Posts Tagged ‘gifts’

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »

U.S. Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program

Sunday, June 5th, 2011

The U. S. Marine Corps Reserve has a sixty odd year old program to collect toys for tots from disadvantaged families both in the United States and in other countries. The aim is to collect new unwrapped toys during October, November and December each year and then give those toys out as Christmas presents to needy children in the community in which the campaign is being conducted.

Their objective is to bring a message of hope to disadvantaged children in order to encourage them to become ‘responsible, productive, patriotic citizens’ in the words of their web site.

One of the main goals of Toys for Tots is to unite the communities where U.S Marine Reserve units are stationed for the three months of October, November and December each year in the collection and allocation of new toys to children from less well-off families in order to help them experience the joys of Christmas.

One of the aspirations is that the recollection of receiving these gifts every year will encourage the kids to appreciate the communities where they live and take an active part in those communities when they become older.

Communities where there is no unit of U.S. marine Corps Reserves can also take part in the scheme but they must first register for authorization. These non-Marine organizations will usually, but not always, be ex-Marines.

These organizations organize fund-raising events throughout the year in order to finance the purchase of new toys as donations of new toys do not always meet the organizations’ needs. These fund-raising events can include sports days, golfing tournaments, bicycle races, swimming tournaments et cetera.

Toys for Tots began in 1947 when Major Bill Hendricks, USCR and a group of Marine Reservists in Los Angeles collected and distributed 5,000 toys for needy children in the local area.

The original notion sprang from Major Hendrick’s wife, Diane, who had made a doll for a deprived child. She gave it to her husband to give to a suitable charity. When he could not find one, she recommended that he start one himself, so he did just that.

The following year Marine Corps Reserve units across the country adopted the plan and it has been actively providing toys to disadvantaged tots ever since. Walt Disney got involved from the very beginning by designing the logo that the Marine Reserve charity still makes use of today.

Other celebrities to become involved in the early days were Nat ‘King’ Cole, Peggy Lee and Vic Damone, who recorded the Toys for Tots theme, which was written especially for the charity by Sammy Fain and Paul Webster.

Many celebrities have been played a part over the years. Celebrities like Bob Hope, John Wayne, Doris Day, Lorrie Morgan, Tim Allen, Kenny Rogers and Billy Ray Cyrus. First Lady Nancy Reagan acted as the national Spokesperson in 1983 and First Lady Barbara Bush served as the national Spokesperson in 1992. She wrote in her autobiography tenderly of her involvement with Toys for Tots and called it one of her favourite charities.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on several topics, but is now involved with Silver Cross Rocking Horses. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Rocking Horses for sale.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Celebrated British Caricaturists - Part One

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011

This list includes both British born artists and those who were born elsewhere but did the majority of their most important work in the U.K. The assortment is listed in chronological order by date of birth.

William Hogarth (1697 - 1764)

He was born in London and apprenticed to an engraver where he studied his trade. He became a painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist and has been accredited with pioneering sequential art or the cartoon strip.

His output ranged from realistic portraiture to comic strip-like series of pictures known as “modern moral subjects”. His most famous works are no doubt ? The Harlot?s Progress and ?The Rake?s Progress?.

Isaac Cruickshank ( 1756 - 1811)

Cruickshank was a Scottish painter and caricaturist who was born in Edinburgh. Cruikshank’s first known publications were etchings of Edinburgh “types”, from 1784.

His water colours were exhibited, but in order to make a living it was found that it was more profitable to produce prints and caricatures. He was responsible in part for creating the figure of John Bull, the nationalistic representation of a solid British yeoman.

Isaac Cruikshank was a contemporary of James Gillray and Thomas Rowlandson, and he was part of what has been known as “the Golden Age of British Caricature.

Thomas Rowlandson ( 1756 - 1827)

Thomas Rowlandson was an English painter and caricaturist. He was born in London and when he finished school he studied at the Royal Academy. He was thought of as a promising student and if he had sustained his early diligence he would have made his mark as an artist.

But he inherited ?7,000 from a French aunt and dived into the dissipations of the town (he was known to sit at the gambling-table for 36 hours at a stretch).

He quickly squandered his inheritance but the friendship and examples of James Gillray and Henry William Bunbury seem to have suggested caricature as a means of filling his stomach and purse.

He also created a collection of erotic prints and woodcuts, lots of which would these days be thought of as pornographic .

