Satirical - Caricature

Caricature was very challenging for me as I have difficulty in portraying specific people, they never seem to look like the person they are meant to be. Because of this, I looked at the work of Glen Hanson who creates more graphic, comic book-like caricatures where the facial features are only a little exaggerated. From looking at these images, it was easy to establish what were the defining facial features of each specific person, such as a sharp chin or prominent cheekbones.

From this research, I chose to make my caricature of Donald Trump as his scrunched-up features, saggy neck and orange face were features I could exaggerate.

 Looking back on my image now, I realise it is not as exaggerated as it felt when I was drawing it, however, it is recognisable as Trump which is good. I attempted to make his neck sag over his collar which worked, also his head is larger than it should be but, as this is only a bust portrait, it is not very clear. I made his skin quite orange and added the pale area around his eyes which makes him look like he just got off a tanning bed with the little goggles. Like Hanson, I tried using bright colours to better show the character and it works very well in this case.


Bibliography

Richmond Illustration Inc.. 2016. How to draw caricatures: The 5 Steps. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tomrichmond.com/2008/02/14/how-to-draw-caricatures-1-the-5-shapes/. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Glen Hanson. 2016. Caricature. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.glenhanson.com/caricature.php. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Satirical - Pastiche

For Pastiche, I looked at existing examples of altering a famous painting or writing such as Gillray's version of the three witches [1] using Lord Dundas, Prime Minister Pitt and Lord Thurlow (all politicians under King George III). The image is intended to show the uneasiness of their relationship under the king.

The image that I decided to parody is 'Mother and Child Gazing at a Hand Mirror' [2] because it is a recognisable image that fits in with the idea I wanted to portray. It is a traditional Japanese painting and so features subtle colours and a very stylised face with small features on a large pale base and, on the mother, red painted lips.

The image I have created mimics the pose of the original and uses the same colour scheme (soft pinks and greens) but I have modernised the content to feature a modern Japanese teenager and her brother. They are watching something on her phone (instead of a mirror) as this would have the same effect on a curious (modern) child and is very interested in what his older sibling is doing.

It makes a statement about how different the children are from traditional ideals, spending time on phones and wearing 'unsuitable' clothes. I also included the plant as a cactus as these are very popular with teenagers at the moment and helps to give context to the teenager's fashion choices.


References
[1] Gillray 1791
[2] Utamaru c.1802

Bibliography

Tate. 2016. Gothic Nightmares. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-britain/exhibition/gothic-nightmares-fuseli-blake-and-romantic-imagination/gothic-3. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Wikiart. 2016. Mother and child gazing at a Hand Mirror. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.wikiart.org/en/kitagawa-utamaro/mother-and-child-gazing-at-a-hand-mirror-1805. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Wikipedia. 2016. Pastiche. [ONLINE] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pastiche. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Satirical - Visual Metaphor

For this task, I looked at visual metaphors in general as one cartoonist will not do exclusively metaphors for their work. Examples I found showed 'sales in the toilet' [1] and 'unplugged from reality'. Because of all the political disasters that have happened in 2016, I decided to make my image based on it being a 'trainwreck' of a year and included some of the news items that made this year awful.

I have written each event on a separate carriage for clarity. Labelling items in this way is very important in many political cartoons as it shows what each element represents if it is not clear from the image context. 

References
[1] Sizemore

Bibliography

Cartoon Stock. 2016. Visual Metaphor Cartoons and comics. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/v/visual_metaphor.asp. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Library of Congress. 2016. Cartoon Analysis Guide. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/presentationsandactivities/activities/political-cartoon/cag.html. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

The Top Tens. 2016. Worst Things that happened in 2016. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.thetoptens.com/worst-things-happened-2016/. [Accessed 12 December 2016].

Satirical - Anthropomorphism

From looking at Steve Bell's political cartoons of Ed Miliband as a panda [1] and Jeremy Corbyn as a fox [2] for inspiration to make my own version of a current politician. In Bell's version, Miliband is transformed completely into a panda after beginning with only dark circles around his eyes, creating an extreme change but in context would still be recognisable as Miliband. Corbyn on the other hand, remains as a human but with fox characteristics of ears and a tail. The fox comparison is because he is trying to 'out-fox the Tories' [3].

For my piece I decided to use the American politician Ted Cruz who recently (unsuccessfully) ran for the presidency. I chose him because of his very recognisable face and grimace he makes when smiling to which Tumblr user Himatzu once said: 'ted cruz smiles like he has shampoo in his eyes' [4] which is very true. Also, as Cruz has attained meme status on the internet [5] I decided to stay with the theme and merge him with an animal also associated with memes, the crying cat. This is a good pairing as Cruz does look like he is about to cry most of the time.

My image is a quick digital sketch in which I attempted to add Cruz' facial features onto the crying cat's face. This task was challenging as I wanted to retain the iconic image of the crying cat but still make it look like Cruz so I used his nose and eyes however I have lost something in my final image. I think a crying cat / Ted Cruz accurately sums up his Presidency Campaign and his feelings about it.




References
[1] Bell
[2] Bell
[3] Bell 2015
[4] Himatzu 2016
[5] Know Your Meme 2016

Bibliography

Single Track World. 2013. The utter genius of Steve Bell. [ONLINE] Available at: http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/the-utter-genius-of-steve-bell. [Accessed 10 December 2016].

Know Your Meme. 2016. Ted Cruz Zodiac Killer. [ONLINE] Available at: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/ted-cruz-zodiac-killer. [Accessed 10 December 2016].

Know Your Meme. 2016. Cats. [ONLINE] Available at: http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/cats. [Accessed 10 December 2016].

The Guardian. 2015. Steve Bell. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/stevebell. [Accessed 10 December 2016].

Tumblr, slimetony. 2016. -. [ONLINE] Available at: http://slimetony.com/post/140069831762/kagekubi-himatzu-himatzu-ted-cruz-smiles. [Accessed 10 December 2016].

Wordpress, Picture Politics. 2015. Jeremy Corbyn meets Beatrix Potter. [ONLINE] Available at: https://picturepolitics.wordpress.com/2015/10/04/jeremy-corbyn-meets-beatrix-potter/. [Accessed 10 December 2016].