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Inspirational Art4u - Original Fine Art Paintings + Cartoons by the artist Edward McNaught-Davis
Inspirational Art4u/Cartoons Gallery/Black and White Cartoon Commissions/Commissioned Cartoons by Edward McNaught-Davis
Black and White Commissioned Cartoons
Black and white commissioned cartoons are shown so that you can see the various cartooning techniques used. These cartoons represent a small selection of commissioned black and white cartoons (and which are sometimes referred as humorous illustrations) by my private clients in past years. I have been drawing cartoons for over 40 years along side my fine art.
Traditional Cartooning Drawing Methods
The traditional cartooning methods used to draw these black and white cartoons was by hand. Pen and ink was used on either paper or card. The resultant image was then photographed with an analogue camera. A professional printer would then make a printing plate from the image and run off the desired quantity of prints. Sometimes, as in The Drunken Snoring Chicken, a Silk Screen process was used instead; the image needed to be placed directly onto the product and not onto something similar to a sticky label.
Modern Cartoon Illustration Methods
Modern cartoon illustrations are much quicker to achieve through digital illustration. The cartoon or illustration is drawn by me directly onto my PC screen. I use either my mouse or a digital pen and tablet along with appropriate illustration software. Vector images are preferred as they can be resized very quickly to virtually any physical dimension.
I still enjoy using the traditional hand rendered cartooning methods as you will see with my colour cartoons but for 2 Dimensional Line work digital illustration seems to be quicker and the standard for commercial publishing requirements. Also digital illustration lends itself much better to 2D Stop-frame animation work in comparison to existing procedures.
Cartoons have many uses
A cartoon commission is something special and which is unique, personal and highly regarded. Commissioned cartoons are ideal for Web Sites, Greeting Cards, Birthday Cards, Publications, Presentations, Leaflets, Training Material, Advertisements or as Personalised Gifts to simply put in a frame (under glass) and to then, hang on a wall.
If you enjoy my cartoons (either black and white cartoons or my colour cartoons) then I would be pleased to undertake a commission for you. Alternatively you could contact me directly by email to discuss your humorous requirements. To read more about me and my art work then please see About the Artist.
Copyright ©Edward McNaught-Davis 2002 to 2010. All Rights Reserved.
About the Cartoon: The Drunken Snoring Chicken
This humorous illustration of the drunken snoring chicken was silk screen printed onto the old type of blank floppy disk jacket. It was one of a series of ten. They were commissioned by a Duplication House and they sold in their hundreds of thousands during the 1990’s. The purpose of using my cartoons was to help sell each blank 5.25 inch disk. A cult following soon developed with people wanting to own all ten designs.
The same Duplication company then commissioned me to originate an idea to support one of their marketing campaigns and so The Rabbit Workers was created.
About the Cartoon: The Rabbit Workers
The Rabbit Workers appeared as black and white cartoon advertisements during 1990 in various newspapers and specialist magazines. This particular commissioned cartoon involved humanised rabbit workers dressed in white coats and working with a disk duplicator machine. The purpose of the advertisement was to sell disc duplication services.
To complement these services an anti-virus checking facility was available and so I was asked to design a brand for that too. The Toth Submarine was then created.
About the Cartoon: The Toth Submarine
The Toth Submarine was a name chosen by my then client after I had shown him preliminary sketches. As there were no desk top PC’s in those days as we know them now, I had to shrink my cartooned illustration of the disk duplication machine with a photocopier and then draw in the submarine design to “camera ready” standards. Similar to the Rabbit Workers commissioned black and white cartoon, the Toth Submarine was used as an advertisement during the early 1990’s to promote anti-virus checking services. Later, I was asked to draw a new selection of boats for a new client to support an “Auk” brand.
About the Cartoon: The Auk
The Auk was a family day boat and was designed by a boat builder near Cardigan in mid West Wales. Although my illustration is not exactly humorous, it could easily be made so with an apt caption. The illustration was used to to support the boat’s product specification. Also it appeared in many yachting magazines as an advertisement.
The origination was made simply with pen and ink on quality hot pressed drawing paper. You can just see the “family” under the sail with a man shown on the Port side. Another people cartoon is The Busy Office showing a chaotic workplace with two office workers within.
About the Cartoon: The Busy Office
The Busy Office cartoon was cartooned by me to humorously illustrate part of a software training manual. I drew it straight off and without any guidelines to keep the drawing spontaneous and fresh. It was illustrated in pen and ink on card. The phone receiver is buried deep within the waste-paper basket while its main component sits atop a growing mountain of paper, in the in-tray.
Another commissioned cartoon involving the feel of activity was used by a UK lawyer for his legal firm’s Christmas card.
About the Cartoon: The Flying Lawyer
The Flying Lawyer commissioned Christmas card is akin to a caricature. The cartooning techniques employed were simply pen and ink; line and wash.
The ghost like face was illustrated as such to depict that this lawyer was hardly ever seen in his office as he was always dashing out and about helping his clients. The presents being delivered could be gifts or they could be legal documentation! The moon in the top right hand corner has a face with a pointed nose. These sorts of cartoons are rather like tongue-in-cheek character assassinations. Cromwell’s Clones is another on the Colour Cartoon page.
Another cartoon of a different solicitor is The Minimal Line Lawyer.
About the Cartoon: The Minimal Line Lawyer
The Minimal Line Lawyer title of this simple line illustration is a play on words. The idea was to illustrate this lawyer as simply as possible while still maintaining his real looks. The “minimal line” also doubles up to reflect his highly specialised legal line of work and which has much to do with the publishing and illustration World.
This cartoon illustration was commissioned by his firm as a personalised gift for him. If you would like to see a line drawing taking shape through an animated sequence then see “Montie’s Head” on the Digital Animations page.
Learn about my Black + White Cartoons and my methods of Cartooning. See samples of my completed Commissioned Cartoons too.
