A Peek Inside the Mind of Searle · 21 August 2008
One of my all time favourite cartoonists, Ronal Searle (and I’m sure I’m one of a bazillion cartoonists whom Searle has had an influence on) wrote an article on his process a while back.
It’s an incredible insight into the man’s thinking, and reveals the secret of his unmistakably unique line work.
Signed, Searled, Delivered:
Aauerrgh! That was an awful pun. Noone deserved that.
Sorry guys.
Read the article here
The Milk Churn Caricature · 11 March 2008
Working as a cartoonist, believe it or not, can sometimes get a little stale. Despite the ever-changing nature of news cycles, the new people to draw each day, the new subject for comic strips etc. there is a danger every now of falling into the realm of being ‘comfortable’. It’s not common, in fact it’s quite rare (from my experience), but it can happen.
To avoid this, if I ever get asked about a specifically unique project, I make it a rule to not dismiss it straight away just because it sounds different to something I’d usually do.
I often get asked to teach classes, do murals on walls, lift shafts, you name it – and I’ve even been asked do live caricatures of hundreds of animals.
All of these things are great ways to keep my job interesting and, more importantly, challenging.
I firmly believe that if an artist doesn’t challenge him/herself, and just sticks to the comfortable stuff that they ‘know they can do’, then they fail to grow as an artist.
For example, there’s no better way to learn how to draw a mural than to actually do it. Even if the finished product ends up being less than you expected, at least you tried it, and you learnt from the experience.
(I’ll qualify the above by saying that sometimes if a client wants to pay full price for a professional water colour painting or something, I always let them know that it’s not something I specialise in, but I can give it a bash. If they’re still happy to go ahead, then they do. but if they aren’t confident to pay me, I always refer them on to someone else.)
That’s why, when a client rang up and asked if I’d be interested in a unique project, I stayed on the phone to hear him out and not dismiss it with the usual “yeah look I don’t really do that sort of thing.”
The client explained that he was clearing out a close mate’s shed one afternoon when he came across an old milk churn. Turns out his mate (who is now a highly successful land developer) used to deliver milk as a young bloke, among other small jobs to try and make ends meet. When my client asked him if he could have the milk churn, he had a bit of a sad look in his eye but said “Yeah go on, take it, I won’t use it.”
My client then spent a considerable amount of money restoring the rusted and dilapidated milk churn to its former glory, and after re-coating it, had the metal labels scrubbed up and re-applied.
He then explained to me that he would like a depiction of his mate’s life, along with a caricature of his wife and he, drawn on to the churn.
I thought it was a great idea, and pending further inspection of the surface, I’d do it.
I grabbed a selection of pens and markers drove around to his house to get a closer look at the milk churn and check that the surface would be able to be drawn on. I tested out a few Artline Papermate and Sharpie markers on it. I did a quick smudge test and it looked like the Sharpies would be the winner, as well as an Artline laundry marker.
After getting some reference photos of the couple, along with some information about his life, I did a draft sketch of the caricature and background illustration to be drawn on the surface of the churn, and emailed it off to my client to get the okay.
A few weeks later I came back and took the churn home. I had it laid on a towel as I roughly pencil sketched the draft from the original draft on my lap. It was considerably harder than I thought to draw on the shiny lacquered surface in pencil, but nonetheless I could just make out the lines which was the main thing.
After finishing the rough pencil line-work, I began drawing the thicker outlines that I’d need to start on using the Chisel-tipped Artline 90. The real challenge was working left to right and not being able to go back and forthe between different sides of the face to avoid smudging.
The ink on the churn actually sat quite well, I had kind of expected it to do that “white-board marker” thing where when you draw over solid ink it begins to reverse out the image and start taking OFF ink.
Despite it being a 40 degree day, when I started the inking, I had to do the drawing in sections to ensure I wouldn’t smudge any of the ink before it dried.
I also found that coming back to it after taking a break helped me to look at it with fresh eyes and see any errors or inaccuracies I’d made in the previous session. In fact that was a good piece of advice that the excellent Tom Richmond from MAD Magazine gave me.
