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MARK
DAVID
Mark David brings more than 20 years experience
in cartooning, newspaper and book illustration to his workshops. During
the ’80s and ’90s his work appeared in almost 100 books,
including Rachel to the Rescue, Fantastic Plastic and Minimal
Farm. He illustrated The Case of the Graveyard Ghost
and Other Mysteries, written by Duncan Ball,
which was published in 2005 and the follow-up book, The Case
of the Vampire's Wire and Other Mysteries is due for release
in 2006.
His most
recent publication is Crazy
Cars, a book of bizarre, detailed drawings and humorous
text aimed specifically at Primary School age boys.
  
He was a
political cartoonist for The
Financial Review and The Bulletin, a regular cartoonist
in The Sydney
Morning Herald for ten years, and now works for The
Australian as
a graphic artist. He's won major awards in cartooning and has
also been a judge in national and international cartooning
competitions.
Contracted with The New York Times Syndicate, his cartoons now appear
sporadically in Europe, North and South America and Asia,
and are
translated
into several languages.
 
Mark uses a method
of teaching cartooning which he has developed specifically for achieving
stunning
results with even the most reluctant illustrators. Students are shown
foolproof tricks in cartoon drawing in the first few minutes of
the
demonstration. This raises the students’ level of confidence
and within a few more minutes they’re achieving excellent results
drawing up to 25 different facial expressions. It sounds hard. In fact
it sounds impossible, but it works. The method he uses has been explained
in his self-published book, The Easiest Way to Learn Cartooning.
Aspects of cartooning taught include things like drawing faces and
expressions,
animals, and the illusion of movement and perspective. Older students
are shown simple, yet powerful methods for generating cartoon ideas.
 
A major part of
the talk for all age groups is an explanation of some of the aspects
of the business
of cartooning for books and newspapers, book illustration and the preparation
of roughs. Students are shown actual colour roughs and artwork from
published books and are given the chance to see for themselves the
different
stages of an illustrator’s work in the world of publishing.
Mark does not pretend that his success in cartooning was ‘handed
to him on a plate.’ He stresses, in a lively and entertaining
fashion, the benefits of a bit of perseverance and describes some of
the times when things were not going very well. He is happy talking
to students from Kindergarten to year 12.
More information about Mark
can be found at his website.
Click here for
a list of Mark's published books
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