Cartoon (art)

“ Joseph Keppler who, as an American cartoonist and caricaturist, has not only imposed its canons and traditions upon this country, but has, in so doing, placed himself at its head, both in this country and in Europe, by virtue of a genius that has made him eminent above the generation of his masters.
The spirit of French comic art turns distinctly—and delightfully—to caricature. The French “cartoon”—the pictorial lampoon, that is—has but to exhibit in an exaggerated form the objectionable characteristics of an individual, to serve its purpose and to touch its public. ”

“ Questions about the art. What is the difference between a cartoon and a caricature? How did the word cartoon come to have its present meaning? What kind of a magazine is Punch? Tell something of the early history of caricatures and cartoons. What effect did the invention of the printing press have upon them? Who was the first American caricaturist? Tell about Benjamin Franklin and his newspaper. What magazines publish cartoons now? What is your idea of a good cartoon? What subjects are usually chosen in newspaper cartoons? What good can they do in the world? ”

“ They came to the conclusion that it was impossible for God Almighty to have poured light and colour over the objective world with the intention that painters should transform it into a world of shadowless contours. They recognised that the style of cartoon work had led away from all painting, and that it was therefore necessary to do honour once more to the despised handiwork and technique of art, as the fundamental condition of its well-being. ”

“ The animated cartoon artist, instead of using real people, objects, or views to take on his film, must make a number of related drawings, on every one of which there must be a change in a proper, [58] progressive, and graduated order. These drawings are placed under a camera and photographed in their sequence, the film developed and the resultant negative used to make a positive film. This is used, as we know, for screen projection. ”

“ The most frequent application that an animated cartoon artist makes of a vignetter is making cross dissolves, or causing one picture to blend into another. Imagine now that the idea to be expressed, through the medium of one of these cross dissolves, is that of a character standing in an attitude of reflection and supposed to be thinking of how he would look in a complete suit of armor. There will be two drawings: one with the figure in ordinary dress, and the other with him clad in the armor. ”

“ Keppler introduced into this country were peculiarly calculated to appeal to a receptive people, delighting in vigorous expression. For thevii German school carries the art and mystery of cartooning far beyond any of its rivals. The German conception of the cartoon not only involves a picture parable, it demands that the actors of the fable shall be so drawn as to display their characters in their lineaments, and it asks, moreover, that the allegory shall, if possible, take a distinctive dramatic form, suggestive, at least, of action, and not merely of position. ”

“ In the case of animated cartoons, the frames on the film also contain photographs, but these photographs are made from sets of progressive drawings depicting the action of the characters of the animated cartoon.
In concluding this brief account of the modern motion-picture, the attention is directed, as the subject is studied, to a few details of the mechanism and to the general procedure that are found to be [15] elementary features in nearly all apparatus used during the round of years that the art was developing. ”

“ Now our best cartoonists would not stoop to secure recognition by such means; they are more considerate, and we are allowed to appreciate their clever representations without feeling the sting of resentment, even though our sympathies are on the other side. But our cartoonists of to-day do not spend all their time representing the political issues; they also deal with the affairs of everyday life.
We are told that the word cartoon originally meant a design or model for a large picture in fresco, oil, tapestry, statuary, glass, or mosaic. ”

“ And yet, if one stops to analyze the individual cartoons, to take them apart and discover the essence of their humor, the incisive edge of their irony and satire, one finds that there is nothing really new in them; that the basic principles of caricature were all understood as well in the eighteenth century as in the nineteenth, and that, in many cases, the successful cartoon of to-day is simply the replica of an old one of a past generation, modified to fit a new set of facts. ”

“ To the Teacher: Pupils should be encouraged to bring good cartoons to school. These may be collected, and the best put up where all can see and be ready to discuss as to size, composition, variety, number, and color of lines used in expressing the idea.
History of caricature and cartoon. It is hard for us to realize that caricature is as old as man’s ability to express himself with chisel, pen, or ink. Away back in the time of the Assyrians and Egyptians we find certain caricatures representing grotesque figures drawn on papyrus. ”

“ A good cartoon must show the real characteristics of the original, exaggerated, yet easy to recognize. A picture that will tell its story at a glance can be understood by all, and will be remembered long after paragraphs are forgotten. So it is readily seen what a power for good may be found in the daily cartoon.
It is necessary that a good cartoonist have a clear sense of form, although great freedom is allowed in his drawing and no attempt is made for a studied or accurate representation. ”

“ Tenniel’s depictions, more than the ordinary qualifications of a screen draftsman.
As in the rough-and-tumble antics of the rustic clown little refinement is either prevalent or expected, so in the ordinary comic animated cartoon exquisiteness of drawing is neither found nor ordinarily looked for. But in a story with fineness of wit, and told artistically, it is obligatory that its interpretation be of a corresponding quality. It is necessary, in other words, that the artist be good at figure work and especially skilful in drawing difficult actions and perspective walks. ”

“ In painting, a cartoon is used as a model for a large picture in fresco, oil or tapestry, or for statuary. It was also formerly employed in glass and mosaic work. When cartoons are used in fresco-painting, the back of the design is covered with black-lead or other colouring matter; and, this side of the picture being applied to the wall, the artist passes over the lines of the design with a point, and thus obtains an impression. ”

“ A cartoon is a design drawn on strong paper in chalks or distemper, to be afterwards calked through, and transferred to the fresh plaster of a wall to be painted in fresco oil-colour or tapestry. The finest cartoons known are those executed by Raphael for Leo X. in 1515 and 1516 as patterns for tapestry. Each of them is about twelve feet high, is drawn with chalk on strong paper, and coloured in distemper by that master and his pupils. ”

