Matt Buck's Hack Cartoons

In this picture, I am precisely three-quarters of the way through the large drawing about drawing at the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival. I should stress at this point, no hat was used in the manufacture of this cartoon (see blogs previous), but several pairs of Y fronts did make an unwilling debut.)

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

In this photograph I am precisely halfway through a large drawing about drawing at the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

Hack cartoons is performing in public this weekend at the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival.

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

As April arrives, more or less, thoughts turn once more to the annual celebration of all things cartoon at the Shrewsbury International Cartoon Festival. I shall be big boarding again, which ought to be more of a treat this time than it felt last year. Look at the dimensions on the graphic again - I was just scared about how much space there was! There is a terrific lineup of drawing talent going up this year and it should, touch wood, be a great event for spectators and cartoonists alike. There is lots more about the event at the official site. If you can possibly find a way to go and get there, you should. Top line highlights include a big show called - But is it art - in which cartoonists take the piss out of the idea that drawing jokes isn't an art form. There is also a one-man show by Dave Brown of The Independent and Steve Bell of the Guardian is speaking. There will be so many top line gag cartoon merchants around you'll be falling over them. :-)

Matt Buck’s animated drawings

My colleague Royston Robertson has kindly posted details of some links to pictures and video of the recent Shrewsbury Cartoon Festival at which we both worked.

There are some details on what I did there here, here and here.

Although I'm told I ought to warn you about the hat which appears.

Here's a to-scale-shot-of-the-cartoonist and his Big Board with the fear I wrote about previously replaced by hope that my chosen image about trade was going to hold up over such a big space.
I started off by blocking in the shapes of the image I wanted to draw with a tin of Homebase's finest grey exterior paint. This was surprisingly effective and the rough surface of the hardboard meant that dry-brushing was very effective. This was very handy for the image I chose to paint.
After I had established the shapes and the layout I could then add black and white and further tone to help bring the image up and into a better and more powerful focus. The whole process took about eight hours and was hard work but great fun.

I survived my trial by 8 by 6 foot drawing board - and I'll post some more photos this evening.

I'm getting frighteningly close to the start of the Shrewsbury cartoon Festival and the big board drawing, I was describing here. There's a healthy degree of fear beginning to circulate now - especially as the good citizens of Shrewsbury and surrounding districts will be peering over my shoulders as I work.

As I explained last time, the theme is business and I've been thinking about which way to approach it - I'm going to outline a few approaches and some of their benefits and drawbacks, below

1) Gag - the most traditional or funny of the sort you might see in Sun Fun, Prospect or Private Eye in the UK. These are typically black and white lineart drawings with or without a caption. Really good practitioners of this art I know include Rod McKie, Royston Robertson and Tim Harries.

2) Illustration - a beautiful or striking image usually dependent on its context, or the things around it to help give it meaning. This is the most common form of cartoon in print. The Association of Illustrators have lots of members, but sometimes I'm not sure about their sense of humour.

3) Editorial - an image with a point. A column or opinion piece in pictures - this is my own particular specialisation. Colleagues like Alex Hughes, Morten Morland and Andy Davey make this a challenging environment.

Drawbacks with all of them - when considering an 8 by 6 foot board.

a) Fear!
b) Having a powerful enough joke or comment to translate over such a big space
c) Materials - a 2B isn't going to manage it alone ...

I'm veering towards approach 3) because it's what I know best - but what do I really think about business - time is running out, I'm supposed to start painting on Friday!

I shall be drawing at the Shrewsbury cartoon festival during the weekend of April 20-22.

This is a fantastic annual event organised by a group of Britain's very best cartoonists and very kindly supported by Shrewsbury and Atcham District Council.

This year, I have to draw in the town square on a very large board, 8 feet wide by 6 feet high - with lots of folk peering over my shoulders. The theme is trade and business.

Here's a small diagram giving you an idea about the relative proportions of this board and as you can see, it's going to be an interesting challenge. My colleague Royston Robertson is also on Big Board duty this year and you can almost see the fear in his recent blog entry about it.

I'll keep you posted on how it goes!