AD5508 The Illustrator : Politcal Art, Emphasis of Facial Features

Emphasis of facial features

Caricatures

GERALD SCARFE

Gerald Scarfe was brn in London. After briefly attending Royal College of Art in London, he established himself as a satrical cartoonist. In 1963 he began a long association with the Sunday Times as their political cartoonish, also carrying out reportage assignments in Vietnam, the Middle East, India and Northenr Ireland. He's also been a political cartoonish for the London Sunday Times doe 44 years and has also worked for The New Yorker Magazine for 21 years. He was a CBA in the Queen's birthday Honours in 2008.

He has attacked leaders from across the political spectrum, but his portrayal of Thatcher made the most impact. "Extremely provocative" and "no holds barred", his cartoons depicted her in a range of striking and shocking guises, from a shark to a handbag to a bloody axe.

"I didn't agree with her values, but she was amazing material," says Scarfe.

"I always gave her a stabbing, aquiline nose, drooping eyes and a small mouth, full of bloody incisors."

"I could depict her as anything cutting, stabbing, slicing, biting, aggressive - like a dagger, a knife, an axe or scissors.

"She grew progressively more scythe-like and cutting over the years that I drew her."

Although still loved by her supporters who cite her role in turning around Britain's economy and her election successes, Thatcher remains hated by many in the North East. During her time as Conservative prime minister from 1979 to 1990, she oversaw the closure of dozens of coal mines, leading to thousands of job losses and the year-long miners' strike.

Figure 1 - Gerald Scarfe, Thatcher caricature

Figure 2 - Gerald Scarfe, Thatcher depicted eating her successor, John Major.

My own attempt

Caricatures being a weakness I found a lot of inspiration from Tom Richmond, especially as he focuses on famous faces and making them into caricatures. The principles in which he set out were based on likeness, exaggeration and statement.

Likeness -'If you can’t tell who it is supposed to be, then it is not successful. All good caricatures incorporate a good likeness of their subjects.'

Exaggeration -Without some form of exaggeration, or a departure from the exact representation of the subject’s features, all you have is a portrait. The level of exaggeration can vary wildly, but there must be some departure. A straight portrait is not a caricature.

Statement - I believe a caricature must editorialise in some way. The artist must be trying to say something about the subject. It might be something to do with the situation the subject is drawn in, it may just be a play on their personality through expression or body language, it might be a simple as making visual fun of some aspect of their persona or image. Exaggeration itself can accomplish this in some cases. The best caricatures say something more about the subject than that they have a big nose.

Based on this and a theory of '5 shapes'. He explains how the human face has 52 muscles making it complex but you can however reduces these down to a foundation and a frame work for the face, his examples shown here.

Figure 3 - 5 shape theory

Figure 4 - 5 shape theory

Figure 5 - 5 shape theory applied

After studying this principle and looking at the topics of Gerald Scarfe's work I decided to focus my efforts onto one politician that isn't in everybody good books. Donald Trump is a character and has lots of identifiable features that can be caricatured. I focused on his hair, eye brows, mouth and shape of his eyes and face following the 5 shape principle.