“ THOUGH the word "cartoon," as used to designate certain kinds of satirical drawings, has strayed far from its original meaning, it has achieved in its present uses an adequate definition which the public profitably may bear in mind. That effective instrument of the artist turned satirist, "must always figure," according to an authority, "as a leading article transformed into a picture." It is, in short, an editorial expressed in line. By this rule, then, should be judged the cartoon, properly so called. By this rule the work of Bradley's brain and pen invariably measures true. ”

“ A political cartoon resembles in a way a composite photograph, which embodies not merely the superimposed features of the men who sat before the camera, but something also of the countless generations before them, who have made their features what they are by transmitting from father to son something of their own personality. In the same way, the political cartoon of to-day is the product of a gradual evolution, mirroring back the familiar features of many a cartoon of the past. ”

“ Finally, caricature is drawing that catches and exaggerates individual peculiarities, most often with a result which is humorous or satirical. The art of cartooning depends very largely on caricature and symbolism for its effect. Cartoons interpret life. The successful cartoonist, therefore, combines talent for drawing with a high degree of general intelligence. ”

“ I am to draw political cartoons without being political; I am to draw caricatures without being personal; I am to be funny without holding my subject up to ridicule; I am to be effective without being strong—in fact, I am to be a caricaturist without caricature! On the other hand, no cartoon I ever drew for Punch was more popular. ”

“ In looking through the volumes of Punch one is apt to forget that the strong situations and stirring events by which a caricaturist's hit is made effective at the time of publication fade from one's memory. The cartoon in all its strength remains a record of an event which has lost its interest. ”

“ Take away the personal rancor, the almost irrational hatred of "Little Boney" from Gillray, take away Daumier's mordant irony, his fearless contempt for Louis Philippe, and the life of their work is gone. The typical cartoon of to-day is, to a large extent, not a one-man production at all. It is frequently built up, piecemeal, one detail at a time, and in the case of a journal like Punch or Judge or Life often represents the thoughtful collaboration of the entire staff. ”

“ The conversation at each meeting is for some time closely confined to the discussion of the cartoon, then it spreads to every imaginable topic. One feels that one assists at the making of history when the Great Cartoon, or Cut, as they called it, is discussed—as, for instance, when the design for the one representing Disraeli on the side of the Angels is decided upon, after his famous speech at Oxford in 1864. The desultory conversation reported in the diary on each occasion after settlement of the cartoon throws a light upon things uppermost in the public mind at the time. ”

“ We shall now understand the comic element in caricature. However regular we may imagine a face to be, however harmonious its lines and supple its movements, their adjustment is never altogether perfect: there will always be discoverable the signs of some impending bias, the vague suggestion of a possible grimace, in short some favourite distortion towards which nature seems to be particularly inclined. The art of the caricaturist consists in detecting this, at times, imperceptible tendency, and in rendering it visible to all eyes by magnifying it. ”

“ Now many weekly journals, as Harper’s, Leslie’s, and a monthly magazine called Cartoons, make this a special feature. Nearly every newspaper in the country contains at least one cartoon in each issue, and many have their own cartoonists, whose time is busily occupied preparing drawings for the daily issues. ”

“ Nimble pencils are still busy, as in the days of Rowlandson and Gillray, in recording and in influencing the trend of history. And although, now and again during the past century, there has been some individual cartoonist whose work has stood out more boldly and prominently than the work of any one of our contemporaries in Europe or in this country stands out to-day, there has never been a time in the whole history of comic art when Caricature has held such sway and maintained such dignity, and has enlisted in her service so many workers of the first talent and rank. ”

“ The celerity with which a caricature is now conceived and executed, thanks to the modern mechanical improvements and the prevailing spirit of alertness, makes it possible for the cartoonist to keep pace with the news of the day, to seize upon the latest political blunder, the social fad of the moment, and hit it off with a stroke of incisive irony, without fear that it will be forgotten before the drawing can appear in print. The consequences of all this modern haste and enterprise are not wholly advantageous. ”

“ With infinite intentions in a world of infinitesimal possibilities, our efforts constantly caricature and cartoon our aims. All our works are filled with comic illustrations galore. We make them ourselves, and they overshadow our works. ”

“ In the manufacture of tapestries upon which it is wished to give a representation of the figures of cartoons, these figures are sometimes cut out, and laid behind or under the woof, to guide the operations of the artist. In this case the cartoons are coloured.
Cartoons have been executed by some of the most distinguished masters; the greatest extant performances in this line of art are those of Raphael. ”

“ I will assume now that we have corrected the{215} drawing of our cartoon from our small nude studies.
We are fully aware that the drawing of every figure will have to be perfected from nature, that is, the head, neck, arms, hands, and feet; but we are satisfied that the attitudes are all possible, and that there is no great fault in the proportions. Now, therefore, we may look out for models for the heads, arms, feet, etc., and work with chalk or charcoal (if it can be fixed) on the cartoon itself.
And here let me caution you against ever working from a model whom you know to be unsuitable. ”

“ It is often a test of a cartoon’s worth to-day—its suitability as a wall-decoration. It is a natural and simple impulse that moves us to pin on the wall the picture that has pleased us. Readers of Puck who travel much in this country can not but notice how many people delight in pasting and pinning their favorite cartoons to the walls of their offices and workshops, and even of their dwelling-houses. A really popular cartoon is always sure of these humble but well-meant honors ”