Studio Co-ordinator Terry Anderson on an encounter with Charles Kennedy:

“I caricatured Charles Kennedy a few times.  The first was while he was leader of the Liberal Democrats and at the height of his powers and “Chat Show Charlie” popularity.  This was when the Studio team was preparing for our first major exhibition of Fizzers® work. In terms of what we look for, he gave “good face”; lively, with some distinctive features.  I recall revising the caricature as we went.  The first pass was two-tone to emphasis his fair complexion and hair colour. But then it became apparent that he was having health problems and the artwork started to look like it was editorialising , making him look too peely-wally.  So I did a full colour version that was eventually shown at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in 2006, a few months after he resigned as leader.”

The next time was in 2007, when I drew him in person at an event where he was the guest speaker.  At this point he was starting to re-enter pubic life after some time away from the spotlight.  He seemed very much his former self and so with limited time in which to work I reverted to my original approach, doing essentially black and white drawings but with a splash of colour on his hair and eyes.  In the twenty minutes or so that he was on his feet I did four cartoons, trying to capture the range of expressions on his face.

I was able to present the piece to him and had a brief chat about politics and cartoons.  I can’t claim any great insight to his character but he seemed to me the decent, affable person we’ve all read about in the last couple of weeks.  He died too young, that’s for sure.”

More tributes from the Studio team below: