Beau Bo D'Or

Clifford Singer has decided to give his site a break from the pounding it has been taking from thousand of visitors over the last few weeks. He gives his reasons here.

Link to all recent Tory poster pics

Well done to him for making the site a success and the others for providing a level of interactivity that many of us are unable or unwilling to do. He should also be praised for the level of quality control he exacted on his site, something ConservativeHome’s myLabourposter failed to do.
I produced my own templates and photoshopped my own stuff, but with mydavidcameron, the ease with which anyone could make a poster was a plus and a big minus. I’m sure there were many unsuitable spoof versions which were not published on the site but are still floating around the web. Some of these will have been produced by Labour supporters and some, I would think, by Conservative supporters who wished to discredit the site.
Now I’ve been spoofing posters & policies for quite some time so I’m not going to stop but I need to be a bit more disciplined in my approach.
I must admit, the posters are a hell of a distraction from producing anything decent and longer-lasting for this site. Maybe I’ve been doing so many because I’m frustrated at my inability to create a decent version of what I see in my mind’s eye. I need to learn and practise more, not trot out the same old ‘faceswaps’ and plays on words.
If you look at the genuine artistic talent on the web or in print, they may nod in the direction of the recent poster campaigns (or the policies promoted) but they do not become obsessed with them.
Visitors to this blog should take the time to acquaint themselves with the likes of Dave Brown at the Indy, Morten Morland and Peter Brookes at The Times, Steve Bell and Martin Rowson at The Guardian and Christian Adams and Matt at The Telegraph.
You should also be aware of other outstanding cartoonists.
With absolute respect, I’m not a fan of Andy Davey’s stuff for The Sun but his work elsewhere is a bit special. Scroll down to 2008 and start clicking. Then there is Gary Barker, Alex Hughes, Royston Robertson and Matt Buck, who came up with ‘The Miliband Kid’ character which I hope to see again soon.
Update: I foolishly forgot about Patrick Blower and his animated Livedraw series at The Guardian.
If politics is not your thing, you could always have a look at Chichi Parish whose pen and ink work is a delight (and who is now exploring the joys of Photoshop).

Most of these guys’ and ladies’ portfolios can be found at the website of the Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation which also runs The Bloghorn blog.

Enjoy looking through some genuine artisitic talent and respect their copyright. Maybe the larger sites may consider offering them some paid work. I think it can make all the difference to a site to have a ‘resident’ cartoonist. And, if the large sites do genuinely believe they compete with the MSM, then they should hire a talented professional cartoonist and make a big noise about it as well.