James Gillray (1757 - 1815)

James Gillray was a British caricaturist and printmaker who gained great fame for his etched political and social satires, mainly in print between 1792 and 1810.

Some of his most well known caricatures were aimed at at the Royal Family and George III in particular. He is also responsible for almost certainly the most famous political cartoon of all time.

It was entitled ?The Plum Pudding in Danger? . It was printed in 1805 and depicts Pitt and Napoleon carving up the plum pudding of Europe.

By 1811, madness, no doubt made worse by his intemperate life-style, was overtaking him and he passed away in 1815.

George Cruickshank ( 1792 - 1878)

George Cruickshank was born in London, the son of the famous caricaturist Isaac Cruickshank and started his working career as apprentice to his father.

He later started out as a caricaturist in his own right and was even paid ?100 in return for a promise not to satirize George IV In later life he turned to book illustrating and illustrated ?Sketches by Boz? and ?Oliver Twist? for Charles Dickens.

After creating palsy he died in 1878. Punch in his obituary said ?There never was a purer, simpler, more straightforward or altogether more blameless man. His nature had something childlike in its transparency.”

If you want one of our unique, hand-painted, custom cartoons or caricatures from photos supplied by you please click on one of these links History Of Rugby. If you would like to know more, please go to our web site at Custom Cartoons.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A Crocheted Baby’s Blanket - The Perfect Present For Babies

Sunday, May 8th, 2011

Whether your friends, the parents-to-be, are going to be parents for the first time or the n-th time, it is a problem to know that what you are buying for the child is not going to be a duplicate. An added complication is that not all parents-to-be would like to know the sex of their new baby, so it is fairly hard to get a present for the baby shower or Christening (or whatever) and still feel confident that it will be valued.

However, there are some presents that are unlikely to be duplicated and without having to spend an absolute fortune, a crocheted baby’s blanket is one of them. If you have already gained the skills to make a crocheted baby’s blanket, then all well and good, otherwise you have two alternatives: you can either learn and thereby increase your number of skills or you can pay for one.

Forty years ago and before, most women could knit and crochet and knew about yarns and threads and knitting needles. Regrettably, the parents of the Seventies either did not learn these skills or did not pass them on in general, but knitting and crocheting are making quite a comeback now in the early Twenty-First Century. People are proud to own hand-made items like crocheted baby’s blankets.

One of the advantages of using modern yarns and materials is that the dyes are probable to be less dangerous than before, but you will still have to buy them from trustworthy suppliers to be absolutely certain.

Another benefit of a handmade item like a crocheted baby’s blanket is that is likely to become a family heirloom. A handmade crocheted baby’s blanket is sure to be appreciated because it was handmade and not shop-purchased. It is even better if the maker’s name and the baby’s name are embroidered on it as well.

If you are a greenhorn to crocheting a baby’s blanket, there are a few items that you need to keep in mind with regard to the baby’s safety.

Firstly, pick a tightly-knit pattern so that the baby’s fingers and toes cannot get snarled up in the blanket. Secondly, the fabric or yarn ought to be soft, colour-fast, non-toxic and machine washable. Babies’ blankets get dirty quite frequently, so it really is a boon to have a baby’s blanket that is machine washable.

Thirdly, take the time to ask the parents-to-be if they have a colour scheme or theme in mind for the nursery. Fourthly, the blanket should be the right size. If your crocheted baby’s blanket is to be used in a cot, then it should be the exact same size of the cot for safety reasons. If it is to be a general blanket, then you can make it larger so that it can be useful for longer.

Lastly, but not least crucial is to take into account that babies teethe, so do not incorporate anything into your handmade crocheted baby’s blanket if there is a chance of the baby choking on it, beads are a distinct no-no.

Owen Jones, the writer of that article, writes on a variety of topics, but is now involved with the chenille throw blankets. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Toddlers’ Rocking Chairs

Saturday, May 7th, 2011

Comfort is very important to people, especially to children. I do not mean comfort as derived from a soft cushion or a warm, dry bed, I mean comfort as in security. It is the feeling that cats and children get from sitting in a box rather than playing with the gift that came in that box.

Or the comfort that some children obtain from having their own special blanket, which is actually known as a comforter by the majority of Americans. It is the type of comfort that all babies and all children get from rocking

Babies almost certainly like being rocked because that was the sensation that they felt whilst mum was going about when they were still unborn. It is what mothers intuitively do when a child indicates its discomfort by crying and it is to be seen in many disturbed adults as well.

