In a conversation with Latvijas Radio, Šłukas told that he follows major world sports events in hockey, basketball, football and the Olympic Games, sometimes keeping sports broadcasts in the background of his work. For Paret, other events attract the cartoonist’s attention, but something special has to happen for it to be depicted in a drawing and see the light of day.
Gatis Šlūkas about caricatures in sports and artistic creativity
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Mārtiņš Kļavenieks, Māris Bergs
Ideas for Šlūkam arise in various life situations and are often forgotten if they are not sketched out immediately. A cartoonist can roughly sketch a plan with a few lines in a phone app, but mostly writes down the composition in words that would not explain much to others.
Evaluating the colorful personalities drawn by himself, Šłukas names the former president of the Latvian Hockey Federation Kirovas Lipmans first, but immediately after that he also mentions the 32-kilogram weight ball of basketball player Valdas Walters.
which used to be a frequently featured prop in the publication “Sporta avīze”. People still draw caricatures long ago, even though they were made quite a long time ago, admits Šłukas.
“Probably Lipman would be the most in terms of number,” Šłukas evaluated his range of sports cartoons. “Only I made one major mistake, because he has all his teeth in his mouth, not the way I drew. When I started to draw him, there was a black and white picture, he was smiling and somehow it looked like the row of teeth was less. That’s how it went.”
Šlūka used to draw more ideas of Armand Puča and Erik Strauss in “Sporta Avize”. Now Słukas sees that his drawing style has changed with straighter and safer lines. The working tools have also changed, but the basic things in cartoons are still the same, emphasized Šłukas. His drawings have been different, but the author is happy that in Latvia a cartoonist can express himself quite freely, and especially in sports. Gatis adds that Latvia is not England, where a cartoon on the theme of football could cause a club’s fans to want a lynching trial.
On the classical path of art education, Šłukas went from a children’s art school to graduating from the Art Academy, and currently draws equally with pencils and on a digital tablet.
Šāukas can draw anywhere, as long as he has the necessary tools with him, but of course, he feels more comfortable at home at the table.
“Started at the table, continued in the car, not while driving [pie stūres]of course,” explained Šlūka. “Sometimes the cartoons that you have drawn in non-standard situations are remembered.”
Whether to draw on paper or on a tablet, Šłukas decides depending on the idea, also keeping in mind that maybe the work started at home will have to be continued somewhere else later. In that case, the tablet is preferred. Other times, the drawing is created on paper and later processed on a computer.
“Depends on the idea and be interesting,” the cartoonist explained his choice of tools. “I don’t want to remain only digital or only on paper. Drawing digitally all the time has its pluses and minuses. You can always easily erase everything, but when you get used to it too much, you can’t draw on paper again, because there is no possibility press and delete.”
Sometimes Sluka comes up with an idea, but due to lack of time, he has to draw in a hurry. He does not hide that
a time constraint disciplines, and open-ended tasks are those that are delayed and mostly never completed.
The author reckons that no empty space should be left, besides, good ideas often come up at the last moment under stress.
Slukka’s equipment arsenal includes 120-150 colored pencils.
“You may think that you need so many, but when you draw, you will still find that you need some more,” the cartoonist explained the need for so many colors. “Halftones are the most, very bright colors – bright pink – are almost not wasted at all, but the brownish, bluish tones are wasted and you have to buy something instead.”
Šlūka hardly sharpens colored pencils, but he does keep the sketch pencil sharp.
At one time, he had bought three sets of pencils for work at home, in the editorial office, and in the fields. Now it has become a sufficient supply for good times and also a good investment as the price of pencils is constantly increasing. In addition, Gat’s favorite brand of pencils has become much more difficult to buy since the UK left the European Union.
Šluka sees that people like and appreciate cartoons, but the editors of various publications around the world often prefer to give them up in order to have less problems. Šłukas considers the media’s avoidance of expressing a clear opinion to be the wrong direction, and he expects that after some time in the newsrooms, he will understand how uninteresting lukewarm information is.
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2023-12-18 13:03:59
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