The Cartoonist life can be a bit unpredictable, or at least erratic. three weeks may go by with nary a pen raised in work, then the weekend rolls in and you find yourself drawing a caricature every five minutes for 6 hours straight!
Yesterday was such a day, tramping all across the west midlands in the service of the giant posca marker in the sky. Read on to find out more…
DANCE ACROSS BIRMINGHAM
After a ridiculously early swimming lesson with my toddler(he’s getting so good!!) I bus across Birmingham to get a new teal caricaturist shirt at T.K. Maxx so I can experiment with dressing like
a watermelon at tonight’s gig. Luckily watermelon-coloured clothes are still de rigueur and I nab a sweet shirt and rush off to my next cartoonist appointment on the other side of Birmingham…
CARICATURES IN THE SUN
My friend Mohini Howard who is a fantastic cook and runs Adventures with Food cookery Workshops https://www.facebook.com/groups/173349706612240/ invited me to work as a cartoonist
at Moor Green allotments https://www.facebook.com/pages/Moor-Green-Allotments/201879456609018 in south Birmingham for their ‘Raise the Roof’ fundraising event and even though I had to hightail it to an event after a couple of hours I had a blast raising money for the upkeep of the allotments and clubhouse.
I brought my big a2 drawing pad with me in case anyone wanted some big caricatures and this lovely family below gave me a donation for a caricature of all four kids.
I handed over the cash to Mohini, grabbed some of her delicious pakoras and skipped along to bus it to my next event…
CARTOONIST ON THE BUSES
A drawback of being a caricaturist without a car is the fact that a half hour car journey across Birmingham is for me 3 buses that may or may not decide to arrive!
It has to be said though, I HATE being late and always leave plenty of time, so when buses 2 and 3 decided to disappear I cabbed it to willenhall near Wolverhampton for the evening’s caricature event,
a 5th birthday party in a huge banqueting hall that was a pretty spectacular feast of fun thanks to the guys at Funki Ents https://www.facebook.com/FunkiEnts/ .
There were a gaggle of princesses, jugglers, DJs and waiters, and sweets n pop flying everywhere! Being a cartoonist of professionalism I didn’t let the chaos faze me and set to drawing caricatures of the revellers in their finery. At some caricature events the punters are just such a laugh to chat to while I caricature and this was one of them. The guest’s hair game was particularly on point and the lady below should clearly have one some kind of contest. Her hair was made to caricature!
CARTOONIST CRASH
After a knackering day as a cartoonist schlepping around Birmingham and the West Midlands I finally get home at 10.30 to reflect on the day. A day in the life of a caricaturist can be banal or frustrating,
illuminating or elating. Today was pretty much all of those things and more, although gladly erring towards the latter more positive stuff! The main takeaways were as follows;
- Holding a 2 year-old up in water for half an hour is suprisingly tiring
- A cartoonist working outside must apply suncream and drink water!
- A caricaturist can be a useful dude to have when fundraising!
- To the west of Birmingham, the chips be DEEP FRIED!
- A caricaturist can dress like a watermelon, and that’s okay
- A caricaturist should probably wear ink-coloured, as opposed to pink coloured trousers.(smudges 🙁 )
TO FINISH
Thanks to all who read this. I’m trying to simultaneously make my blogposts SEO-friendly whilst simultaneously make them palatable to the human brain so anyone actually reading this is a
legend in my opinion. Just so you know I do care about these things being entertaining and informative as well as useful!
See you all soon. Remember, if you need a caricaturist for your event anywhere in Birmingham, the West Midlands or the wider UK, just drop me a message here
https://penjones.co.uk/booking-enquiries/ and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Cheers all,
Ben ‘Pen’ Jones