Bloghorn Artist of the Month - Denis Dowland

Reflecting on the future of cartooning in the digital age in our last entry for 2008, PCO Artist of the Month, Denis Dowland, writes:

Technological advances give with one hand and take with the other just like chancellors. I certainly do not miss the good old days of dragging heavy portfolios round studios, at or soon after lunch-time, to baffle brain-addled, red-braced juvenile yuppie editors, I'd better stop now, it's all coming back to me. I simply couldn't wait for the internet.

Now that video has virtually taken over the medium, however, the internet is swamped by infantile trash, taking us back to square one, if not further. This only requires an upgrading of our working methods, like the telephone once did. The threat I see as more insidious is the unstoppable drive toward the cretinisation of society as perhaps its only means of holding together, its naturally enthusiastic adoption by the mediocre and its resigned and guilty acceptance by those who do know better. Grumpy old git, moi? I love it.

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Bloghorn Artist of the Month - Denis Dowland

PCO Artist of the Month Denis Dowland, tells Bloghorn about some of his cartoon influences: "A good gag's a good gag so I am not so particular about graphic styles. I think the great majority of cartoonists, and I don't even mind being counted as one of them, come up with at most a handful of works that will stand the test of (short to medium) time.

"Bill Tidy, McLachlan and lots of people whose names I cannot even recall have done stuff I wished I had done, never mind Cruikshank. Larson, ubiquitous as he is, comes up with real beauties in my view, and I'm slowly working my way around claiming authorship of one or two of that chap Stott's scribbles as well. I have just seen Scarfe's exhibition and some of his caricature is jaw-dropping. Caricature is a discipline I have never attempted, I couldn't tell you why."

His top tip for aspiring cartoonists is: "Get a job. I am not a good role model for any aspiring artiste (sic). Some young people want to become cartoonists for the same reasons they'd want to be pop stars. It's a pose one can strike without bothering to learn a craft. This is of course a reflection of my own middle-age views and experience. I would try to inspire young people to embrace neurology, astrophysics or history or any scholarly pursuit instead. Boring old prat, I know. I love it."

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
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Bloghorn Artist of the Month - Denis Dowland

PCO Artist of the Month, Denis Dowland, reveals to Bloghorn how he goes about producing his cartoons ...

"I have had to learn to resist the Big Creative Rush, especially after a grand meal or closing time, when everything comes out so clear and sharp and you can do, of course, no wrong.

"I have to let most ideas stew for some considerable time, we're talking months here, mostly, before I commit them to paper, or nowadays the computer, lest I look at a page in total bafflement as to what on earth I may have had in mind the night before. I think something similar happens to Gary Larson on occasion.

"Once the idea is fixed it's like painting by numbers. I love having just finished a picture but doing it is a grind; a common enough malaise."

There will be more work from Denis next Friday.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
Subscribe to The Foghorn - our print cartoon magazine

PCO Artist of the Month - Denis Dowland

The PCO Artist of the Month for December 2008 is Denis Dowland.

Denis's output ranges from traditional gags, or, joke cartoons to "conceptual absurdism" (his description).

He tells Bloghorn that from a young age that he was always drawing;

"As a child I was perceived as a gifted artist, due mostly, I imagine, to my favouring pen and ink which perhaps isn't the most instinctive medium for a young child. My work covered surrealism and assorted weirdness until the late 80s when a sadly short-lived mini boom in new-wave satire, for want of a better term, and an awakening to the possibilities of the graphic novel inspired me to produce a number of faintly surreal and twisted short stories for the more forward-looking magazines of the day.

"It did not turn out to be a living proposition, however, so I started producing gag cartoons, mostly unpublishable due to size and/or subject, for individual buyers, until the frustrations of word of mouth existence made me call it a day. We had to wait 10 years for the digital revolution to re-open the doors and persuade me to have another go."

There will be more from our interview with Denis next Friday.

The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
Subscribe to The Foghorn - our print cartoon magazine