For my degree show, I took inspiration from McGill and Taylor - the two artists who were responsible for many of the traditional, Carry On-esque cheeky postcards that graced (or maybe disgraced?) our British beaches, alongside the political cartoonists I try and keep up to date with. Personally, I really like them, and if I saw them around today I'd most likely buy them. It's sort of a guilty pleasure. I am a sucker for exaggerated cartoon expressions, crap puns, and silly drawings depicting chubby ladies and kids having fun on holiday with no room for embarrassment. While a few of the gags (often at the expense of women) do make me cringe, on the whole I see the genre as innocent. Dated, but harmless.
When my project started, I brought some ideas to the table. It was pointed out to me (by a visiting illustrator who hadn't seen my work before) that although I'd had the visual style down great, two of my early ideas could very easily be interpreted as making light of sexual harassment and abuse of trust in the current political climate. It really shook me as firstly I'd had no idea they could even be seen that way, I'd not thought about what was going on in the news when drawing them. The way I'd seen it before, it was just a silly doctor-doctor joke, and a pun on the pronunciation of "quiche", but the new light was very obvious, and jarring.
I'm aware I was a complete idiot in not thinking, especially as communication is everything, but I'd been too lost in the style of decades ago to really think about how it could have been taken as a joke in this day and age. My fellow illustrators in the group, who had me with them when viewing my work, didn't see the drawings in that way and many of them even laughed - but most of them know me as a person and therefore knew my general sense of humour. People visiting the degree show would be approaching my work 'cold', just like the illustrator did that day - they wouldn't have me explaining everywhere what I meant by this and that.
Cartoonists toe the line between good and bad taste (fairly sure that's a Martin Rowson quote - either way, it's one I agree with). One of the first paragraphs on Bamforth Postcards' website is even "Always tottering on the brink of good taste – yet often falling over it – they are the visual equivalent of the pub joke". Where that line between good and bad taste lies differs for every person, and it's always going to divide opinion. The main problem was that my previous ideas had fallen firmly in my own "bad taste" camp post-critique. I'm very glad for that critique, as not only did it make me think, it paved a path to much better ideas.
I scrapped what I'd done (well, kept a record of it purely for RVJ purposes) and started afresh. I'd had the general style of the cartooning down fine, but I needed to give the meaning much more thought. It didn't always have to be humorous, if done right I could explore more serious subjects. I feel I managed to do this - for example, the images below.
This is on street harassment and the depersonalisation of victims - at the same time, bringing the "lecherous man" character in the older postcards to the forefront in a lot less humorous and more realistic fashion:
... an editorial piece on MPs having their allowances increased to "help cover extra costs":
(I hasten to add the horsemeat issue was not flogged to death at the time of illustration)
... and the fat cats always seeming to win.
Of course, I did sillier, less political stuff as well, such as our ridiculous weather, the obsession over the royal baby, and lazy-ass students like me (editorial piece on a study, in which it was discovered students actually do need all that dozing off). I had another critique with the same lady a few weeks later, and I'm glad to say that these images were much better received.
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