Ex-professional footballer turned artist, Jon-Paul McCarthy, discusses the transition from traditional to digital art, working with Disney, and his favourite place in Brighton.
Artist of the Week at Brighton Journal allows us to explore a diverse range of talents the city has to offer. Jon-Paul McCarthy’s artwork opens us up to the world of caricature and cartoon illustration, areas which he specialises in, and is now his full-time job.
You may remember Jon-Paul’s shop on Palace Pier, his space where he enjoyed drawing caricatures live. After interest began picking up with his studio work, he gave up the shop three years ago to focus on commissioned work.
“Working for Disney was a big life’s ambition which was amazing and I’m a huge Muppets fan.”
Jon-Paul moved to Brighton with his wife, who he met whilst he was living in Italy, thinking it would be an ideal place to raise children. Born in London, he began his career as a Fine Artist working on Portraits in oil, and as “assistant artist to the royal portrait painter Alexander Talbot-Rice” in the capital city.
He also spent a large portion of his life living in Dublin, where a lot of his family reside and the city he trained in to be a classical animator. He said: “I soon realised that my passion was more in the quirky side of art and always found myself drawing cartoons.”
As animation moved from classic methods he knew to computerised 3D formats, Jon-Paul missed working within traditional techniques. “This is when I realised I needed to step away as my own artist and started to work in cartoons and caricatures, which I have been doing ever since.”
Although his heart will always remain in traditional art, Jon-Paul acknowledged how the possibilities with digitalisation are incredible. “Most of my commission work for publications is digital now as its just easier and the technology is getting so good that my digital set up in my studio is almost like working on paper.”
“I was in a professional club before getting injured which brought me into art, so its got a special meaning for me.”
The British satirical puppet show, Spitting Image, which featured caricatures of famous celebrities, stimulated some of his work. Artists such as Sebastian Kruger, Gerald Scarfe, Tom Richmond and Jan Op De Beeck influenced his work personally: “Most other artists that inspired me I have now been lucky enough to meet, work with and even become friends.”
When asked about the differences between caricature work and fine art, Jon-Paul highlighted caricature’s likeness to traditional painting in technique but differs greatly from portraiture. “I actually find it harder, you are trying to show a persons personality on paper, not just a likeness. This is difficult to keep a likeness and distort a face is hard enough, but if you do not capture who that person is inside then I think you have failed.”
After an artistic career spanning almost 16 years, it was difficult for Jon-Paul to pinpoint individual pieces from his repertoire. Although, his work with football clubs remains one of his passions: “I was in a professional club before getting injured which brought me into art, so its got a special meaning for me.”
“If you do not capture who that person is inside then I think you have failed.”
“Working for Disney was a big life’s ambition which was amazing, and I’m a huge Muppets fan so when I was asked to play a caricature Artist in the movie I could not believe it. I feel my live event work I’m almost most proud of as it has taken a long time to perfect drawing fast to huge crowds while talking and entertaining at the same time.”
When he’s not busy with his art, Jon-Paul enjoys surfing, football, and playing the guitar in his spare time. He also pinpointed the North Laine as one of his favourite places in Brighton, a hub for art shops and exhibitions, and where he loves looking for vintage clothing for costume when working at events.
Much of his current work centres around corporate Christmas cards and drawing live at events, and he also continues to work with professional football clubs abroad. Jon-Paul has nominated Marie Walshe of Sorrel Bay Jewelry for the next edition of Artist of the Week.
His website and Instagram page are both regularly updated with his caricature work.
