T.A.S. Newsletter
Autumn 2003 Volume 1 No. 1 Page 5
CARTOONIST DANNY BYRNE
Cartoonists see the funny side of life and Danny Byrne is no exception. His evening with Totton Art Society in May was punctuated with laughter, as he revealed the secrets of the cartoonist’s art. His marker-pen sketches showed how he uses exaggeration to create humour. His characters invariably has bulging eyes and ears that stick out. He often exaggerates the ’story or situation’ depicted as well. Although he can work extremely fast, Danny can spend between 2 and 35 days on a piece of work. He researches details to make sure that they are accurate, finding mail order catalogues useful sources of reference. His method is to begin each picture with a pencil outline on Daler Board, which is then inked over. Colour is then added either in watercolour and white gouache, or in oil.
During the course of the evening, Danny drew an attractive cartoon portrait for June Pemberton and a wickedly hilarious portrait for Gary Lewis. Danny is one of only 82 full-time professional cartoonists, obtaining much of his work through agents. A recent set of Christmas cards was commissioned from a batch of ten black and white samples submitted by Danny.Many of us snapped up the greetings cards that he had for sale during the evening. Danny says that: “an illustrator is only as good as his reference”, with which we would all concur. The evening showed just how much artistic skill is required for cartoons, and we will look out for Danny’s trademark tortoise, that he includes in every picture, as a sign of a first class piece of art.
-Editor
TIPS ON MATERIALS
Soap the brush before using masking fluid —Terry Harrison
A fine spray of water prevents the watercolour palette from drying out —Tim Harvey
Finish cleaning a brush with fabric softener —Marion Parsons
Oil painting can be odour-free: use Old Hollland paints and thin with Liquin and poppy oil —Dawn Laurence
FUTURE EVENTS
Autumn 2003 TAS website - http://www.tottonartsociety.org.uk
29 Nov 2003 Christmas One Day Sale Three Score Club
Jan 2004 Brian Harild the Hythe artist, demonstrates acrylics
Mar 2004 AGM—come and make TAS even better!
27 Aug 2004 Summer Exhibition in T & E Civic Centre until 5 Sep 2004
Oct 2004 Marion Emery talks about garden designer Gertrude Jekyll 7
