Category — Artist of the Month

Bloghorn’s Artist of the Month for July is John Roberts. John specialises in caricature, gag cartoons, humorous illustration and has been a highly successful on-the-spot caricaturist for the last ten years.

He is also one of the founders and organisers of the annual Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.We asked John how he had become a cartoonist.

Believe it or not I wanted to save my sanity. In a previous life (good salary, company car, expenses etc etc) I found that if I didn’t change tack then I’d lose my marbles and so I had to have a major re-think.

I knew that I could make a living out of drawing so I decided to try to make it as a cartoonist. In the very early days I sent some caricatures to the Guardian and believe it or not they wrote back saying they’d like to use me and to ‘stand by’ for the phone call. At that time I was working flat out (24/7 as the dudes say these days) so I wrote back saying that that would be difficult in my present situation and so I turned them down! Probably the biggest mistake I have ever made in my life……

I eventually put a decent portfolio together and remember showing it to the late John Witt (cartoonist extraordinaire who used to have a cartoon studio in Chester) who took one look and said “Ever thought of doing ‘live’ caricaturing?”. Over the years I’ve often thought about John and what he had said and wondered if he suggested live caricaturing just to hack off his studio colleague and old friend Tim Leatherbarrow (caricaturist extraordinaire, of no fixed abode) but alas, caricaturing has been the mainstay of my work.

There will be another chat with John about his work next Friday.

In our final talk with artist of the month Kate Scurfield, we asked what she thought about the future of cartooning in the digital age.

E-mail has revolutionised delivery of images, although some editors (young ones) have used it to shorten deadlines. I believe as broadband speeds improve, the system will permit more elaborate websites for cartoonists including animation which is our greatest marketing tool.

My concern lies with plagiarism and electronic copying of our work. We can only reasonably protect our work in the UK and an increasing amount of my work goes overseas. I feel we are always playing catch up with the computer nerds and one day someone will sell a clever tool to remove watermarks at the flick of a switch. I have personally suffered from copyists both here and overseas and it is potentially a big threat. Artists have to think of a better way of protecting their work from being copied.

I dream of owning a Mac and a graphics pad and dig pen, but I will never give up drawing on watercolor paper and using a paintbrush.

Our thanks to Kate and look out for a new Artist of the Month for July next Friday.

Bloghorn asked our Artist of the Month, Kate Scurfield, which other cartoonist’s work she admired. We were not surprised by the answer.

Norman Thelwell…I adored his books from age six and met him ten years later ! I even trained in technical drawing like Thelwell as part of my studies, which probably accounts for the tightness of my cartoons. I admire Matt for his ‘loose’ style but was told by a very experienced editor to stick with my style…so I have, and remain unchallenged by the taxman to this day.

Does Kate have any tips for wannabe cartoonists ?

See some more from Kate next Friday – and you can also look back at a report on Norman Thelwell here.

The Bloghorn’s artist of the Month for June is Kate Scurfield. We asked her what made her become a cartoonist.

Realising that winding up the staff at school by caricaturing them was highly entertaining, though counterproductive at exam time. They finally bribed me with a prize to stop harassing them. I like cartoons over other forms of art because you can’t cheat by transposing photos as so many artists do.

And how does Kate create her cartoons?

Almost always soft lead & watercolour/Tria pens and colour enhanced in Photoshop if necessary.

Bloghorn’s Artist of the Month for June is Kate Scurfield. Kate is well-known for her cartoons on equestrianism, her work can be seen in Polo Times, Horse & Hound, Horse & Rider, Equestrian Trade news and Veterinary Nurses Journal.

She has numerous veterinary Practice and corporate clients which include:- Guards Polo Club, Hurlingham Polo Association, Ascot Racecourse, Ascot Brewery, ValdeVie Polo – Western Cape, Sussex Polo and AdLoos. She has published three ranges of greeting cards for Grays of Shenstone and limited edition personalised greeting cards for The Spinal Injuries Association.

She does live caricaturing at equestrianism events, and is busy expanding her range beyond this to include political satire, TV and sporting celebrities.

Bloghorn asked our Artist of the Month, Ken Pyne, what was his advice for anyone wanting to be a cartoonist.

Hot tips for wannabes? Just because an editor tells you your cartoon isn’t funny doesn’t mean to say it is unfunny. Never think people turning down your work may have a point – just get angry with them. Also, bear in mind that most people working on national newspapers these days have had their sense of humour surgically removed.

And the future in the digital age?

We can only pray.

Our thanks to Ken – and there will be a new artist of the month appearing here next Friday.

Welcome to the Bloghorn’s continuing interview with Ken Pyne, our current Artist of the Month. We are showcasing one of Ken’s caricatures for Private Eye magazine above.

Bloghorn asked Ken which other cartoonists he liked.

The other cartoonists I admire, that are still alive, are the ones too good to get published as much as they should, Mike Williams & Martin Honeysett especially. Oh, and Clive Collins too…

For the topical single column newspaper gag ideas Nick Newman is out on his own. I think, Steve Bell is the only true political cartoonist working at the moment.

You can catch up with our Artist of the Month archives here.

Our Artist of the Month, Ken Pyne, lives and works in North London. Ken has won a string of awards for his work including Cartoonist of the Year in 1981, Strip Cartoonist of the Year in 2001 and Caricaturist of the Year in 2006.

He has exhibited work at the Cartoonists’ Gallery, London, the Barbican Centre and Burgh house in Hampstead. His work is also held in the permanent collections at the V&A Museum, the Cartoon Art Trust and Salon du Presse et d’Humour, Switzerland.

When asked, he offered Bloghorn some trade secrets;

How do I make my cartoons? Apart from out of glue, scissors and old plastic cartons? I wait to be asked, think up jokes and draw them.

The Bloghorn Artist of the Month for May 2009 is Ken Pyne, a prolific gag, strip cartoonist and caricaturist.

Bloghorn asked Ken how he started as a cartoonist:

I became a cartoonist as I never wanted to do anything else as far back as I can remember. Drawing all over school exercise books seemed better than written homework, which helped me get my first cartoon published in Punch when I was 16. After that, I never looked forward.

Since then he has contributed to: Private Eye, The Times, Punch, Spectator, Observer, Guardian, Evening Standard, TES, Daily Mirror, Mail on Sunday, The Independent, Daily Telegraph, People, Manchester Evening News, Ham & High, Sunday Times, The Oldie, Reader’s Digest, Which?, Stern, Today, Sunday Express, Marketing Week, New Statesman, Listener, Radio Times, Esquire, House Beautiful, Federation of Small Businesses, Money Marketing, FM World and more.

There will be more from the interview with Ken next Friday.

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.