1. You have to be able to draw absolutely anything a client asks for. This is not quite as difficult as it was before we had the Internet. You can find most things on a Google image search. Years ago I used to have to go to the library to do research!

2. You can sit sketching absolutely anywhere! Sat on the beach drawing – WONDERFUL! I even take article that need illustrating with me on the school run. While waiting for my daughter I sit there thinking up ideas.

3. You can lay in a hammock thinking up ideas – and tell people you’re actually WORKING!

4. Sometimes you have to redraw a cartoon over and over again to your clients needs. (You need a ‘I-will-succeed-in-the end’ attitude!) Remember: They are paying the bills!

5. Sometimes you have to work really really late on an urgent deadline – even when you wanted to go out!

6. Then you might get another two very urgent deadlines at exactly the same time – you don’t want to turn work away. So you end up working all night and going to bed half an hour before its time to get up!

7. You have your thinking head all the time! Any ideas you get while down the pub or doing the food shopping could make you money. (You have to carry a small notepad with you at all times.)

8. You set your own working hours – but see above No.5 and 6!

9. I used to be a maintenance engineer/fitter in a factory when I left school – being a cartoonist has a better ring to it.

10. You can work with anyone globally nowadays – and just when you think your day is over someone from the other side of the world phones you up to do a job!

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I’ve lived here nearly all my life – was born in Dunoon Scotland before my parents moved to Chesterfield which is world famous for it’s crooked spire…

A little bit about the Crooked Spire Chesterfield – St Mary and All Saints Church  was built in the late 13 Century and finished around 1360. It is the largest church in Derbyshire. The Spire stands 228 feet from the ground and leans 9 feet 5 inches from its true centre. The Spire was ‘twisted’ when unseasoned wood was used during its construction. Then 32 tons of lead tiles were placed on top and as the timber dried out the weight of the lead twisted the spire.

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