Political Art

Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism is the art in which you take something which is living and combine it with an object. An example of this would be the book ‘the wind in the willows’ which is one of my favourite books from childhood. In this book the characters are animals who are wearing human clothing and accessories which gives the characters human traits, which is reality isn’t normal.

The artist Chris Simpsons is an artist who makes drawings based on current events such as the incident with David Cameron and a pig. The image is show below.

The art has a humorous element, it also shows an example of anthropomorphism as the pig has human traits. I like the simplicity of Simpsons’ art but also the way he exaggerates and elongates features. 

Seeing other political anthropomorphisms made me look into politics a bit more as even though it is a wide spread topic, I have no interest in it. Although, I did make my own anthropomorphism with the little political knowledge I do possess. You can see below I have used Photoshop to give an orange Donald Trump’s facial features and hair. I chose to make this because I have always found that he has a very tanned completion which is borderline orange.

Visual Metaphor in politics

Visual metaphors are commonly used in politics online to target an audience to get a reaction, depending on the topic the reaction will change. Most commonly they are used for comedy, to make fun of a specific issue or current situation in Politics.

Through researching the visual metaphors I found this particular image to be humorous because of the irony.  The effects of climate change is something most people try to ignore, the use of a Godzilla like creature holding a Politician saying ‘I still need more proof you exist…’ which implies that politicians do not see climate change as a big issue despite the fact the ice caps are melting, it becomes ironic because Godzilla does not exist. I think this is a good visual representation of Climate change in this illustration.

I made my own visual metaphor related to politics showing the race in the election between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton. I used simple lines with drawings of old fashioned race cars to represent their age, with the logo of each party on the side. Using only two colours made the logos stand out which I think is effective, Trumps is also in the lead to represent his winning.

Caricature

Caricatures would be most recognised for being in places such as the beach, theme parks or fairgrounds. The style which is caricature is a cartoonist style in which the artist exaggerates a persons most noticeable features. The use of caricatures in political cartoons is common as it is another way in which to make fun of the particular figure, those who look at these illustrations or cartoons would the associate the whole topic as a joke because the political figure looks like a joke.

An artist which shows the steps in how to create a caricature is Tom Richmond, he starts with the basic head shape then adds in shapes of the features themselves exaggerating any features which are more prominent. He claims there are three essential elements needed for caricature – likeness, exaggeration and statement.

Here are some examples of how he achieves this:

I tried to mimic the way Richmond works by using shape as a starting point then working into the image. I chose Boris Johnson for the subject of my caricature because he has many features which make him recognizable such as tired eyes, a large nose and a big chin.

Angry Pen

One of the ways artists who want to create politic art is producing work in an angry way, with strong expressive line and shape. Normally, for this way of working you would use a fluid material such as ink and paintbrushes so you can create expressive line and aggressive shapes. You have to be aggressive with your line making so the viewer can feel what you are feeling. I found the artist Steadman who created this feel in a dramatic way. I would see this artist as an influence but I found that the style I work in is more precise and soft so I found recreating something similar to Steadman’s work below.

I like the way he uses circles which create what look like eyes, this piece is particular is very similar to the ‘Guernica’ except he has shown it in a more expressive way focusing on line and texture.

Below is my attempt at an angry pen drawing: I like the way the dramatic use of ink can make you see figures and creatures.

Below is another background experiment:

Bibliography and References 

Bell, S. Healey, A. 2015. “Karl Marx meets Beatrix Potter” Steve Bell draws Jeremy Corbyn – Video. [Online]. [Accessed 16 December 2016]. Available from:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/video/2015/sep/30/karl-marx-meets-beatrix-potter-steve-bell-draws-jeremy-corbyn-video

Steadman, R. 2016. Ralph Steadman Website. [Online]. [Accessed 16 December 2016]. Available from:http://www.ralphsteadmanprints.com/art.html

Scarfe, G. 2016, Gerald Scarfe Website. [Online]. [Accessed 16 December 2016]. Available from:http://www.geraldscarfe.com/

Art and popular culture, 2015. Anthropomorphism. [Online]. [Accessed 17 December 2016]. Available from:http://www.artandpopularculture.com/Anthropomorphism

Lopez, A. 2015. The elephant in the room: Examining visual metaphors of Chris Christie in political cartoons. [Online]. Accessed 17 December 2016]. Available from: http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/doc/1698487418.html?FMT=ABS

Coleman, R. 2016. Caricature website. [Online]. [Accessed 17 December 2016]. Available from:http://www.caricature.co.uk/

Machin, R. 2016. Ric Machin Website  [Online]. [Accessed 17 December 2016]. Available from:http://www.ricmachin.com/