Very Good Cartoonists.

I have decided to dedicate some of my website to the great work of great good cartoonists (one's that actually make a living from drawing and selling cartoons for a living).

Thus, I extend this offer to all my readers. Do you know a Very good cartoonist, that would like to be interviewed on this very site for the reading pleasure of the readership of this website?

All cartoonist I interview (via email, I cannot travel due to the fuel crisis, and long standing environmental issues) will have the chance to have their work displayed right here, on TALENT FREE, for free. No charge and no obligation to draw anything they don't want to.

I would also like to interview people who aren't very good cartoonists, but have lots of enthusiasm and who know's, may improve one day, perhaps by reading interviews with cartoonists that are better than them right here on TALENT FREE.

Please contact me at leonard.gubbins@gmail.com 

I've laid an egg!

Thinking about the cartoon SHARP I posted yesterday, I have been thinking about how I could create my own unique approach to cartooning that would be unique to me, and not give The Creative Genius credit for work that I have done, using his idea.

This got me thinking. What if instead of drawing a cartoon in a unique shape, such as a triangle, I drew a cartoon in an egg shape instead and called it an egg?


I could lay an egg, each and every day!

Old style cartoonists are "squares"!

I have recently discoverd a new approach to the art of cartooning, inspired by the legendary Danny Burleigh "thecreativegenius". Instead of drawing cartoons in a boring old rectangle, like cartoonists have done for as long as they were drawing on the walls of The Daily Cave, he draws his hilarious and unique cartoons in a triangle, and calls them "sharps". To add to the creativity, he also includes a photo of himself at the side of each and every "sharp". In this post newspaper apoplectic world, I think the idea is really interesting.


The Creative Genius is indeed, very much so a genius for creating a new branch of cartooning artwork. I have attempted to recreate this style, and I don't mind telling you, it's not as easy as it looks! My triangle went a little wrong. Something I hope to improve on the more I do it. Who knows? Perhaps one day, all cartoons will be like this? I can see those so called, "expert" cartoonists resisting this new way of working (probably because it's technically difficult, and they are stuck in their ways) but I think this is the start of something big.


Expect more Dairy Lea cartoons to start popping up everywhere from today on wards.


Danny - you're a bloody genius!

Novelty Woman Inspirational Artwork Sketch.

I have been very busy this week, but I still managed to draw some wonderful artwork for your delight, and friendly to your wallet, while also solving your gift problems for months to come.


Fistly, I did this sketch:

I then decided that I could use my new found skills in Photoshop to create something magical with Photoshop. T-Shirts and Tea Towels.

You too could look like the cool guy at a summer BBQ, or even in B&Q!


































Or you could buy your auntie Ethel a lovely set of Tea Towels that she could use to dry the cats bowls with, or just to impress the vicar when he pops round for a crunch cream and a gossip!

Hear's more unoriginal crap.

I'm stunned. Just this very morning (incidentally the three year anniversary of the death of my mothers next door neighbor of all days!) I discover that someone has been copying my hard work of hilarious cartoons and illustrations (at reasonable prices). 


I cannot understand why anyone would want to copy my highly original artwork, done using unique methods, that no one else should be using. Here' is the offending cartoon:

and here is the cheap copy:


As you can see the similarities are just staggering. Why would someone want to do this to me? I depend on drawings such as the above one thus. I'm sorry to say this, but if I ever find out who is pirating my hilarious cartoons (at reasonable prices) I shall have no option to sue them.

I'm still writing articles for the parish news.

I have often being asked why I am so successful with the local parish newsletter, writing very popular articles for it, which increases sales within the local parish. I first approached the editor of the parish magazine back in 2006, when I met him at my nieces christening. I told him that I was a very successful writer (I wasn't (not at that stage anyway)), and he invited me to submit something to him by post, or (surprisingly) via email.


