First Obs cartoon workshop successful

By: Jermaine Johnson

AHEM Art Collective recently hosted their first cartooning workshop, led by accomplished cartoonist Gavin Thomson.

Thomson, who produced a unique cartoon for the previous edition of ObsLife, covered the variety of uses for cartoons.

This included the different types of cartoons, comic strips, and children's book illustrations. He also covered the business side of cartooning, such as plagiarism, copyright issues, originality, and the internet.

The participants ranged in age from 16 to mid-forties, and included a mixture of different skill sets and experience levels. "I thought it was great. It was very interactive and organic" says Thomson.

"I would have loved to have to have gone through a course like that when I was starting, because there are so many questions I had."

Gavin Thomson has been a professional cartoonist for nearly 15 years, but it took him a while to distinguish himself as such. "It took me about 10-15 years after finishing school to come back around and join cartooning" says Thomson.

He first began receiving work by doing illustrations for publishing companies. Currently, he has been featured in the Cape Times every day for the last 12 years.

He is the cartoonist behind the daily South African cartoon strips, Mama Taxi and Trek Net. Five separate strips have also emerged from these two.

One of the goals of the cartoon workshop was to find a volunteer cartoonist for ObsLife.

Thomson spoke about the importance of finding someone from the Observatory community to fulfil the role. "Although it may be pro bono, it is a good opportunity for an artist to receive attention and get their name out there." AHEM will be announcing the dates for future workshops in January 2018.

Thomson said AHEM is a fantastic place of opportunity and community for artist at any level.

For more information, visit the AHEM Art Collective Facebook page.