He said the best thing you can do with a piece of work (if you can afford the time with it) is to get up, do something completely different, and come back to the work with fresh eyes.
You’d be surprised how much of a difference it makes to your work, and it’s such a simple practice.
After several sessions of inking, the final product revealed itself. It turned out pretty much exactly how I saw it in my head. And considering I hadn’t really done anything like it before, I was pleased with the result. And even if I wasn’t, I learnt a lot from doing it, so there was a great deal of benefit for me in doing it.
To see more of Jason’s caricatures, click here.
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Ideas graveyard #1 · 26 January 2008
When I’m doing my political/editorial cartoons, I’ll rough up to half a dozen ideas each time depending on the topic.
Often none of these ideas end up making it past a quick scribble in a notepad, (and nor should they; some of them are god awful) but others get dropped for one reason or another, and never see the light of day, or ‘the dark of print’, as it were.
So this year I’ll post some of the ones that never got published, and I’ll explain why. Usually, it’ll be immediately apparent.
Here’s one from late November last year that got dropped in favour of a cartoon about federal treasurer Peter Costello spitting the dummy and rejecting the leadership offer before announcing his retirement.
(The context of this toon was that after a landslide victory to the Rudd Labor government, the victory was sweetened with the Prime Minister, John Howard losing his seat of Bennelong to ALP newcomer (and Ex-ABC journalist) Maxine McKew.
Ruddicature · 27 August 2007
Just when I was starting to worry Australian cartoonists were giving Kevin Rudd an easy time with his caricature in political cartoons, Rocco at the SMH has slapped together a ripper.
David Rowe at the Fin Review does a pretty harsh Rudd too – worth a look!
On The Drawing Board: Parkinson Illustration · 8 August 2007
MAD Caricaturing mastermind Tom Richmond has an excellent section of his blog based purely on the purpose of showing his subscribers what he’s working on at the moment, and how his work develops in different stages of production.
So I thought I’d do the same!
I’m working on a greeting card illustration for Messages of Hold at the moment, the premise of which is Michael Parkinson introducing one of their clients as a guest on his talk show.
They have used this same product several times before and is a unique and innovative way of utilising variable data.
Stage 1: Image Research
I started by researching the images I’d need for the job, looking for images of the Parkinson program, and of Michael Parkinson himself.
Google Images is always helpful for this sort of thing (can’t imagine life before it!), YouTube has become an invaluable resource for gathering visual references also (since Apple have disabled screen-capture on DVDs… maybe I’ll try VCL player one of these days.)
Stage 2: Rough Draft
Anyway, I always start with a rough concept, then move on to the draft. I always work very loosely with the rough draft, as it’s much better to create smooth, flowing lines that are unique – rather than trying to perfectly trace over draft lines. It’s a technique that’s very common (and makes common sense.)
Stage 3: Proofing
I proof the image to the client, usually by email. Sometimes the proofing process might require I meet with the client to discuss the finer points in the development of the image, but over time I have developed a good sense of what the client wants from discussing it at the initial brief. This particular client is notoriously good for being thorough with their briefs too – lucky for me!
Stage 4: Amendments and Inking
If there are any changes, I now make them to the rough draft, and proceed straight to inking. If the changes are quite substantial I may have to re-proof the image, but in this case the client was happy for me to proceed as per the draft (only change was to add the word “Parkinson” along the top.)
I ink the images using either Photoshop, Painter X or Flash, depending on the look I’m going for. Different packages offer different results.
Stage 5: Colour
Again, I use the three aforementioned programs to get different results for colouring. (I just purchased CS3 last month and am thrilled with the features) I fill the sections in solid colour and work from a baseline of colour.
Click here for more information on the colouring process.
Stage 6: Finished Product + Printing
I will send the high quality PDF file of the finished product to the client, and they will have it printed so that they can interchange the text with their clients’ names in the speech bubble.
Voila!
