This political cartoon was drawn on 11×14″ 98lb Mix Media paper by Canson, sketched out with a yellow Smear Guard Sharpie Highlighter, drawn with a Fine Tip Sharpie, lettered with a Micron Pen no. 1, scanned in with a Brother MFC-J6510dw scanner/ink-jet printer (the scanner is great, but the printer blows chunks) & colored and edited in PhotoShop Elements. The image was originally 300dpi and after all editing was complete, the image was reduced to 600 points wide and to 72dpi removing most anti-aliasing effects. There were a total of four scans to produce this image. I scanned at different points during the drawing process. Here are the scans: 1) Lettering, 2) Line Drawing, 3) Layer Shading 1 & 4) Layer Shading 2. The sketch I did is not visible because the yellow Sharpie highlighter does not scan and so I don’t need to erase thus speeding up the production time.
The Ogre works as a call-center phone-monkey. He would eventually love to work as a commercial illustrator or self-sufficient webcomic. The Ogre loves many things and hates few, however he has issues with almost everything (mostly because he has issues--he's started having acne around and on his nose and sitting place again). The Ogre is forty-somethin' flippy years old for goodness sakes and is loosing his mind.
Interesting cartoon, though I’m wary of how Obama has been paraphrased. He, like many progressives, is making an argument for the collaborative nature of success. I’m also wary of the lionization of early American famers and ranchers, who were part of mass colonization initiatives. It takes a lot of collective power to displace some people and install others.
I did not discuss the displacement of Native Americans by European immigrants–fair enough. I can post about that in the future–when it is topical (it is an important issue, but not the subject of this comic).
Re: President Obama. I understood what he was saying and my point is not that collective success is a myth, but rather a Chicken and the Egg illustration. What gave birth to American corporatism also gave birth to American institutionalism. The ethos that gave birth to Obama gave birth to Romney: American Ingenuity & Entrepreneurial Spirit.
Nice work….Hansi
Thank you very much, I appreciate it!
Very nice work. Good analogy. The right is really coming down on Obama in Ohio ads about what he said.
Maybe another way to look at it is “no man is an island.”
Pretty rad man!
Thank you very much!
I really like how you shared your process! Is this common? Do you think artists now are needing to becoming more generously transparent by explaining how they produce their art, because their audience will ask so many questions if the answers are not readily available anyway? I’m wondering if I should do something similar, it’s really interesting to read either way. I love Micron pens, but my main staples are the 3 Micron for lettering at .005 for my itty bitty stuff. Cool post!
I’m not one to dictate what artists should or should not be doing, but I have learned a lot from other artists who have revealed how they produce their art. Who I want to be transparent would be governments and industry.
Regarding your art, I like what you are doing. I love frogs!!! One of my weaknesses is an inability to draw small, so the smaller Microns are not something I normally work with. I don’t know what scale you are drawing at, but size in the internet is meaningless once a picture has been scaled in PhotoShop or whatever. I am working on drawing smaller. I’ve been drawing daily now for seven months and I’m getting better at it. Who knows where I’ll be in a year or two.
Nice stuff! I especially (as a cynical middle-class struggling artist) like the fact that you’re not arguing for or against any particular candidate, but rather against the basic ideas behind their statements. I try to stay the hell out of politics if I can, but it aggravates me to no end that there’s no real truth in campaigns these days.
I have the same aggravation. I watch politics constantly and am very disappointed in the lack of honesty from either political campaign. Honest should mean something.
Honesty is not what you are going to get from Washington I don’t care what side you are on!
You are right on that one. Honesty is a rare commodity in all politics.
Nice, the metaphor is appropriate. I’d like to use the cartoon on my page the next time I show some cartoons.
Go right ahead, I do not mind at all.
quick note that might spare your eyes. Blue also doesn’t scan on a black and white scanner. You could sketch with a light blue pen/marker.
Oooo . . . I’m gonna give that a try and get back to you.
I don’t like either one of these guys. I suppose I’ll be writing in Ralph Nader. Again.
One of my former professors will be doing the same.