#6: Water, water, and water
Hello my soaking friends,
In Melbourne, and I’m sure in many parts of the world, it seems like the sky has decided it’s time to rain. And I mean rain. Noah’s ark sort of levels of rain. The sort of rain that makes you want to bust out a boat and take to the streets. And no weak roof, leaky boot, or poorly made umbrella will stand a chance against it.
So with all this in mind, this week’s cartoons are all about water in it’s many and varied forms. There’s tastes of water, fancy water, and simply a chance to be overrun with water. And it’s all this week and all below.
Shall we?
Chris
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Caption: Cat tasting paddle.
It’s one of the great mysteries of this world.
At last count, our cat, Molly, has not one, not two, but three different bowls of water scattered around the house. The water is all in slightly different bowls and the bowls are all sitting on slightly different floors. However, cats being cats, Molly isn’t satisfied with simply choosing from her three bowls. She can also be found sitting in the bath, licking whatever random water happens to have dripped down from a recent shower, or following a drain in the yard outside, or simply seeking our own water glasses beside the bed. And it’s all in the name of alternate sources of water. This cartoon formalises that arrangement.
A little artist’s note: Oddly, I started this cartoon with the idea that it would be super-easy to draw. It was a Friday, I had just finished a long week, and I had the grand plan that this would be a simple cartoon that would be done before I noticed. However, as I discovered, drawing paddles and circular cups is actually pretty hard work. Every cup needs to be about the same circumfrence to be believable, and it all needs to look like it belongs together. On top of that, I must have spent a inexplicable amount of time working out what colour/shade the water should be. The finished product, keeping the water unshaded, was pretty much a last resort.
Caption: "Hey, this one is Evian.”
I’m pretty partial to a good bird cartoon.
This cartoon is the combination of a few things that all kind of hit it off and went on a road trip together. The first thing, obviously, is the birds. I’ve done a few bird cartoons now, and they always continue to be a source of humour for me. The second, was a suggestion from my partner that I do a cartoon involving a bird bath. It sounded simple enough. But third, and perhaps more prominently, this cartoon was inspired by some very fancy bottled water.
So, we were staying at this super-fancy (and super-discounted) hotel in a certain tropical location and, as was the case, it wasn’t safe to drink the water. In response to this, the hotel had provided bottled water, not the cheap stuff that everyone drinks but the expensive stuff where the manufacturer had worked really hard to give the water an actual taste. It’s a point of difference, I guess, but it also made, for our taste, the water largely undrinkable. It left the sort of taste in the mouth that not even toothpaste could counteract. And, of course, this got me thinking about what distinctive bottled water I actually did like, and that got me thinking about Evian.
And then I thought: a bird would probably be pretty happy finding Evian too.
A little artist’s note: As I’ve said previously, I pretty sure that if these cartoons ever make it into a book, it will be titled Birds are easy to draw. And, oddly, bird baths are fairly easy to draw. The challenge with any of these thing is not the line, but the shading. This one has multiple layers, particularly around the base of the bowl, that all kind of overlap on each other to give it texture. Simple, but super time consuming.
Caption: "It’s sprung a leak again.”
I really love this one, but a lot of people won’t.
In fact, when I showed it to my partner, she thought it was a cartoon about the balloon animal in the painting which … actually that’s not a bad idea either. Another time.
Anyway, I really love this one because of it’s sheer absurdity. If you don’t know, clowns will often wear a flower that, uh, comically, shoots water. It’s a bit, I think. What I love about it, though, is the joy in the implication that not only has the flower sprung a leak, but that the clown would be carrying enough water to actually flood the house. None of it makes any sense, but that’s kind of the point. I think it’s kind of glorious for that very reason.
A little artist’s note: The one has a bit of everything, and it is oddly close to how I originally sketched it. However, I did spend an absurd amount of time trying to get the water look right. The question was: how can I make it look like water, and like the water was significant, while also making it still seem like it’s water. The result is perhaps more like an ocean than a tap, but I’m happy with it.
Thanks for reading MiddleSquiggle!
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I have really enjoyed Water, water and water and the commentary. Lots to consider, if only briefly 😄😄thank you cheers Fiona