Wonderfully, wonderfully, wonderfully, wonderfully pretty artwork

I have a real mental block when it comes to drawing. It's a deep-seated childhood trauma caused by the fact that my brother was always so much better at it than me. I wish there was something I could do about this, because I think I've got the soul of an artist trapped inside the body of this accountant somewhere. Every now and then, I think of something that I would really like to draw a picture of. Occasionally I even manage to put pen to paper and actually try to draw it, but the results aren't generally very encouraging.

Anyway, around Christmas time I found myself thinking "What I should do, is draw a picture of Nigel and Alistair from Newshounds kissing under the mistletoe, with Nigel standing on a box or something so he can reach." It didn't get any further than that, but then another Nigel-fan on the Newshounds forum the other day observed that we've never seen the lovecats kissing before, so I took that as a good excuse to draw this:



Now, I'm not claiming it's a work of art comparable to Van Gogh's best, or for that matter that it meets even the most basic standards of acceptability for a quick pencil sketch, but I like it. It looks more or less like I thought it would look before I started, it's kind of cute, and it's not even a complete swipe. And it's about three or four years since I tried drawing anything but stick-figures, so I was already feeling quite happy with my artistic outpourings even before Thomas K Dye, the writer/artist of Newshounds, said it was 'adorable'. That just made my day completely. It's so cool when someone you admire pays you a compliment.

Weirdly enough, a day or so after the Newshounds forum inspired me to draw something I'd been thinking about drawing, today someone posted a link to something he'd written, and it's something that I've been meaning to write for a couple of months now - An interview with Daffy Duck by Rory O'Bannion. The general tone of the thing is freakily similar to the thing that's been bouncing around my head, although the Daffy in my interview would have been as youthful as ever and full of enthusiasm about his latest Duck Dodgers series. And I can't believe Daffy wouldn't have got on with Chuck Jones, considering he directed The Scarlet Pumpernickel, the cartoon in which Daffy gets to expand his acting range and cast all his friends in an epic dramatic production. Still, I love this interview.