Category: Liza Line

Drawing The Yankees And Interviewing Didi Gregorius

Did Gregorius tries out my iPad Pro.

Was thrilled to spend a day at Yankee Stadium with CBS This Morning! I drew the players, the stadium, the coaches, the game, the fans, the workers. We visited Monument Park and paid tribute to the greats and their retired numbers– among them Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Babe Ruth, Lou Gerig. 

Monument Park

We actually saw Reggie Jackson, another retired great player, on the field during practice, talking to fans.   

Rggie Jackson visits with fans

Here is a CBS video of an interview we did with Didi Gregorius, great shortstop for the Yankees.  I lent him my ipad to draw on, since it was reported he is a good artist. And he is!  I thoroughly enjoyed showing him the features of the program I use on the iPad Pro, and asked him about how he got into drawing. Such nice guy and very talented! I drew him as we talked. 

                           Didi Gregorius 

WATCH: Meet @DidiG18, star player for the NY @Yankees, who also has a passion for drawing! Tonight the team will begin their playoff run. pic.twitter.com/C2qq7oXhi1
— CBS This Morning (@CBSThisMorning) October 3, 2017 

Liza Donnelly is “The Observer” – Noteworthy by Medium

It was an honor to be selected as a Noteworthy Writer for Medium, a wonderful online publication started by Ev Williams, co-founder of Twitter.  I have been publishing with Medium for years now, and I love the simplicity of the design and their mission statement. It is a place for my writing and drawing (together and alone) that  is supportive and yet also leaves me alone to do what I feel I need to do!   In the introduction to this wonderful brief video, the Medium editors say I was chosen  “…for finding nuance in the news cycle, Liza sketches everything that can’t be said.”   https://noteworthy.medium.com/liza-donnelly-c848c1d06ac4

Director: Matthew Miller
Creative Director: Spencer Somers
Producer: Jacqueline Legan
Director of Photography: Kevin Phillips 
Editor: Matthew Miller, Jeremy Bowditch Animation: Arthur Jones
 
Produced by Standard Time

How A Not Funny Cartoon About Hurricanes Might Happen: video

Everyday, ideas present themselves. Sometimes I don’t notice them. Sometimes I have to chase them down. The best ones are ones that present themselves, I let them develop but don’t chase them. Chasing often leads to false sounding/seeming ideas. Forced.

Here is a case where I wanted to do a regular old cartoon about whatever, not political, I was open to anything. As you see from the cartoon above, it ended up being about the hurricanes we are experiencing in this country and in the islands. It may not be funny, you may think it’s stupid, doesn’t work, etc. But the process shows how it came about. In this way, I don’t think it’s forced. And it’s about a topic I eventually wanted to draw about anyway at some point: the pain and suffering we are witnessing, and the tremendous empathy we are witnessing in this country.

Here is a video of my process as I did the cartoon on my tablet (I posted this on Instagram and retreaved it a little late so the first piece is gone, sorry) Umbrella video

 

 

 

Drawing ‘The Late Show With Stephen Colbert’ For CBS

I love my job. Live drawing is taking me to all kinds of places, and last night it took me to the Ed Sullivan Theater to live draw the Late Show with Stephen Colbert for CBS This Morning. I am a huge fan, so it was beyond great to be there. Didn’t get to meet Mr. Colbert, but loved the show and loved being in the theater (with so much history!)  Charlie Rose was one of his guests– Charlie is a co- host of  CBS This Morning , the news show I live draw regularly for. 
 While outside the Broadway theater, waiting for my producer to arrive, I crossed  the street, thinking  I’d draw the building.  As soon as I began on my iPad,  I felt overwhelmed with the detail and knew I had little time to get it done properly. So I put the tablet away. But my instincts told me I had to draw the building, so I grabbed my iPhone (a figure of speech because it is pretty much always in my hand) and did the line drawing on my phone with my finger and tweeted it out. The Late Show retweeted it!  After the show, my producer asked me to color it in, so I did the color on my phone. 

 

The show was very fast paced, as you can imagine. I was standing in the back, behind the audience, and drew as much as I could. The band was so great, Stephen was spot on with his political humor, and Charlie was funny and seemed very relaxed as usual. It was great to see the other guests as well–Jessica Williams is hysterical! 
Wherever I live draw,  when I am done, I always feel I should have drawn more, particularly behind-the-scenes people and things.  I hope they invite me back!  

 

The Politics Of Women And Clothing

I drew this sketch recently for my New Yorker’s Daily Cartoon submission. They didn’t take it, but I wanted to publish it anyway. It’s in response to the woman in Saudi Arabia recently who posted a video of herself in a mini skirt and subsequently got arrested. She was eventually released. While we in this country are aghast at what is policed re women in Middle Eastern countries, it is important to remember what Western countries do, and how they police what women should and shouldn’t wear.

Women are told what to wear and if we are not wearing what a culture deems “correct,” we are “corrected,” so to speak. Society is beginning to notice how wrong victim blaming is, when a woman who is sexually assaulted while wearing a short skirt is?—?in many parts of the country?—?accused of “asking for it.” CBS News reported last week that in the US Congress, sleeveless dresses are not considered “proper business attire,” and thus women are open to being barred from entry if so clothed. In response, Representative Martha McSally wore a sleeveless dress in Congress, in violation of a rule that women are not to do so; and there was even more pushback. There are more examples, and many of them are much more subtle.

Every day is a political day for women around the globe. Here’s to more pushback.

Trump’s Promises: His First 100 Days

100 Dayscopy3_640X480We are approaching President Trump’s first 100 days in office?—?a traditional milestone used to judge how a new president is doing. It seems as if he is hell-bent on a) trying to push through promises he made b) creating drama to distract us from the fact he has not done a whole lot, all the while promising more than he could deliver.

In an AP interview , Trump claimed “I’m almost there on most items.” He’s not. In an interview with CBS News, President Trump said he thought being president would “be a lot easier.” Well, it’s not.

For some fact checking of his claims on progress in the first 100 days of his presidency, read this.

I drew the above gif for CBS This Morning/CBS News, and here is the tweet.