Cartoon illustrations

Invigorated by spring and salads and fruit and spring vegetables and all the great art I see everywhere, I feel myself bursting with ideas and inspiration. Apart from loving painting, I also love writing and I’m getting more and more a feel for illustration. Writing and illustration make a good combo, so; for my writing which I’ve started with a while back, I’m considering doing some illustrations for as well. I have tried my hand at one or tow before which can be seen here:

…shut the gate!…

illustration done in rotring pen and watercolour on Fabriano artistico HP.

We have a friend who’s a farmer. His pride is his huge selection of animals, and especially his bulls. But he also has vineyards. And his biggest struggle is to get the farmhands to remember to close the farm gates behind them, so the cows and bulls don’t roam about in the vineyards. After stripping his temper once too often, he promptly planted a post on the gate on which, in no uncertain terms, he forcefully sergeant-majors them to keep the gates shut. The punchline on the illustration is written in my mother tongue, but it roughly comes down to: “Keep the @&*#@.. gates shut… the cows are in the vineyard!!”

28 thoughts on “Cartoon illustrations”

Hi Ronell
Oh I just LOVE this one ! Thank you for making me laugh out loud, first thing in the morning!
I have become very found of your site, you are an inspiration !
How do you do your sketch pages, where you have thumbnails photos that can be enlarged lined up ?? I can’t figure it out.
How did you end up in France ?
Isabelle

Hi Napabelle..thanks for the lovely compliment!
I will send you an email since it is a very long complicated process.
And we are in France because of my husband’s work…travelled and lived a few countries for a few years and this has now been our permanent home for quite some time. And we’re VERY happy here!
Thanks for caring and enjoying my art work!
Take care!

Ronell, I’m glad to see you are back sketching and posting on a regular basis! I missed your delightful posts, and hope you’re feeling much better.

You are such a Natural for illustration, your Prose are as inviting and your sketches – Love to see you posting MORE!!!!

Gorgeous! You have such a gift for these pen and watercolour cartoons, Ronell. I’m sure they are going to end up in a book or two one day.

Brava for your previous post celebrating the Spring – it’s sending me quite mad with delight feeling the sun on my shoulders.

This is really sweet. We used to visit my mom’s best friend when we were kids, in the summer time, and they had a dairy farm–we LOVED seeing the cows and animals, since we were sort of more urban than not! This reminds me of those happy days…. Love the grapes, and that not-so-innocent look. Priceless.

Wonderful, wonderful illustration!

This is so much fun, and funny… I can just imagine your farmer friend. I love the cow’s rear ends – its exactly how they move and sway – and the other cartoons are wonderful too, maybe a Ronell book one of these days?

I am laughing at this, but I have the farmer’s memories of open gates 😉

Oh this is so cute! Both the illo and the commentary!!

I loved those links and funny stories!

You have a real talent for these :>)

This is delightful! I love the farmer’s red sock and the bemused expression on the bull’s face!

Welcome home dear friend, you do it all well, painting, cooking and illustrating. I would love to get that email too! We are coming in May to both Italy and France. I would love to meet you in person and learn about where you now live! This is our first big trip since Jennifer was hurt so I am both excited and very nervous and stressed! LOL

Wonderful cartoony sketch, my favorite kind. Full of life and fun! Just curious…how many languages do you speak? French, English, and is that Afrikans (sp?) — are there more? You speak quite a few “art” languages too — writing, painting, drawing, creating in the kitchen, and I bet there are more of those too.

These are cute, Ronell. So when does the book come out?

Ronell, DE-LIGHT-FUL!

Lovely, Ronell – I wish I could see those cows in the vineyard for real. I used to spend quite a few week-ends at a place called Churchhaven in the Western Cape. Cows meandered up and down the lagoon beach and on hot days happily stood in the water cooling off. Needless to say they lived very happy lives!

I agree, Ronell– wonderful illustrations and stories that would make a great book. Splendid moos! I can relate to them, out here in the Texas boonies. As for fences and gates, cows are engineers, when it comes to dismantling fences, and psychic, when it comes to finding open gates.
annie

How talented you are in any format: kitchen, studio and cartooning! Please…more writing and cartoons.!

I could also see a series of mermaids for watermarks!

😀 That’s a great sign! Wonderful writing and illustration … I think you should keep it up!

I did enjoy that posting. It would be fun to drive around the countryside of SA and note down all the signs – in mother tongue! Here autumn is slipping in with chilly mornings and hot languid afternoons.

What a charming sketch! It puts a smile on my face….
and yes, spring is a wonderful time of birth and renewal. It’s always invigorating! Enjoyed reading about your joy of the new season and share in your enthusiasm 100%!

I love doing the back side of animals!!!! This is fun and quirky!

What an absolute delight! I’m so thrilled to have discovered your wonderful blog, your superb paintings and you!

I laughed out loud when I saw your cows ambling through the gate and the farmer’s heartfelt message! Brilliant. I’ll be back to explore some more when I have time to sit back with a cup of coffee and take it all in.