Saturday, September 19, 2009

Leslie Illingworth, Cartoonist 1902-1979



Leslie Gilbert Illingworth was born in 1902 and died in 1979. "Illingworth joined the Daily Mail in 1939, and drew cartoons that were to lift Britain's morale during the Second World War, commenting on Churchill's leadership and Allied military victories. After the war ended, Illingworth was able to concentrate more on domestic issues in his cartoons, but kept a keen eye on foreign affairs, especially when they related to Britain. He became Chief Cartoonist for the satirical magazine Punch in 1945, but remained with the Daily Mail until his retirement in 1969." The Illingworth cartoon collection at the National Library contains 4,563 images! I have spent all morning checking out their website. I like his style, sense of humor, intelligence and fine draftsmanship. Not to mention the prolific amount of ink drawings (some quite complex) that he executed in his 40+ years on the job. He covered & recorded so much world history in the space of his life. I have been playing around with brush and ink recently and these cartoons inspire me.
For plenty more, have a look:

2 comments:

Richard said...

Brush-and-ink is the second-most dangerous and exciting sort of draftsmanship. That's next to tattoo-gun-and-ink, of course!

Committing that stark line to the page - you've just got to take a deep breath and let fly.

These drawings are terrific ...thanks for bringing them to light, Amy. Looking forward to seeing the results of your own 'playing around' someday.

karthikeyan said...

Nice collections...