Brash Thatcher Cover Art
I wouldn’t have thought I’d be drawing ol’ Maggie Thatcher anytime soon, but here we are with a super-fun cover for The Spectator Australia.
For this illustration I didn’t receive an article to read first, so I had to go on a short summary and cues from the editor over the phone. Unfortunately, we had a bad line, but the gist I understood was that it was to be a scenario in which Margaret Thatcher was whipping New Zealand pollie Don Brash, saying “Down, boy!”.
I submitted the rough, below, but it seemed I had the tone wrong with Brash’s body language…
… so I revised the sketch, making Brash a rabid attack dog, literally. The sketch below was approved…
… and I moved onto the ink and colour. Below is the final art. Please click for a closer view.
Thanks for stopping by!
Cheers,
Anton
That’s a crackin’ Thatcher (‘scuse the pun) Anton, tho’ perhaps a tad complimentary, haha. Dunno about your caricature of Brash tho’. It’s sort of like him and I can appreciate that you’re not likely to get much coverage of kiwi politicians over there from which to go by. I can see Brash the more I study your pic, but it’s just not obviously him.
Actually, on checking your blog, that first sketch of him is superb! I understand they thought the body language was wrong for him, so maybe if you’d kept him wearing his glasses?
You know I’m a huge fan of your work mate, just giving a friendly critique. Still another beautifully rendered piece of cartoon work tho!
Howdy Anton …
Two questions, if I may?
i) Do you only copy your black inked lines, which I know from your previous blog entry, to be done (so bloody well) in brush and ink? I ask, as many of the brown and sienna strokes look as if they could have been inked too? But I imagine that they where photo/shopped or computer rendered, rather than inked. Do you brush and ink in any other colours?
ii) When you copy your ink work, how do you this? Does you photostat machine copy only the painted art, leaving the untouched space, as transparent? Or do you have to erase the ‘white space’ using a computer technique?
Tah
Brian .
Thanks, Sean.
Brian – thank you. This one is 100% digital, drawn entirely in Photoshop. The natural-looking background wash is done using custom brushes, and the rest of the colouring is done just with a hard round brush and sometimes lowering the opacity.
If I were to draw this with brush and ink, I would scan it in and run a PS filter over the linework called “Ghost” by Flaming Pear. It deletes all the white out, leaving only the linework. Or an easier way is to turn your black inks to ‘multiply’ on the layer mode, and the white disappears. Then just colour underneath.
And as for using the brush to do colours – this is something I’d like to experiment with more in the future. I do a bit of ink wash, but mainly in black. I think I need to get a few more colours happening.
Thanks Anton
Some homework for me – exploring ways to get the white to disappear effectively after a scan. I will explore both avenues.
Okay – you’ve stymied me again. I looked at the image’s line work at a pixel level, and did not think for a moment that the entire image was digitally drawn!
It is very effective – line work in various colours – though your black line work is awesome. My opinion, for what it is worth, is that coloured lines are great, but in their place, only.
God, you do make ‘damned difficult’ seem like a breeze in your inking video. I’ve compared your ease of work with a bunch of other cartoonist’s videos, and their fluid work is pained by your example!
As always
Thanks boet.
Brian
Thanks, Brian!
Yeah, I’m very wary of keeping most of the lines black. As I mentioned previously, I think there’s a lot of power in the black line.