Tag: News

Live Drawing at CBS This Morning: Bill Nye The Science Guy!

As resident cartoonist for CBS News, I sometimes go into Studio 57 to live draw the guests and crew behind the scenes, working to bring the show live. Today was a particularly fun day for two reasons:  Bill Nye The Science Guy was one of the guests (!) ; and secondly, it was a chance for me to hang out with an old pal. Bill and I were close friends in high school,  and have kept up our friendship since.

I have enjoyed watching Bill’s career take off over the years, it’s just wonderful.   In high school, he was proudly a nerd and a very prominent one at that.  I was not, I was the shy artist of the class.  My locker was just outside the chemistry room, so, guess what?  Bill would pop out of the lab and try to tell me all sorts of facts and theories that he was working on. And it was with the same exact enthusiasm you see when you watch him on his shows.  That’s how our friendship began. 

Bill talked today about how we should all think like scientists and nerds, with the belief that the problem can be solved.   I love that idea and the curiosity that such an attitude brings to the table.  And he talks about changing the world and that everyone in their own way can contribute to that change. Yes! 

Below are some drawings I did today, and a few photos. I love my job. Enjoy!

 

The News Is Hair Raising: The Evolution of a New York Times cartoon gif

Cartoons often evolve from real situations or emotions. I want to show you how a recent drawing happened.
The other day,  I came home to find my husband, Michael Maslin, glued to the television set, sitting on the edge of the sofa close to the screen.  We are both riveted (and not in a good way) by the news that is emerging at a fast clip out of Washington as of late.
The next day, another news story broke about the Trump administration, and  I decided to draw a cartoon about this because I could feel it was something our country was grappling with in various ways on many levels. There was drama happening on an hourly basis.  I thought of Michael and I drew this:
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When I drew it, I didn’t have a clear idea of what I was going to do with it. Looking at my sketch above,  I thought I should simplify it. And make the person a woman, because, well, why not. I try to make my protagonists female when I can. In this instance, gender had no meaning.IMG_3401
I looked at the hair that I drew and thought:  it should go straight up!   I drew this:

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I thought:  I can make it a two paneled cartoon with these two images. But then wait!  I remembered that I now know how to animate!  So I will just animate it!  I opened my animation app and drew this video. Then….

 

 

 

… I sent it to The New York Times to see if they wanted to run it, mentioning that I could also do it as a gif. They said yes,  they wanted to publish it with Nicholas Kristof’s column, which was about to be published.  After an hour of fine tuning about where my signature or credit line should go, I made a gif and it ran with Mr. Kristof’s column, “What Did Trump Know, And When Did He Know It?” 
It was an honor to have my gif on the front page of the New York Times with Mr. Kristof’s Op-Ed piece,  in commentary about an historic time in our country’s history.  Bottom line was: this gif represents exactly how I feel right now. It seems to represent others’ feelings.  And for an editorial cartoonist,  that’s often the best place to find ideas: in your heart.

Evolution of a political cartoon for The New Yorker

Last week, I got a cartoon okay-ed by The New Yorker, which means my editor emailed me and said they wanted to buy a rough cartoon that I submitted that week.  This one was political, and they wanted to run it in the next issue, which meant I had to do the finished drawing and email it to them by the next day. I love it when this happens…it has happened a few times for me. Maybe I’m a frustrated journalist–I love the buzz of news and reporting and commenting.

The issue I drew about was the McChrystal firing. The drawing (link in the magazine here) I share with you below. The idea of a general’s medals being for things other than bravery, etc, is not a new one for me. I have tried it before in cartoons that did not sell. Medals for not saying the word peace, medals for driving a hybrid….but this time, I used the format again and it was the magic formula. Cartoonists often do this– rework settings, formats, words with new ideas.

Not that this came easily. In my head and on the many pages of paper on my desk, I tried numerous different approaches to the McChrystal affair before I drew this one. There are countless ways to get at a subject, the key is to find a way to poke fun in a manner that will allow the cartoon to last beyond the immediate circumstances.

(copyright The New Yorker Magazine and Liza Donnelly)