Gerald Scarfe on live drawing

Gerald Scarfe said of Honoré Daumier and the importance of working with your subject in real-time:

"Drawing was forbidden in the French parliament, so Honoré Daumier would take pieces of clay into the building, sit in the gallery and mould maquettes while watching the characters below. They serve to remind the cartoonist there is no substitute for observing your subject live. I have drawn enough politicians at party conferences to understand that well."

Art is theft, Ctd Gerald Scarfe

Gerald Scarfe said of the French political cartoonist Honoré Daumier:

"At times, his influence on me has been almost palpable. In 1834 he did a drawing called The Legislative Belly: rows of plump and senescent parliamentarians gossiping, sleeping, scribbling on bits of paper, all looking entirely unsuited to governing the country. I used it as the direct inspiration for a large theatre backdrop I painted for a production of Orpheus in the Underworld in 1988." 

And this was a fascinating comment from Scarfe: "I wonder whether Daumier’s portrayal of the pear-shaped king might have been an unconscious influence on me recently when I drew David Cameron as a lightbulb."