They rock back and forth in an unconscious mimicry of the feeling of comfort and security that they experienced before they were born. Children derive comfort from any number of items. Some are commonplace others are peculiar, but two of the most popular toys for children are rocking horses and rocking chairs.

In fact, the desire to sit in a rocking chair or swinging chair never leaves most individuals until their dying day. We seem to get a lot of pleasure from rocking our whole lives long.

Rocking horses and rocking chairs have different functions naturally. Rocking horses are for playing on and rocking chairs are for thinking and napping in. A rocking chair is a good idea for a child because it can learn to gain consolation for itself by sitting in its rocking chair and feeling good without the help of an adult. It helps the child gain an independence, a certain kind of maturity.

The only problem with children’s rocking chairs is that children grow up and grow out of them so quickly. If you plan to have a big family this is not a problem, but otherwise you could be left with quite a collection of children’s rocking chairs in the attic.

I say this because although you can sell one before you buy a new one, people find this very difficult to do in practice. They simply can not bear to part with the old one.

You can purchase an over-sized child’s rocking chair so that you can get a couple more years use out of it, but in that case it is worth getting one with a fitted cushion or sticking some Velcro to the seat and a cushion so that your child does not slide off it.

Rest assured, you will never buy an unwanted or unused present for any child if you buy them a rocking horse, a rocking chair or a cardboard box.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on several subjects, but is now involved with Silver Cross Rocking Horses. If you want to know more, please visit our web site at Rocking Horses for sale.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Suitable Clothing For Babies And Infants

Friday, May 6th, 2011

One of the main needs of babies and infants besides nutrition is the necessity to be at the right temperature. Babies and infants are very susceptible to being too hot or too cold and also to strong sunlight. From this one can deduce that suitable clothing for babies and infants is of extreme importance.

It is frequently thought that babies and infants generate excess heat and so that they can also deal with cold temperatures spontaneously, but this is unfortunately not true. A problem is that the effects of too much heat or cold can be delayed so that the real cause of a baby’s distress is mis-diagnosed. Sometimes, this can have fatal consequences.

People are apt to think that babies produce too much heat, but this is a myth. The fact is that warm-blooded creatures like we mammals are able to produce more heat as we get older and therefore a baby is at the coolest stage of its transition into adulthood. A baby can be a degree or two cooler than an adult at its core.

Despite this fact, some cultures have insisted, and some still do insist, on toughening up a young infant. Ways of doing this have been to duck the baby into cold water or to expose it to cold winds with insufficient clothing. This hardening up serves no useful purpose and can be very injurious to the child. It is possible that some peoples in some times used this method to ‘weed out’ their children, although it was never officially described as that.

Some good principles that parents can use when choosing clothing for their babies and infants are:

The type and quantity of clothing should be sufficient to maintain the baby’s core natural temperature. A degree or two above that is all right too. The clothing will also have to be regulated to adjust for the seasons and whether you are at home or out walking. Put extra clothing on to go out and take some of it off when you get back inside, exactly as you would do for yourself.

Avoid wrapping your baby up in layer after layer of tight warm clothing or blankets unless you have to endure extreme cold. You can disturb a baby’s thermostat by keeping it too hot all the time. It is far better to aim for a continuous, even temperature. A baby that is tightly wrapped in blankets will have its movement constrained and maybe even its circulation hindered. This is clearly not a good idea.

Close-fitting, restrictive, hot clothing will also catch perspiration, which could cause the skin to be held in close contact with damp material for hours on end. This could lead to skin irritation and tenderness. Just as you would change a nappy when it is wet for the same reason.

Therefore, it is better to dress the baby in fairly loose fitting clothes appropriate for the surrounding temperature and adjust the temperature using a cardigan or jumper or blanket, loosely draped over it. The fabric is not so important, but you will have to inspect for allergies both to the material and the detergent you launder it in.

If you keep the clothing simple you will be able to add or remove it quickly as you see fit. This is important because most babies find dressing upsetting. To this end, try not to use ties, fasteners and pins. Velcro is far easier. Change all clothing every day to keep germs at bay.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article writes on quite a few topics, but is currently involved with thinking about high cut panties. If you would like to know more or check out some fantastic offers, please go to our website at Personalised Knickers.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Baby Boomer Generation As Grandparents

Sunday, May 1st, 2011

The children of the so-called Baby Boomer generation, those born in the twelve years or so after the Second World War, are now grandparents and one of the jobs of being a grandparent is to dote on one’s grandchildren. Baby boomers belong to the wealthiest generation that the West has ever seen and that is a good job, because all this doting is fairly costly.

