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| Matt drawing cartoons for participants after the lecture |
By Matthew Adeiza
Matt Pritchett may have become a cartoonist by accident but it took hard work to become a world-class cartoonist, and his humour-soaked lecture at Queen’s College, University of Oxford, yesterday, November 6, 2011 was definitely not by accident. The Telegraph cartoonist was in Oxford to share his experiences with members of the Oxford Media Society about how he manages to balance humour with decorum in a way that has won him the love and admiration of many Telegraph readers.
Matt, as he is fondly called by his fans, explained that he became a cartoonist by accident (really?). He had tried his hands on graphic design and illustration without success before settling for cartoon.
Matt started sending cartoons to newspapers because he needed money to survive (of course, man must eat). After many rejections, one of his entries was finally accepted. But that did not mean an automatic job. He still had to freelance for some time. And that meant little pay. But he wanted a permanent job. And hear this: an editor called one of his cartoons “the worst fucking thing I have ever seen!” If you were in his shoes would you quit? He didn’t!
Matt told us that he has learned that what makes the difference in his job is the extra effort. “Just a little extra”, he stressed. He makes it a point of duty to read and understand news in order to give context and currency to his cartoons while he would normally show drafts to colleagues for comments before submitting them to the editor.
But doesn’t he get harsh feedbacks from readers who feel offended by his cartoons? He said it hardly happens. Maybe because he does his homework very well. He advised his us to put in that little “extra” if we want to succeed.
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| Matt and Tim with participants |
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