No News Isn't Necessarily Good News.

Sometimes when there's not much of anything happening, it's good to do a cartoon on the fact that there's not much of anything happening.

The Cursing Mummy

The news for this past weekend was a bit scarce. One of the more interesting topics was that the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery (TMAG) was getting it's roof lifted off for renovations.

The TMAG is one of those interesting museums that has strange little oddities in every corner - like a mummy beneath the stairs. I've always been fascinated with it. It's like a character from Grimm's Tales for Little Pharaohs.

It's always fun to mess with speech bubbles, too. I even did a little bit of research so that I could sneakily hieroglyph some rude words into the cartoon. They're not really bad. Just bad enough to be rewarding to anyone who took the time to translate them.

I've also got an illustration in the fourth issue of SODA magazine - which is free in Hobart. I know you can find issues at Devil's Kitchen, but I'm not sure where else.

Wilkie and Rezoning Battery Point

The other day, I was in the grocery that's just down the street from us and saw Andrew Wilkie looking at the wine. I kept looking at him and thinking, "OK, That's what his chin looks like in real life." I can't tell you how many times I have google image searched this guy for a cartoon. So, getting to see him was kind of exciting.

And for those new to Aussie Politics, Wilkie isn't a problem gambler. He's been working hard to cut down problem gambling - by taking gambles on the Prime Minister.

I'm surprised the Mercury let me go with this cartoon. In fact, they picked it out of the rough ideas I sent them.

Battery Point is being rezoned by the council. Well, they're trying. I'm still not sure what plans they've got up their sleeve, but they want one of the more prominent blocks to be rezoned into the Sullivan's Cove District - which is where Salamanca is located. That means property value will probably drop significantly for anyone who owns land on this block.

The council probably just want to build a giant parking garage. They're classy like that.

A Post about Phantom Peace Pacts, Puerile Parliamentary Practices, Posters of Parody and Pencilled Portrayals of Pregnant Posing People

I've been busy over the past three days. Three cartoons in a row - and two of them were weekend cartoons nonetheless! This first one is my favourite because a) I got to draw a ghost and b) Lara Giddings is getting increasingly more fun to draw. It's kind of an homage to Dave Cooper - what with the large eyes and disproportionate body.

 Those of you living in Australia will most likely already know about Tony Abbott and Christopher Pyne sprinting to get away from Craig Thomson's "tainted" vote. While most everyone is rolling their eyes and groaning over how juvenile these politicians are acting in Parliament, I bet all the political cartoonists in Australia were cheering them on. I swear I could hear a collective scrambling-towards-their-drawing-desk as this news broke.

OK, I have to admit that I'm not as happy about this cartoon. One thing I've learned about making cartoons is that everything about the cartoon has to serve the joke. This goes for composition, colour choices, perspective and drawing style.

The bland background colour was intentional - I wanted to make the waiting room seem boring. But the composition is bland, too. And for me, that kind of kills the joke. 

So, I've been mulling over this cartoon ever since I sent it to the Mercury to be printed. How could I have made this better? How can I avoid this happening again?

Well, for one thing, I could've added some more waiting patients in the foreground. Let's face it, this cartoon has a middle ground and a background, but that's it. More patients would've accentuated the joke.

I could've also worked from a different perspective. Maybe have the two people walking further down the hall. (One is Tanya Plibersek - the woman who got in trouble for having satirical posters of Tony Abbott hanging up in a back room in her Sydney electorate office where no one except staff members would actually see.) The poster could be hanging in the foreground with heaps of patients waiting.

I could have also probably thrown a skeleton in there somewhere as well.

You live and you learn, right?

Well, instead of ending this post on a low note, here's some life drawing that I did this week. The model was pregnant - which is a rare thing to get to draw.