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Uptton was a prolific cartoonist, poster artist, illustrator and painter. He studied at Southend Art School and then at the Central School of Art in London, but turned professional before completing his studies. Some of his earliest paid work was as an illustrator for the Strand Magazine, and he also contributed regularly to Good Housekeeping, Woman's Illustrated (including stories by Barbara Cartland), Tit-Bits, Tatler, Radio Times, Look & Learn, Sphere (including covers), John Bull (including covers) and others. In 1940 he became political cartoonist on the Daily Sketch and Sunday Graphic, and later worked for the Ministry of Information and National Savings Committee producing propaganda cartoons, drawings and paintings. Perhaps Uptton's best-known wartime work was his large and prophetic D-Day landings drawing, 'This is the Year' and 'We Kneel Only to Thee', both of which were widely reproduced as posters. Uptton later won prizes for his posters in the National Outdoor Advertising Awards in 1958 and 1959. He continued to work as a landscape and portrait painter (commissions included portraits of Harold Macmillan and Anthony Eden) and as a book illustrator (notably for Warner Press) until 1987, when his eyesight began to fail.