Posts from — April 2009

Bloghorn asked Artist of the Month, Noel Ford, What do you see as the future of cartooning in the digital age?

Since the days of Hogarth, cartoons have been engraved, pencilled, penned and brushed. Digital media is, in one way, just another step along the way. However, the digital age has revolutionised our profession in more ways than that. It is not only a way of creating artwork, it is a method (the preferred method, nowadays) of delivering that artwork. Whether a cartoon is created on a computer or drawn on paper and scanned, the delivery is more often than not done via email or other digital means.

The digital age has also given us an instant reference system that cartoonists of my vintage would have killed for when we started out. “Google it” has become the reference byword. Car boot sales are bursting at the seams with old reference books.

And this is just the beginning. Digitally we are heading up a logarithmic curve and who knows what lies just a little further onwards and upwards?

We just have to hold on tight and hope we don’t come off at the next learning curve.

Cartoonist Tim Harries demonstrates how to draw a Big Board cartoon from start to finish, at this year’s Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival

Here’s Hunt Emerson, underground comics star turned Beano artist, demonstrating comic poses during a workshop held at the appropriately named Infinity and Beyond comic shop in Shrewsbury.

Remember, although the festival is over you can still see the exhibitions, as they run for several weeks. Check the website for details.

There’s a short interview with the creator of this particular monster below.

(And the out-take is an added bonus – oops- Ed).

A Telegraph reader praises British cartooning in response to last week’s article by PCO patron Libby Purves.

Bloghorn endorses and approves any comments about how marvellous British cartoonists are, though we would not agree with the Telegraph reader’s view on cartoons in “continental newspapers”, having just returned from the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.

An acclaimed exhibition by Czech cartoonist Miroslav Bartak can be seen at the Theatre Severn’s Chapel Bar in Shrewsbury until June 6. More details here.

PCO member Gerard Whyman has posted a selection of photographs taken at Shrewsbury on his Facebook page. Facebook members can view them here.

Shrewsbury on Sunday, and after the traditional Saturday night of eating, drinking and drawing on tablecloths, there is one more gallery opening event. Professor Colin Pillinger, the architect of Beagle 2, the Mars Lander, has a personal selection of cartoons titled Science Friction at the Shrewsbury Museum and Art Gallery. After that, all the cartoonists gather at the Bear Steps Gallery for a meet-and-greet with the public, before heading back home to their drawing boards.

There’s a visual twist to one of Shrewsbury’s popular atractions. You can have your body redesigned and without need for strenuous exercise,  by having a “reverse caricature”.

Volunteers can make requests to the cartoonist attending this process, but they aren’t always honoured! The results are highly entertaining as the volunteer cannot see the result until everyone else has had a good laugh.

Also taking shape today at Shrewsbury are the Humurals.  The Darwin Shopping Centre is the place to see this collection of cartoons, each about 1m square, on the festival theme of science.

Elsewhere in Shrewsbury, Steve Bell and Bill Stott both gave illustrated talks to packed houses in the Old Market Hall. There was a series of cartoon workshops and cartoon clinics, where aspiring cartoonists queued to get their work reviewed by the professionals.

More colour was added to the Square as paint was thrown at the Big Board cartoons.  Cartoonist Kipper Williams gives some insight into what goes into making a memorable Big Board. Just click the audio player below to hear him explain.

At the end of the day all the festival cartoonists will be going to the opening night of an exhibition by visiting Czech satirist Miroslav Bartak.