Carbon 2018 recently commissioned this cartoon illustration of an eco-friendly Formula 1 car, complete with wind turbine and solar panels.

I suppose the next stage up of eco-friendliness would be a Fred Flintstone-like hole in the floor.

I've been asked by a few schools recently to create sets of characters that embody that particular school's learning values or illustrate visually what could otherwise be a difficult concept to grasp. On this occasion Beaulieu Infant School wanted a set of four superhero characters to personify reciprocity, reflection, resilience and resourcefulness. 

It was great fun sketching out potential characters and designing costumes based around the school colours, and all of the four designs I settled on sailed through the approval process for me to then draw up properly.

If you're a school that wants to utilise some colourful characters to help capture the imaginations of your children, do get in touch.

I've recently completed a set of cartoons for a new book called the Pocket Book Of Laughter, written by Lisa Sturge of Laughter Lines Coaching.

The Cartoonists' Club Of Great Britain has put together a nifty little ebook for Red Nose Day jam-packed with gigglesome cartoons. See some of the top UK cartooning talent doing what they do best. There are even one or two of mine in there.

The ebook is available from Lulu.com at under £2, so it would be a crime not to, wouldn't it. Here's the link. Off you go...

I've just completed this job for a Dubai-based children's theatre company. She's called Suzy Sunshine and will be used in a series of educational shows. 

The client supplied me with a drawing they'd done themselves that they had created for the tailor who was making the costume, but by their own admission it wasn't suitable in any way for marketing purposes.

What they were after was a friendly, vibrant cartoon character with lots of energy and appeal, so I knocked up a rough pencil sketch, got approval, and then created this finished piece.

Despite being in Dubai, the entire job was reasonably fast to turn round because the client knew exactly what she wanted and between the modern wonders of email and PayPal the information exchange and payment were swift and effortless.

The plan is to produce more Suzy Sunshines illustrations as the shows progress. 

Splash Display have created an ingenius piece of kit to help businesses join online advertising, social networking and measurable results. The Splash Point is a social sharing hub that helps your business build its database, increase footfall, improve feedback, heighten your exposure and increase your social presence. You can find out a lot more by visiting the Splash Display website.

Ceratopia were asked to get involved to create the Splash Point logo, storyboard a promotional video and provide a series of cartoons to be animated. The finished animation, built by Focal Strategy, can be seen here.

When work allows it a group of us attend a local pub quiz at The Bold Forester as Mrs Miggins' Pie Shop. It's so packed that you have to book in advance, and booking means you have to find your table when you arrive by the laminated signs put out by the organisers. Our sign has been a bit lame (our name written at the bottom of the rule sheet) so last time we were offered a charming multi-coloured wavy text thing created in Word. One of our team members (hello Dave) declined and said we'd sort out our own, by which he meant I'd do it. So here it is.

Using cartoon strips to sell your products and services can be a hit and miss affair (you've got super-powers, so what do you do with them? Flog carpet as Captain Underlay, of course) but as long as some thought is put into it they can work out very well.

The advantage of a cartoon strip is that you can use humour and friendly, colourful illustrations to get across your message, and because it's all drawn you don't have to worry about expensive sets and props or location shoots.

This is the second strip Carbon 2018 have asked me to create, but the brief put to me was nothing more than the strip's title plus the addition that they, as a business, were like a golf caddy. Everything else was down to me.

This meant I needed to educate myself on this aspect of their business in order to write a suitable script, so I spent some time familiarising myself with this before putting pencil to paper. I tend to plan a strip like this on scrap paper as a scribble so I can plan the visual gags alongside the words.

I then drew up a pencil rough of the strip so the client could get a good understanding of what I was suggesting and ensure I was saying the right things about their services. With just a few minor tweaks I was able to move to inking and colouring, and a finished strip.

You can find out more about Carbon 2018  at www.carbon2018.co.uk and if you'd like to find out more about how you can use cartoons and cartoon strips to promote your business get in touch with me here.

Currencies.co.uk recently commissioned me to produce the next Currency Hound cartoon for their new ad campaign. A few years ago they made some predictions in a press ad that have since come to pass, albeit they're not the cheery sort. What it does show, however, is a bit of financial savvy on their part, and that is certainly worth acknowledging. 

The blank page Currency Hound is holding will end up being the original advert, but to see the finished new one you'll need to keep your eyes peeled in the press.