All images © Copyright 2007 Jason Chatfield
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How to Lose your Editorial Cartooning Job · 26 June 2007
Paul Fell who has for years been the freelance cartoonist for the Lincoln Journal Star has been terminated as a contributing cartoonist over published remarks to MSNBC when they questioned him about a $450 contribution to a Democratic house candidate back in 2006. Paul was one of 144 journalists (or individuals working in the media industry) singled out for contributed money to a political party or individual while serving in the media.
Paul’s response to MSNBC was:
“For your information, I did contribute the amounts listed to the Maxine Moul for Congress campaign in 2006,” Fell said in an e-mail. “I am a freelance cartoonist, who contracts with the Lincoln Journal Star to draw three editorial cartoons a week.
They don’t pay me enough money to be able to dictate how I conduct myself in political campaigns. I generally do not donate to political candidates, but Maxine Moul is a longtime friend and former newspaper publisher where I got my start as a cartoonist back in 1976.
Frankly, I don’t give a rat’s ass what the Lincoln Journal Star or their parent organization, Lee Enterprises, policies are on allowing newsroom staff to give to candidates and parties. I do not believe they did disclose my donations. That’s their problem, not mine.”
For his flippant remark, the newspaper ran a column written by Kathleen Rutledge, the paper’s editor, regarding their decision to sever their relationship with Paul.
We pay him to express his own opinion on matters of public interest through cartoons that appear on the editorial pages. He is not an employee but a freelancer who is covered by our ethics code. He did not see fit to tell us he had made a political contribution, either at the time he made it or when he was contacted by MSNBC.
The biggest difference, though, is the cavalier attitude about journalistic ethics Fell exhibited. He said he doesn’t give “a rat’s ass” about the policies of this paper. Read his complete comments to Dedman elsewhere on this page.
ell’s comments make it clear he does not care about guarding this newspaper’s trust with readers. We don’t think he should treat our credibility with such disdain. His comments to MSNBC follow an earlier incident in which he did not disclose to us that he had posted cartoons of a sexual nature on his Web site. He removed them after we expressed concern.
We have lost trust in our professional relationship with Paul Fell. For that reason, he no longer draws editorial cartoons for us.
In an e-mail sent to me, Paul responds to some of the points Rutledge made in her column citing reasons to terminate the paper’s relationship with Paul.
“The Journal Star is actually right in its argument that I did commit a breach of journalistic ethics in contributing to a political candidate. To be frank, last fall when I contributed to the Maxine Moul for Congress campaign, it never occurred to me that I was doing something I shouldn’t. Call it a brain fart or an early onset stroke, but I did what I did.”
“My comments in the MSNBC.com interview were pretty angry and if I had been less truthful and snarky, pleaded ignorance and begged forgiveness from the Journal Star, I’d probably still be freelancing for them. The fact is, I had backed them into a corner where they had no choice but to give me the axe.”
Also mentioned in his email is a description of stressed relationship between the two over the pay rates Paul is paid for his contributions to the paper and he feels to some extent this action by the paper was a “perfect excuse for getting rid of me once and for all.”
Paul doesn’t appear to deflated about this latest turn of events as he is already in talks with other publishing outlets for his cartoons.
Here is an excerpt of an account between Paul and the editors at the Lincoln Journal Star from JP Trostle who is writing up his story on these events for the AAEC notebook. The exchange below has been confirmed by Paul as accurate.
“Interestingly, during my ‘you’re fired’ phone conversation with the editor and editorial page editor on Friday afternoon, they mentioned that the Journal Star code of ethics covered freelancers as well as full-time staffers. I responded that it would have been nice, then, if they had thought to share that policy with their freelancers.
“You could have cut the long and uncomfortable silence with a knife.”
Cartoonists showing you how it's done · 24 June 2007
Marshall Ramsey, editorial cartoonist for The Clarion-Ledger, live blogged his cartooning yesterday.
Today, I am going to show you, real time, how I draw a cartoon. It may be as exciting as watching paint dry to you, but it will give you an idea of the process I go through every day. You will see tomorrow’s as it goes from sketch to the finished piece of art.
and on that note – uber-successful cartoonist Scott Adams (Of Dilbert fame) has posted about how he makes a Dilbert cartoon.
Clck here to see it.
