Be in a Modern Toss cartoon

If you appreciate art, but aren’t keen on the whole standing-silently-stroking-your-chin thing, then Pick Me Up is for you.

The annual graphic arts festival opens at London’s Somerset House today and features an impressive line-up of illustrators, including Jon Link and Mick Bunnage, creators of Modern Toss.

Aside from displaying their profanity-ridden masterpieces, the duo will be attempting – with your help – to set a new world record. “It’s for the longest single-panel cartoon with the word ‘f*ck’ in it,” Link told us proudly. “We’re calling it the ‘F***yeux Tapestry’ and we hope to get to 100m.”

What’s more, anyone who is in attendance on 28 April can try their luck in the Modern Toss Portrait Booth. “People sit inside and we draw them. Really badly,” explains Bunnage. “I just like insulting people, visually. I’ve only had one bad reaction – a bloke tore it up. He was genuinely insulted, which is quite something these days.”

somersethouse.org.uk