My first drawings taking on the Festival were concerned with caricature. I decided to look at how to I could represent the ubiquitous male 'bloke' race-goer, a staple of the Festival, and underrepresented in my drawings, partly because they are everywhere and almost form part of the scenery. I drew this grim-looking chap from my imagination:
This was somewhat inspired by the sinuous weirdness of Feliks Topolski's drawings. Topolski had a fine knack of bridging the gap between caricature and observational drawings by employing a free, fluid line when drawing figures from life.
The drawing on the left was an unfinished study from life drawn at the races. I liked the face which was well observed and tried to fill in the gaps and simplify into cartoon:
An illustrator I have looked at previously for inspiration for my children's book and publishing projects in second year is Armin Greder. Swiss illustrator Greder has a sombre, expressive style especially suited to portraying alienation and loneliness - his book The Island is about a stranger who washes up on an island and is treated with prejudice and hostility by the inhabitants:
His burly, dark-clad men more than a little bit remind me of the 'jeans and black jacket' crowd at the Festival - large, hostile looking men drinking pints and looking gradually more threatening as the day wears on. Here are a pair of them:
Drawn again more boldly in pen and ink with goache and in a more simplified manner. The aim is to portray latent menace:
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