FACES OF NORTH SHORE  
Celebrating the colourful and unique people who call our region home 

VANESSA HALL  
EDITOR  

AT SIX years old, Mike Drinkwater laid the foundations for his life as an artist, and it involved a fire engine, a stack of drawings, a teacher called Miss Hall and a trail of artwork being washed away.

Mike had drawn a fire engine complete with firemen and Dalmatians, and his teacher proudly showed it to the class, and the praise fuelled an instant spark of creativity in young Mike.

That night he stayed up until midnight drawing a different fire-engine picture for every child in the class, and the next day Miss Hall handed them out to Mike’s would-be earliest art critics.

But as Mike walked home on a typical New Zealand afternoon, he discovered his carefully drawn pictures unloved and floating in puddles and strewn away.

“There was a trail of drawing carnage all the way home – and, following it, a trail of
tears from one very disappointed six-year-old,” Mike recalls.

From that moment, Mike recounts, he had two options: either never draw again, or get really, really good at it.

Fortunately, he chose the latter, and now more than five decades later, the now Point Arkwright-based cartoonist is still drawing and, along with photography, has managed to make a career out of being creative.

However, like most creatives, the road is never easy, and after stepping away from cartooning for a while, Mike is back enjoying it again – and taking on commissions.

It all began with a surfing cartoon 
A career as a cartoonist was never part of the original plan though, and as a child growing up in New Zealand, Mike wanted to be a meteorologist or a fireman.

Instead, he became a professional cartoonist at 17 and, looking back, can also credit occupation titles such as animator, illustrator, television creator and photographer.

Mike’s first paid cartooning job came while he was still at school and came about when a teacher saw his comic strips, which featured him and his mates on surfing trips.

The teacher encouraged Mike to send the comics to the editor of New Zealand Surfing Magazine, and from there, editor Mike Bhana asked Mike to produce a full-page cartoon each month.

“I was absolutely stoked,” Mike said.

From there, the work kept coming and included working for Warner Bros, Disney on television series, short films and television commercials.

It was an intensely creative period, allowing him to write, develop characters and create stories rather than simply illustrate someone else’s ideas.

But after several years, Mike found himself wanting to return to what had started it all – grassroots cartooning and subsequently became a freelance illustrator and cartoonist.

For much of his career, cartooning was not simply a creative pursuit – it was how he paid the bills, and he has illustrated more than 50 books across a variety of projects.

About 18 years ago, Mike moved from New Zealand to Queensland and initially tried to step away from cartooning.

It did not last, and he ended up working for newspapers in Queensland as a cartoonist and life in Queensland introduced him to photography.

“I took up photography simply as a way of recording all those eye-candy adventures,” Mike said.

“Before too long, I became completely addicted.”

As cartooning work became his full-time job, he found himself rushing some jobs and producing work he knew was not up to his usual standard.

Rather than burn out, he took a break and is now finding his way back to cartooning and illustration.

Mike’s work has changed with the times, but the fundamentals remain the same.

“The thing about a cartoonist is you’re half writer and half drawer.”

It is the ideas that really excite Mike – finding the funny angle, creating the character or seeing a situation differently.

And he doesn’t do politics.

Many of the themes in Mike’s cartoons focus on comical exploits between animals and humans, with animals and the natural world also featuring as his main inspiration across his photography.

Photography has remained a different beast from cartooning, though.

Mike has sold photographs and taken on occasional jobs, but he has deliberately kept it as something he can enjoy without the pressure of having to make a living from it.

The two disciplines, however, work surprisingly well together.

“Cartooning allows me to invent and exaggerate and photography allows me to capture the extraordinary things that are already there.”

Life at Point Arky 
Living at Point Arkwright has also given Mike the quiet he needs to work.

There is no television or radio in his workspace – just the sounds of the birds outside or the splash of a water dragon taking a dip in his purpose-built ‘Dragontopia’.

When he gets stuck on a drawing, he walks across the road to the point.

“You’ve got to get away from the drawing board, and it’s just so peaceful here, and I need that peaceful environment around me.”

Most afternoons Mike will be found at Point Arkwright along with other creatives who relish the natural vistas for their creative pursuits, and it’s evident the community supports one another equally.

Mike credits professional artist Chris Postle as his closest friend and one of his biggest champions – both met at the point many years ago over a shared love of creativity and surfing.

Mike is now working on a new children’s book by a local Sunshine Coast author after recently completing a large book illustration project, and he is also taking on cartoon commissions and has selections of his photography available to purchase.

“The cartoonist in me is always looking for an amusing character or situation, and the photographer is constantly watching for unusual light, wildlife or dramatic moments!”

Check out Mike’s work via the following links:  
Cartoons: https://mikedrinkwater.weebly.com
Photography: http://drinky.weebly.com