I had the pleasure of working at the Big Draw again this year. This event is the showpiece of the National Campaign for Drawing's activities, which are held throughout the year. This time, the event was hosted at Somerset House, home of the Courtauld Gallery, just off the Strand in central London.
I took part in the battle of the cartoonists, where teams of national newspaper hacks drew each other to a standstill in an attempt to make a huge 6 metre long banner on the theme of amazing space in just 90 minutes.
The first photo here is our team planning how to start the drawing! Sometimes a small white piece of paper can feel quite intimidating, so when you are confronted with a banner as large as this one was ...
Here I am, hard at work on drawing Gordon Brown as one half of Tower Bridge. Unfortunately, being short of stature myself, it became necessary to draw while kneeling on the team table.
As you can see there were four artists to a team - and it was hard work. Below is the finished banner, we made on behalf of The Independent. We went for a slightly obtuse look at the theme and drew some of London's amazing spaces.
And finally, here's a photo of our final banner being hung up to dry. You'll be able to see it at The National Cartoon Museum on Little Russell Street in the heart for London for a little while yet. There are three other banners to see too - and they're all worth a look on your visit.
http://www.cartooncentre.com/
Monday, September 25, 2006
The Big Draw
1 comment:
The whole day was very enjoyable with plenty to see and do, though there did seem to be an air of barely controlled chaos - thousands of kids running around with pens in their hands, ready to leave their mark ... great fun!
Banners came out really well I think (thought you were robbed in the first round - boo to faulty judging!) Anyway, well done that man, keeping your nerve in front of a very large canvas.
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