I wrote a lovely piece about the story of badgers in the local woods at Christmas time, and what sort of things they might buy each other from the local corner shop from Mr Squirrel, the local shop keeper. The tale of Consumerism at Christmas Time In Badger Wood became an instant hit with the readership, and Jim assured me that he thought it was my article which created a surge in circulation that year, selling an estimated extra 15 copies that Christmas!


This was before I became a cartoonist, so sadly there's no cartoons to go with this, but I thought it might be fun to revisit Badger Wood. Sadly, I can't draw badgers very well, so I decided to change the story to Worm Wood. It'll never been seen in the parish magazine, but here's it is for your pleasure.


Enjoy......

Caption Competition.

I must apoloigise to all the people that look forward to my regular updates on the world of cartooning and Search Engine Optomisation. I have been very busy this past week with my hedge and lawn. Preparing it for the winter months. I think the netting looks nice.



I have decided that it's time that we held a caption competition here on Talent Free. I know that lots of you who can't draw really funny cartoons like me, and Cathy , but you can come up with lots of splendid captions (judging by all the 'captions' I've been recieving in my email just lately!!!) So the task this week is to come up with a caption for the above cartoon that I have drawn. There will be a prize for the winner of the contest (Gel pens possibly, but not the matallic set - I'm saving them to drawer some special christmas cards for friends and relatives over the festive season).

Please leave a comment if you can think of an hilarious caption that matches the hilarity of the original cartoon. The object in the middle IS a free standing swimming pool (incase you was wondering, or have never seen a swimming pool before!)

I'm going to draw Penelope Cruze.

I've decided that it might be quite good fun to draw somthing cartoonists call a caricature. That is a picture (or drawing) of someone done in a cartooney style, but instead of just looking like a cartoon drawing that I've copied from another cartoonist (so many cartoons are all the same these days. Drawn with lines. Lettering for the caption etc) this one will look like I had the celebrity right there in front of my drawing pad when I did this.

My plan to do this drawing and make it look like the celebrity that I want it to look like is to draw the picture while quickly looking at my pad and then quickly looking at a photo of the celebrity back and forth as I go. I'm going to draw the celebrity just like they appear in the photo, and then exaggerate their features to add some fun and uniqueness to the drawing. If I didn't do this, then it would just be a drawing of the celebrity.

Remember I am not an artist, and I'm also a single mum.

I'm hoping Penelope Cruze will give me at least £20 for this drawing caricature of herself image.

Here we go.....

I think that worked out quite well. I'm sending it to Penelope Cruze today, but I have to send it by email, as I don't have a colour printer. If she wants it for her art collection, she'll just have to print it out herself.

Wonderful gifts.

Well it's that time of year again, when many people know someone who's going to have a birthday or maybe a divorce or something to celebrate, and nothing says a celebration better than a wonderful personalised gift.

These days there are many kinds of personalised gifts one can buy for money for a loved one, or special friend, or even a member of your own family relation. You could buy them a shopping bag, or a toaster with their name printed on it, but would that really make them happy, and make them get you an even more expensive gift when it's your turn to have something bought for your for your birthday or celebration?

Probably not. The thing is when buying personalised gifts for people that might buy you a more expensive gift in return, or even for your Birthday, is that the personalised gift must look tasteful and expensive, even if it was actually quite cheap.

Personalised cartoons can make wonderful gifts that people will treasure for years to come, probably display on their walls or office walls if they are the sort of person that works in an office, or maybe their bathroom wall if they are unemployed lay-a-bouts (you may not want to buy anything for an unemployed lay-a-bout as it's highly unlikely they will ever buy you a gift in return and that would be a waste of money! No one likes out of date Hula-Hoops bought from the pound shop).

Finding a cartoonist to make you a personalised cartoon gift used to be quite difficult, but since the invention of the internet it's now easier than ever. All you have to do is open Google, or some such like search engine and search for "Leonard Gubbins Cartoonist" or a (very) similar phrase and you will find a cartoonist that will create something very special for as little as £20.

