The blog of Richard Thompson, caricaturist, creator of "Cul de Sac," and winner of the 2011 Reuben Award for Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Happy Birthday, Garrison Keillor


Although I'm two days late. About 15 or 20 years ago I read a string of Keillor's books, Lake Woebegone Days and collections of his random pieces, and I enjoyed them. He gets too folksy sometimes, especially on his radio show, but he can make me laugh, and I think he's at his best in the short comic sketches, like The Tip Top Club.
This drawing was done around 1987, when I was enamored with colored pencils. You can do wonderful things with them, if you've got time but who does? I still like this drawing just fine, though I couldn't replicate it today because I"ve gotten sloppier. I did it from a simpler pen & ink sketch that was drawn for the Wash Post Book World, and it went on to get a Silver Funny Bone from the Society of Illustrators. The SoC doesn't give out Funny Bones any more which is unfortunate as they make useful and attractive blunt weapons. I got a string of freelance work out of this piece, and the Beethoven drawing I did around the same time in a similar style, but eventually I found it was a mistake to promote this work, though fun to do occassionally when not on a deadline.

6 comments:

paul bowman said...

Such a face deserves such a fine drawing.

Did you ever get comment from or have contact w/ Mr Keillor, before or afterward?

richardcthompson said...

Thanks, Paul. I like the new blog, by the way, it's elegant. But no, I never approached Keillor. Sometimes it's best not to hear from the subject of a caricature, even a somewhat flattering one.

Stacy Curtis said...

Do you do work now that is not in your Cul de Sac drawing style?

You are a master of each of the styles you have allowed us to see. It blows my socks off!

I
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sock

richardcthompson said...

Yeah, the CdS stuff is what I'd call naturalistic-cartoony, with maybe a childish element to it. It'd be fun to push it into a more expressionistic style, like I dunno, Feininger. He'd be fun to steal from. But the caricature work I do now isn't too much like CdS, though it is pen & ink.

You'll notice I'm not showing you the crummy stuff. Like a job I did in this colored pencil style for Esquire on Dan Quayle about 16 years ago. It pretty much sucked, and I threw all evidence of it into a dumpster. So put you socks back on.

paul bowman said...

Many thanks for the compliment.

I hope to find the new setup pulls me back into drawing a bit more frequently. We'll see.

Mike Rhode said...

Lovely, absolutely lovely.