Wednesday 24 November 2010

The Cartoonist's Hat


(Marker, digital colour)



"It's perhaps important to point out that I find cartooning and painting almost totally incompatible, in that they each require a different mindset. When I wear my cartoonist's hat I cannot paint and vice versa."

"In 1973 .... I gave up all thought of art college. The cartoonist's hat was firmly on for the next 15 years."

"If [painting] keeps me sane, it's worth it, but every now and again I find my head itching for the cartoonist's hat."

Those are quotes from an article I wrote for my fanzine, PIE in the SKY, in 1992 and serve to demonstrate the ongoing difficulty I find in working in both fields at the same time. It ought not to be so difficult. I've mentioned before that Wayne Thiebaud draws a cartoon every day and while I'm far too modest to put myself in the same paddock as Thiebaud, if he can do it, I don't see why I can't. Maybe not every day, but I don't see why painting and cartooning can't co-exist in my art practice.

All of which is by way of announcing the opening of my new blog - The Cartoonist's Hat. There's more work to be done on it in terms of banner headings and the like, but I've copied across all the cartoons from Boogie Street, together with contributions to Moleskine International Exchanges. From now on Moly work and pieces done for Illustration Friday will appear only on The Cartoonist's Hat. If you'd like to keep up with those things, why not subscribe to posts using the handy widget in the sidebar?

4 comments:

jimbairn said...

Welcome to the Cartoonists Madhouse. You might find this place interesting :

http://www.ccgb.org.uk/q_and_a_forum/simpleforum_pro.cgi

harry bell said...

Thanks, Jim, I'll look into that. And welcome to my Cartoonist's Hat.

jimbairn said...

Check out the competition section which you may find useful as an exercise. Each week someone suggests a caption and we submit cartoons based on that caption. We then vote on the cartoons and the person with most votes gets to choose the following weeks caption. There's no prizes (other than on the 50th comp where three cartoonists donated originals as prizes) but it's fun pitting wits with long established professionals. I've won twice and was pipped by one point from first place this week. They're a very friendly bunch and very helpful with advice.

harry bell said...

OK, Jim, thanks. I'll probably give it a try, although I've never thought of myself as much of a gag cartoonist.