Artist Tom Gauld has spent the lockdown in London and he enjoys seeing more his neighbours as they walk along the street—usually, many of them would be at work all day. And, when he takes walks, he sees a lot more people sitting by their front windows, often working on a computer. The idea for this cover started when he walked past a building and noticed that there was a figure in almost every one of the windows. He tried to imagine an everyday event that might attract the attention of everyone in a building.
He usually works at a studio but this year he’s spent more time working from home. It’s fine, but the thing he really missed was going out to think. He often spends time in coffee shops, museums, and galleries, doodling in his sketchbook.
The people he draws are featureless silhouettes. They are all looking in the same direction.The magic of cartooning! It’s careful positioning, so that the little circles suggest a head held in a certain orientation. It’s also about leaving space for the viewer to fill in the blanks, to build these simple shapes into figures that tell a story. The ball is just a small circle, but placed in the right position, with a line under it: it’s a ball in midair. And when we see a stick figure with an outstretched arm and a dog, we imagine the movement and create a story. This is how cartoons are drawn.
