365 Cartoons

071

2010-05-06T19:32:00.000+10:00

Red is my second least favourite colour. Purple is my least favourite colour. But it's strange because I have a few clothes I regularly wear that are purple. Hmm!

070

2010-05-02T23:20:00.000+10:00

Not much to say about this latest batch. Just some photoshop doodles I did tonight. Since I got back from my trip it's been work work work and I'm feeling pretty drained! Whew!

069

2010-05-02T23:18:00.005+10:00

068

2010-05-02T23:18:00.002+10:00

Away

2010-04-17T23:45:00.000+10:00

These daily cartoons are more like... bi-weekly or something. I'll be away for a week, but I'm going to do lots of sketching while I'm in Adelaide, I just won't have access to a scanner.

I've been working on a couple of big projects including a couple of book covers for a new young reader's chapter book series involving boys and monsters. They've been taking up most of my time and are fairly daunting pieces of work. Anyway, that's my excuse for the lack of cartoons. Terrible, aren't I?

See you in a week with hopefully lots of cartoon goodies to scan.

067

2010-04-12T23:17:00.000+10:00

And here is a happy horsie! Goodnight everyone!

066

2010-04-12T22:51:00.000+10:00

It's a turtle because my friend from art school, Lisa, requested a turtle! I've been ridiculously busy. And, I'm still struggling with what I'd like to do (yes, my idea of what I'd like to do is completely muddled).

Actually, this turtle summerises pretty much how I feel right now! Derp!

065

2010-04-09T23:24:00.000+10:00

Just a quick one before I go to bed today. I'm so buggered. Whew. I also watched Julie & Julia (or is it Julia & Julie?) with mum tonight and it was okay. Bit long. Goodnight!

064

2010-04-07T20:35:00.000+10:00

Number 064 is a quick self portrait. All of a sudden I've found myself swamped with work, which I am really happy about. It's all good, fun work too. Although, sitting at a computer for 12 hours a day might not be such a good thing...

Also, I just found this now, a little post on me on Matt Taylor's OneThing&Another blog. I'm stoked! Thank you Matt!

063

2010-04-06T19:15:00.001+10:00

Number 63 is a cute little reading owl. You might even say... he was a Bookish Owl! He (or she? it's pink after all) is from an illustration I did today in between client work for my blog, The Bookish Owl, which hasn't been updated for a while. I decided to give it a revamp and start regularly blogging again.

So if you'd like to see more artwork, more writings and a little on my personal journey as I start my career as a fulltime freelance illustrator, please check it out and perhaps follow it as well! You can find it here: http://www.thebookishowl.com. Happy reading!

Also, you can find my work on Flickr and you can follow my ridiculous daily thoughts on Twitter. Feel free to suggest some daily cartoon themes to me on twitter as well!

062

2010-04-05T20:11:00.001+10:00

It's a GERM! My bird was really sick this week. But thankfully, she's all better now and she's as chirpy as ever. But after all that worrying, all the measures I took to make sure she got better, all that running around in distress, I got sick too. Bird flu? Oh no!

This one's a little different today, although you'll probably see a lot more of this style in the future. I'm a huge fan of artists like Johnny Yanok, Steve Mack and Linzie Hunter. They're each unique, but they all have this vintage, retro, graphicy look that makes me sing inside.

I tend to yo-yo a lot each week with style. I'm also working on a lot of different projects with completely different styles. I find it hard sometimes, each day I tend to work on a few different projects and shifting from one to another is strangely difficult. So my goal is to rebuild my portfolio and sites and promote one/two styles.

My goal will probably be completely different next week, and the next, and the next. But, maybe this time it'll be different? Goodness me.

061

2010-04-03T18:13:00.001+11:00

This one was fun because I kept it pretty loose, and left the pencils as they were. I also like her hair. She probably looks like she's having too much fun despite the fact she's probably about to face off against some vicious space alien out to destroy humanity.

Number 061 is for sale!

AU$35 - brush pens on drawing paper - 148x210mm

060

2010-04-03T18:10:00.000+11:00

Cat plus fish equals happy!

Number 060 is for sale!

