Another year over: My 2011

As tradition dictates, it's time for the round-up of my cartooning year. So here are my highlights of 2012. This is not a round robin OK, as I haven't sent it directly to you and it doesn't contain details of my daughter losing her first tooth this year (although she did ...)

I went to the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival as usual, my sixth visit. I drew a Big Board, knocking out a olden-days version (you had to be there) of an early cartoon of mine. I'm now in the process of coming up with cartoons on a "flying" theme for the 2012 festival.

"I must say, your explanation of the offside rule was most pertinent."

Being part of the Private Eye at 50 exhibition was definitely a highlight of 2011, along with the accompanying opening night and, a week later, the "Golden Jubilee" bash at the Guildhall, left.

I visited the Eye offices for the first time this year, which was fun, as part of a PCO team presenting them with an award. Here's the report at The Bloghorn.

Painting a board for the Great Wall of Ramsgate, above, a public art project, was very rewarding. The wall got a great reaction from the local community. Below is a picture from the Isle of Thanet Gazette, when the wall picked up the local Town Image award.

OK, it looks a bit like The Great Wal Lof Ramsgat3, but you get the point. That's me putting the R in Great. Ahem. Click to enlarge, if you like.

As well as the Private Eye show and the Shrewsbury exhibition, I had cartoons in several exhibitions: Marriage a la Mode at the Cartoon Museum (one of which was picked for a BBC preview, below); the Chris Beetles Gallery at Nunnington Hall; a Spectator cartoon exhibition in Mayfair; and even Henley Regatta. Not forgetting the Post Nude exhibition in Whitstable.

I usually pick out some favourite cartoons of the year, so here goes: I liked this one. It was actually drawn in 2010, but it appeared in print this year.

"Hey, that one looks just like a visible mass of condensed water vapour floating in the atmosphere."

I was looking through the Private Eye at 50 book last week, which Father Christmas brought me, and was surprised to see this cartoon in it. It's about the size of the nail on my little finger, but it's there! It's in a photo of the magazine being put together.

This one, from Reader's Digest, is also a favourite and is probably the one I got the most positive reaction for in 2011 ...

Talking of public reaction ...
I achieved a long-held ambition in 2011: I made it to the letters page of Private Eye, thanks to the Doctor Who cartoon on the right. But unlike most reactions to cartoons, this was neither pedantry nor outrage.

Here are some jolly cartoonists on a cartoon jolly! The Cartoonists' Club organised a great trip to the West Country. Here's a few of us giving our best cheesy grins at Cheddar Gorge (geddit?!)

And finally ... regular readers will know that I published a book of my cartoons this year. In order to sell them I have gone ON and ON (and, indeed, ON) about it quite a lot on this blog, not least with the "Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book" links at the foot of most posts. It was great to get the book out there and it seems to have gone down very well, so I can't promise that I won't keep doing it. At least until the next one's out.

So, happy new year all. And if you haven't done so already Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book in 2011!

Local boy done good

I was pleasantly surprised to see my board on the Great Wall of Ramsgate singled out for a piece in the Thanet Extra, one of the local papers. Click to enlarge (if you squint really hard you can even make out my website address ...)

There's more on my involvement in the Great Wall project here and here.

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book

Great Wall, lovely weather

As expected, Saturday was something of a scorcher down at the seaside. I had a small table selling my wares at the grand opening of the Great Wall of Ramsgate, and a fun day it was too.

There were other people selling watercolours, oil paintings, crafts etc, but it was not really an art-buying crowd. Those attending were, perfectly understandably, more interested in acquiring ice-creams and cold drinks. But I sold a few cartoon books and made a profit so I was happy at the end of the day. The GWoR organisers only charged us £5 for a spot, so it seemed rude not to turn up and support the event!

My spot was opposite my wall cartoon, as you can see from this photo comparing it with the book version, as suggested by my son, who also took the pic above.

As is usual with such events, I got a kick out of seeing the public reaction to my cartoons, in the book, the prints and originals on the stall, and of course, the 4ft by 8ft one on the wall. If laughs could be converted to cash, cartoonists would be rich!

Here's a virtual walk of the Great Wall put together by the GWofR organisers. Well worth a look, see if you can spot mine!



And here's a guy I sketched who was staring out to sea deep in thought, perhaps unable to comprehend the incredible weather ...

Click here to buy Royston's cartoon book

Selling books and art in sunny Ramsgate

This weekend, on Easter Saturday, you will find me once again standing in front of my Great Wall of Ramsgate cartoon, but this time without the scarf and duffel coat (hopefully!) and with a small table piled with my cartoon books, signed prints and original artwork.

It's the official "unveiling" of this community art project at the Main Sands. There will be dance and music (not from me) and local artists selling their wares, from 1pm onwards. The official unveiling, by artist Charles Newington, of Folkestone White Horse fame, is at 2.30pm There are now 80 paintings in place on the wall, and more to come.

