WRITING ABOUT DRAWING

I've drawn things since I was old enough to draw things. I grew up with a plentiful supply of scrap card and paper brought home by my Dad - I was an early recycler. I would sit and draw endlessly; I was mostly quick and rough in style, though today I have developed a slower, neater technique that is ideal for computer finishing because the lines join up and you can fill it in with block colour.

Holding a pen is natural for me - pencils, brushes, chalks, I've tried them but I come back to pens. I'm using Pilot G-2 at the moment, with a black Sharpie for thicker lines and a chunky Uni Prockey for boxes. I use Spectrum Noir professional alcohol markers for hand colouring - they give a lovely even, paint-brush effect, and you can shade with them.

I draw on thin card and scan into my PC. Line drawings I fill using the Paint 3D program.  At this stage I can also clean up the smudges and wobbles that come with inky pen drawings using the eraser and the magnifier.

I enjoy the act and the action of drawing. In fact, I'm enjoying drawing now more than ever.  The downside is that the more I draw, the worse my handwriting gets. When I sign something or make a note, my hand thinks it's going drawing and tries to dash off quickly. The result is a large, loopy scribble with hardly the right number of bumps in it to account for the letters in my name. They say doctors have bad handwriting - but cartoonists do, too.