Nick Anderson on the mend · 12 May 2007
When you’re a cartoonist, the trouble with having your sole income dependent on your right hand is that if anything happens to it; you’re pretty much screwed.
That said, even though Nick Anderson fractured his thumb at the base whilst playing lacrosse, he is still soldiering on to do his toons every day using a chunky-grip on his Wacom Cintiq Stylus.
Bit of a champ.
Cartoon Colouring · 2 April 2007
One of the questions I get asked most about my work is “How do you do your colouring?”
Some clients ask this on the basis of whether they’re going to get a hand-painted cartoon coloured with gouache or watercolours – which isn’t necessarily an unreasonable expectation. There are still heaps of cartoonists who still colour their work by hand and produce outstanding results.
The main reason I use digital colour is because, quite simply, I have no reason not to. With the advancements in technology in programs like Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop there has been a parallel reached in producing vivid, lifelike colour results.
The other bonus is that you can make mistakes!
Some would debate that this is a bad thing; in that it lures you into bad habits and you begin to get sloppy with your work because of that safety net. I’d say that’s about 90% true, although it’s just a matter of discipline. If you don’t rely on the undo key too much then you can still walk away from the Wacom Tablet with your drawing skills in tact.
I was going to put together a bit of a time-lapse of my colouring process to post up here on the blog, but fellow cartoonist Tom Richmond has beaten me to the punch (with far more impressive results might I add.)
Tom has been an enormous help in the development of my work. Since meeting him in New York last year I’ve been corresponding with him via email and having him tute me on the development of my caricature skills – both live and studio-based. My work has improved dramatically since he has been teaching me these principles.
His skills, in my opinion, are up there with the best in the world along with Mort Drucker, Jan Op De Beek, Sam Viviano and Joe Bluhm.
With all that said, I’ll pry my lips from his ass and show you the video! So, to all those who have asked; “How do you do your colour?” – this is exactly how.
Enjoy…
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Rudd plays a little Toon · 7 December 2006
(From the Sydney Morning Herald)
Sophie Nzeyimana
He’s like the little guy drinking shandy at the pub between two big guys
Facing up to the future … Kevin Rudd, right, in times gone by and, left from top, how he looks to John Shakespeare, John Spooner, and Alan Moir.
Facing up to the future … Kevin Rudd, right, in times gone by and, left from top, how he looks to John Shakespeare, John Spooner, and Alan Moir.
Latest related coverage
Kevin Rudd might be nearly 1.8 metres tall, but he’ll always be a pipsqueak in the eyes of newspaper cartoonists.
Since toppling former leader Kim Beazley in a partyroom ballot on Monday, cartoonists have been measuring up their new prey.
A round face, rosy cheeks, and small glasses all contribute to the new Labor leader’s schoolboy appearance, say cartoonists such as the Herald’s Rocco Fazzari.
Although he is above average height, Rudd seems to be a short man due to a boyish, bookwormish face, says Fazzari.
Colleague John Shakespeare will also continue to draw Rudd as a short man because “it fits with his characteristics”.
Alan Moir and Cathy Wilcox, also from the Herald, compare Rudd to a blond Harry Potter, while other contrasts were to Herge’s Tintin and South Park’s Butters.
Readers of the Herald’s Stay in Touch column have also suggested dopplegangers including John Denver, Paul Williams, a “generic Scandavian Prime Minister” and “the little boy who played Tristram in the ‘70s British sitcom George & Mildred.
Rudd “doesn’t seem to fit in with the other Labor guys”, says John Spooner of The Age newspaper in Melbourne.
“He’s like the little guy drinking shandy at the pub between two big guys.”
Rudd’s predecessor, Kim Beazley, was “easier to draw because of his weight, sharp nose and big eyebrows”, says Moir.
Rudd’s cartoonish image may initially be to his advantage. Spooner believes his fresh face may make John Howard look old and jaded.
However, any such advatage won’t last, says Fazzari.
“Politic years are like dog years. Politicians age faster, except dogs are more fun and trustworthy.”
Of course, Rudd’s caricatures will grow old with him – assuming he is around long enough.
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