Stranger things may have happened…
Weekly refuse collections are very popular – unnecessarily extended periods are not.
If the rumours are to be believed, Anthony Charles Lynton Blair will step down as Prime Minister on May 9th – about five days after his party suffers a very bad set of results in the local elections.
And I am going on holiday for a week, which means I shall miss a lot of the multitude of supplements and memoirs of Tone which are heading our way right now.
The editorial drawing above is from 2003 – and I still think it sums up his legacy pretty well.
But if you would like further evidence about Blair, the government of the United States and Iraq, I offer several stories fom the past week;
1. Former war ‘heroine’ Jessica Lynch testifies to Congress about what exactly happened to her when she was captured by Iraqis during the 2003 invasion. My colleague Andy Buncombe (of The Independent) reported on this back in 2003 – sadly, precious little of his excellent work was followed up at the time. Still, better late than never.
2. One of our big tanks is broken
3. Getting us ready to leave in a hurry
4. The cost (conservatively estimated.) Try comparing it to the size of your nearest local market town)
Sometimes news stories are just a gift to a cartoonist in search of a useful image for election coverage.
Here’s a to-scale-shot-of-the-cartoonist and his Big Board with the fear I wrote about previously replaced by hope that my chosen image about trade was going to hold up over such a big space.
I started off by blocking in the shapes of the image I wanted to draw with a tin of Homebase’s finest grey exterior paint. This was surprisingly effective and the rough surface of the hardboard meant that dry-brushing was very effective. This was very handy for the image I chose to paint.
After I had established the shapes and the layout I could then add black and white and further tone to help bring the image up and into a better and more powerful focus. The whole process took about eight hours and was hard work but great fun.
I survived my trial by 8 by 6 foot drawing board – and I’ll post some more photos this evening.
A commissioned piece for a magazine cover. The headline feature is about welfare reform and the extension of means testing over the past decade. This theme sent me off in search of a good strong image and a simple strapline. I landed at an excellent ad campaign run by Barnardo’s which kicked up a right stink back in 2003.
I’m getting frighteningly close to the start of the Shrewsbury cartoon Festival and the big board drawing, I was describing here. There’s a healthy degree of fear beginning to circulate now – especially as the good citizens of Shrewsbury and surrounding districts will be peering over my shoulders as I work.
As I explained last time, the theme is business and I’ve been thinking about which way to approach it – I’m going to outline a few approaches and some of their benefits and drawbacks, below
1) Gag – the most traditional or funny of the sort you might see in Sun Fun, Prospect or Private Eye in the UK. These are typically black and white lineart drawings with or without a caption. Really good practitioners of this art I know include Rod McKie, Royston Robertson and Tim Harries.
2) Illustration – a beautiful or striking image usually dependent on its context, or the things around it to help give it meaning. This is the most common form of cartoon in print. The Association of Illustrators have lots of members, but sometimes I’m not sure about their sense of humour.
3) Editorial – an image with a point. A column or opinion piece in pictures – this is my own particular specialisation. Colleagues like Alex Hughes, Morten Morland and Andy Davey make this a challenging environment.
Drawbacks with all of them – when considering an 8 by 6 foot board.
a) Fear!
b) Having a powerful enough joke or comment to translate over such a big space
c) Materials – a 2B isn’t going to manage it alone …
I’m veering towards approach 3) because it’s what I know best – but what do I really think about business – time is running out, I’m supposed to start painting on Friday!
Gordon Brown’s official Prime Ministerial inheritance campaign has rumbled into life this week. A book, Profiles in Courage has been published and friendly media outlets are indulging in a frenzied bout of the-man-we-don’t-know-itis. After the best part of two decades, I think most of us have a fair idea of what Gordon Brown is about. The more interesting question is how he will cope with what being Prime Minister involves.
My fellow blogger, Chicken Yogurt has a nice line on the Chancellor’s new seriousness – click this mini blog title to read it.
UPDATE:
Another forward-thinking blogger, Devil’s Kitchen, has offered some thoughts on my faltering attempts to animate editorial cartoons. He asks why do it? And it’s a good question.
I’m doing it because increasingly the industry I knew, print journalism is in some sort of crisis of confidence. Readerships have been falling for years – and younger potential readers are taking their eyes to digital reading.
This means that a lot of traditional markets for people like me are contracting very fast – and that means change for us too.
This is why, I shall continue to try and animate the original image that I’m attaching below – with mixed results! And a thanks to Devils Kitchen for making me think about what I am doing and why.
