The bronze medal goes to CakBoy from Indonesia and his caricature of England’s Wayne Rooney. CakBoy’s Rooney is smiling, he is stocky, and he definitely deserves this medal.
While the actual Wayne Rooney couldn’t do much to prevent his team from going home after their defeat against Germany, his caricature counterpart made it all the way to the end. The Indonesian “team” won against Croatia, Jordan, and Switzerland – and none of them was exactly easy competition.
The silver medal goes to Geomateo, who lives in Romania but because of his Oceanian heritage preferred to run for New Zealand.
His caricature of Portugal’s heart-throb Cristiano Ronaldo has meanwhile gained new importance since real-life Ronaldo announced the birth of his son on July 3rd. Instead of running from him, however, he requested full custody for the boy. New Zealand defeated cartoons from Bulgaria, Brazil and Italy on its path to the trinal. Once again, that’s much better than New Zealand’s soccer team did.
The winner of toonpool.com’s 2010 CARICUP is Hungary with a caricature of legendary player Ferenc Puskás by T-Boy.
Hungary has not taken part in a soccer world cup since 1986 in Mexico, and they haven’t reached the final round since 1954 – back when Puskás was still playing. T-Boy and his semi-realistic caricature, on the other hand, were triumphant against skillful opponents from Germany, Guatemala, and Austria. Congratulations!
For a chart displaying all games of CARICUP, click here.
]]>Unfortunately, Germany did not make it to round two of our CARICUP 2010, neither did Spain. Brazil is still there and so is Italy. Click here to support your ‘team’. Round two ends Monday at 8 PM – the CARICUP “trinal” (your classic binals/finals only with three teams instead of two) ends on Sunday, July 11.
Introducing…
Wolfgang “Wolfi” Hametner is a new member from Vienna. His caricatures are simple, yet effective. They are mostly vector drawings with simple lines and a spare use of colors. Some of them use color gradients, but, again, very sparsely – see, for example worried Michael Schumacher and Niki Lauda not looking too bright. Wolfi’s caricatures of football players are worth checking out, too: There’s Henry, Ribery and Miroslav Klose. The latter perhaps turned out a bit too beefy and his hair looks weird, but I like his curved nose and the worried expression.
Cartoons of Interest
My favourite cartoon of last week, shows a heartwarming scene of initiation. It’s by Slovakian artist Ivo and it’s untitled. Getting your first mailorder mustache from your dad is certainly a magic moment. I love how this makes you think about the father ordering his own mustaches by mail too. And please note that the package came all the way from Szohôd.
I would also like to introduce the garage surprise party by George, the thousand faces of Germany’s new president by Hannes Richert and a nice little superhero/villain collection by Dirk Berrens. I thought about counting them but, then again, it seemed a little too obsessive. Anyway there are more Marvel characters than DC characters, aren’t there?
PS: Ilie Ciorba did an interview with amazing British artist and toonpool.com member Russ Cook over at Vectelligence. >> click.
]]>Here’s how the knockout stage works: There will be four rounds – The “Round of 24″, the “Round of 12″, the Semi Finals and what we like to call the “Trinal” – which combines the final and the a third place playoff. In each round everyone visiting toonpool.com can cast their vote for one contestant in each “match”. The “Round of 24″ will be the longest. It’s open until Thursday, July 1, 8 PM CEST.
Here are the contestants (click here to vote):
The fist match pits Austria against Ireland – to be more precise it’s Ausgezeichnet’s sweaty version of Germany’s injured captain Michael Ballack versus Nerosunero’s elegant portrait of France’s Thierry Henry. Who ya got?
In match number two Bosnia-Herzegovina‘s representative Senad and his caricature of Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o meet England‘s very own Hugh Jarse and his portrait of bug-eyed German midfielder Mesut Özil. What will it be – old school caricature skills or straightforward minimalism?
The third match sees Guatemalan artist Guillermo Lorentzen taking on Marian Avramescu from Romania. The contesting caricatures show Portugal’s Christiano Ronaldo (GT) and Brazil’s Kaká (RO).