AU$35- brush pens on drawing paper - 148x210mm

059

2010-04-03T18:06:00.001+11:00

There's supposed to be 2 different shades of grey in there, but as it turns out, the different shades came out looking almost exactly the same.

Anyway, I wanted to do a few warm-up cartoons today before I did work, but of course, I woke up with a nasty cold and decided I should rest for a while, so my morning warm-ups ended up being completed at 6pm. I still have a lot of work to do today as well so I have to get to it!

Also a new Thai restaurant opened up in the local strip of shops near where I live, and my head exploded, it was so good. I've found my new favourite spring roll place.

Number 059 is for sale!

AU$25 - brush pens on drawing paper - 148x210mm

58 - LET'S GO!

2010-04-02T15:39:00.000+11:00

Hello friends!

Allow me to introduce the return of 365 cartoons - for GOOD! I'm going to do my dardnest to bring you something new to see every single day. Unfortunately, in the last month I've let the habit slip.

When undertaking a project like this, sometimes not everything is going to be up to scratch, sometimes the things you do might be pretty bad. That's what is great about seeing artists do daily drawings though, the viewers get to see the good and the bad, and join you on your daily journey as your drawing skills improve.

Something I've realised is exactly this; that not everything is going to be fantastic. I eventually became very self concious about uploading some of my previous efforts and a lot of times I preferred to not show anything at all and let down my readers.

So here's to the remaining 274 days of the year, and the 30-something cartoons I need to catch up on.

Thank you for sticking around and special thanks to those who have left comments and encouraged me to press on. I wouldn't be updating here without you :)

057

2010-03-22T22:55:00.000+11:00

Sorry for this meager effort, my paid work is going quite well, however my personal artwork is going pretty badly. The feeling of being about 3-4 weeks behind on my daily cartoons is also pretty daunting and soul-crushing. Arrgh.

056

2010-03-14T09:34:00.000+11:00

Decided to do a little cartoon warm-up today before I dive into some work.

055

2010-03-13T21:58:00.000+11:00

Just a sketch today. But I know some of you like my sketches, including Lindsay, who has often left lovely comments on this blog. Thank you Lindsay :) And thank you everyone who continues to visit and see what I am up to.

I'm an artist who likes to try lots of different things and styles. It's been a constant struggle, with different styles wrestling for dominance and me stressing out, feeling as though I really ought to just pick one and stick to it. After a few months of doing different kinds of professional work though, it's easy to tell which style I am drawn to most.

Anyway... here is a bull. I know I draw lots of tigers and bears and things, but the bull is a pretty important animal to me as well. When I draw them, I think of qualities such as toughness, discipline, and the good kind of stubbornness. Some of those I wish I had more of myself!

054

2010-03-12T21:06:00.000+11:00

And this is the last one for now, a concerned looking lion. I hope you guys enjoy these little drawings.

053

2010-03-12T21:05:00.000+11:00

Zebras are really fun to draw, by the way.

052

2010-03-12T21:04:00.000+11:00

Cheetahs. Rawr!

51

2010-03-12T21:03:00.000+11:00

Hi everyone, it's been a while since my last update. Just to show you all that I am not dead, I'm taking some bits and pieces from client work to put here. Is that cheating? Probably, but it's better than nothing, right? Oh dear.

This giraffe is from a safari themed pic.

050

2010-03-05T21:28:00.000+11:00

Number 50 is a rooster! He is from a piece of client work, the full piece can be seen here.

049

2010-03-04T00:00:00.000+11:00

This one isn't reeeeally a cartoon I suppose... or maybe it could count? Anyway I've been doing vector illustrations of dragons and trashcans all day so after I finished up, I went to my bookcase and poured over all my favourite figure drawing and retro pinup books. This quick drawing is probably unintentionally subconciously ripped off of something I saw tonight, but yeah.

I'd love to do more pinups and girly girls looking cute and lovely. There are not enough hours in the day dang it!

048

2010-03-02T22:16:00.000+11:00

Sorry guys, just another sketch today, then it's off to bed for me. Wierd kind of monster, reminds me a bit of Lilo and Stitch.

047

2010-03-01T21:17:00.000+11:00

Not much to say about this one. Very busy day.

046

2010-02-28T19:03:00.000+11:00

Just a dainty horse sketch for you today.

