Life imitating cartoons (yet again)

This is my sixth entry on this blog where something I drew in a cartoon has happened in real life (you can see one from last year here and links to the others here) but I think this is my favourite because it was deliberate.

It made my day when I saw it on Twitter! Thanks to Darren Smith. The original Private Eye cartoon is below. It's one of the most popular cartoons I've done.

Darren's clocks featured at a festival he holds at his home. I've suggested that next time he should recreate this old Reader's Digest cartoon. Might need to carry out a risk assessment first though ...

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Magazine cartoons: Stone age to digital age

Here's a cartoon from last week's Spectator magazine. Cave paintings is one of those cartoon subjects that keeps on giving. And as I can still hear fireworks outside, here's my Bonfire Night cartoon from the current Private Eye.

"Cool bonfire app, man." 

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Cartoonists off to the seaside again

Here's a cartoon I submitted for the exhibition Cartoonists Beside the Surrealside which can be seen at the Beach Creative gallery, Herne Bay, from Wednesday 30 July until Tuesday 12 August. The show celebrates the town's link with Marcel Duchamp, like last year's event, so many of the cartoons will be art-themed.

I'll be one of the cartoonists taking part in the live drawing element of the event, which will be on Sunday 3 August (midday-5pm). Here's a picture of a bunch of us from last year.

Left to right: me, Kipper Williams and Chris Burke. Photo by Kasia Kowalska

It was a glorious day both in terms of weather and enjoyment, so we're hoping to do it all again at this year's event, which is supported by Arts Council England. Here's the event poster (note: the exhibition dates have been extended since the was made) drawn by Ian Baker.

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Exhibition cartoon: Pastiche or piracy?

Click image to enlarge

I've got a few cartoons in an exhibition called Pastiche, Parody and Piracy, which opens at the Cob Gallery in north London on Friday (June 20).

The exhibition, which includes contemporary artists as well as cartoonists, looks at works that riff off, and indeed rip off, other works of popular culture, as well as brands, logos etc (yes I've also got one of my many HMV dog cartoons in there!)

For this cartoon, I completely redrew (OK, traced) the Roy Lichtenstein "original" (he famously ripped off an actual a comic book image). But I wonder if that was really necessary? Should I have just changed the original in Photoshop as some cartoonists do?

Some works in the exhibition do use directly lifted material. This has been common in the art world since Duchamp, if not before, but continues to be controversial (see the comments here). Whatever you think, it looks sure to be an interesting and thought-provoking show.

Footnote: This cartoon features in my book collection Cartoons on Demand, which you can read a review of here, and buy here.

Pet subject: More dog and cat cartoons

"It's a battle of wills – I'm refusing to do anything funny for his YouTube page ..."

Fashions come and go, governments rise and fall, but yer humble gag cartoonist carries on drawing jokes about cats and dogs. People love 'em! The cartoon above can be seen in the current issue of Reader's Digest, the one below was in the last Private Eye.

"They're the dog's Pollocks."

Cartoonists are often the worst judges of their own material – you never know what people are going to go for – I had few hopes for this cartoon.

My surprise that it was taken by Private Eye was nothing compared to the surprise that since it appeared two weeks ago I have had emails almost every other day praising the cartoon and asking for the original, prints and redrawn versions (including a request to rework it "with the dog as identifiably an Airedale Terrier".)

Expect more dog and cat cartoons ...

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Cat cartoons

I've always drawn a lot of cat cartoons, for some reason. Possibly because I like cats. This is one from the current Reader's Digest.

Below is one from the current issue of The Spectator. I've always drawn a lot of psychiatrist couch cartoons, though I can't say I particularly like psychiatrists.

"I want you to be open and honest and to not leave any hairs on the couch."

Also in that issue of Reader's Digest is this, a rare win in Beat the Cartoonist:

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Going live in Herne Bay

The Cartoonists in the Bandstand event in Herne Bay on August 3rd was a huge success (I'm a bit late to writing about this, but I've been away for a week).

As the event was celebrating 100 years since Marcel Duchamp lived in the town, we all drew loads of art-based cartoons. There were more to be seen in galleries and pubs. Here's me imagining the birth of the art critic, while getting sunburnt. (Photo above by Kasia Kowalska).

I put together a photo-based account of the day here.

"No! It is picture of hunt! It not 'really about inner conflict'!" 

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Art-toonists in Herne Bay this weekend

I'll be at the above event in Herne Bay, Kent, this weekend (poster © Hunt Emerson). It's part of the Duchamp in Herne Bay festival, which marks 100 years since the artist Marcel Duchamp visited the town.

In the pranksterish spirit of the godfather of conceptual art (he's the urinal guy) many of the cartooning events have a certain playful air to them. That's another way of saying I'm really not sure what we'll be doing, but I'm sure it'll be fun!

Cartoons on the theme of art will be on display, many in various Shepherd Neame pub toilets (we're back to the urinal again) throughout the town. Here's one that appears in the slightly more salubrious setting of the official event programme.

There is a heck of lot of Duchamp in Herne Bay stuff going on over the next few weeks, not just the cartoon-based events, and it looks well worth a visit. You can read the programme online or visit the official website.

The art of the snowman

"That Gormley kid is such a show-off"

Here's a snow cartoon. Because it's been snowing. Do you see? I don't just throw this stuff together, you know. This is from Saga magazine.

I'm no Antony Gormley when it comes to snowmen. I built one at the weekend with my kids, and this is how he looked this morning. Remarkably relaxed for someone whose face has fallen off and is about to collapse (he did, a couple of hours later).

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Not Yet Sold: Ceiling groovy

"There's an app for that."

One from my rejection pile, which I like to ironically refer to as the "Not Yet Sold" pile. You can see more NYS cartoons here.

