Clown cartoon: It's not so sad

"As I feared, the X-ray shows that you are crying inside."

"There's some sad things known to man
But ain't too much sadder than the tears of a clown"
– Smokey Robinson

Well, maybe. But I can't help feeling that there are quite a lot of things sadder. Genocide, child poverty, that kind of thing. So pull yourself together, clowny.

I originally drew tears in mid-air on the X-ray. But that kind of thing looks a bit old-fashioned in cartoons these days, so I took them out. But then I worried that it looks like he's sneezing. Anyway, I sold the cartoon so I try not to worry once that happens. But these are the things that keep cartoonists awake at night.

Now that's sad.

More clowning around

Not Yet Sold: Clown car toon

"She's running just great, could you take a look at her?"

Here's another in my series of cruelly rejected cartoons. OK, this one is just your basic "reversal" cartoon, so maybe it never stood much of a chance. But it makes me chuckle, though I think that may be more because I like the idea of a clown mechanic! As regular readers will know, I do like to draw strange, shabby looking clowns.

More Not Yet Sold cartoons.

More clown cartoons

As has been documented here before, I love to draw strange and/or shabby looking clowns when I doodle, so I was pleased when I was recently asked to illustrate a story about a circus that's offering keep-fit classes. A gift!

Meanwhile, the doodles of dodgy clowns keep coming (click to enlarge):

And my son, who is seven and loves to draw, appears to have caught the bug too:

Finally, here's a clown cartoon from a 2007 Reader's Digest:

"Oooh, tough crowd."

Royston's portfolio website

Big Draw a huge success

I went along to the Big Draw launch at the Idea Generation gallery in London on Saturday with my son. We both had a brilliant time, with his prolific drawing output putting me to shame.

The icing on the cake was the fact that our team won in the Battle of the Cartoonists! I've written a full "match report" on that over at The Bloghorn.

Don't forget that the drawings in the gallery's Now We Are Ten show, including mine, above (click to enlarge) and banners from previous Battles, are to be auctioned at 7.30pm this Thursday (September 17). All proceeds go to the Campaign for Drawing. For more details click here, and to see artwork and place bids online click here.

Royston's portfolio website

Cartoon for Big Draw auction

Here's a cartoon (click to enlarge) which I submitted this week for an exhibition and auction which is to be run by The Campaign for Drawing, the people behind the annual Big Draw events.

A larger version of this cartoon was featured on the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation's banner which we created at the St Pancras Big Draw last year. The banner itself will also be auctioned, if anyone's got enough room for it.

Details on the exhibition and auction are below. Click to read, or visit the Campaign for Drawing website. Why not go along and see if there's anything you want to bid for? The auction raises money for the Campaign so they can carry on their excellent work.


Royston's portfolio website

Return of the scary clown cartoon

Regular readers to this blog will know that when I doodle I often seem to end up drawing sinister and/or sleazy looking clowns. Some people have even been helpful enough to suggest that this indicates some deep-seated psychological problem and I should probably seek help.

I'm starting to think they may be right, as even by my standards the guy above, who emerged yesterday when I was supposed to be thinking of a cartoon for a client, is pretty disturbing.

Royston's portfolio website

Boardroom cartoon: The doodle bug

"I've no objection to doodling during meetings, but it must be within reason."

You may have seen a story in the news recently reporting that boffins have declared that doodling is now officially A Good Thing. A business publication I draw for regularly wanted a cartoon on this subject, with reference to board meetings (above).

As you might expect, I am a compulsive doodler. I often doodle a lot when I'm thinking up cartoon ideas. Sometimes they can help develop the joke, if you keep within the themes you're thinking about, but often I just end up drawing funny looking blokes. And clowns, lots of clowns. Here are some of my doodles (click to enlarge, should you wish to).


My cartooning pal Tim Harries is the master of the odd-looking bloke doodle. So much so that he's turned it into a regular feature on his blog, called Strange Looking Bloke Wednesday.

Royston's portfolio website