Exercise: World affairs

The brief:
– Select a contemporary news event;
– Create an illustration that comments on it from a satirical perspective.

I looked again at political cartoons and satire for inspiration, including the work of Dave Brown, Steve Bell and Nicola Jennings.

I also visited some websites with examples of political cartoons: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-politics-41861482 (Top political cartoons of the year in UK newspapers in 2017) and www.theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/articles/the-15-most-influential-political-cartoons-of-all-time/.

As mentioned earlier in my learning log, these illustrations all have in common an exaggeration of poses, expressions and features with a use of metaphors and symbols. Although some can be in black and white, they are often colourful illustrations.

I then selected a subject. There has been a debate recently on the radio and in newspapers about deporting people seeking UK asylum to Rwanda, a policy strongly supported by the current Home Secretary, Suella Braverman.

I chose this subject as this policy is often mentioned on the media at the moment, so people are likely to have heard of it.

Audience: Political satire is a criticism of people in power, so in this case the intended audience would be opposed to the policy. It would be grown-up humour and maybe people who are more interested in politics in general.

I looked at the size of many political cartoons and it would obviously vary depending on the positioning of the cartoon (on its own or as part of an article on the subject for instance). In the end, I opted for a rectangle size that would be quite standard with a ratio of 1.66.

I did some research on the subject to refresh my memory and found the headline from the Huffington Post: “Suella Braverman ‘Dreams’ Of Getting The Rwanda Asylum Plan Off The Ground” quite visual (https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/suella-braverman-dream-rwanda-plan_uk_633c496ee4b0e376dbfb0659).

I worked in my sketchbook to develop some ideas:

Initially I liked the idea of a collage mixed with some illustrations but I thought that with copyrights issues, it might be difficult to do.

Two ideas stood out. The first one is based on the Huffington Post headline. I wanted to create a discrepancy between someone dreaming at their desk and the reality of a policy with a serious impact on people. The second idea is based on an analysis I heard on the radio about the latest legal decision. It highlighted that whereas the judgment stated that the policy was legal, it might be very difficult to apply on an individual basis. That reminded me of a similar situation when a plane that was supposed to deport refugees to Rwanda ended up being empty when Priti Patel was Home Secretary. I thought of illustrating a situation where this could happen again.

I developed both illustrations on the iPad. This is the work in progress for the first one:

And here are the two illustrations after I added the dialogue for the second one in Illustrator.

As I was colouring the illustrations, I liked the cartoony style (I thought of Tintin for instance where the colours are distinct and kept to a minimum). I therefore decided to have mainly solid colours.

I drew the text in the first illustration but when I tried to draw the bubbles in the second one, I did not really like the outcome. I therefore created the bubbles in Illustrator and used the typeface “Bradley Hand Bold”. I chose this typeface as I wanted a handwritten look. I tried a few different ones but I thought this one had a certain simplicity that worked well.

As I was creating the illustrations, I enjoyed inserting clues that can be noticed if a reader look at the images in more details. For instance, in the first illustration, the cloud is crying, there is a Dalmatian dog behind looking at Suella Braverman in a stern way as there has been a lot of comparisons with Cruella from the 101 Dalmatians from people who disapprove of her policies. I drew a cartoon that would be different from the exact Disney character for copyrights reasons. When I showed the illustration to a friend, he did not understand the allusion and suggested a white streak in her hair to make the clue more obvious.

As there is something usually positive and victorious about realising a dream, I added a trail of smoke after the planes to evoke celebratory flights.

In the second illustration, the plane is the size of a toy to show the might of people in power. I illustrated Priti Patel on the right leaving as she was replaced in her role by Suella Braverman. I also gave her an ironic look as she wishes good luck. The lawyer illustrates the fight to stop the policy but has no face to indicate that it is not one person in particular. There is a laptop hinting at an email sent via an unsecured channel to allude to another debate involving Suella Braverman and email sent via a personal account instead of the secure channel.

I looked at both politicians and tried to identify elements that would enable the reader to recognise them. Their hairstyle, the type of jewellery they might wear. I tried to accentuate all these elements.

I thought both images could work individually or as a set as a before and after.

I liked using a lot of bubbles in the second illustration. I was inspired by James Gillray and his illustration “The Loss of the Faro Bank”.

Conclusion

When I asked my partner, he could recognise the characters and what the illustrations were about once I told him about the headlines, so the illustrations would work in the right context.

I enjoyed using symbols and clues in the illustrations but, for it to work, the reader would have to look for them and some might not be very clear. They might just wonder why there is a portrait of a dog behind the illustration of Suella Braverman for instance.

I am not so sure about the typeface. It might have been better to have the text handwritten in both illustrations or to use the same typeface throughout. I might need more practice to write the text manually in illustrations as it can be challenging to obtain a professional outcome.

I enjoy using metaphors and symbols in illustrations as it is an interesting way to add meaning to an image and tell a story.