Multi-award winning animator and cartoonist Nick Park of Aardman Animations is interviewed here by Owen Gibson of The Guardian. Park talks with pleasure of getting to edit the 70th anniversary edition of the Beano which we blogged about earlier here.
British cartoon talent

No, no, we are all Banksy!

The Mail on Sunday has outed the identity of the mysterious and elusive grafitti artist. He is, allegedly, called Robin and he went to to a nice school. It’s a shame the paper couldn’t bring itself to talk about what Robin of Banksy draws because the message is meant to be more important than the medium – or the artist.

We’d like to encourage everyone reading here to claim to be Banksy too and then, perhaps, we can confuse the Mail on Sunday and help the artist retain his desired wealthy anonymity.

Named British cartoon talent

A shiny new issue of the Foghorn cartoon magazine is hitting the streets imminently – and a subscription to the bi-monthly feast of drawing and jokes (no, really, we got advised we should say this sort of thing) is available via the PCO big blue Foghorn button you can see immediately to the right hand-side of this writing.
British cartoon talent

PCOer Martin Honeysett has won the Kyoto International Cartoon Competition for a piece of art on global warming. Fellow member Ross Thomson placed third. You can see a full report on ther work and the stiff competition they faced here. Bloghorn says Click H for Honeysett and T for Thomson.
It’s British cartoon talent

One of the problems in being able to express yourself through drawing is having your work “borrowed” or “passed off” as the product of someone else.

This is an occupational hazard if you draw to make your living, but it is irritating. Actually this is theft because traditionally, full-time, commercial artists and cartoonists sell the rights to publication of their work. This business model is destroyed by free and easy copying.

The Bloghorn is going to highlight particularly bad examples of this as and when they turn up. To illustrate this intent, here is a link to an example of image theft from early in 2007. It comes from the blog of Matt Buck and concerns the work of fellow member Andy Davey. There was some interesting follow-up to the actual theft of Andy’s images and fellow PCOer Morten Morland blogged about that.

The PCO: Full-time, professional 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

The BBC has embraced the talent of Aardman animation, makers of Wallace and Gromit among many others, to make the titles for their coverage of the European football championships, which are starting this weeeknd. If you watch the video from the Beeb here, you’ll see what a key role traditional drawing and cartoon skills can play in making the moving image. Strangely enough, no one seems to have felt the need to draw former England manager Steve McLaren.
More than qualified British cartoon talent

A new Foghorn cartoon magazine from the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation is out now. If you would like to subscribe to the six issues a year please click the big blue button to your right, now.
Click to enlarge the picture
Showcasing British cartoon talent

To many people, one drawing can look much like another, but to a professional practitioner of the art, little could be further from the truth.

The simple dictionary definition of drawing* is the art of representing by line, but behind this statement the variety can seem infinite.

Expression and communication in drawn line and the way it is used to make a joke or a point is the unique thing in developing an original, visual sense of humour. And that goes towards making the cartoonist.

The picture here shows a small variety of the lines which are used to make jokes. You can find all of them – and their creators – in our PCO cartoon portfolios.

The curve of different PCO cartoonists from procartoonists.org
Click to enlarge the picture.

* Concise Oxford Dictionary.
British cartoon talent

Click on the banner above for a look back at some of the PCO’s recent artists of the month.
It’s British cartoon talent