Robert Stewart Sheriffs 1906 - 1960
Best known as film caricaturist for Punch - specialising in effective
abstracted drawings of celebrity in ink, where the abstraction always
retains a likeness. Here Sheriffs takes delight in the representation
of his Punch colleague Ronald Searle whose St Trinians characters were
deployed on stage and film during this period. This comes from Punch October
1954. The contrasted brushwork on Searle's hair brows and beard is characteristic
Sheriffs - three different ways of drawing in the one image (reproduced
originally at 9 x 12 cms). I have scanned it much larger to emphasise
qualities of line and tone in Sheriffs' work. His early work as shown
in Salute if You Must (c1940) , demonstrates his drawing
skills and visual solutions. He has an uncanny ability at constructing
the persuasive mechanical.
ENDPAPERS FOR AN ODHAMS CHILDREN ANNUAL
CARICATURES FOR PUNCH
ILLUSTRATIONS TO OMAR KHAYYAM
"The brush was better than the pen for all manner of drawings, and confirmed my previous conviction that figures and faces were patterns to be studied and memorised - not patiently drawn from life. I regarded caricatures as designs, and the expressions on faces merely as changes in a basic pattern".
|