I was first made aware of Ralph Steadman last year. At the time I was studying Journalism at Falmouth University, and my friend had to do an essay for his illustration course.  I had offered to help him out with his essay, which really consisted of me sitting on a bean bag, and occasionally double checking his spelling. After he had wrote most of the essay, we watch a documentary on Steadman, called for no good reason.

This is where my love of drawing reignited. I was always doodling in lectures, but more so as a hobby. But seeing this old man talk about his entire life, wanting to make some form of statement through art, be it on Nixon or the Catholic Church, made me pause for thought. All done through drawings! And they didn’t have to be normal, they could be weird, ligaments could be contorted, faces could be scrunched up! What’s more the way he was drawing was unconventional, and simple. The realisation of this sent off a thousand ideas in my head. From then on I wanted to focus on Drawing.

Seeing his political cartoons, reinforced to me the fact that cartoons can have power, to make people think, or to be critical. Either way it gets a strong response. In his book Gonzo, he does mention that he stopped drawing politicians in the 70’s, as he didn’t want to keep boosting their egos. Interestingly, George Osbourne has said that politicians get more annoyed when they are not drawn, instead of when they are, which shows how right Steadman was.  The last political cartoon he did was a grotesque monster, named the Tory party.

Even the name of the documentary, for no good reason, also resonated with me, sometimes you just want to draw. No reason why, it’s just enjoyable.

As a wider point, I think Steadman represents the idea of Cartoonists not being afraid to say things that people may find offensive. Steve Bell, Martin Rowson are other examples of this. The freedom that cartoonists have to critique society was great. Now in this odd time we live in, that freedom is becoming a fine line to walk, so as to not offend someone. Steadman rejects this, just drawing what he wants, but more importantly what he thinks, and that is why I think his work is so important.

For me, the more I learned about Steadman, the more I was impassioned to keep drawing, because to be blunt, the world is fucked up. If I can show people that it is through doing something I love, drawing, then I’m determined to draw this fucked up world as best I can.