Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1903-08-25
HuMoRlsTs OF TIE PENCIL.
An illustrated Chart by Mccutcheon
on the Making of Cartoons.


Writing in the Saturday Evening
sost OF the qualifications oil the car
ZIONIST. John T. McCutcneon. saws,
First, he should be able to draw well
enough to express his ideas; second
ly, he should have a sense of humor:
I thirdly, he should have fairly clear
idea of what is happening in the world
of politics, society and finance;
fourthly. he should know something
of the Bible. of history, of mythology,
and filthy, he should have the ability
to grasp the Importance of a news
item when he sees it, so that he may
draw from it logical idea that may
be expressed clearly in a drawing.
These various requirements are lost
to feel that the ability to draw a
man with a turned-up nose constitutes
sight of by most beginners, who seem
the chief requisite of a cartoonist.
Many beginners in art aspire to be
cartoonists because it looks so easy.
They do not reckon with the other
qualifications. They know that they
can draw. and usually think that they
have a keen sense of humor because
fond relatives have informed them
that certain of their drawings were
perfectly killing" but it generally
develops that they lack the other es-
sentials.
If a cartoonist is a clever drafts
man. very well; but he should realize
that his work is to be judged by the
idea and not by artistic standards.
When the cartoonist has his idea
selected he lays it out" roughly in
tabloid form on a small piece of paper,
so that when he begins the cartoon
he knows exactly where he is going
to place every figure and how he is go
ing to illustrate his central idea. This
being done, he carefully draws it out
in a much larger form on cardboard,
usually two or three times the size
it will be when it appears in print.
Then, with black ink he makes his
drawing, cutting out everything that
will not strengthen the idea If the
idea is good one, there is lots of fun
in drawing it, particularly if it is
along the humorous line. Anatomi-
cal accuracy in drawing the figures is
abandoned and everything reduced
to simple forms A correctly drawn
figure is very seldom amusing; and
also figure that is too grotesquely
drawn is often likely to be offensive.
If the cartoonist desires to express
surprise, incredulity, anger, joy or any
of the many changes of the human
face, he does it boldly and without
any attempt to be anatomically cor
rect. He uses as little shading as
possible, for the more he uses il a
face, the further he gets away from
making funny picture. Any emo
ton can be shown in eight lines so
convincingly that there can be no
doubt as to what is intended. The
slightest turn of one or more of these |
lines will change gladness to misery. |
A few lines will suggest President
Roosevelt so that no one could mis-
take the intention, even though the |
picture does not look like him. An
old-fashioned plug hat and some |
straggly whiskers suggest Mr.. Kruger, !
just as a military mustache and a he'll |
met suggest Kaiser Wilhelm. In |
stead of being portraits they are mere
ly symbols that mean certain people
symbols which newspaper readers be- !
come familiar with and which never !
fail to suggest the people they stand /
for The portrait of man drawn
carefully and true to life would look |
stiff and formal and would be COM
pletely lacking in LEmor and spon-
taneity Brevity in drawing is the !
soul Of hCnor in cartoon.
Just as certain symbols mean fam
Gus men, so other symbols stand for |
imaginary people. For instance. fat /
man generously besprinkled with dia-
monds, gorgeously adroned with side
whiskers and a silk hat is the symbol |
used to express capital or trust" He |
is always corpulent, which is assumed |
to be indicative of wealth, especially |
when the corpulence is garnished
with a few large diamonds. The lat
ter are usually shown 1uslly shooting |
out streams of radiance 1t is not
known why bankers and capitalists
and rich men are represented as wear
ing side-whiskers, but it is probable
that the early American pioneer
cartoonist used the elder Vanderbilt
to typify great wealth.