Baby boomers were lucky because their parents outlived the worst war the world has ever seen and their parents knew unprecedented wealth as the world rebuilt itself after the devastation of the war. Needless to say a great deal of the wealth that baby boomers’ parents were earning was spent on their children, giving them what they had never had themselves.

This meant that a great deal of baby boomers had way too much: rocking horses, dolls’ prams, toy forts, train sets, dolls’ houses, you name it. Nothing was too much for the generation of hope from the generation who had had nothing.

Now, fifty odd years later, those baby boomers are grandparents. But not only grandparents - the richest generation of grandparents that the world has ever seen and the way things are going, the wealthiest generation of grandparents that the world will see for a generation or two to come as the Western world struggles to pay off the huge amounts of debt that the banking crisis cost us.

Nevertheless, money has a way of burning holes in pockets and grandparents like to dote and spoil their grand kids, so grandchildren, especially young grandchildren are being given the type of presents by their grandparents that the grandparents enjoyed themselves: rocking horses, dolls’ prams, toy forts et cetera are making a come-back big time.

The generation in between missed out, in general, on these old fashioned toys, but look on Amazon or eBay and see what is most popular now - it is contemporary versions of the old stuff, traditional toys. One of the reasons why traditional toys are so popular is because they are timeless.

Yes, a computer is a great present - it is both a games machine and it can be educational, but it will be too slow to run next year’s games, whereas kids will play with a rocking horse for ten years and then it can be handed on.

However, boomer grandparents were not just brought up on traditional toys, the Fifties and Sixties also saw a huge boost in science - nuclear science and the journey into space fascinated most people. Yes, it was a time of uncertainty and distrust as well because or the Arms Race with the Soviet Bloc, but that was not what most individuals talked about.

Music and science were the issues of the day. Flower power, hippies and a modern, clean, bright way of life powered by new technology. Educational toys were well-liked gifts: Lego, Meccano and chemistry sets.

Toys of this type are becoming popular as baby boomer grandparent presents too. Lego sells one Lego set every seven seconds of each day of every year, day and night! This is a new trend, or at least, it is a revived trend and without doubt a step in the right direction. Baby boomers may not have been the best parents, but they make fairly decent grandparents.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on a variety subjects, but is now involved with Silver Cross Rocking Horses. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Rocking Horses for sale.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Using Coupon Codes

Sunday, April 24th, 2011

Toys R Us is one of the biggest retailers of toys in the world. It is also one of the most imitated names in the world. There businesses all over the place with names like ‘Carpets R Us’, ‘Taxis R Us’ et cetera, et cetera. Toys R Us also has quite an extraordinary Internet presence.

This equals that millions of people are searching for Toys R Us coupon codes, especially at Christmas. Money-off coupons for Toys R Us can save plenty of money on modern toys too as traditional toys such as dolls’ prams, dolls’ houses, rocking horses, board games and dolls.

Coupon codes are a array of numbers and letters, which when entered at the checkout will reduce the price of the thing that you are purchasing or entitle you to a bonus with that purchase. They can be entered at physical and Internet checkout points of sale.in exactly the same way. There are a number of benefits associated with coupon codes, some of which we will talk about later in this piece.

The first and most obvious advantage of using coupons is the discounts that they provide. A Toys R Us coupon could give a fixed discount, maybe $5, a percentage discount as in 5%, or a bonus, as in a free outfit with each Barbie doll or three outfits for the price of two.

If you are shopping on the Net, the added value may be in the form of free delivery, although that may be only within a fixed geographical zone such as continental United States.

Convenience can be a big consideration. If you do not know what toy to buy for a child and you have a fixed amount to spend and you have a discount coupon for a fitting toy, then that can make your mind up for you.

For example, if you were going to buy a board game, and there is a 10% discount on Monopoly, why not buy Monopoly? It saves having to weigh up whether to purchase Risk, Monopoly or Cleudo, does it not?

On line shoppers frequently are sent pretty limited issue coupon codes as a loyalty bonus or to encourage them to come back and shop again. These personalized coupon codes are frequently quite generous, but might be fairly limited.

For example. if you purchased a Barbie on line a few months ago, Toys R Us may send you a coupon code for Barbie clothing three or four weeks before Christmas. This type of coupon is usually sent out by email.

