• Mr Darcey
    Mister Darcy in young hunter mode

    We have had a few cats over the years. I can’t really remember living without one. At times we have had three at the same time.

    Mister Darcey, a handsome and very aloof cat, with two white hairs on his chest and black stripes on his black fur in the summer sunshine, succumbed to old age and illness a month ago or so. We miss him and keep seeing black shapes out of the corner of our eyes.

    But what is amazing is the birdlife in our garden since. in his final days, he would lie on the grass and watch a magpie walk past him just a few feet away. He did love to Cath a magpie. We knew he was on the way out when he couldn’t even be bothered to twitch his tail.

    We’ve never bothered to cage or cover raspberries before. We picked quite a few, then I went out to pick the final berries… and they had all gone! That never happened before. We were always happy to share the fruit, but not to be raided.

    We picked a good quantity of ripe gooseberries too. Mrs Rayner made some wonderful chutney with them. The remaining fruit had ripened and we decided to pick them after a walk. But they had gone! All of them!

    Pigeons (I think) are intent on digging up the roots of my French beans. A robin has become very friendly and watches me dig or weed from within touching distance. I hold my finger out for him to sit on but he hasn’t fallen for that yet!

    We had always had the occasional bird brought in as a gift and found remains around the garden, but I never knew how much the cats were keeping birds “under control”.

    We are not planning to get another cat anytime soon. But I think I’m going to have to learn new bird avoidance gardening techniques soon.

  • Every masterpiece begins with a stick figure drawing.

    Real artists, yes even the really great ones, work out their art with thumbnail drawings and stick figure sketches – often on the backs of envelopes or paper napkins in restaurants.

    To draw a stick figure is easy. To draw an action stick figure needs a little more work.

    With a bit of practice you’ll learn how the body moves so you’ll be able to draw anything you like from any angle.

    Luckily we can use photographs to help us work things out. In this video, Shoo goes through the process and shows you how to draw your own action stick figures. Why not draw along?

    You’ll find the photo of Rod Laver here:

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  • Be inspired by real life to create truly original characters.

    A beetle crossed my path on a walk the other day. I filmed it and took photos. When I enlarged the photos, there were elements of its design that inspired me to sketch out some ideas.

    A triangle theme emerged and I developed that further, each time trying to simplify the character to make it easier to draw again and again.

    Consistency is the secret to drawing characters – you have to recognise them in each frame of animation or page of book. So, simplicity and definite character identifiers are really important.

    It’s difficult dreaming up new ideas from your head. Go out and look at what nature has already designed and work with those shapes and ideas.

    Have fun and good luck! If you have drawing or illustration questions you would like Shoo to answer – put them in the comments box below through the contact page.

    Subscribe to this channel on YouTube for lots more drawing videos from award-winning illustrator, Shoo Rayner ??