045

2010-02-27T18:08:00.000+11:00

A trendy goth-hair-colour schoolgirl armed with a sword and a riding pig drawn while watching UP, which I picked up for 12 dollars at an ex rental sale at Blockbuster Video. Hurrah!

I am still behind by 2 weeks, which is just shocking. But, I'll catch up gradually over time. I graduated from TAFE last year, and figured I would be spending this year doing a little bit of work and pottering around, maybe picking up a part time job. But I picked up one job, which lead to more jobs, and then got a few more jobs here and there, and it all totally took me by suprise. Anyway, I'm happy with today's two drawings, I hope you like them too!

044

2010-02-27T18:03:00.000+11:00

This is sort of a request from Halldor, who comes from Iceland! He emailed me with 2 things that he likes: Elephants, and David Bowie. So of course, I drew an elephant David Bowie.

043

2010-02-24T22:00:00.000+11:00

This is pretty much me at the moment. I'm sorry today's is only another brush pen sketch, but I barely have time to draw for myself these days. Which makes me a sad panda. Also, I totally wish I had teal blue hair, but sadly, I do not. Double sad!

042

2010-02-23T23:27:00.000+11:00

Trying out my new faber castell brush pens. They're nice for sketching!

041

2010-02-22T20:08:00.000+11:00

I saw 'The Wolfman' on the weekend, and I absolutely loved it. But I love any werewolf movie. RAWR!

12 cartoons to catch up on!

Cartoons resuming shortly

2010-02-21T22:26:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone, I've been away on a brief holiday this week, so apologies for having nothing new lately.

I'll be resuming with the cartoons tomorrow and I will be keeping count of how many I need to catch up on as I go and complete those when I can, rather than doing 10-20 rushed, crappy drawings.

Thank you all again for reading and keeping up with my 'toons!

040

2010-02-15T19:38:00.000+11:00

I apologise for the past week or so of absolutely nothing. It's been a heck of a couple of weeks and I am working away trying to get some projects finished before I go away on holiday this week. I've never been so busy in my life! I still have about 10 drawings or so to catch up on, and a lot of them will probably be sketches. However, after this week, you should be seeing some more regular posts.

This one is just a sketch I did in Photoshop, but this funny creature is an Axolotl. I used to own axolotls, and they are amazing little critters. This axolotl was requested by Cecillia Hidayat (Cecil), whose work you can find on her blog here!

039

2010-02-15T19:33:00.001+11:00

For some reason, horses and guitars seem to fit together for me. No idea why!

038

2010-02-15T19:32:00.002+11:00

Not sure what kind of animal this is. A raccoon? A big cuddly dog? Not sure, but he's totally jamming!

037

2010-02-15T19:31:00.002+11:00

Part of the musical animal themed week!

Busy Week

2010-02-07T18:42:00.000+11:00

I'm not going to have much time this week for my own personal drawing, unfortunately. However any missed days will be made up for. Thank you all again for reading and following my progress!

036

2010-02-05T11:19:00.000+11:00

This one's a bit different, I thought I'd like to up the quality of these drawings and spend more time on them when I have the chance. Today I just felt I needed a decent break from client work so I sat down and drew away for myself.

It's also a tiger playing a violin! Hurrah!

035

2010-02-04T23:51:00.000+11:00

Kicking off the first weekly theme with something good and fun - 'Musical Animals' suggested by Jaime G. Wong, whose awesome work you can see at http://retrazos.pe/. This is going to be a fun week of drawing! Hurrah!

PS. I seriously messed up his front foot. Ooops!

Something different!

2010-02-03T12:38:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone! I would like to thank all of you who have looked at my work, left comments, sent emails and purchased original artwork. Your kind words and encouragement have really kept me going and it warms my heart to know that people believe in me and are inspired by the project. Thank you!

I'd like to try something new this month, and make the whole thing a little more interactive and interesting for people. I'd like to start having weekly themes for the drawings, and I would also like to invite readers to email me with any suggestions or requests they would like to see me draw. So if there's something you'd like to see some time on 365 Cartoons, please feel free to email me and send in your request! If I draw your request I'll also give you a shout out and, if you have one, a link to your creative/art/design blog as well.

