Cartoonist Colin Shelbourn puts you in the picture

11:50am Thursday 29th July 2010

By Adrian Mullen

TOP tips from one of the UK’s leading cartoonists are revealed in a new ‘how-to’ guide to cartooning.

Drawing Cartoons - by Windermere-based cartoonist Colin Shelbourn - is a much-awaited tome on how to following in his eminent pencil lines.

“Anyone can draw cartoons,” insists Colin. “You don’t have to be an expert artist to produce an engaging and amusing drawing.”

Drawing on more than a decade’s teaching experience, the gifted artisan guides the reader on a journey into the world of cartoon drawing, with easy step-by-step chapters on everything from sketching people and using the right equipment to inspiration for jokes.

As part of his research he has interviewed some of the UK’s best-loved cartoonists, such as Matt of the Daily Telegraph, Pugh from The Times and Daily Mail, Gerald Scarfe of The Sunday Times, not forgetting Grizelda, one of the country’s few female cartoonists, who entertains readers in The Spectator.

Each celebrity cartoonist describes their trade secrets – how they work, what equipment they use and most importantly, how they tap into the news stories of the day to come up with their bitingly witty, artistic masterpieces.

All have their own unique ways of working. Some draw on computer, others prefer good quality paper and ink, some gain inspiration from sitting in newspaper offices bombarded by breaking stories, others prefer the calm of home.

Like Colin, many of the cartoonists did not study at art school but achieved their success by constantly honing their craft and seeking feedback from their audience. Even these highly professional cartoonists like to take regular soundings from their editors about what is funny or too obscure.

Colin describes cartoonists as the stand-up comedians of the art world but believes they fail to attract the respect and high value accolades accorded to other artists.

“A great cartoon can be a great piece of artwork but it’s also part theatre because it has to have recognisable characters in an identifiable setting. And it’s also part stand-up comedy because it has to deliver a knock-out joke.” he explains.

“I think the cartoon is a serious art form that deserves more respect. It is not just art. The biggest challenge is coming up with a joke that is immediately accessible in a few seconds and that taps into what people are thinking.”

Colin himself had ambitions to be a cartoonist almost as soon as he was out of nappies and produced his first recognisable drawing at the age of four. While other boys were kicking footballs around, his spare time was spent copying drawings from comic books and tracing cartoons by his great hero, Giles.

Despite this love of art, he avoided art college as a reaction against art teachers who constantly chided him for doodling and drawing cartoons. “I couldn’t stand another three years of being told what not to do,” he recalls and went off to study psychology at York University instead.

For the past 26 years, Colin has worked as a professional freelance cartoonist and writer.

And since 1984 his incisive cartoons have amused readers of The Westmorland Gazette, Readers Digest and Saga Magazine, and his Lap Maps and cartoon postcards are best-sellers in tourist destinations across the UK. He also has more than a dozen books to his credit.

In 2007, he forged a new role for his profession by becoming Britain’s first radio cartoonist – drawing cartoons live on air for the Sunday breakfast show of Liverpool’s City Talk station.

He also began teaching cartooning ten years ago when he was invited to run a holiday course for complete beginners.

Colin will feqture on the Liz Rhodes BBC radio Cumbira show tomorrow morning Friday.

Drawing Cartoons by Colin Shelbourn is published by The Crowood Press and costs £16.99.

Meanwhile, Colin’s doodles feature in Caught in the Act: the Art of the Cartoonist, which is running at The Beach Hut Gallery, Grange-over-Sands, located in the Kents Bank railway station building.

The satirical bunch also includes renowned Geoff Waterhouse, whose cartoons have been published in Punch, The Oldie, Readers Digest and these days is GoKart’s Kartoonist; John Leech, from Grange, who produces light-hearted art for training and educational manuals.

Also in the show is Lancaster’s John Pepper, who has drawn for television, the Guardian in London, as well as illustrating his own books, and David Boyer who sketches for cruise lines and caricaturing ‘oddballs.’ Not forgetting Martin Copley, from Furness, who goes for more demonstrative doodling via his ceramics, and Des Metcalfe.

Also on show is work by the savage 18th Century satitirist Gillray from a private collection in Morcambe, and cartoons from 19th Century editions of Punch.

The gallery was put together by established artists Beverley White and Judy Evans.

Inspired by the success of their annual Witherslack Group exhibition over the past 12 years, they decided that the group needed a permanent exhibition space and discovered a redundant section of the station, an victorian building which needed to be put back into use.

With the help and support of the Co-operative Group United Region, Network Rail and Northern Rail, the train operators responsible for station the gallery opened in 2009, with Judy, Beverley and another well-known local artist, Chris Benefield at the helm of the venture.