I am an artist living and working in Birmingham, having graduated from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design with a First Class Honours degree in Fine art.

Richard Jolley was born in Suffolk, in 1964. After 6 years working in accountancy he decided he wanted to work with children from a psychological standpoint. He undertook a degree in psychology at the University of York, UK (1988-1991).

It is there where his interest in children’s drawings began, studying the development of representational drawing for his undergraduate project. He then completed a PhD in children’s drawing and understanding of emotion in pictures at the University of Birmingham, UK (1991-5).

I've not long returned from the second of two cartoon workshops at Groundworks in Burslem, Stoke-on-Trent. With this group we drew facial expressions, stances, lettering & in the second half of the workshops the kids drew their own characters building in the ideas from earlier. Loads of happy faces so I think all had a nice time :)

Thanks again to Groundworks for making us so welcome, to the ladies from the school for cartooning as well & to the kids for getting stuck in & creating a pile of great cartoons!

I've just returned from a full day's cartoon workshop at Bursley Primary School in Newcastle-under-Lyme. There were three sessions to years five and six. We ran through quick draw characters, movement (slow & speed), comic cartoon strip, cartoon 3D lettering, action, shadows & highlights, expressions amongst other techniques. Each session finished with the kids creating their own characters with the help of work sheets to spring ideas & there was certainly no shortage of ideas.

I want to say well done to every single child who took part in my cartoon workshops on Monday 22nd. Fantastic creativity shown by all & I can see I have a lot of competition!

The workshops consisted of 4 one hour sessions where I produced cartoons on the interactive display boards (so they could be saved & referred back too, plus printed out). The children generated the cartoons with me step by step & then we worked from photocopied hand outs of cartoons as a guide to create there own characters.

Myself (cartoonist Chris Altham) & caricaturist Chris Ryder held alternate half hour 'How to Draw' workshops throughout the day. The event was very well organised & attended. The sessions were full with people of all ages picking up pen & paper to have a go. Very positive feedback & lots of happy faces on & off the paper!

Thanks to all who supported this Knights / SP8 event & to my daughter Holly for ensuring all had paper & pens.

Cheers
Chris
PS Check out my 'How to Draw Cartoons' section on this site which you will find in 'Foundation / Specialist Skills / Cartoonist'

Born in Essex (many moons ago), I graduated with degree in Fine Art from Winchester School of Art, where I’d won the Hampshire County Council’s Travel Award, using the bursary to travel to Vienna to write a thesis on Klimt.

I shared exhibition space with Peter Paul Rubens (no less!) when 12 giant banners were displayed at the Whitehall Banqueting House (now in the collection of Carmel College.)

I thought I'd share with you just a few examples of some of my work. Hope you like it. I'd love to know what you think!