Come along get a copy of my book of gag cartoons Penguin vs Polar Bear which I can sign and personalise if you like. Let's hope the weather stays like it is right now ...

Great Wall of Ramsgate cartoon close-up

I put this montage together to accompany an article in The Jester, the Cartoonists' Club newsletter, about my Great Wall of Ramsgate cartoon.

As I mentioned in my first blog post on this, the cartoon was based on one published in Reader's Digest a few years back. But that featured just one character. When it came to recreating the cartoon on a 8ft by 4ft board he looked very lonely, so I decided I needed to come up with a few extras.

Royston's portfolio website

Cartoon for the Great Wall of Ramsgate

Here's a very big cartoon ...

Cartoon: 8ft by 4ft. Cartoonist: 5ft 8ins (and a half)

This went up on a public art project called the Great Wall of Ramsgate today. I was approached to do this last year. What impressed me about the original flyer looking for contributors is the fact that it included a call for cartoonists, see below, which is rare with this kind of thing.

I don't live in Ramsgate, I live just up the road in Broadstairs, but I'm a regular visitor and was happy to help out. The idea is that the artworks create a mural that will brighten up a rather unsightly 1,000ft-long wall that has been built around the old Pleasurama site on the seafront and is going to be in place for several years. It's looking good so far ...

Rather nice photo, taken from this flickr page

I'm not sure mine fits the brief of "Ramsgate past, present and future" or that it tells "Ramsgate's story". It is a new version of a Reader's Digest cartoon from 2006. But it's a Ramsgate-type scene, with sunburt folk on the beach and a guy with a metal detector. I hope the local council don't get too upset about all the litter under the sand ... or indeed the skeleton.

Here's one of those annoying animated GIF things that shows the process of drawing and painting the board:


Make gif animation

I have drawn cartoons on big boards at the Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival, in 2007 and 2008, but this is the first time I've done a full colour one, and the first time I've done something that will be seen for more than two days. It was outside my comfort zone, but I really enjoyed doing it.

I found working with acrylic paints a great medium for cartoons, far less fussy than watercolours. You can go back and change things when you make mistakes, just like Photoshop!

Here are a few more selections from the wall: Phil Baker's view of the new Thanet wind farm, Ramsgate as seen by Mike Samson, and a painting of nearby Richborough Power Station by Peter Buckey.

And here's one from the people who were kind enough to supply the paints ...

Although the materials were provided, this was not a paying job, as there was no public funding. It's just about people trying to do something for their local environment.

So I now know just how big David Cameron's so-called "Big Society" is: it's 8ft by 4ft.

Royston's portfolio website

A Kent horse and a seaside folk festival

Through the medium of a cartoon in a Kent newspaper, this week I attempted to solve an ongoing problem that is troubling the good people of the county.

For those not in the know, although Mark Wallinger's white horse design, which is to stand at Ebbsfleet, has been agreed (and dubbed "the Angel of the South" by the media) there are many in Kent who want it to be a rearing horse, the traditional "invicta" symbol of the county. With a little ingenuity, I reckon we could keep both camps happy ...

Might need a bit of extra public funding, and quite a bit of maintenance, but I reckon it could work!

More local news: Broadstairs Folk Week, the annual festival which takes over our town for a week every August, got going at the weekend. Here are a few on-the-spot sketches from the daily fun and games laid on for the kids at the seafront bandstand. Drawn on official Folk Week headed notepaper! (Click to enlarge.)

Royston's portfolio website

The Massive White Horse of the South

We're getting a new piece of public artwork here in Kent, it was announced yesterday. It has been "dubbed" the Angel of the South, apparently (though when the media says something has been dubbed it's usually them that do the dubbing).

It could more accurately be described as the Massive White Horse of the South, as it's going to be 50 metres high. Of course, the knives (chainsaws?) are out already, with people complaining that it is a white, er, elephant. It costs too much, they say, it won't stay white for long etc.

I was living in the North East when they were planning the Angel of the North. Many people voiced their opposition in much the same way ... costs too much, it won't stay looking like an Angel once the vandals have had a go at it, someone will strip it for scrap metal and so on.

We all know what happened. Everyone went, Ooooh, it's a great big statue! For us! They fell in love with it and took it to their hearts. I wouldn't rule out that happening here.

Public art gets a bad press from art critics. But it's not for them, it's for the people and quite often they embrace it. Look at the John Betjeman statue at the new St Pancras Station (if you can get near it). It it such a bad thing to produce art that people can really relate to?


The Professional Cartoonists Organisation team gather by the John Betjeman statue at St Pancras Station after the Battle of the Cartoonists, part of the 2008 Big Draw. Left to right: Royston Robertson, Pete Dredge, Kipper Williams and Robert Duncan

Of course, the White Horse creator Mark Wallinger is famous for another animal-related artwork: the man in the bear suit wandering around a gallery. I'd like to have seen that 50 metres high, looming over the Kent countryside.


Here's an archive blog post on the last time there was a big art project down this way.

Royston's portfolio website