Resources- Political Cartoonist

Methodologies for final topic - Political

Methodologies for the Political Cartoonist: (Pick any 4)

1. Visual metaphor (eg, eating ships instead of sinking them)

2. Pastiche of famous painting or artwork ( Bell's version of Toulouse-Lautrec, Gillray's Three Witches)

3. Anthropomorphism (eg Pit the mushroom, Ed Milipanda)

4 "Angry", expressive dip pen and ink line, splatters, etc, contrasted with regular forms such as concentric circles for eyes (Scarfe, Steadman)

5. Emphasis of facial features (classic caricature) 
See: http://www.tomrichmond.com/2008/02/14/how-to-draw-caricatures-1-the-5-shapes/

6. Parody of plot and characters from  a popular TV show, film or book (EG Star Wars)

7. 3-D caricature such as found in Spitting Image by Fluck and Law
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRF6ml-J6t0

Political – Steve Bell
A lot of satire is based on visual metaphor. The target is what we try to describe, to make a meaning of by using metaphor.
EACH METAPHOR CONSISTS OF TWO ELEMENTS: A TARGET AND A SOURCE
Both target and the source are part of, in principle, infinitely expanding networks of related meanings, necessary for producing metaphors, called connotations.
The source is a “vehicle“, the concept that is used to predicate something about the target. Metaphors connect two conceptual domains: the target domain and the source domain.
Using a pastiche of a famous painting, poster or other image:

Target

Source image

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/sep/30/karl-marx-meets-beatrix-potter-steve-bell-draws-jeremy-corbyn-video
Pastiche of a famous story/scenario , eg Star Wars:

Comic strip format – enables progression and a ‘punchline’
Anthropomorphism is a visual metaphor, using the animal or object as a "source" : Bell made Ed Miliband into a crazy panda, and has added a fox tail to Jeremy Corbyn:


Also Look at:
James Gillray – Satirical printmaker of Napoleonic era (18th century)(You could also look at George Cruikshank)
Gerald Scarfe and Ralph Steadman – Late 20th century political caricaturists
Steve Bell – Rose to fame with Mrs. Thatchers govt in the 1980s, creator of the If… cartoons for the Guardian for 30 years(You could also look at Martin Rowson, Peter Brookes and Chris Riddell)

Methodologies for the Political Cartoonist:

1. Visual metaphor (eg, eating ships instead of sinking them)

2. Pastiche of famous painting or artwork ( Bell's version of Toulouse-Lautrec, Gillray's Three Witches)

2. Anthropomorphism (eg Pit the mushroom, Ed Milipanda)

3 "Angry", expressive dip pen and ink line, splatters, etc, contrasted with regular forms such as concentric circles for eyes (Scarfe, Steadman)

3. Exaggeration of facial features (classic caricature) (Scarfe, Bell, Rowson)

Steve Bell: 'You must discover the character behind the face'http://www.belltoons.co.uk/

“These men and women are professional idealists and I take my hat off to them. Then I kick them up the arse. Because it's not what they say or what they are, or even what they say they are, that gets my goat: it's the things they actually do to us in our name.”Videos of Bell showing his political conference sketchbooks and 30 year exhibition:
http://www.theguardian.com/culture/video/2011/may/25/bell-epoque-steve-bell-cartoon-museum-video
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2012/dec/31/year-in-cartoons-steve-bell-2012-video
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2014/oct/02/steve-bell-draws-david-camerons-keynote-speech-video
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2014/sep/24/labour-conference-steve-bell-miliband-keynote-speech-video
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/video/2010/oct/08/steve-bell-conference-sketchbook-video
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2011/may/25/steve-bell-my-lifes-work

Bell is now over 60, and his fellow Guardian cartoonists are not young and are all male.Newspapers are losing money and circulation to the Internet.
Consider:- the process of developing caricatures of leading public figures. - Style:Compare Bell and Martin Rowson's more traditional styles with those satirical artists that seek to add a more formal stylisation to their work: Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman. Where does Chris Riddell stand?- the patronage and future of the political cartoonist, and newspaper cartoonists in general:

Links (Gillray):
http://www.james-gillray.org/people.html



Read: Report from Herb Block Foundation:http://www.herbblockfoundation.org/sites/default/files/imce_uploads/pdfs/hbf2011whitepaper_f1.pdf
Excerpt: On a Theory of Political Caricature by Lawrence H. Streichera1 a1 Institute for Juvenile Research, Chicago, Illinois
“The Cartoonist, His Publication and His Publics
Since the days of the mid-nineteenth century in Europe, England and the
western hemisphere, the cartoonist typically works for a journal or newspaper
which includes a trained and supportive staff. The proprietor-editor shields
him from a "hostile" environment to permit him to express himself (as in the
case of Lord Beaverbrook with David Low) or exposes him to that environment
(as in the case of Philipon with Daumier). Since this relationship varies
with national and international political fortunes, the caricaturist is one of
those professionals who are itinerant. We have not remarked on changes of
political stand of the cartoonist, though these do occur, and sometimes result
in a parting. Editors are also sensitive to their readership and absorb caricaturists
as well as any other staff member. Perhaps the readership of a given
paper is the most sensitive arbiter of a cartoonist's stay on the publication, in
addition to the editor's policy. We may assume that the readership of any
large paper which has a caricaturist as a permanent staff member is differentiated
in nature. But the readers of one paper are probably more like each
other, as a group, than they are like readers of another paper. Each paper
may further be assumed to have somewhat of a monopoly of attention over
its particular readers. So it can be said, perhaps, that a caricaturist, in turn,
fairly well responds to what would be acceptable for consumption by his
reading public. There is little evidence to the contrary, except for some
measures of readership which disavow that a cartoonist responds in any great
measure to his readers. Other alternatives are that a cartoonist leads his
readers or, variously, is independent of them and calls his images as he sees
them. If we assume that an editor is somewhat sensitive to his readers and
that the readers pay some amount of attention to the caricature, it seems
reasonable to assume in turn that the artist draws for a particular kind of
reading audience, from whom he expects a certain amount of support. Caricature,
then, in terms detailed above, and with the particular kind of orientation
one would have to expect from a particular artist, would be to some
extent a response to a certain reading and viewing audience.
But we have little or no information as to the extent that a caricaturist is
able to influence an audience, no matter how much he intends to and no
matter how much his audience tends to respond. For the moment it is a
conjectural matter to be appended by analysts as they see fit but with little
evidence. Much of the present research is on content analysis, and impact is
treated only in a topical manner”.p.442-3