I’m finding it a challenge to draw what’s going on in our new administration. But here are a few recent cartoons that are about Mr. Trump and his mindset.
Category: News
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:
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.
I looked at the hair that I drew and thought: it should go straight up! I drew this:
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.
The 2017 Grammys: A Visual (and Musical) Treat
It was a thrill to go to the Grammys this year with CBS News as their resident cartoonist. I was on the red carpet with the team, and drew people who stopped to talk to the CBS correspondent Vlad Duthiers. The outfits were great, I couldn’t catch them all by any measure. The men in particular were using the opportunity to go wild with their outfits. No chance to draw Adele or Beyonce, for while they “did” the red carpet, they whisked by so fast, I couldn’t even get a photo! 
After the red carpet, we went to the Media room, where we watched the proceedings on large monitors with tons of other journalists hunched over computers. They gave us boxed dinners of sandwiches and cookies, and coffee of course. As for the show itself, the highlight for me was the Prince tributes and the Carpool Karaoke in a fake car with numerous celebs and James Corden (whom I find adorable).
Below are the drawings I did before and during it all and some are also in a slide show on CBSNews.com
Live Drawing The 2017 Grammys!
For many years, I have live-drawn the Grammys from my television. This year, I am so excited and am honored to be live-drawing the Grammys and red carpet on location in Los Angeles for CBS News as resident cartoonist. Stay tuned!! You can follow my drawings on twitter @lizadonnelly and @CBSThisMorning and both of us on Instagram: LizaDonnelly and CBSThisMorning
A Sea Of Pink Hats: Drawing The Women’s March, January 22, 2017
It was an amazing day. While we did not make history on January 20th by electing the first woman president, history was made on January 21 by the sheer size of the Women’s March in DC. Along with the fact that many other marches were held simultaneously in support around the globe.
The crowds were friendly and happy, and they seemed enthused to be there to express their views in a demonstration. It was multi-generational, and there were families of all sizes. The crowd was diverse, the posters diverse as well, and while the majority of participants were women, there were many men there as well. There were pink pussy hats on a wide variety of bodies.
The speakers were many and also diverse, from Gloria Steinem to Ashley Judd, Scarlett Johansson, Michael Moore, Van Johnson, Angela Davis and more. Many speakers were not familiar names, but people who work hard on the ground as activists trying to make the world a better place. Speakers urged the crowd to take action, don’t lose hope. My favorite part was when many women from Congress took the stage together, it was a powerful image. They urged the crowd to run for office. Or at least support a sister running for office.
I wish I could have drawn more. There was so much to see, so much hope and enthusiasm, so many great pink vistas. But it got cold, and very crowded, so it became hard to draw after a while.
Below are some of the drawings I did of the crowds, and some of the speakers, and a video of my drawing at the event.
I was so happy to be there.
Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday: An Animated Tribute
Growing up in Washington, DC, I have a strong memory of when Dr. King was shot. I was very young but it had a huge impact on me. When we as a country created a holiday for Dr. King’s birthday, I was thrilled, and every year I try to mark it in some way.
When our daughters were young, we would bake a cake for Dr. King and watch his famous “I Have A Dream” speech. I took one of the lines from this speech: “I have a dream that one day right there in Alabama little black boys and little black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers,” and combined it with our family tradition to create this animation in his honor.