Ken Turner Blog Series: Influences and Inspirations Blog Entry #9 - RONALD SEARLE (1920 - 2011)

"There was the irresistible impulse to draw. I cannot remember wanting to be anything else other than an artist." - Ronald Searle

Ronald Searle was a famous British artist and cartoonist who lived to be 91.  Most remembered for creating the St Trinian's School books, Molesworth series and Cats books.  He produced work for magazines in the 50's such as Life, Holiday and Punch and his cartoons appeared in The New Yorker.  He also worked on advertisements and posters.  His work influenced generations of illustrators, animators and cartoonists including Matt Groening and the animators of Disney's 101 Dalmations.

"The two people who have probably had the greatest influence on my life are Lewis Carroll and Ronald Searle." - John Lennon

Here's an interview conducted in 2010 with Searle (the first interview in 35 years):

 

"Drawing for me has never been a case of therapy because I was shy, or not outstanding in physical activities, or anything else. It was a compulsion. I carried a sketchbook day and night, because I could not stop drawing. To sell a sketch was a pleasure, because it meant a little less economic worry and more freedom to explore. But if I had not sold, I still would not have stopped." - Ronald Searle

Here's a couple of animated pieces done in the style of Searle:

 

[referring to his imprisonment in Changi Prison, a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp, during World War II] "If all your generation - everyone you knew - died when they were nineteen or twenty, you've got the biggest present in the world. You live from day to day thinking "My God, I should have died when I was nineteen and I'm eighty-five now". How many presents can one have in one's life? Every day is a present." - Ronald Searle

Next time on the Influences and Inspirations : Dr. Theodor Geisel

Cheers

Ken