Political Cartooning

This variety of illustration has never interested me before doing this blog. I have never been a big follower of politics and so these drawings have been quite a challenge for me. I feel I have a new found respect for this type of illustration as it takes a lot of skills and practise to create satirical or metaphorical humour out of current political events.

This first illustration was inspired by the work of Gerald Scarfe[1], and his many illustrative interpretations on Margaret Thatcher. I wanted to replicate his flowing, expressive strokes and create a characterisation that has a strong silhouette. The joke works because although Thatcher had passed away in 2013, her spirit and legacy still lives on in politics today. Her infamous stances on political debates and Iron Lady status lent itself well to the line, 'I will never rust in peace!'.

This style is synonymous with the American political cartoonist, Monte Wolverton[2]. His way of cartooning includes a lot of different textures and cross hatching which creates an interesting shading gradient. I took the subject of Donald Trump running against Barack Obama in the upcoming presidential election. In Trump's US version of The Apprentice[3], his catchphrase for getting rid of a candidate in the running to win a partnership with him is, 'You're Fired!', which is the basis of the punch line here.

I wanted to try and do a comic strip for one of my examples, and so I took the newest budget reform and looked at a pros and cons list of what was happening with the newest changes. I saw that on the pros there was the fact the government was creating a scheme for helping people who have never owned a property get on the ladder by paying towards a deposit, but then on the cons there was extra pressure on landlords and so rent prices were going to increase. I saw this as an opportunity to set the scene with a couple and having a good news, bad news scenario. I used the style of Matthew Pritchett who does cartoons for The Telegraph[4]. On one interview, he says, 'I like my drawings to look like I've dashed them off'[5], which is why I kept my style quite sketchy and flowing. I also added very basic black and white shading, like he does in his cartoons.

I wanted to include a very recent part of political British history, and so I took the vote on the air strikes in Syria as my subject matter. After the voting had been resolved and it came to light that sixty-six of the Labour party had voted for the strikes, the current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn announced that he would like to deselect them all and have the counties they represent re-elect an MP. I took inspiration from Steve Bell[6] and created a colourful piece with watercolour elements and harsh lines. I took the fact we're at the festive season as a muse for my joke, as I made Corbyn Santa Claus and included my personal MP for my borough Ian Austin (who voted for the air strikes) the child sat on his knee asking to keep his job, and Corbyn trying to buy his vote. 

I started this project not knowing a lot about political cartooning and it's effect on history and the humorous way the cartoonists recorded it, but I now feel a lot more informed and like it makes politics more accessible for me as someone who doesn't really follow politics. This makes me respect their art form a lot more than I did before.

References -
[1] SCARFE, Gerald (2005). Drawing Blood: Forty Five Years of Scarfe. Little, Brown, New York City, US.
[2] Monte Wolverton. The Weekly Wolverton. [Online] Available at: http://www.wolvertoon.com/toons/ [Accessed on 6th December 2015].
[3] The Apprentice US (2006). Television Programme, Mark Burnett Productions, New York City, US.
[4] The Telegraph. Matt cartoons archive [Online]. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/matt-archive/ [Accessed on 6th December 2015].
[5] The Telegraph (2013). Cartoonist Matt's typical day [Online]. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bouD1_HDomk [Accessed on 6th December 2015].
[6] BELL, Steve (2015). If: The Graphic Novel. Jonathan Cape Publishers, London, England.

Concept Art

This field of illustration is very broad and there are so many different ways to approach it. Concept art ranges from very innocent subjects such as children's television shows and films to graphic and gory video games. My style suits the children's side of the market better, but I tried to create something more aimed at adults as well.

This first image is inspired by Max Ernst[1]  who was a leading artist in the Dada and Surrealist movement and used a technique called, 'Decalcomania', which requires creating a shape or series of shapes from getting two pieces of paper or a piece of paper and a sheet of acetate and placing some thick paint in between, then pushing them together to create a splodge of paint in a strange shape. This can then be used to create a character concept or landscape, which is what Ernst was most famous for. I used paper and acetate to create this image, where I thought it looked like a lion. I drew in the features but kept the painterly look to the blue as I feel that really added to the piece.

This image was inspired by concept artists for Disney, both Brittney Lee[2] and Bill Schwab[2]. I really like the way they create such textured pieces in digital art, and so I wanted to create one in my style. I decided to use A Little Princess as my reference for this illustration, as it was one of my favourite books[3] and films[4] of my childhood. I loved the styling, era and direction of the film as a child and still love it to this day. I wanted to make a character design for Lavinia, a character who is spoiled and hates other people having the limelight. She likes being the leader and took that role out of fear from the other girls, and doesn't like when the main character Sara comes in and takes away her 'subjects' with kindness and optimism. I wanted to catch the expression she largely had on her face, one of pursed lips and raised eyebrows to signify her looking down on everyone, almost like she feels sorry for anyone who's not her. I used Photoshop and textured brushes to create the shading, which I feel adds to he piece a lot. It creates a painterly effect.

This is my one more adult piece, which is inspired by the remake of Robocop[5] and the art of both H.R. Giger[6] and Vitaly Bulgarov[7]. I wanted to create a biomechanical piece where you don't know whether it's human or robot, or a bit of both. The armour is influenced by Robocop and is very sleek and untarnished, and I wanted to juxtapose that with the gritty, post apocalyptic setting. I wanted it to look like there were robots still roaming a dystopian land where everything had been destroyed. Or perhaps the areas had been ruined by the robots, maybe their robot police force is going rogue and deciding justice is destroying everything a bad person owns. Either way, I liked the way Bulgarov created the shine and complex design of the armour for Robocop so I wanted to include a bit of that into my work.

I wanted to create a landscape for a part of this blog and really wanted to create an atmosphere. I was very inspired by the work of Walt Peregoy[8] who was a concept artist and key colourist for Disney. His work uses light and dark so well to create moods for his pieces, and he creates texture and movement so effortlessly. I wanted to try and create something in my style but with a similar feel. I enjoyed trying to create something like his which is very traditional and uses a lot of different mixed media in a digital platform, as I tried to create a mixed media feel to an otherwise very textured and painterly looking piece.

I feel there are many ways to approach concept art, and so many different avenues to go down. The industry of concept art has changed dramatically as the digital age has taken hold, and with so many artists using digital mediums it almost seems like a necessity to use it in today's fast paced market. I plan to learn a lot more about it and try to incorporate different artists ways of working to create my personal hybrid style of inspirations.


References -

[1] SPIES, Werner (2013). Max Ernst Retrospective. Hatje Cantz, Germany.
[2] SOLOMON, Charles (2013). The Art of Frozen. Chronicle Books, San Francisco, US.
[3] HODGSON BURNETT, Frances (1905). A Little Princess. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York City, US.
[4] A Little Princess. 1995 [film]. Directed by Alfonso CUARÓN. USA, Baltimore Pictures.
[5] Robocop. 2014 [film]. Directed by José PADILHA. USA, Strike Entertainment.
[6] GIGER, H.R (1993). Biomechanics. Morpheus International, USA.
[7] Vitaly Bulgarov. Art of Vitaly Bulgarov. [Online]. Available at: http://www.bulgarov.com/professional.html [Accessed 2nd December 2015].
[8] The Animation Guild. The Animation Guild: Walt Peregory. [Online]. Available at: https://animationguild.org/oral_history/walt-peregoy/ [Accessed 2nd December 2015].