I completely forgot, writing yesterday’s post about scribbling, to mention those proper artists that inspired me to a great extent when I was a child.

Obviously, copyright precludes me from posting any of their actual work here, but if you want to see it you can usually find stuff by clicking through or searching for their names in the usual way.

The first big influence on me, I suppose, was E H Shepard. The first book I was able to read properly on my own was a combined volume of A A Milne’s classics Winnie-the-Pooh and The House At Pooh Corner. Shepard’s classic pen-and-ink illustrations for those books are still fresh in my mind, and the informal, almost slapdash, style has always been an influence on my freehand drawing style. Sadly, I never quite get the cross-hatching and shadow work as nicely rendered.

Next, a small and battered paperback that I probably bought at a primary school jumble sale when I was not even in double-digits. At this distance in time I don’t recall which collection of the Professor Branestawm stories by Norman Hunter it was, but I do clearly recall the illustrations. Only later in life did I realise they were by none other than William Heath Robinson. I still love the intricate and whimsical machines that do nothing of Heath Robinson’s imagination, and I think his attention to the tiniest details – nuts and bolts, and bits of string and rope knotted together – is another great influence on me.

Another jumble sale find was an annual of Giles cartoons. Ronald “Carl” Giles was an editorial cartoonist for the Daily Express, a once great newspaper, although always of somewhat ill repute. I note I currently have three “annuals” in my library, covering the early 1960s through to the mid-1970s. I love his attention to detail, and the mixture of fine linework and rough blocking-in. Like Heath Robinson, Giles knew how things worked and drew people and machines that were correctly detailed.

Norman Thelwell doesn’t really need any introduction. Most famous for his humorous illustrations of ponies and horses, my preference is for his other works. An uncle lent me his copies of Thelwell’s Compleat Tangler and Belt Up. The first is a take on the sport of angling (and those in the know will get the reference in the title), while the second is on motoring and the motorist. Thelwell, like Giles and Heath Robinson, is all about the details, and I spent many a happy hour making my own copies by hand of his illustrations

Finally, the wonderful whimsical drawings by Roland Emett. My mother worked as an usherette in our local Odeon cinema, and would bring home promotional materials from the latest film releases. One such was the colour brochure for Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines, a wonderfully sprawling comedy from 1965. Emett drew the film’s title cartoons, and his work also featured in the booklet. Like Shepard’s work, I love the loose and scratchy style even though I find it so hard to emulate.

So, there are some of my earliest artistic influences. I really need to dust off my sketch pad and pens.