Try it. You may be pleasently surprised when you get something worth having back from the person that you bought the personalised cartoon back.

I've been rejected yet again!

One of the most frustrating aspects of being a successful cartoonist is the sheer volume of rejection one has to deal with on a monthly basis. I never send anything other than unique and wonderful cartoons to various magazines and trade magazines, and yet they don't even have the decency to reply to me giving me a good enough reason why they don't want my cartoons.

When I send something off to a magazine I expect them to accept the cartoons or at the very least explain themselves when they don't want my cartoons. Those that don't reply get struck off my list of publications to send to, as quite frankly I don't wish to do business with companies that employe rude cartoon editors. I now have quite a long list of publications that simply aren't worth bothering with:

• The New Yorker
• Private Eye Magazine
• Bella
• Woman's Own
• Dudley Parish News
• The Gaurdian Newspaper
• The Lancet
• The Daily Star (rejected my strip cartoon idea about boiled eggs - idiots!)
• Razzle (how they can claim my cartoon broke certain laws I don't know - they have photos of meat!)
• Viz
• The People's Friend (perhaps the cartoon should have been coloured with watercolours?)
• The Advertiser (free newspaper)
• Furniture Salesman Monthly (inc Carpet Warehouse Times)

None of these publications will now get the chance to publish any Leonard Gubbins cartoons. The way I look at it is, either take legal action against them, or just ignore them.

I've decided to start a new feature on the website today. It's going to be called THE REJECTION SECTION. Here I will publish all the cartoons that these fools have ignored so far. There's quite a lot of them, so it should be a long long running feature.

Here's the first cartoon in the Rejection Section:

I thought Bella or Woman's Own would love this hilarious cartoon as it covers women's issues quite well, while at the same time being quite funny. Sent it to both of them - heard nothing. How very rude. Perhaps the female cartoon editor had the printers in, and wasn't in a polite mood? I don't know. What I do know is that I won't be sending them any more cartoons like this!

Mr Brightside.

Here's the very first entry in how to draw a constable contest (no material prize available). What a wonderful start to the contest, from Mr Steve Bright. He's neglected to tell us his age, but I imagine from the outstanding quality of his drawing (he hasn't gone over a single line) he must have left school at least 10 years ago. Well done you!

Steve has clearly taken the advice I gave in the tutorial and has drawn the policemen in funny 'police' hats and uniforms so you can tell they are policemen. If he'd drawn them without any clothes on for instance, it would have been very hard to tell what they were supposed to be, so well done again.

It's a super drawing, and I think it deserves at least 4. points out of 5, 5 points for effort and 3.9554 for not going over the lines.

Please send your entries in for this contest soon, as I have literally several that I need to assess. Come on folks. I know you can do better than Steve.

Cartoons for businessmen who can't draw them themselves.

I've noticed since becoming a professional cartoonist how many businesses don't use cartoons as their main way of promoting their businesses. I find this very strange. When I'm looking through the Yellow Pages to find a plumber to unblock my outside drain hole, I'm not going to be drawn towards one that doesn't use eye catching cartoons or illustrations in their advert. Plain text, or boring lists of qualifications don't mean that the plumber is going to be any good.

And besides. If he skimps on his advert by not spending something like £20 to a cartoonist to make his advert eye catching and humourous (people need cheering up when their toilets are blocked) then what eles has he skimped on? Does he have wonky brakes on his van, therefore possibly putting your Corgi in danger has he tries to turn around in your cul-de-sac? Perhaps he bought all his tools from some dodgy bloke in the pub, and he might break your u-bend while he's trying to remove all the Tena-Man.

But there's a solution to your problems if you're a business man and you can't draw cartoons. Hire a web cartoonist to draw the cartoon for you. Most web cartoonist can draw all sorts of things (but not horses).

Here's a few of the top three web cartoonist for hire for your project.

