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Friday, February 27, 2009

Hommage pt.2

Ken Turner made a series of interpretations of characters from BATMAN in Searle's style



Last year artists at Dreamworks Animation ran a 'Searle' character design class. The assignment was to draw characters from Flash Gordon or Conan in the style of Searle.


















If there are any other artists from the class who would like to contribute their Searle-esque designs please email me at the address in my Blogger profile.

Cheyenne Curtis made this fab St Trins girl


This Molesworth parody I found on Flickr but I've lost the name of the artist. Apologies. Perhaps someone can help identify him?

Here are the tribute pieces to mark Ronald Searle's death on the 30th December, 2011







Joe Corraro


Brian Ajhar

Conor McHale

Pedro Delgado




ST. Trinians style illustration for the London Evening Standard by Weef

Monday, February 23, 2009

Searle's Progress

For his 2005 documentary 'Searle's Progress' Brit cartoonist Martin Rowson illustrated each 'chapter' in the spirit of Searle's own Rakes Progress (in turn inspired by Hogarth's original).
Originally broadcast on BBC 4 the biographical film details Searle's life & career with contributions from war comrades, colleagues & todays top cartoonists. Contributors include Steve Bell, Posy Simmonds, Chris Beetles, Russell Braddon





















Friday, February 20, 2009

Hommage

Developing the 'theme' of the last post -artists drawing in the style of Searle-here is a collection of cartoon hommages to him. This first batch I found on the British Cartoon Archive site.


"Lady to see you, Mister Cassidy..."

Cartoons: Girl drawn in the style of Ronald Searle's St. Trinian's schoolgirls.
News: 13 Mar: David Cassidy, the American entertainer, dodged a crowd of young girls waiting to greet him when he flew into Britain for four concerts, and landed at Luton, instead of Manchester, as expected.




Richard Willson (Preggers again/Social Security Bill)

Pure Hell of St. Trinians with apologies to Ronald Searle
Article illustration - What every baby knows. Don't let guilty folk memories deny single mothers the shelter they crave. Libby Purves [ Page 20, The Times 16 February 1999]



Nicholas Garland The Independent 15 Oct 1987




'Come on! He roar. 'Oo dunnit, eh? If the boys do not own up the whole skool will be kept in.'(The compleet Moolesworth)

George Cale After Searle The Daily Telegraph 01 Jan 1986 - 31 Dec 1990
Water polo illegal tour of South Africa Amateur Swimming Assoc.


Gary Smith (with apologies) in the Sunday Times

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Forgery?

This purported Searle 'original' is up for auction on Ebay at the moment. Looks like a fake to me but it already has bids totalling 310 pounds.

In fairness the website does make the following disclaimer:

"A delightful and very interesting pen and watercolour on paper laid on board of a St Trinian's schoolgirl. Signed with initials R.S. and inscribed in pen on the board "Ronald Searle". My local auctioneer has decided that without provenance they would have to catalogue this as either "after Ronald Searle" or possibly "Attributed to Ronald Searle" - hence my decision to sell this on Ebay with a low starting price and NO reserve.

This was bought at a market in Brighton as part of a folder of mixed art work which included a number of pen and ink drawings by different artists (none of the others unfortunately by such well listed artists as this one)."

I don't believe Searle made any St. Trinian's drawings in colour until much later on in his career and he certainly wasn't signing just his initials so late. I think even by the late 40s he had dropped the R.S. & was signing the St. Trinian's drawings with his full name.

The hair seems rather clumsily defined-Searle's curls are much tighter than that. That area above where the cheek is resting on the hand is quite poorly handled.

It's most likely a piece made for fun with perhaps the character & its pose copied from Searle. Even the ink splatter effect lacks the 'control' that Searle had. What do you think?


Contributor Stephen Nadler sent in a scan of the original St. Trinian's cartoon by Searle for comparison. See his analysis in the comments section.


"I'll just die and then you'll be sorry." [1947] Ronald Searle's Golden Oldies, p. 131



Here is a very early version that Searle must have re-worked

I have several examples where Searle returned to a gag years later or re-worked the same drawing. Should make for an interesting post at a later date. I also have some video clips where Searle based animated shorts on earlier print cartoons.