TENNIEL, R.I.

(_From a Pen-Drawing by Himself._)]

"As for political opinions, I have none; at least, if I have my own
little politics, I keep them to myself, and profess only those of my
paper. If I have infused any dignity into cartoon-designing, that comes
from no particular effort on my part, but solely from the high feeling I
have for art. In any case, if I am a 'cartoonist'--the accepted term--I
am not a caricaturist in any sense of the word. My drawings are
sometimes grotesque, but that is from a sense of fun and humour. Some
people declare that I am no humorist, that I have no sense of fun at
all; they deny me everything but severity, 'classicality,' and dignity.
Now, _I_ believe that I have a very keen sense of humour, and that my
drawings are sometimes really funny!

"I have now been working regularly at the weekly cartoons for _Punch_
for close on thirty years (from 1862),[52] missing only two or three
times from illness. In all that time I have hardly left London for more
than a week; yet I enjoy wonderful health, doubtless to be attributed to
regular riding. I carry out my work thus: I never use models or Nature
for the figure, drapery, or anything else. But I have a wonderful memory
of _observation_--not for dates, but anything I see I remember. Well, I
get my subject on Wednesday night; I think it out carefully on Thursday,
and make my rough sketch; on Friday morning I begin, and stick to it all
day, with my nose well down on the block. By means of tracing-paper--on
which I make all alterations of composition and action I may consider
necessary--I transfer my design to the wood, and draw on that. The
first sketch I may, and often do, complete later on as a commission.
Indeed, at the present time I have a huge undertaking on hand, in which
I take great delight--the finishing of scores of my sketches, of which I
have many hundreds. They are for a friend--an enthusiastic admirer, if I
may be permitted to say so. Well, the block being finished, it is handed
over to Swain's boy at about 6.30 to 7 o'clock, who has been waiting for
it for an hour or so, and at 7.30 it is put in hand for engraving. That
is completed on the following night, and on Monday night I receive by
post the copy of next Wednesday's paper. Although case-hardened in a
sense, I have never the courage to open the packet. I always leave it to
my sister, who opens it and hands it across to me, when I just take a
glance at it, and receive my