1. Leonard Gubbins
2. L.G.
3. Mr G

I'd be happy to help you with your project of course as well I would. Please send me plenty of details about your project, starting off with how much you are prepared to pay a cartoonist for drawing something for you for your business needs.

I am able to send you a rough draught 20 minutes after I get your briefs.

Please join my new forum.

Well, after being banned by several other forums of late I have decided to start up my own forum. I figure this way I can't be banned from this forum, as it is MY own forum. Trouble is, I don't have any members to ban myself, as I'm the only member of MY own forum, so I would like to invite all cartoonists, cross-stitcher's, and spiritualists that would like to be banned from my forum to register for MY own forum, so I can start banning them from MY own forum and then I'll feel all warm inside.

I'd like to think that MY own forum will become a really good place for all wonderful people like me to publish their own work on there, and save me the trouble of having to bother quite so much. I'm very busy with my cats diarrhoea at the moment (funny cartoon story about that to follow soon), so I'm not getting as much time as I'd like to write ALL the forum posts myself.

First 3 members to join up can be moderators if they like.

I've entered a contest to win.

The policeman is calling edwina a dirty pig, and she is thinking that
he is a dirty pig but she's not sure how dirty he is.

I've entered this cartoon in a contest on a cartoonist forum for professional cartoonists. I have my legal team ready, incase I don't get any votes. I think it's possibly the best cartoon in the contest, but knowing how cliche the cartoonist forum can be, I'm expecting a conspiracy against my cartoon. I'll probably be disqualified on a techincality or something, like not meeting the deadline, but as I say to many of my clients, I can't work well within a deadline. I'm a cartoonist (and article writer, and spiritualist), not a bloody performing monkey!!!!

Funny Greetings Cards.

I've decided that it's about time that I began to be a successful Funny Greetings Card artist, alongside being a fantastic cartoonist and article writer.

There's something wrong with the Zazzle shop that I set up, as no matter how many brilliant designed funny greetings cards I post on there, I'm not making any sales at all. Clearly it's something to do with the Zazzle software. I tried to make them aware of the problem, but they are just ignoring my emails.

Nevermind. Here is a few designs of my fantastic cartoon greetings cards, designs.

How to haggle. Part 1.

I am often asked how that I am coping with the worst recession since records began, being a new cartoonist business person expert, that is yet to receive the influx of £20 notes that I expected to receive by now, I am forced to be a canny shopper. Particularly when making purchases in charity shops.

Now many people in this country are not very good at haggling, and even less so when "it's for charity", but I think it would be stupid to ignore the possibilities available to the strong minded bargain hunter. Last week I was in the local Age Concern shop, looking for something classy for the wife/girlfriends birthday. Having browsed the various brick-a-brac on sale at this particular branch, I noticed a rather fetching "Elvis Presley" mirrored picture. It looked like something I once missed out on a bidding war on Ebay, and thought it would be an ideal addition to the downstairs toilet, and of course a splendid gift for the said Wife/girlfriend.

She said that £5.50 was the price set by Marjorie, and as she wasn't in on Tuesdays she couldn't do anything about the price! I was quite rightly disgusted with this attitude, and refused to agree to such a high asking price. After around 45 minutes of just repeatedly asking for a 50% discount, and this elderly woman stubbornly refusing to see the "the customer is always right", she asked me to leave the shop, or she would call the police.

I can't understand why charity shops employ such dogmatic people. Clearly she was thinking more about her commission, rather than focussing on creating a satisfied customer, that might pop in to buy an ashtray or a bobble-less cardigan in the future. Age concern have lost me as a customer now. Once I find a shop that won't treat me well, I refuse to ever shop there again. That's why I no longer shop at Rumbelows. As far as I'm concerned, those sort of businesses can go bankrupt! Hopefully the local Age Concern shop will learn some lessons from this before that happens.

New Digital tool for cartoonists.

Electronic Arts has just announced the release of their brilliant Computer Art package for the Commodore Amiga (and PC compatibles) computer, Deluxe Paint IV. This is the premium digital art package currently available to the home user.

