Category: News

Live Drawing The 95th Academy Awards

Did any of you watch the Oscars this year? I very much enjoyed them, from my persepctive, on-site and constantly drawing. As I draw, I listen, and my senses can pick up on mood. I felt a joy in the air-pehaps the joy of celebrating movies, yes, but also a joy of being back together.

What brings everyone together, of course, is a love of visual storytelling. The energy is really electric, and, over the course of the week one can feel it building. The Academy has a new CEO, Bill Kramer, and I can sense a subtle shift in tone. Personally, this year was a little different for me because I know two people who were nominated! It was a thrill to see them both on the red carpet (one won, another lost, sadly).

I am glad to be back after two years away during the pandemic! Returning for my sixth on-site drawing week, I’m grateful to be given access to behind the scenes and on the carpet. Some of my work was shared on The New Yorker’s social media, and some on Vanity Fair’s Oscar Blog, as well as my own outlets.

Oh, and prints of my drawings will soon be sold in the Academy store!

Enjoy!

Director of Navalny is a constant drawer like me. We had become friends online and planned to meet on the Red Carpet!

I hope you enjoy!

My History Of The New Yorker Cartoon Class

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I am passionate for learning about history through looking at drawings, specifically the drawings from The New Yorker magazine.

Drawing by Barbara Shermund

I am teaching a virtual course on the history of The New Yorker Cartoon through the NY organization, 92NY. Here is a link to the course if you want to sign up! It starts March 16th and goes four consecutive Thursday evenings. Would love to see you there, and please spread the word.

Since it’s Women’s History Month, I thought I would share a few from women artists of the past. Through these drawings, sometimes one can see that things have changed; in many ways they have not. These artists chronicled their worlds with humor and drawing. Humor can reflect the zeitgeist of a time, and while sometimes we don’t “get” the reference, there are many that resonate 70 years later. It’s fascinating.

In my class, I will share New Yorker cartoons and talk about many different artists, both the men and women, as well as the few Black creators from the past (there was one that we know of before recent times, in the 1930’s, E. Simms Campbell). I talk about their work, their lives, the editors, and everything in between that I have learned. I taught this course last year in two sessions, and this year the 92NY agreed to extend it to four sessions, so I can take my time showing you things, and we can have questions after each class. We will discuss works up to present-day artists.

Enjoy!

 

Drawing by Helen Hokinson

 

Drawing by Helen Hokinson

 

Drawing by Alice Harvey
Drawing by Roberta MacDonald
Drawing by Mary Petty
 

Study of a Woman

When I got on the subway today, I saw a woman I wanted to draw. I studied her quickly because something about her countenance made me think she would get off soon. I started to draw her, and sure enough, she got off at the next stop. But I had retained enough in my head to finish the drawing.

Here is the finished sketch.

 And here is a video grab of the drawing as it happened.

Peace Animation

For almost two decades, I have been a member of Cartooning for Peace, an international organization based in Paris. It began in 2005 at the United Nations in NYC, and I was invited to be there to speak about the power of cartoons in helping foster understanding and peace. This initiative is very dear to me, as I always hope that my drawings can bring people together and encourage dialogue. This is what CFP is all about.

I was honored this past fall when they asked if they could use one of my drawings for an animation, in conjunction with numerous French Media companies.

New Yorker Daily Cartoon

The New Yorker now has something called the “Daily Cartoon” that runs every weekday on their website. Often it’s a political drawing, but not always. The one above is one I drew on Nov 11th, 2022 during the January 6th Committee final hearings. The magazine asked to use it for their Daily. But they didn’t run it at the time and I thought, great, there will not be a moment in time when this will work well. Low and behold: the GOP has created more chaos in the House these last two days. So The New Yorker ran it today and yesterday.

 

The New Yorker has always run political cartoons, and I have sold many over the years. I think most of their political drawings now appear only on the website, they don’t print them in the print edition (although I’m sure there are exceptions). The covers are often political if there is a big breaking story.

Drawing political for a weekly publication is tricky, you have to find a way into the subject that is somewhat timely and that will last. Hopefully it can last more than a day, and become an “evergreen.” That often means looking at the big picture, not just about that day or that moment. The above cartoon could run at any time, when it comes down to it, and I think it will be understood in 20 years—but who knows. Maybe we won’t have any political parties anymore then! I hope we do, because if we don’t, that might mean we are a dictatorship….

I grew up in Washington DC during Watergate, so I am partial to political art and drawings and always dreamed of doing it. Herblock of the Wapo and Gary Trudeau of Doonesbury were my inspriations!

Cartoons are a great way to get ideas to people.

Here was my first New Yorker cartoon about politics. 1983. It might not be evergreen. Do any of you recall what the basis of my teasing Walter Mondale was?