Bloghorn spotted this great work this week...
One: Stephen Hutchinson (aka Bernie) in Private Eye on child protection officers
Two: Gerald Scarfe in the Sunday Times on India
Three: A spot of blowing our own Foghorn ... Noel Ford on the cover of the new Christmas issue of the PCO's cartoon magazine. (Below – click image to enlarge). Subscribe to The Foghorn here
The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
It's a US Elections Comedown Special this week...
One: Garry Trudeau's Doonesbury strip in The Guardian on withdrawal symptoms
Two: Gerald Scarfe in the Sunday Times on sweeping up
Three: Liza Donnelly in the New Yorker on the woe of winning
The PCO: British cartoon talent
PCOer Tayo Fatunla reports on his participation in Black History month at the Damilola Taylor Centre in Southwark, London. More details are here.
The BBC has a short video of Gerald Scarfe opening an exhibition of his political drawings at the Houses of Parliament.
The PCO: Great British cartoon talent
PCOers John Roberts and Steve Bright attended a recent illustrated talk given by the caricaturist at Shrewsbury. John reports for Bloghorn:
What struck me almost immediately about him is how charming and mild mannered this notoriously vicious caricaturist is . He admitted during his talk that he uses drawing as a therapy. He says he feels positively ill unless he draws everyday – much like Quentin Blake. He obviously loses his anger and frustrations during the process.
As a cartoonist, I found it fascinating that he claims that he cares little about the finished piece when he starts i.e. he feels that he HAS to get the idea down on paper as fast as possible or else he’ll succumb to some great disaster. He doesn’t really think “Gosh, this is a great idea and I must get it drawn and sold!”
He outlined the drawing process he uses – he never pre-draws in pencil (to keep the artwork "alive" and as fresh as possible) and pointed out with a great flourish of his outstretched arm, that he doesn’t draw with a constrained hand or by using his wrist but with fast and furious arm movements – he “draws from the shoulder”.
He outlined all the various illustration fields he has ploughed over the last 30 years from his famous caricature work (Sunday Times, New Yorker etc), opera designs for both scenery and costumes, animation work for Pink Floyd and his character designs for the animated Walt Disney film Hercules. I also found it very interesting that Scarfe has always been fascinated with animation claiming that it is still a greatly underrated art form which he would love to spend more time working with and developing.
One image stayed with me afterwards and that was of one of his cartoons for the Sunday Times which shows George W Bush, dressed as Superman, flying over the chokingly black smoke and flames of totally destroyed Iraq, with the caption “Is it a Bird? Is it a Plane? No it’s a F***ing Disaster!” Brilliant.
Further appearances at:
Sunday 21st September: Charleston Literary Festival, East Sussex: 4pm.
Friday 3rd October: Warwick Words Festival - illustrated talk and book signing: 3pm.
Saturday 11th October: illustrated talk at British Museum, London (The Big Draw): 1.30pm.
Saturday 18th October: Cheltenham Book Festival: 10am.
Monday 20th October: illustrated talk, Guildford Festival: 7.30pm. (contact venue for ticket details).
Monday 27th October: illustrated talk at British Library, London: 7pm. (contact venue for ticket details).
UPDATED:
The BBC has an illustrated interview with Scarfe here.
The PCO: British cartoon talent
The cartoonist Gerald Scarfe is touring the UK with his show Scarfe On The Road. It comes to the Shrewsbury Music Hall on the 4th of September
Scarfe is one of Britain’s most popular caricaturists and is political cartoonist for the Sunday Times. For more details on this illustrated talk, which spans his 40-year career, see the above flyer (click to enlarge). You can book tickets here.
Shrewsbury is no stranger to cartooning as every April it hosts the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival, the foremost event of its kind in the country.
The PCO: British cartoon talent
Gerald Scarfe at work in his studio. Photograph by Linda Nylind
Cartoonist Gerald Scarfe is the subject of this week's Portrait of the Artist questionnaire in The Guardian.
The PCO: British cartoon talent
An exhibition of Gerald Scarfe tennis cartoons and caricatures of former Wimbledon champions has opened in time for the 2008 championships. Scarfe and the drawings get a look in about 2 minutes into the report which is from Channel 4 News.
Competitors available here
