South Wirral Art Society
Demonstration by George Brooks Caricaturist and Cartoonist
8th March 2011
“Born with a pencil in my hand” is how George described himself and it was obvious from the start that here was a man with a natural gift. But he has not always used his gift as a career. When George explained his experiences at School and his working career (I don’t think there is a job out there that George has not done!), it seemed to be a sense that it was a journey that he has had to make to get to where he is, as the wealth of experiences he gained on route now stand him in good stead when it comes to his art. One of the key moments in George’s life included a spell in hospital where he met a semi – professional cartoonist. This opened up doors for him and though these connectons he gained spnsership for entry to the Cartoonist Club of Great Britain, and this lead to the development and refinement of his craft.
His career has gone through a number of stages. He has worked for newspapers and magazines, and when that work began to fade switched his strategy and took up the challenge of doing carciatures for tourists down at the Albert Dock. That work in turn faded and he switched again to undertaken work at corporate functions,weddings etc and this is what he does today.
The way that George works has also changed. Pencil,pen and ink still play their part but at the point of the finished line drawing he scans it into a computer for coloiuring and finishing touches.
All of this says to me that George will embrace the new and change, but he will also make used of his old inherant skills and experiences (adapted if needed), to help him with new challenges as they come along. This is an important lesson for all of us that aspire to be artists – be alive to the social context you work within as it will influence you no matter what.
Finally a few tips from George if you want to do cartoons;
· Start with an A4 sheet and put a border around it.
· Do a line drawing in pencil and once youare happy with that goover it in ink.
· Dip pen for preference or a felt tip of somekind.
· Use someting like the Dandy or the Beano for ideas.
· Think about drop shadows and thickness of line to give your drawing some depth
Final final comments! The Chairman quoted from the famous cartoonist David Low who said that the aim of the caricaturist is “to discover, analyse and select essentials of personaity, and by the exercise of wit to reduce them to appropriate form.” Anyone that has faced George’s intense looking at is sitter will realise he has learned and internalised this lesson and we can all learn from that.
Glenys
Mike
John
John
Peter Appleton
Secretary