#exercise 1.2

Short Story in Six Words.

I do have a few sketchbooks, but I do not follow them through. I am not sure why. perhaps is because there is not one answer. Sometimes is the paper, other time is that I do not like the work inside them. 

Exercise 1.2: Making Mistakes

“Do you allow yourself to make mistakes in your sketchbook?”

No. I always want beautiful staff, so it is difficult to make mistakes. This is one of the reasons I cannot have a book, I feel like uncomfortable after a few pages that I do not like...

Drawing Activity

How did I feel? Using pieces of paper and paint is liberating for me. I do not have a problem with that... Let’s see what happen when I need to use a bind one. 

Bookmaking Activity

I am not sure creating a book is something I am really interested. I am interested in binding but not in small handmade sketchbooks.

Exercise 1.2: Getting the gist

This is another example of Venezuelan cartoonist. I loved her work when I lived there, but after I left the country I lost contact with her work and I wanted to have an overview of Venezuela politics from the eye of different cartoonist before I start the exercise. 

Her work has changed immensely, now have more red, more blood, more anger. She used to be subtle, sarcastic, ironic, now it is a wave of anger. This is a very simplistic description, but she used to have a narrative that was unique. A space divided by two (before and after, past and present) now is a more traditional one space and much more emotional than a rational idea.

Exercise 1.2: Getting the gist

The Guardian view on Venezuela: a country in pain (Editorial)

I base this exercise on the above article about Venezuelan. I did a research with different Venezuela’s illustrator and see how they work this type of moments. (See the next post on Pedro Leon Zapata and Pedro Weil) because I felt so overwhelm, It was difficult to express all the different scenarios and comments that the writer said about the country. 

I wanted to draw about the protest and the people kill but after reading more than three times, I thought that I need to write about the “peace talk” and why they are failing or their country situation. So, I took a break and I went back to draw monsters. 

Exercise 1.2: Getting the gist

Political editorial research

Pedro Leon Zapata: Venezuela political illustrator, cartoonist and worked for 50 years in one of the most important newspaper in Venezuela. Political persecuted for every government in power but also followed and read by millions. Died in 2015.

After 50 years of doing daily illustrations for a newspaper is difficult to choose which ones are more important or significant. I wanted to understand what makes his work so profound and funny at the same time. He used clear Venezuelan’s symbols like 19-century military uniforms to talk about the current political power. This is due to the current government self-association with Simon Bolivar (19th political figure and military man).

The used of a starving figure with more skull that face had a clear association with hunger and the dehumanization of the people in the country.

When I looked at language figures: we can see the use of paradox between the text and the drawing, of course, the irony is present. There is also a strong emotional element,  Valmore Agelvis (2010) said that Zapata make the characters more emotional because the words get out of their mouth (the skull is divided into two parts with the wording in the middle) but I think that he added other resources to create a emotions, like old faces, skulk-like characters, ugly characters have an impact that goes beyond the words. 

But who are those characters? Zapata in more than one occasion talk about public figures  “Chavez”, “Zapatero” (Spain former president) “Maduro” and other public figures but they are not at the centre of his discourse. He draws more about normal people, the middle-rank military man. His character can be no one and everyone. 

Exercise 1.2: Research

Political illustration definition: It is a critique and confrontation of those in power. It looks to challenge ideas or present new points of views. Using Cartoons to represent public fugues. It also has an element of satire. (Brazell and Davies, 2014)

I will be looking at different examples of political illustration and satire that I admire and follow over the years. 

The first one: Pedro Leon Zapata, a Venezuelan political illustrator. He worked for more than four decades as an illustrator for a Venezuelan’s newspaper. His won several prices national and international. 

I love his aesthetics and the presentation of his work but I do not think that this is his most relevant aspect. While other illustrators (contemporaries with him) chose to focus on the current affair to create a piece, Zapata transcends it and go to the essence that makes the event important like “it is a human right issue” or “go against a principle” 

Roberto Wail: He works in a Venezuela national newspaper call “Talcual” for several years and his work is well known. A difference from the previous one, his work is more elaborate and his ideas are more specific to the current affair. His work is very emotional involve, it has less satire and more cruel reality.

Joaquín Salvador Lavado Tejón or better know as Quino: I follow his career with Mafalda. A character that took a life of her own. Mafalda still valid today, do not only talk about what happened in Argentina, it speaks for human rights, against war, poverty and so much more. It is an incredible work but I will be looking for his “editorial cartoon work” that came after Quino stop drawing Mafalda.