SKETCHBOOK - Dulwich Picture Gallery

A few sketches made whilst people-watching at the Dulwich Picture Gallery on 29 May. They were seen during the rather fab Eric Revilious exhibition, which I strongly recommend you all rush off and visit.

These are directly from my sketchbook, photographed with the iPad, hence the rather grey quality.

Beyond bad

Sometimes in the life of a cartoonist, there comes a moment when you just have to give in to a bad pun.

This week's Westmorland Gazette was one such moment.

Moving North

This week's super, soaraway Westmorland Gazette features more fallout from the general election. Now that the Conservatives are in overall majority, the Countryside Alliance and others have emerged to demand that the fox hunting ban is repealed.

As usual, the Brits are brilliant at going over the same arguments again and again and again … fox hunting, European membership, whether we should have lost the Empire.  My own thoughts on this issue are pretty well known (leave the foxes alone, arm the lambs) so I tried for a more balanced approach with the ideas for the front page cartoon.

The other story which lay coquettishly across the Cartoon Desk was a survey which had 72% of participants in the north of England wanting to be affiliated with Edinburgh's Scottish parliament rather than the English on in Westminster.

Here are the ideas which my steamed editor had to choose from - and the final cartoon shown in color. Did he make the right choice? Have your say in the comments box below (which I say every blog but then people tweet me instead).

Post Election Blues

An interesting post-election week on the Westmorland Gazette cartoon desk. The ramifications of the general election result were still reverberating around the area, not least because we were one of only eight areas in the country to return a LibDem MP. And as the caring, sharing Conservatives have decided to flog off the remaining public housing stock, it seemed apposite that the local council has produced a Big Plan for new housing in South Lakes.

These are the cartoons I submitted to my steamed editor. The first batch of five met with a cruel response, so I followed it with a further three (always exciting with 35 minutes to deadline). I'm glad I did as it took until idea 8 to hit the idea I was edging towards.

Spoilt Paper 7 - vote count sketchbook

On Thursday night, 7 May, the Lonsdale Constituency vote count was held  at Kendal Leisure Centre. 

Tom Murphy from The Westmorland Gazette was live blogging and I had blagged my way in to chip in with comments and live cartoons. Follow the link for photos from the event. 

Here are my sketches, a mix of mix of media, election agents, the odd parliamentary candidate and anxious LibDems. 

Spoilt Paper 6 - Last orders

It’s the last few hours of the election campaign and it’s getting nasty. This is the media’s fault. Politicians generally have their own interests at heart but it would be nice if the national newspapers didn’t pander to them.

The regional press is more circumspect. Not necessarily a bastion of impartiality (except for this blog, obviously) but local newspapers are closer to their readers and less keen to alienate a bunch of them. 

The local campaign perked up today (Wednesday) with the arrival of Nick Clegg. Rather oddly, he’s visiting one of the LibDem safe seats. Perhaps it’s because he needed a shoulder to cry on. Or maybe he was preparing Big Tim to take on the baton. Anyway, Nick visited some loaves but was careful not to point at fish as that’s Cameron’s holiday job.

Speaking of whom, no sign of “pumped up” Big Dave in the immediate area, although he did make Heysham. Perhaps it’s too windy in the Lakes and he’s afraid he’ll blow away with all that hot air inside him.

According to today’s super sordid Sun, Ed is too busy scoffing bacon sandwiches to visit here.

I’m guessing that Natalie Bennett is rightly too concerned about carbon emissions to travel this far north. I’m relieved someone in this wretched campaign is thinking about the environment.

But no Nigel Farage! What a disappointment when we have so many fine hostelries. Obviously he’d have difficulty being angry about the local immigrant population when most of them are from the south of England. 

I’ll be tweeting comments and drawings live from the Westmorland & Lonsdale election count in the early hours of Friday morning. Follow the #wgelection search tag. There is also a live blog on the Westmorland Gazette site.