All in all, Toys R Us coupon codes, similar to any other coupons, are useful, if you would like the device they are discounting or can find a use for it. They are particularly helpful at Christmas, when people have to buy a number of presents.

However, you should not let coupons from any company persuade you to purchase and do not hold your breath waiting for a coupon off any item that is in huge demand, money-off coupons are normally reserved for items that are not going too well or are last year’s hot seller.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a number of subjects, but is now involved with Silver Cross Dolls Prams. If you want to know more, please go over to our website at Doll Prams.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

The Pleasure Of Giving Toys At Christmas

Saturday, April 23rd, 2011

Everybody likes to be given gifts, but adults also get pleasure from giving and seeing the pleasure on the faces of their children while they open them. Gifts are given by people all around the world, obviously. Nearly everybody in each country gives a birthday present and numerous countries give a New Year’s gift, but the biggest gift-giving culture is Christian and Christmas is their biggest present-giving time of the year.

It is such a robust instinct for Christians to give gifts at Christmas, that numerous adults will forego presents for themselves only to buy their children what they would like within the bounds of their finances. Actually, lots go even further than that and put themselves under financial stress for several months just so that their children will get pleasure from Christmas.

In fact, Christmas has got outrageously out of hand The idea of giving a present at Christmas was to imitate the giving of gifts by the Three Wise Men to Jesus shortly after his birth. It is the case that the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh were very expensive, but the givers of the gifts were very wealthy men, even so they merely gave one gift each.

These days parents spend hundreds on dozens of gifts per child. There were five children in our family and we used to get a sack of toys per person and communal toys for all of us to play together like Monopoly. My parents were not well-off and my mother did not have time to work outside the home, so my father must have worked like a dog to buy it all.

I did not realize that then, but I have since seen my brothers struggling to pay to do the same for their offspring. Still, the joy of seeing your children’s happy smiling faces as they open their gifts at Christmas appears to be worth it for most parents.

Some of the most popular toys with children might be dolls prams or train sets or bicycles all of which fall into the bracket of ‘expensive’, whereas popular suggestions for fitting toys for children are more like to be educational, such as Scrabble, Lego and books which are a lot less expensive.

Kids’ ideas for toys for themselves tend to feed the imagination, whereas parents’ ideas for toys for kids tend to feed the brain. Kids want to feed the right hand side of their brain while their parents instinctively would like to feed the left hand side.

As children grow up into teenagers, music and computers play major parts in most of their lives, again reflecting the left and right sides of the brain. now the roles are more evenly balanced. This is a topsy-turvy time for young adults. All kinds of things are happening within and without them. Will the balance stay even or will it tip one way or the other? Only time will tell.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now involved with Silver Cross Dolls Prams. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Doll Prams.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Thoughts On Baby Gift Baskets

Sunday, April 10th, 2011

Are you going to give a baby shower soon? Or have you recently been invited to one and you are not certain what to do? If so, you will be expected to give a gift to the baby to help welcome him or her into the world. This is fine, but a great deal of people, especially single men, ask themselves what it is precisely that a baby so urgently needs.

If you fall into that category or if you want to take a scatter-gun approach to giving a present in the hope that something will be of use, then you could think about procuring the baby a baby gift basket. You see, a baby gift basket contains a lot of small objects or big objects or a mixture of the two. Whatever you can come up with or afford really.

There are two ways of getting a baby gift basket. You can either purchase one taylor-made or you can purchase a basket and pick-and-mix the contents yourself. So, let us suppose that you are going to avoid duplication and fill your own basket.

To begin with the basket. A traditional wicker basket like the ones they show on toffee tins, in which a maid is carrying eggs is pretty, but also pretty expensive. You could obtain a plastic version, but maybe the box that the gifts are in is not as significant as the gifts themselves. You could make your own by lining and wrapping a suitably-sized box and finishing it with a bow.

The contents. What do babies need? Or are you going to put some items in there for the parents too? If you are going to add a couple of objects for the parents as well, I will leave that up to you as you know them better than I do, I would imagine.

What can you buy for the baby then? Something instructive is a necessity; something to occupy the baby’s attention, maybe like a mobile or a decorative abacus to string across the pram. How about music? Brahm’s Lullaby is excellent, with or without voices, in German or in English, but get it sung by a choir or a solo, but professionally-trained singer - not Lady Gaga.

