Cartoonist

Artist Darren Bird, known as Birdie, on the emotional moments that inspire his drawings, and his passion for horses and those who care for them

- Kate Johnson

Mum told me that when she collected me from primary school, the art teacher asked her to hang back. She'd asked the class to draw a tent under a tree, from a story she'd read us that afternoon. She showed Mum my drawing and asked if she noticed anything different between mine and the others.

They all had the sun in the sky, the tree with the fluffy top, everything on the page. Mine had the tent and just the tree trunk to the right. My tree had gone off the page; I was already thinking about perspective and view!

My early inspiration was Giles, the cartoonist for the Daily Express. It wasn't so much the joke of the cartoon, it's what he included around the image. You can work too hard on a joke, trying to make it funny. He'd always isolate something; if the subject was delicate, in the background someone would be cutting the lawn chased by an angry dog.

In 2013, I tweeted a cartoon of Luke Harvey and Jason Weaver to At The Races, and they put it on the screen. They were almost crying with hilarity about how I'd pictured them. I thought, people like what I do, and that moment was when "Birdie" began.