Knowledge Mushowe
When the Daily News was launched in 1999, and followed by the establishment of several daily papers in quick succession, new editorial cartooning vacancies were opening up in newsrooms. Luckily for the newspaper industry, a good number of cartoonists joined the scene, complementing a small pool of veteran media artists including Innocent Mpofu, Boyd Maliki, Brian Gwasira, Tony Namate and Wellington Musapenda.
The dawn of the new millennium became the breakthrough era for cartoonists such as the Daily News pair of Watson Mukutirwa and Noah Pomo, Kwayedza’s Knowledge Gunda, Martin Mahenga of The Chronicle and Milanzi “The Watcher” of Alpha Media.
The editorial cartoonist profession stands out in the media industry as it is the only job on the payroll where formal training is not among key requirements.
Because of the obvious lack of a clear career channel for one to transform raw talent into accomplished art, most cartoonists follow a path that is as informal as the job itself.
The various personal experiences of the cartoonists create different styles that enhance and diversify editorial cartoon content.
Part of cartoonists’ repertoire is exaggeration, distortions and caricature.
Exaggeration and distortion is a primary tool often employed by cartoonists to stress the power or weakness, the importance or the insignificance, dangerousness or helplessness of some person, group, or social force.
In other words, exaggeration and distortion helps in emphasising extremes in personalities or action.
Distortion is any change made by the artist to the size, shape of visual character of a form to convey a feeling or enhance visual effect.
Caricaturing is closely related to exaggeration and distortion.
Caricature is viewed as an exaggeration of or distortion of one or more of a person’s prominent features.
Though caricatures are often unflattering renderings of personalities, they reveal vital information about the subject.
Caricatures are not necessarily a lie, they are overtones of what is already known or suspected of the subject.
Without distortion, exaggeration and caricature, editorial cartoons would be flat and may miss their primary objective as visual communication tools.
Zimbabwe’s prominent cartoonists vary greatly in their stylistic treatment of facial features.
In terms of artistic development, Innocent Mpofu’s journey mirrors that of Vincent van Gogh.
The nineteenth century painter, through years of experience transformed from a “detail” artist to abstract expressionism but ensuring that his work retained emotional value and general relevance.
The Herald cartoonist gradually replaced detailed, brittle line work with bolder, expressive and smooth-flowing lines.
Mpofu is a true exponent of minimalism; his facial renditions are full of emotion yet developed using very few lines.
The nose, except in instances where it represents racial stereotypes is consistently presented right in the middle of the face, almost as a front row spectator enjoying the action around it.
In contrast, Maliki is more detailed, with half circles and arcs punctuating the edges around the face.
The eyes in Maliki’s characters are oval and round, and rivals the intractably assembled mouth features.
Mahenga, heavily influenced by comic art, develops sharply-edged faces that emphasise form more than shape but nonetheless retains rich expressive value.
Namate’s facial renditions are highly animated, and this explains why very little text accompanies most of his compositions.
His treatment of the mouth is perhaps the most expressive.
The exaggerated elasticity in his line work creates faces of various shapes and sizes, and his treatment of the eyes, eyebrows and forehead gives the viewer more than enough information about the emotional state of the character.
Namate is a good exponent of hatching and cross hatching techniques that describe shape and define form in his compositions.
The face in his editorial cartoons is often punctuated by short scribbled and diagonal lines intricately “knitted” into each other at various angles.
Musapenda remains one of the best visual communicators of character mood.
His exaggerated “anger” face of the wronged housewife is one that most male viewers can identify with.
The mouth in his characters can stretch and contract all over the lower half of the face, while the teeth’s shape, colour, number and size emphasise emotion and sometimes determine age and social class.
Though each cartoonist has his own distinct method of developing facial features the ultimately, success or failure is determined by the extent to which their emotional value ties with the general mood of the entire composition.
Facial features in editorial cartoons introduce the viewer into the narrative of the composition by setting the mood and establishing subject parameters.
Cartoonists often alter the manner in which they present facial features as their styles develop over time.
But distortion remains the key weapon for depiction of facial expression.
Each line around and across the face has to add to the expressive value of the whole.