.

The 2009 Battle of the Cartoonists, along with cartoon workshops, takes place this Saturday (September 12) at the Idea Generation gallery. The event kicks off at 2pm with the workshops, and the Battle gets underway at 3pm. It goes on until 5pm when the banners are put to the public vote.

I'll certainly be going along to show my support for the PCO team. And my son, who is seven and loves drawing, will be coming along to take part in the workshops.

Royston's portfolio website