He admits to hating the limelight, preferring to hide away in his attic studio and shout at the rolling news, but Herald cartoonist Steven Camley will face the public at his first solo exhibition.
Camley has been illuminating and lampooning Scottish social, cultural and political life in his quick-fire works for The Herald for almost 15 years, with his wry observations and humorous twists on the news agenda earning him the Cartoonist of the Year title at the annual Scottish Press Awards several times, most recently last month.
Now some of his work is on display at Smithy Gallery in Blanefield, Stirlingshire, after fans encouraged Camley to embark on the one-man show.
Speaking from his attic, Camley said: "The whole focus is on me and I am absolutely cringing because it is such a solitary job. Up here you don't really talk to anyone so I am coming out, blinking into the light.
"I have always liked that anonymity. As a cartoonist you are putting words in other people's mouths.
"You are not saying these things and you are slightly one step removed. Now it's becoming public." Camley, 52, prepares for his daily assignments by drawing rough sketches in reaction to the day's unfolding news stories, with the artist submitting around five cartoons every afternoon for consideration by the editor.
He said: "Some days it's difficult. On others a story comes in and it's like a gift from the gods. One that sticks in the mind is Boris (Johnson) on the zip wire around the time of the Olympics, when the whole narrative was about human endeavour.
"It's the immediacy which is the important thing. A writer may get 1000 words to argue their point, but as a cartoonist you have got to say what you have got to say."
Camley, who was Cartoonist of the Year at the Scottish Press Awards every year between 2008 and 2011, plus in 2013, puts his successful career down to being lucky.
He honed his skills at a two-year design and illustration course at the old College of Building and Printing in Glasgow in the 1980s before drawing full-time.
An Exhibition of Works by Steven Camley opens tomorrow at Smithy Gallery and runs until until June 9.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article