The German and Hungarian football teams go a long way back. In the fourth match they meet once again – as a hand-drawn portrait of Hungarian legend Ferenc Puskás by T-Boy and a vectorized and very cartoon-y caricature of Oliver Kahn by Thomas Gronle-Legron. Will a little modern technology suffice to recreate the outcome of the 1954 finals or is Hungary still the better team?
While both Switzerland and France have missed the next round in the FIFA World Cup, they are still very much at it on toonpool.com. A pacinoesque portrait of Diego Maradona by Ian Marden meets a caricature of Thierry Henry by Zed. Both players may be blessed by the Hand of God but only one of them can continue to the next round.
“El Loco” Marcelo Bielsa may have settled down a little, as he’s now Chile‘s head coach. Drawn by Chilenian artist Horate he will have to enter the arena once again. This time it’s against Equador, represented by Omer Correa’s caricature of snaggletoothed Brazilian Ronaldinho.
Match number seven sees Egyptian player Muhammad “Gedo” Naji as done by Jordanian artist Samir Al Ramahi facing Uruguay‘s Diego Forlán by Paleju. So.. who will triumph in the end - South America’s Switzerland or the Middle East’s Austria?
The eighth match is between Gero from Croatia and CacBoy from Indonesia. Gero’s caricature shows Argentina’s Lionel Messi in full Barca attire while CacBoy chose England’s Wayne Rooney. Rooney’s face may be more amusing than Messi’s but people might as well choose the better looking player.
As in real life, the outcome of our match between Spain and Brazil is far from sure. It’s two long-time members of toonpool.com facing off here – Junior Lopes from Sao Paolo and Xavier Salvador from Reus. They even decided to post pictures of Bayern Munich teammates Franck Ribéry and Bastian Schweinsteiger. Those two players are pretty much on par when it comes to .. unique … features.
Thierry Henry is one of the most frequently drawn football players on toonpool.com – also due to his game breaking stunt during the play-off match against Ireland. In this case he was drawn by Bulgarian artist Tchavdar and sees himself in a play-off against another frequently-drawn player: Cristiano Ronaldo. This version of the Portuguese Forward was done by Geomateo and is running for New Zealand.
The eleventh match features two Brazilian superstars: Ronaldo and Ronaldinho. Ronaldo the elder’s portrait was done by Mexican artist Romero while “little” Ronaldo was done by Aswini-Abani from India. While the two boys from Brazil did not make it into the Seleção this time, they are more than prepared for CARICUP 2010.
Match number twelve is somewhat special. As a German-based website, toonpool.com feels a special responsibility for the Italian national football team. When we heard that the Azzuri finished last in their group, we decided to do something about it. Be assured that Italy will make it to the next round of CARICUP 2010. You may choose between A-Tale’s caricature of 70s football legend Paul Breitner and Guido Salimbeni’s Ronaldinho.
… now go, and vote for your favorite teams.
the toonpool.com staff
]]>Personally, I am more interested in cartoons that specifically deal with the 2010 World Cup. Among German artists a new subgenre of football cartoons has sprung up: the Vuvuzelatoon. Part of this national phenomenon is probably due to the plastic trumpets’ name somewhat resembling the name of famous German football player Uwe S. (here, here, here, here & here).
Of course I am also interested in cartoons on the 2010 World Cup in nations other than Germany. So far I have found cartoons from Turkey, Brazil and Palestine. Please tell me, if there are others.
I also noticed how the phenomenon of perceiving this South African World Cup primarily as an African World Cup is also found in cartoons. Since this is the first World Cup taking place in an African country this definitely is a valid way of looking at the event. On toonpool.com this tendency shows, for example, in some illustrations that are more in a ‘general’ African vein (here, here & here). And, of course, there are some cartoons that contrast “Africa’s hungry children” with the decadence that is the current football spectacle (here, here, here & here). African artist Damien Glez once told me that he would mind such generalizations. Still, I don’t feel comfortable with the way actual human suffering is thus turned into a cliché.
