Only one thing goes back further than cartoonist EDD's relationship with the Mac and Adobe Illustrator - his passion for golf. Introduced to the game in 1975 by his uncle, a piece of elastic and a block of wood, 'EDD' (aka Martin Haydon) has stuck with it ever since, and passed his enthusiasm on to his son Andrew, who is set to turn professional in the near future.
A few years before he got the golf bug, EDD started a course at art college but became disenchanted because it seemed the lecturers were just trying to turn out clones of themselves and he left to pursue different direction. However, after a few years trying his hand at a variety of jobs, in the mid-70s he came back to the full-time graphics business, working as a commercial artist, doing 'a bit of everything creative', including cartoons and illustrations for national greetings card companies and a cartoon page strip for a national children's comic.
This phase of his career lasted until 1988 when he discovered the Mac and the eponymous Illustrator 88.
"Back in my early days of freelancing I had a dream that one day it might be possible to illustrate directly on screen," he says. "When I saw Illustrator 88 I could see a glimmer of light at the end of the digital tunnel. Although it lacked the sophistication it has today, there was definite potential."
Despite the often severe hardware and software limitations in those early days, EDD stuck with Illustrator, preferring its accuracy over other programs. Computerised artwork produced during this period was by nature very basic and the drawing board claimed 90 per cent of EDD's time.
When Illustrator 3 was released its many new features enabled EDD to relieve the drawing board of some of its workload, helping him produce line illustrations directly on screen of domestic, commercial and catering appliances, quickly and with comparative ease. But colour illustrations, particularly those with graduated tints were impractical due to the inability to work in preview mode.
After a brief sojourn with competitors' software, the launch of Illustrator 6 lured EDD back into the fold. "At last working in preview mode was available, tints were intuitive and the layers – that was a major leap for me as it closely mirrored traditional working," he explains. "I could at last easily isolate parts of an illustration to treat them separately, very similar to masking in airbrush work, only I could go back many times through undos to fine-tune and refine."
Tee and a slice, anyone?
EDD's break into the book publishing business came about more or less accidentally. Cold-canvassed by a publisher, he had booked some advertising in a book entitled 'The Peter Alliss Guide to Corporate Society Golf in Great Britain'. To his surprise, he got a call from the publishers asking if he would be interested in doing some cartoons as illustration for the book. With no ready-made cartoons in stock and a deadline that was prohibitive, EDD seized the opportunity and produced 11 cartoons – done entirely on screen – as well as a caricature of Peter Alliss.
"I had always done caricatures by hand," he recalls "But with a rapidly approaching deadline drastic measures were called for." With the deadline fulfilled and new techniques mastered, confidence was running high and EDD approached each digital challenge with confidence and enthusiasm. Streamline was no longer needed to rework artwork produced on the drawing board. Pens, pencils and paints and even the board itself were now destined for early retirement.
With a passionate enthusiasm for the golf cartoons fuelled by his continued involvement with the game, EDD developed the idea for a book aimed at the lighter side of golf. "Publishers Andre Deutsch loved the idea but declined to publish initially because I was not famous!" he admits.
However the publication of a second Alliss tome, 'The Peter Alliss Guide to International Golf', once again featured EDD's unique illustration. A subsequent meeting with the man himself secured an agreement for the joint venture that has produced 'Golf Uncovered', an entertaining and humorously incisive look at the addictive world of birdies and bogeys.
Published in November last year, 'Golf Uncovered' combines Alliss' anecdotes with 162 of EDD's illustrations, all produced in Illustrator. It's been a steady seller and is now attracting reviews in both golfing publications and the national press.
Apart from the book EDD's reputation as a caricaturist is steadily building: his cartoon work has also featured in the national press. The Daily Mail ran one of his cartoons just after last year's British Open when Frenchman Jean van der Velde famously paddled in the water contemplating a recovery shot, causing Peter Alliss to comment, "if he gets that ball out, I'm retiring". The ensuing storm of controversy resulted in a firm backing for the Alliss style in a Mail readers' poll – and did no harm at all to EDD's profile.
Email Martin 'EDD' Haydon at: martin@edd-online.co.uk or visit his web site at: http://www.edd-online.co.uk/
All images © Martin Haydon 2000