I can't guarentee that I will draw every submission I recieve, but, what have you got to lose, anyway? ;)

Thanks again, dear readers, and enjoy your day!

034

2010-02-03T11:50:00.000+11:00

This one was a bit of a play with gouache and coloured pencils. I also thought it would be a cute piece for Illustration Friday's topic, Focused. The bull is focusing on the final details of his drawing and is determined to get it right.

033

2010-02-03T11:49:00.000+11:00

The bull has been bullied!

032

2010-02-03T11:48:00.003+11:00

031

2010-02-03T11:48:00.000+11:00

Hello everyone, sorry for the delay. I have four cartoons to upload today! The first being this horse, which is a birthday present.

Behind

2010-02-01T19:07:00.000+11:00

I realise I am a little behind on these. I still need to do a cartoon for the 31st of January (number 031), and today's (number 032), but I am absolutely swamped with work and using what little downtime I have to relax.

I'll have them done soon. Just don't think I've given up on this project :)

030

2010-01-31T00:03:00.000+11:00

Oh dear, just missed posting on the 30th within like, 2 minutes... noooo!

Anyway, here is a dragon with a pointy thing.

029

2010-01-29T23:27:00.000+11:00

Three kitties for you today :) That's all I can think of today.

028

2010-01-28T15:58:00.000+11:00

I'm really struggling lately! The daily-ness has been taking it's toll on me for the past week or so.

I'm also having problems with my new ink that I bought. It feels like all the pigment has clumped up inside the bottle and even if I 'shake well', it's still all lumpy and the resulting liquid isn't very black. It's real frustrating. Can anyone recommend a super good brand of ink that's nice and black?

027

2010-01-27T23:15:00.000+11:00

Today I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and do a daily cartoon properly, unfortunately. But instead of doing one tomorrow and missing a day yet again, I thought I'd share this boy knight I did. He's from a piece that I finished for a client this evening. He's supposed to be chasing down a big dragon! Rawr!

026

2010-01-26T22:44:00.000+11:00

It just occured to me that I probably should have done an Australia Day related cartoon today. Nevertheless.. Happy Australia Day! The quality of this one is pretty bad, sorry about that. I was trying out an old brushpen that I found in my cupboard that has probably been hidden away for like 10 years. It didn't turn out too nice.

Oh well, hopefully the next few 'toons will be a bit better!

025

2010-01-25T20:11:00.000+11:00

Another Bear! I bet you weren't expecting that! But wait, there's more! I want to share this illustration I did today as well. It's my new Twitter background and it's an illo I did for my up and coming personal website/blog, which can be found here. Nothing there yet, of course, but that's where it'll be!

MelanieMatthews.net, while mostly a personal site will be home to my illustration blog and also a bunch of articles, tutorials and things. I'll have more news on it soon.

024

2010-01-24T17:20:00.000+11:00

And for today's daily cartoon, it's a plane! No, it's a bird! No, it's Super Boy, blasting off to battle dastardly villains before bed time.

023

2010-01-24T17:11:00.000+11:00

Whoa, sorry that this one is a bit late! Hopefully the colour will somehow make up for that. This little centaur thingy is painted with gouache on watercolour paper. It's actually been a little while since I did a proper painting. Anyway, she can be all yours for $45!

022

2010-01-22T23:43:00.000+11:00

Just for a change, I wanted to do a daily cartoon in Photoshop! This is a lot less cartoony than usual, and more children's book-ish, but I felt like a little change today.

I know you guys hate hearing me complain about the weather, but seriously, why's it so hot today? Honestly! Arrgh.

021

2010-01-21T23:17:00.000+11:00

I was feeling pretty uncreative today, so I just did a couple o' bears. This week is turning out to be a real downer, but there's light at the end of the tunnel.

020

2010-01-20T22:30:00.001+11:00

Today I had to go to the dentist, which I've been dreading. Thankfully, I came out with no problems at all. Perfect teeth! Anyway, that's all I can think of right now. Hope you like this dragon.

019

2010-01-19T22:29:00.001+11:00

This little guy is something of an idea I have for a comic: a sword and sorcery tale about bears, and probably a tiger, and all sorts of other animals. He is a mystical shaman of sorts, who gives out holy blessings to brave warriors about to embark on great journeys full of dragon-slaying and other heroic things.

