Pens in hand, ready to draw inspiration from their surroundings, a group of some 20 cartoonists have been going round the island meeting locals and sketching cartoons of these encounters.

Speaking to this newspaper during a week-long convention, the Malta Mighty Minicon 6, members of the Cartoonists’ Club of Great Britain said they decided to come over for the first time six years ago and have returned annually ever since.

“One of the events organised is live cartooning at a Maltese business. Our first year saw us at the Farsons brewery, the following year we were at the Playmobil factory, and this year, our sixth year, we were sketching at two local businesses in Valletta: Nenu the Artisan Baker and Chocolate District,” organiser Richard Skipworth told the Times of Malta.

Mr Skipworth said the group drew inspiration from the different people they met as well as their surroundings, and while in Malta, they were producing an average of 60 cartoons a day, some of which they exhibit in the places they visited.

According to Mr Skipworth, the club is one of the oldest cartoonists’ social societies in Britain and brings together more than 200 members from all over the UK. It was established in the 1960s by Fleet Street cartoonists, he added, and has since changed to bring together different practitioners, including illustrators, comic book artists and gag artists.

“We went around some bakeries this morning, and so today’s cartoons focus on the art of baking,” Mr Skipworth said.

Another member, Gillian Skipworth, said that since most cartoonists tended to work on their own at home, it was an interesting opportunity to have the members come together.

“It’s nice to mix with some of the people and understand how they go about creating their work,” she said.