I See A Little Silhouetto Of A Man

Who is it? Oh let's not go through all that again. Hint: It's Freddie Mercury. 'Tis my entry for this month's caricature competition (I am now pointing to where you may see all the other entries ===> Ici. Scroll down a bit for the montage.).
To be absolutely honest, when  I saw the other caricatures I thought it was going to be a Crackerjack pencil for this particular International Playboy Millionaire Cartoonist, but at the very last gasp, just before voting closed, Steve Bright (yes, the Steve Bright) awarded me two points - two very treasured points.
I worked under some self-imposed restrictions this month. Before I started I was determined to make this drawing as loose and simplistic as I possibly dared. The pencils were very loose and scribbly and I tried to maintain that looseness on the Bamboo. On the whole, I pretty much stuck to my own brief with a few corrections to a few lines as I cyber-drew it. Am I pleased with the result? Pretty much, yes. The scariest moment was putting it out to the public domain in order to be judged. Pass me my brown corduroy trousers, would you? I also changed the brush size on the Bamboo to give me a more noticeably varied line which I think worked really well.
Hello? Still awake? Would you like to share a little secret? I was never a big fan of Queen. More of a King Crimson bod, but I don't suppose Robert Fripp will crop up as a subject for caricature.

We Are Programmed Just To Do

A belated update. This is my entry for last week's competition. If you scroll down a bit on the link you'll find a compilation of all the entries. The theme being Robot(s). Three people gave my entry their top vote and two people gave me their third choice which meant eleven points for me. In the post-competition comments some very complimentary things were said about my effort, which always infuses me with a warm glow. Warm glows are a good thing. More people should have warm glows, then the world would be a nicer place.
It occurs to me that these scribblings are the external representations of an internal thought process. There was some lengthy discussion on the CCGB boards some time ago about how people thought creatively: was it in words or images? Some people thought purely visually, some purely in words. I tend to be a mixture of both.
When this subject for the competition came up I immediately visualized a robot. I work with robots and I see them do the same thing hour after hour, day after day. Then, in words, I thought how bored they would get, what would be the result? The word drudgery came into my head. Then, household drudgery. Then, the image of the robot cutting corners on its household duties came into my mind. Then, I thought (in words), I'll go with that! So, you see, you've had a little insight as to what's inside my head. The Spiders! THE SPIDERS! GET THEM OUT! GET THEM OUT ARRRRRGGHH!!!!!
In my first pencils (which, incidentally, I can't be arsed to upload. Got a problem with that?) I gave the robot metallic eyebrows and less defined eyes, but otherwise it was pretty much what you see above. The eyebrows were raised to make it look a bit furtive.This made it seem too human in an odd way and I didn't want that. I wanted a robot. So, I lost the eyebrows and made the eyes look more like camera lenses. In my view this worked even better because, if anything, it made the robot look even more furtive and therefore funnier.

 I have now unarsed myself and uploaded the pencils. Compare and contrast. Essays in by Wednesday, please. Postal Orders gratefully received.
Ooh! I nearly forgot! I wanted to do a stippling effect for the dust, but the Bamboo pad wouldn't let me do it with any accuracy. the end result is interesting and it sort of works, but it wasn't what I had intended and has given me pause for thought. I have used stippling on other cartoons with a pen and ink (see my God, the devil and man cartoon) in the past and it's a nice effect to have at one's disposal. But, if the Bamboo can't cope with it..... Hmmmm.
Finally, a reminder. For goodness' sake, how many times do I have to tell you, if you click on the pictures you will get a bigger view.
Okay, dismissed.
P.S. My wife wanted to know why the carpet doesn't have a pattern. Drawing robots is fun. Drawing carpets isn't. Another one of my failings. Drawing anything should be fun. Either that or I couldn't be arsed (what a horrible phrase!).