Cartoons of Interest
Regarding the problem mentioned above, I was happy to find “Fußball-Chance” by German artists Jünger & Schlanker. It effectively plays on the rhetoric of ritualized pity and creates and absurdly funny image. The caption reads “For many of them, football is the only way to escape their misery.”
The FIFA World Cup 2010 is up and running and so is toonpool.com’s own CARICUP 2010. This means we are finally going to tell you how this thing works. Here are the rules:
Caricup is an international caricature competition limited to caricatures of soccer/football players. Since sports is one of the few fields where nationalism can be fun for everyone, we decided to have only one contestant per country. Each country taking part in the competition will be represented by one caricature.
The subject of this caricature doesn’t need to be from the country it is ‘running for’. The artist, on the other hand, does. An example: this caricature of C. Ronaldo could be representing Hungary, since that’s where artist Tonio is from.
The players depicted do not necessarily have to take part in the World Cup. Franz Beckenbauer would be totally fine with us. We also decided that there can be several caricatures of the same player running for different countries. The competition is about the images after all, and not about the players. So, Hungarian C. Ronaldo could be battling French C. Ronaldo. Keep in mind, though, that people watching this competition might be bored by 30 C. Ronaldoes.
Stage One (June 11-22): Sign-Up Stage
During this stage, artists wishing to take part in the competition need to do two things:
- Add soccer caricatures to our “soccer portraits collection”. Add as many as you like, but only one of them can take part in the competition.
- Sign up in our forum (click here). If nobody else signs up for the same country, you will take part in the CARICUP with the picture you mentioned in your post (see example below). If other people sign up as well, there are two possible solutions: You may discuss the subject, consider all the pro’s and con’s, and finally decide who will be running. You could, for example, decide that artist x will let artist y represent their country if he only changes the picture from C. Ronaldo to Diego Maradona. If you haven’t decided on who will be running until June 22, we will randomly choose one contestant from the forum posts.
Stage Two (June 25-July 11): Knockout Stage
This is the actual competition. There will be “matches” between two caricatures and the winner will move on to the next level (see example below). In the end, there will be a “World Champion”.
The “matches” will be held on a special page accessible from toonpool.com’s main page. One match will take a fixed amount of time, during which people can vote for either team. The team with the most votes wins. We will announce the matches on the main page.
We have not figured out yet how long the individual “matches” will take, since we don’t know how many teams will be competing. If a lot of people sign up right away, we might have to shorten the sign-up stage – but we’ll definitely tell you in advance.
As we mentioned last week, there will be no material prizes and there are no other companies involved either. The three best artists will, however, receive virtual trophies which will be on display on toonpool.com. And, of course, the further you get in this competition, the more people will see your artwork. We are pretty sure that the 2010 Caricup will be a lot of fun for everyone involved, so.. Let’s go!
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The 2010 FIFA World Cup will begin on 11 June 2010 – from then on it’s four weeks of soccer, football, fußball, fútbol, voetbal, pêl-droed, or whatever it is in your language. Of course, toonpool.com will take part in the general hysteria.
On June 11 we will launch our own little world cup and you’re all invited to be a part of it. Starting today, we collect portraits and caricatures of soccer players in our “soccer portraits collection”. So, if you have drawn a soccer portrait – no matter if it’s a legendary player like Pelé, a current player like Lionel Messi or someone who didn’t quite make it to South Africa like Dynamo Moscow’s own Kevin Kuranyi – just become a member of the collection and add you work.
The actual competition will begin next Friday. That’s also when we’ll post further information about the rules and schedule. For now, you only need to know that we collect those portraits and that, in the end, there will be a toonpool.com World Champion. And a trophy.
We decided to make our own competition non-commercial. There are no other companies involved, no big money, and not even little money. It’s all about the competition and the fun – just like the real FIFA World Cup. Used to be. Some time. Probably.
Anyway.. there’ nothing to win except fame and the trophy and even those two are merely digital. But it will definitely be exciting and fun, so join the “soccer portraits collection” and keep them portraits coming!