One day.

018

2010-01-18T21:43:00.001+11:00

Today, for a change I decided to draw on coloured pastel paper (although, the colour didn't scan very well).

017

2010-01-17T21:22:00.000+11:00

Lucky number 17, a snakity snake. For a Sunday, today has been unusally stressful and unproductive.

016

2010-01-16T23:03:00.000+11:00

Woohoo! It's the first colour cartoon for the year! I saw Fantastic Mr Fox today and I thought it was so wonderful and charming. A very refreshing change from most animated films I've seen recently. Loved it.

015

2010-01-15T22:54:00.001+11:00

I don't think there's anything cuter than a budgie. They're tiny, fluffy, curious, playful, and make lovely chirpy noises. My budgie is named Patch and she's the cutest little thing ever. Here's a photo of her I took using my phone.

Nyaaww! It's this photo (and others on my phone) that inspired today's cartoon, and I got that idea from the latest challenge over at a great site called Life in Exhibit - the Cell Yah! challenge! So you could say that this is my small contribution to their challenge! Do you have any photos on your mobile that might make interesting sources for pieces of art? If that sounds like fun to you, I recommend you check out the details on their site.

I draw a lot of animals as you can see. If you like animal drawings, check out Samuel Washburn's Animals in Suits. He's been drawing a sharply dressed animal every day for a whopping 116 days so far, that's a super achievement! There are lots of amazingly different characters and personalities in each drawing, and I particularly like this creature, called a abludomelita obtusata... try saying that 3 times over as fast as you can!

014

2010-01-14T23:46:00.002+11:00

Beware the dancing werewolf boy! I bought Copic brush pens today and I think they're pretty rad. Nice to draw with, although nothing beats ink and a brush, in my opinion.

Also, check out Kate Sullivan's work at Draw a Day, she's doing some awesome daily digital drawings. It's tough, but we can do it Kate! Whooo!

The wonderful designer Sneh over at Little Box of Ideas is also taking on a 365 challenge, and she is creating crazy vector characters! Her latest character is Lightron, a curious little robot indeed!

SOLD!

013

2010-01-13T19:31:00.000+11:00

Oh! It's a donkey! Not one of my best but I really enjoyed drawing this for some reason. Probably because I was more relaxed while drawing. This one was done with sepia ink pens.

012

2010-01-12T22:20:00.001+11:00

I think I really need to approach these differently. This week has been a stressful week trying to find good time to make good cartoon drawings though, but still - I feel like they're becoming a bit stale and I'm not really learning anything from them. I think I will be a bit more playful, more adventurous and try to experiment a bit more in future cartoons.

Anyway, if you would like one of them, the panda and the boar are $15 each.

011

2010-01-12T22:19:00.002+11:00

This one is just dreadful.... sorry! The drawing was okay, but when I inked it it just turned into a big mess.

Today's Excuse

2010-01-11T20:18:00.003+11:00

It's 43°C and my brushes and pencils keep slipping out of my hand :)

Sorry folks, the heat is driving me crazy. I'll put up two tomorrow!

010

2010-01-10T23:25:00.001+11:00

It's the big number 10, perhaps he'll grant me 10 wishes! I bought a sepia india ink brush pen today so I decided to try it out with today's cartoon.

I've gotten lots of emails in the last few days - I will respond to all of them soon! I just have a lot to get through these days. But thank you to everyone who has sent me an email. I really appreciate it.

And that's all I can think of to say right now.. so, goodnight!

009

2010-01-09T23:43:00.001+11:00

Hmm, not particularly proud of this one, sorry! I'm just about ready to pass out from all the heat lately. I am not looking forward to Monday!

008

2010-01-08T21:45:00.003+11:00

Another tiger, you say? Ding dong, you're not wrong! I tried something a little... hmm, different with this one, with his funny stripes.

In the near future I'm planning to do some more coloured pieces and things that are a bit more interesting, but as you might have read previously I have a lot going on at the moment. But stick around for the party, there's more good things to come!

SOLD!