It has some wonderful features, such as 256 colour palettes (that's ANY 256 colours that you choose) or even a special HAM mode that gives a 4,096colour palette effect using a special interlace mode (Amiga 32 bit only, such as the 1200, or 600). I can't currently find anywhere online that's selling Deluxe Paint IV at the moment. At £99.95 I expect it's only available in the USA right now, but it'll no doubt make it's way over to the UK soon, when we can all get our hands on it and take our digital cartooning to a whole new level. Hopefully that high price will be a little more reasonable by such a time by then as well.

Dead convieniant.

As well as being a cartoonist, I also do 'fun' readings for the recently bereaved. Just send a cheque for £20, and a few back ground details and I'll send back a personal reading from a much missed dead relative*

If their death is also a funny story, I can also prepare a wonderful cartoon to treasure for years to come as a valuable momento of the dead relative (extra charge will apply)

* Please include as much detail as possible to make the reading look as authentic as possible for the recipient.

Making money from Cartoons.

I am often asked how I came to be a professional cartoonist, and such a successful one at that. Well, it is all very simple. I realised a few weeks ago how easy it was to draw cartoons, and that I had a wonderful mind for the creative process. The first time I picked up one of my glitter pens (the gold one, if you must know) and started scribbling away, I knew this was the new career I'd been looking for, for so long.

I had many faulse starts to many different careers. When I left school I joined art college for 2 hours and then realised that this was not for me. They frowned upon the use of glitter pens, or something. I'm not sure, but they claimed I was crap, and tried to steer me towards a career in painting and decorating instead. Well I wasn't going to stand for that for one moment. So to their much regret, I left that college.

I had to find something creative to spend my time on. I tried creative accounting for a short while, but I quickly realised that this wasn't what I expected either. Besides my boss expected me to work very late nights. That wasn't for me. I was missing all my favourite soap operas anyway (a great source of inspiration for any creative person I feel).

Then one day I was flicking through a copy of Readers Digest Magazine in the dentists waiting room and saw how many cartoons they had in there. Truth be told I didn't find that many of them funny, but it got me thinking. If they publish cartoons that I don't find funny, perhaps they'll publish cartoons that I've drawn that other people don't find funny either. How difficult can it be to draw cartoons that just aren't funny? Being the sort of person never to get bogged down with the technical aspect of anything I do - I picked up my glitter pen and started scribbling away. Since that day I haven't looked back. Already I have been commissioned by Burt across the road to paint a smily face on his wheelie bin (to stop the filthy Morgans next door from nicking it) and I've also had many other enquiries for my brilliantly talent free cartoons.

I'm still waiting to hear back from The Readers Digest, but it's looking promising. Already I have had mail from them suggesting I might be receiving a cheque soon for £250,000. I'm not sure which cartoon that is for, but I'm quite excited.

So there you go. If you want to make money from your Glitter Pens, get cartooning. I hope this article has inspired some of you to give it a go.

Hedge Trimmers Trim Hedges!

I have often been asked how I keep my hedge so neat and tidy all year around. Well I use a hedge trimmer of course. I used to have a huge pair of rusty shears, but I found that these didn't use electricity at all, so I invested in a Bosch hedge trimmer (not the one in the picture - I couldn't find a photo of my own trimmer). So now I own a Bosch hedge trimmer, which trimmer should you buy? Firstly you need to find out how far away from your house your hedge is. If it is 100 metres away then you might need a very long cable to reach your hedge. So you need to buy a hedge trimmer with a very long cable (or wire). Next you need to work out just how much of a weed you are. It's no use buying a great big heavy one, if it makes your wrists ache after a few minutes. I suggest you go into a shop and feel them all for weight, then when you've made your decision to buy, pop home and get onto the internet and buy one from there (it will be cheaper).

Here's some more hedge trimmer pictures.

Enjoy your trimming.