Stars on Canvas charity auction starts

The Stars on Canvas 2012 charity auction begins today and runs until December 2. That's my contribution above, which is in the Illustration section. You can bid for small canvases by cartoonists and illustrators as well as dozens by famous names from the worlds of sport, music and entertainment.

It is in aid of the Willow Foundation, which works with seriously ill 16 to 40-year-olds. The charity arranges special days and experiences to allow for a break from the difficulties of diagnosis and treatment.

The canvases will be sold online and will be exhibited at Maddox Arts, a London gallery that has donated the space. For details on how the auction works, visit the Stars on Canvas website.

Cartoon on canvas

This week I painted a small canvas (20cm by 20cm) for a charity auction taking place later in the year.

It is in aid of the Willow Foundation, which works with seriously ill 16 to 40-year-olds. The charity arranges special days and experiences to allow for a break from the difficulties of diagnosis and treatment. A similar auction was held by the Willow Foundation a couple of years ago.

It was fun to break out the acrylic paints to add the colour, though as usual I miss the comfort of the Photoshop "undo" button! This is a simplified version, to allow for the square shape, of a cartoon that originally appeared in Reader's Digest.

Art cartoon: A matter of taste

I loved the recent Channel 4 TV series All in the Best Possible Taste, in which the artist Grayson Perry looked at questions of taste with regard to art, decor, fashion etc.

The by-product was that the programme was also a look at the British class system and one of the best, most non-judgemental takes on that subject that I've ever seen.

And as if that's not enough, there was some knockout artwork in it by the very amiable Perry. You can catch up via 4OD here.

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Art cartoon: Express yourself

Sometimes I find I come up with ideas for cartoons but have to let them simmer gently for a while.

I must have jotted this one down but was unsure about it, as I didn't draw it up. Then I came across it a few months later and found myself laughing. So I drew it up, and it sold to the first magazine I sent it to.

It's one of two in the current issue of Reader's Digest. Both feature spot colour, rather than full colour, which is effective/lazy, depending on your point of view.

Here are some more art cartoons.

Cave-painting cartoon: The untamed line

"No! It picture of hunt. It not 'really about inner conflict'..."

All cartoonists have favourite subjects to draw, and cavemen is one of mine. It's because you can go wild with the line, as the "costume" of the character is pretty flexible. And they're usually very ugly.

With a caveman cartoon, you're usually putting them in a modern context, so you're always aware that there's a chance the joke has already been done on The Flintstones! I use the word "modern" loosely as, amazingly, The Flintstones turned 50 last week.

I was reminded of this cartoon by a documentary I saw the other day which featured footage of J.R.R. Tolkien angrily denying that the Lord of the Rings was in any way a religious allegory, as everyone insisted on telling him. It must be annoying for any artist to have someone suggest a sub-text in their work that they never intended. Thankfully, this rarely happens in cartooning.

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Religion cartoon: Screaming Pope

As Pope Benedict is due to visit Britain this week, here's a cartoon I did a while back about scandals in the Catholic Church.

This was drawn and coloured completely with brush pens in a futile attempt to recreate one of Francis Bacon's haunting "Screaming Pope" paintings (this one: Study after Velazquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent.)

I was brought up as a Catholic and was even an altar boy, though thankfully I never suffered any abuse (no inappropriate jokes, please!) But, as you can probably guess from the cartoon, I'm now officially in the "lapsed" category.

More "art" cartoons

Not Yet Sold: Art cartoon

"Funny guy, eh?"

Here's another rejected cartoon. One of quite a few I've done over the years which riff on the René Magritte painting The Son of Man. Here's one which did see publication, and so is all coloured in properly.

Click the link for more Not Yet Sold cartoons.

Once again, this gag has been given an airing in a non-earning fashion, as it appears in the latest edition of the Foghorn, the magazine of the Professional Cartoonists' Organisation.

You can read an archive of the Foghorn online, just click the button on the right-hand column of this blog (scroll down). To buy a print subscription to the mag, which comes out six times a year, go here.

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Art cartoon: The smokers' huddle

The smokers' huddle is very much a modern British cartoon cliche, much used particularly since the smoking ban came into effect. I've done a few myself, see here, and here.

And as I like to do cartoons about art, see here, here, and, indeed, here, it seemed like a fun idea to put the two together.

This is another one of those gags that I sold to The Spectator but which ended up being transported to The Spectator Australia. I guess they must have smokers' huddles there too. Bit warmer for them, at least.

The paintings are, left to right, Van Gogh's Self Portrait with Pipe, Cezanne's The Pipe Smoker, Magritte's The Treachery of Images (aka "Ceci n'est pas une pipe") and an early Van Gogh (again) called Skull with Burning Cigarette. I had a postcard of the latter on my wall when I was a student. As if that is of any interest to anyone.

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Picasso cartoon at the BBC

Radio 4's PM Blog was looking for some free art, as a bit of a joke after the BBC was criticised for using licence-payers money to buy art. So I sent them some. Click the image to enlarge or go here. The cartoon was originally in Private Eye back in September.

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Art cartoon: Stealing from the Masters

"All done, squire – bish, bash, Bosch."

This is one many art cartoons I've drawn over the years, in an attempt to make myself look clever. It's one of two gags by me that can be seen in the December edition of Reader's Digest.

Often with art cartoons I'll draw an approximation of the original, as I did with this Picasso cartoon and this Magritte one, but here it seemed as though using the original would work better for the joke, as the decorator character is supposed to have painted it ... and would be a lot less work!

You can see the full painting, The Garden of Earthly Delights (1503-4) by Hieronymus Bosch, in some detail here. It's almost like a bizarre cartoon itself, in all its wacky glory. I didn't put the usual "Apologies to ..." on this one as, well, it would have given the punchline away.

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