When selecting music remember that by the time the baby can understand the words, the CD will have been lost, scratched or worn out. Go for peaceful music, classical is best in this case.

Other objects that always come in useful are bibs, teething rings, baby beakers and a small plate or dish. I do not think it is a good idea to do to get shampoos and soaps, it is better to let mum purchase them or you may be blamed for allergic reactions and dandruff. However, talcum powder is a fairly safe bet, but do not buy anything strongly perfumed.

Personalized bedding is a good notion. If you buy a cot blanket, try to get one the same size as the cot for safety reasons. A lovely touch is to have the baby’s monogram or initials embroidered on it. That does not work well for clothing, because kids grow out of them, but it is great for quilts and pillow cases.

Buy the bedding and ask (or pay) someone to do the embroidery for you. The child will grow out of the cot, but the blanket can then be used as a comforter. Embroidered pillow cases have a similarly long life.

Some people give sweets and biscuits, but personally I am not in favour of helping someone to rot their teeth, encouraging a sweet tooth or overweight babies. A good bottle of wine though is another matter, but you will need to take advice on whether it will be at its peak in twenty years time. Good Port is a safe bet. Spirits do not mature in a bottle.

Owen Jones, the author of that article, writes on a variety of subjects, but is now involved with the satin baby blankets. If you want to know more, please visit our website at Woollen Blankets.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Where Did Caricatures Originate?

Tuesday, November 16th, 2010

A caricature is a portrait, painting or cartoon that exaggerates or distorts certain features of a person or item to generate an easily identifiable visual similarity.

Caricatures can be discourteous or complimentary and can serve a political point or be drawn solely for entertainment. Caricatures of politicians are commonly used in editorial cartoons, whereas caricatures of movie stars are often found in entertainment magazines.

The term is derived from the Italian caricare- to charge or load. So, the word “caricature” essentially says a “loaded portrait”. Strictly speaking , the term refers just to depictions of real-life people, and not to cartoon fabrications of fictional characters.

However the world-renowned animator Walt Disney claimed that his animation work could be likened to caricature, saying the hardest thing to do was find the caricature of an animal that worked best as a human-like character.

One of the earliest instances of a caricature has been discovered in the ruins of Pompeii where a graffiti caricature of a politician had been etched into a wall.

Moving forward nearly 1500 years but staying in Italy, Leonardo da Vinci was an active exponent of the art. He actually sought out people with some form of deformity to use as models.

The point of a caricature was to offer an impression of the original which was more memorable than a portrait. Diodemmar Casem, one of the great early exponents, claimed to be able to sum up a person in ? three or four strokes of the pen?.

Caricature experienced its first successes in the closed aristocratic circles of France and Italy, where such portraits would be passed about for mutual enjoyment.

Mary Darley was one of the first professional caricaturists in England and around 1762 published the first book of caricature drawing in England - A Book of Caricaturas

However, the two greatest exponents of the art of the caricature in the 18th century were Thomas Rowlandson and James Gillray. Their styles of output were in great contrast. Rowlandson was the more artistic of the two and took his inspiration from the public at large.

Gillray, on the other hand, was more interested in the political arena and used his art to satirize political life. Being contemporaries they became big friends and used to spend a lot of time getting drunk in the pubs of London.

In drawing a caricature the caricaturist can choose to either subtly mock or cruelly wound his topic. Drawing caricatures can merely be a form of entertainment and amusement ? in which case gentle mockery is in order ? or the art can be employed to make a serious social or political objective.

A caricaturist draws on (1) the natural characteristics of the subject (the big ears, long nose, etc.); (2) the acquired individuality (stoop, scars, facial lines etc.); and (3) the vanities (choice of hair style, glasses, clothes, expressions and mannerisms).

Although caricaturists like Gillray raised a great deal of controversy in the 18th century by their portrayal of the Royal family and especially George III, it was nothing compared to the present day pandemonium in the Muslim world brought about by cartoons caricaturing the prophet Mohammed. So the modern day caricaturist continues in the satirical mode of his illustrious antecedents.

If you want one of our unique, hand-painted, custom cartoons or caricatures from photos suppled by you please click on this link Formula One. If you would like to know more, please go to web site at Custom Cartoons.

categories: cartoons,caricatures,gifts,painting,crafts,art,birthday,christmas,cricket,sport,hobbies,recreation,affiliate marketing,other

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

« Older Entries
Newer Entries »