The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
DRAWING FROM LIFE
Peter “Pedro” Brock’s career as an artist and caricaturist has taken him all over the world. Caroline Lindsay discovers what set him on his artistic path and how lockdown has inspired his latest paintings...
A s a child growing up in Crieff Peter Brock loved poring over the cartoons in the Weekly News.
“I would study them all, and on a Sunday I’d grab the Sunday Post fun section for Oor Wullie and The Broons. It was the Dudley D Watkins illustrations that would inspire me to draw,” Peter, who was nicknamed Pedro at school, recalls.
“At first I would draw my family, then the neighbours and always the school teachers. I loved all the comics of the time – The Sparky, The Dandy, The Beezer, The Topper, as well as the wee Commando magazine.”
Throughout school, his heart was set on working as a cartoonist and illustrator.
“I went along to the Dudley D Watkins exhibition in Dundee to study the artwork he created, and afterwards applied to work with DC Thomson,” he says.
“I remember going along for an interview with the art editor Bill Stirton who showed me around the comic studios, and I was delighted to see the Billy Whizz, Lord Snooty and Biffo the Bear artists all at work,” he smiles.
“Mr Stirton liked my work but told me to get some college training on analytical drawing and character development. He also gave me a book to help study layout, and lettering.”
This was in 1978, and as Peter had just left school he didn’t want to go to college, so joined the Army, before working in various jobs including delivering around Perthshire for a soft drinks firm; then with a local building firm as a labourer driving a tractor; working on an ice cream van; at the local cinema and bingo hall, all before deciding to go to college in the mid 1980s.
“At college I studied typography, book illustration and poster design, and one of the projects I chose to do was the history of Dudley D Watkins and how all the characters were based on real people,” Peter explains.
“At nights I would go around the pubs in Dundee drawing caricatures for a pint of beer or a fish supper – a great student life.”
After graduating, he had various jobs and then took time out to travel to Canada.
“When I got back I started doing a weekly cartoon for the local newspaper and going round the Highland Games circuit where I set up a stall drawing caricatures, and also at gala days and events.
“I was always getting work for caricatures, illustrations and painting murals in pubs, and during the 80s I was commissioned to paint murals for pubs in Perth and Edinburgh, with Allied and Scottish and Newcastle Breweries. And at one time had a painting in every pub in Crieff,” he says proudly.
“I then got to know great Scottish artist and cartoonist Malky Mccormick, who pointed me in the right direction and invited me to join various organisations and clubs.”
Working with entertainment agencies, Peter soon found himself being booked for corporate events, weddings, and private functions and at weekends he would set up at Crieff Hydro drawing guests in the ballroom.
“It was never enough work to go selfemployed,” he says. “I had just started work as a postman in 1992, and kept my artwork as a hobby with extra income.”
Musician Jim Macleod, for whom Peter was doing some animation work, suggested he work on the cruise ships teaching watercolour painting, drawing cartoons and caricatures of passengers.
“That was my big break,” says Peter.
“I was invited down to Regent Street in London and had to draw the panel who were interviewing me. I was a bit nervous but three months later I was on my first cruise to North Africa and the Canaries, and Madeira. Since then I’ve travelled to Beirut, Syria, Israel, Jordan, Egypt, Greece, Spain, France, Italy, Norway, Finland, Poland, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Russia, and many more places, clocking up more than 50 cruises.”
In 1996 Peter started his own business drawing football players and stars of stage and screen including Jimmy Logan, Susan Boyle, the Emmerdale cast, Katherine Jenkins, James Cosmo, singer-songwriter Gerry Marsden and many more over the years.
Celebrating 50 years of drawing and painting, he observes: “I must have drawn more than 100,000 faces, whether that be in cartoons or live drawing at events.”
On a commercial basis Peter creates illustrations for greeting cards and calendars, and safety posters for Tayside Contracts.
“Being self-employed has its ups and downs, none more so than the past year,” he admits.
“Lockdown has affected me in a big way. Like everyone else it has been a tragic year, we all have families and loved ones and we all know someone who works with the NHS or emergency services.
“It came as a shock – it was coming up for the Easter Holidays, a busy time for me at Crieff Hydro. It all just came to a halt, and then I was booked to go on a cruise from Dundee around Britain, Ireland, the Channel islands, and France. It was cancelled, and all the summer events were also gone.
“In late summer I got some caricature work at Crieff Macrosty Park Pavilion, which was nice and peaceful and relaxing.
“I was starting to build up business but then the next big hit was Christmas – I usually work at all the Christmas party nights at Crieff Hydro and the festive season is always my busiest but I lost all that as well.”
But nothing daunted, Peter started to paint 1970-themed illustrations at the turn of the year.
“I was sitting alone one night in January, thinking of happier times when life used to be so simple, wishing I had photographs from that era,” he explains.
“Then I thought why not paint what it was like from my own memories.”
His new paintings include the ice cream van; the Sporting Post vendor; the local allotments; the old railway bus to Comrie; everyday life in Crieff’s Alligan Road; and a bus from Perth through Methven, arriving at the old bus stop in Crieff.
Currently working on more illustrations on this project – inspired by everyday life, mobile vans, shopping, entertainment, and nostalgia in general – he’s painting an illustration every day.
“I’ve been called a social historian,” he says with a smile.
Peter is also working for Heart 200 on a project that started last year. “I’ve been commissioned to do a large cartoon map,” he says. “It was curtailed during lockdown but will be finished this month.”
While he hopes life will return to some kind of normal this summer, he adds: “I don’t think it will be the same as a few years ago – this pandemic has changed people and the way we will be and how we interact.
“I think we have all had a wake-up call and have taken the chance to analyse what is important in our lives – and to show more respect to all those who work to make things better.”
AT NIGHTS I WOULD GO AROUND THE PUBS IN DUNDEE DRAWING CARICATURES FOR A PINT OF BEER OR A FISH SUPPER