Dick Cheney in Sydney

Yes! My drawing hit the front page of today's Sydney Morning Herald . It's an airbrush drawing heralding the visit of an American polly (oh nuts, here's a cracker).

A quick draft with an HB pencil, a patch of frisket masking and the last few drops of dr.Martin's rare ink and his caricature was almost a breeze to draw if not for a pressing 3-hour timeline. Cheney's features are almost John Howardesque except the latter 's shorter in the chin department.

Yes, it's him..Mr. Dick Cheney (and why is it sometimes spelt Chaney by the press? A double-barrel spellchecker?:) the guy who shot his best friend (in an accident, of course, but his enemies never felt so confident since that classic friendly fire:-)

Actually I don't care much about this bird..except he's in Sydney causing massive traffic delays, aggravated by street protesters who believe this guy is predisposed to violence and doesn't contribute much to world peace. However I don't condone violent behaviour by some misguided elements from both sides. Not worth breaking skin for this guy.

Traffic and world peace are always at odds. In reality I love and care for birds but closing the streets for a blatant hawk is not on for me. Hawks only need airspace. Peace doves should have the streets despite their white bodily residues that drop and cling on facial windscreens of world politics. They knew that gentle yet sustained & persistent cooing can persuade even a most stubborn North Korean tit (a bird) to go easy on its nuclear nest plans.

A Brush with Air - February 06, 2007

It was Abner Peeler who invented the first airbrush in 1879 in Iowa, USA. Then in 1980 I discovered it in Mr. Rupert Murdoch's art dept while i was working for The Australian newspaper. Every guy has one ready for use, not for drawing but to retouch radiophotos (what's that?:) That was before the days of fax machines and email.Then offset printing arrived opening a new era of high-resolution images on newsprint. Overnight letterpresses became dinosaurs. I was one of 2 or 3 artists who tried to use the airbrush for newspaper drawings.
I now extensively use the airbrush to give 3D effects and enhance line drawings, caricatures and illustrations for the Sydney Morning Herald . Although tedious at first I really enjoy doing this type of illos (short for illustration). I could also rightly claim I was first to coin this word when I asked for an "illo" board to use for drawing from our art supplies manager. It was Paul Leigh in 1980 who asked me "Is that what you call it, Edd?". I said "Yes; because I've just found out that you Aussies love to use nicknames that end with an "o" like Robbo for Robertson, Jacko for Jackson and generics like garbo for a garbage man." Illo is now a commonly-used word between journalists and artists in the Australian newspaper industry.
Here's a sample airbrush illo I've enjoyed doing (see above image). I've scanned the original and then buffed it in a paint program by enhancing the highlights and shadows..
The drawing was published in The Spectrum, a supplement magazine of the Sydney Morning Herald.
I've forgotten what the article was all about but it's got something to do with writing while being guided by some mysterious forces;-)