007

2010-01-07T22:54:00.001+11:00

Today's cartoon is a pencil drawing! I didn't have much time at all today to do a nice ink piece unfortunately. This one was inspired by an artist I found on Cartoon Retro named Jose Luis Moro, who draws adorable little horses. I'd like to make this drawing into a painting sometime.

Today my brother and his girlfriend left Australia to go back to their place in England. It's been fun having them here. Tomorrow I'll be working on some illo's for book covers and a marketing illustration for a publishing company, then on the weekend I'm doing some art to show to another local book publisher. I've been lucky to have gotten lots of work from an extremely awesome couple of clients.

Oh, speaking of awesome, my little blog was featured on Drawn! today!! I'm so happy, I can't believe it. Thank you for looking at my work and I hope you like what I have in store here in the future!

006

2010-01-06T21:41:00.000+11:00

Wwwha-what is this? No really, what is it? Is it a fat kid? I don't really know, maybe I draw weird fat pixie kids when I am busy. He might sit on my shoulder reminding me of deadlines. I don't really know WHAT it is, but anyway, almost 1 week of daily cartoons done, 51 weeks or so to go!

005

2010-01-05T14:49:00.001+11:00

Here's a croc and a bear for you today! Today I loosened up the inking and I think I had a bit more fun that way.

004

2010-01-05T14:46:00.001+11:00

Very sorry

2010-01-04T22:16:00.000+11:00

Number 4 won't be done today, and my only excuse for not doing it is poor time management with work stuff and an unavoidable suprise trip to a brewery for some reason. But! 004 and 005 will both be posted tomorrow.

I think it's pretty unrealistic to expect to do a good quality ink/gouache drawing every day, but I am promising 365 cartoons - one for every day of the year - they just may not be done over all 365 days of the year. I'm going to do my very best to do one a day as much as possible, but sometimes it's simply unavoidable, sadly.

In the future I'd like to avoid completely missing a day - if I foresee a day where I won't be able to do a cartoon, I will complete more cartoons in advance to make up for it.

Just don't give up on me yet! Today was just one heck of a day.

003

2010-01-03T22:41:00.002+11:00

Today's cartoon was inpsired by the amazing wildlife photography of Buck Shreck. Please check out his work!

Also, since this one is a bird, I'm using it as an excuse to direct you to my Twitter page! Tweet tweet!

I'm only 3 days in and I'm already feeling the amazing benefits of doing personal artwork every day. Every night (or afternoon, or whenever) I'm telling myself, 'ok, that's enough client work, it's time to do some personal drawing for me'. I urge anyone who is thinking of doing a similar project, go ahead and do it!

Speaking of similar projects, check out the 365 Logo Project, featuring the logo-tastic work of graphic designer Srdjan Kirtic, aka Wizemark. Great to see more people taking on such a big challenge, best of luck to you Wizemark!

002

2010-01-02T20:49:00.001+11:00

It's a boy in a bear suit! I'm more happy with this one than yesterday's piece. Today has been a really fantastic day, and I think this drawing kind of reflects my happiness with today. Especially since I did it at the *end* of the day.

001

2010-01-01T14:30:00.002+11:00

Happy new year!! Bit of a sloppy start really, but hey, it begins. ~~This dopey tiger is $15 if you want him!~~

SOLD!

Welcome

2009-12-29T11:07:00.000+11:00

Starting January 1st, 2010, I will be drawing three hundred and sixty-five cartoons - one for every single day of the year. The idea for this project came to me just after Christmas in 2009, as a personal challenge to myself, as well as part of a new year's resolution to draw more every day and be more productive.

There is no real theme for these drawings - most of them will probably be characters. I do however aim to explore as many different things as I can, different types of animals, people, vehicles, scenes, whatever I feel like drawing that day!

All 365 cartoons will be painted on A5 size pastel/watercolour paper (210mm by 148mm) and will be painted in black or sepia ink, or gouache. Also, all 365 cartoons will be signed, numbered and available for SALE! Yippee!

I hope you will join me on the 1st of January as I celebrate the coming of the year 2010 - a year of great significance to me. This year will be a time of change, personal growth, and pretty much finding my own place in this big world.

And of course, a big year full of cartoons! Hoo-rah!