About Me
Biography of Andy Meanock
I’ve been drawing and became quite obsessed with art in general at the age of 4. Cartoons and comics were my main interest and inspiration, but I didn’t just enjoy watching them, I wanted to create them. I would spend hours copying favourite characters.
Trying to get them to look exactly like the ones I watched – honing my skills. This obsession with cartoons, comics and illustration continued into my teenage years, creating my own comics and inventing my own characters. At school, I would often be reprimanded for drawing in the back of my work books when I was supposed to be doing schoolwork.
A few times teachers would find caricatures of themselves I had drawn – some were not impressed. Others would ask if they could have the drawing – “but don’t do it again!” I attended Stourbridge Art College after achieving an A for artwork in my GCSEs.
My Career as A Caricaturist
And I passed my first year with distinction. After leaving college, I went on to run my own unit in the Merry Hill Centre in Dudley, drawing caricatures of people face-to-face. I continued to draw caricatures at events and festivals, spending the season in Padstow, Cornwall and an Easter in Blackpool.
As well as doing caricatures at weddings and corporate functions and more recently, at Comic Conventions. Also, I undertake private commissions for clients, such as caricatures from photographs, posters, album covers, logos, tattoo designs and murals. Any artwork project really.
More recently I have started to gather a body of work I have called ‘Reclaimed Remastered’. I am taking old canvas prints/paintings from charity shops and car boot sales and adding to them in my own style to give them an (often whimsical) new life. This fits well into my own philosophy of re-using items that are no longer wanted as they are and giving them a second chance. I will be holding exhibitions of this work later this year or early next year.
Musical Interests
I also play guitar, sing and play harmonica. My musical interest started heavily at age 12 or 13.
A year later I formed a band where I was the lead singer. I have been in various bands over the years since and started to learn harmonica in my 20s and a little later on, I learned guitar, so I could play and entertain on my own...
My musical interests are folky/bluesy style music. I have played in pubs, busked and played at family and friends’ parties. My inspirations are the levellers, Bob Dylan, Mumford and Sons, the Doors, Laura Marling and K.T. Tunstall.
Get in Touch
If you would like to commission a caricature or need help ordering from my Etsy store, please contact me by phone, email or form.