AN ELEVEN-year-old artist from Oxfordshire who really 'stuck his neck out' has been named Young Cartoonist of the Year.

Daniel Meikle, from Banbury, said he could not stop jumping around when he heard he had won the prestigious award.

The Cartoon Museum and British Cartoonist Association had over 150 entries from all over the UK, but Daniel snatched up first prize with his speciality: cartoon giraffes. 

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His winning drawing is a beautifully simple picture showing one giraffe whose neck is so tall it soars out of the frame, with a smaller giraffe stood next to it saying 'nice hat!' 
Daniel said: “I’ve been drawing cartoons for quite a few years now. 

"It started when a family friend challenged me to do a cartoon every day for about a year, so I drew hundreds of cartoons in that year. 

“People started to say they were funny, so I carried on.”

Oxford Mail:

The competition is judged by well-known cartoonists including Martin Rowson, who illustrates for The Guardian, Christian Adams who draws for The Evening Standard, and Banx who creates cartoons for the Financial Times.

The winner of the competition receives £250 prize money, a certificate, and will have their work displayed at The Cartoon Museum when it reopens in 2021.

Hearing he had won the award took Daniel completely by surprise.

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He said: "I realised I had one new voicemail, and was like 'I never have new voicemails', so I listened and I heard the words ‘you have won cartoonists of the year’

"I sprinted to my mum's room and shouted, she was very confused, so I explained it all. We listened to the voicemail about five times that day.”

Mr Rowson delivered the good news to Daniel over the telephone.

Daniel added: "I couldn’t stop jumping around for the whole day because I think I had forgotten about the competition and I got a voicemail and I listened to it, and at first I thought it could have been a scam or something."

The young cartoonist's parents said they were 'very proud of him'.

David Meikle, Daniel's father, added: "He couldn't stop jumping around for the rest of the week. We were speechless.

"We often put his cartoons on Facebook and he has a dedicated following amongst my friends, and my mother’s friends and my wife’s friends, so there has been a lot of euphoria and celebration around the prize-winning.

"They are all very proud of him."

Mr Meikle admitted that Daniel did not get his artistic genes from him.

Laughing, he said: "My wife is much more artistic than I am: as a friend as mine put it, I couldn’t draw curtains, so I think the artistic streak comes from my wife’s side."

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Daniel is now hoping to create his own Youtube channel with his animations on, as well as an Instagram account to showcase his cartoons.

The young artist added: "Giraffes are my favourite animal, so I created a little series about them.

"The little giraffe is always trying to get the attention of the big giraffe, in different ways. "I’ve had him shooting out of a canon to try and reach the top of the giraffe, I’ve had him climbing a ladder. They have these little interactions."

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