Céad míle fáilte cartoon from Charlie Adley’s Double Vision:

I looked and saw clouds of the little buggers.

At other times in my life seeing midges that prolific in Winter would put me off living here.

I love being outdoors, so expected to turn to the landlord and say thanks but no thanks.

Instead I said “Yes please! I’ll take it!”

Céad míle fáilte means “a hundred thousand welcomes” so I thought that was a pretty good gag with the midges (Charlie thought it was a murmuration come to eat the midges!) Yes I’ve left off the fadas because it didn’t scan and midges don’t use fadas when they’re flying in formation and let’s just say I doubt I’d have much patience for pointillism in this day and age (something I loved doing as a younger artist!) Yes, each one of those midges was a hand-drawn dot. I try to keep digital wizardry to a minimum in these cartoons. I might use it for lettering but I try to keep as much as possible analogue. I’ve started using chalk pastels for larger colour fields and backgrounds and I’m quite enjoying it. Pastel seems to add a nice glow to the cartoons. I use colouring pencils for some finer detail against the pastel where needed. There’s a nice tooth to the paper wherever the pastel is that’s quite satisfying to draw on.

There’s also a Mammy Rabbit and babies in this cartoon. Apparently baby rabbits are called kittens! Charlie sent me a video of the baby rabbits, mentioned in the column, quite happily munching through his back garden earlier and it made me question whether city life is really the best option. An amazing sight and I’m delighted that’s available to my friend in his new home somewhere in the wilds of east Galway!




More Double Vision cartoons here.