I am posting some samples of my sketches from my 2 week stint at the Democratic and Republican conventions. Of the 10 conventions I have covered over the years these events were among the most interesting. There were good plot lines, interesting locations and a very close race.  The weeks ahead should supply ample material for the political satirist.

Above is an entry from the Republican convention below is a set of sketches from the Democratic convention.

I will be contributing sketches to The Economist’s website during the next two week’s Democratic and Republican conventions. You can view daily slide shows HERE.  

Here’s this week’s Economist cartoon. My recent trip to China was very much on my mind as I spent the day constructing and drawing this commentary.  You can find below some of the rough sketches that went into the development of the cartoon. The first are incoherent but eventually I found my way.

 

I drew the above cartoon for this week’s issue of The Economist to accompany the magazine’s weekly column dedicated to American issues titled “Lexington”. The subject is long-time Alaskan Senator Ted Stevens who has gotten himself into a little legal mess with allegations of financial/ethical wrongdoing.

Stevens has a great face for drawing. His age (84 years) has helped accentuate his sallow cheeks and scowling brow. You can see below some of my early sketches of the embattled Senator.

This week I produced a caricature of Obama and Hillary that captures the current news quite well.  I am particularly happy with the Obama caricature.  It always takes a while to get a fix on a new politician’s face and I am becoming more attuned to Obama’s features.  I enclose below some the preliminary sketches for this week’s cartoon as well as my first caricature of Obama from 2007.

This week’s Economist cartoon was a fun one. The 3 characters involved are quite different personalities and I endeavoured to capture their diverse spirits in each caricature.  There were many phases of development that you can see in roughs below.

 

I drew the cover for The Economist this week on the threat of inflation arising from emerging markets (tough one to illustrate, right?!). I worked closely with the cover designer in London and we came up with this solution. I played around with a variety of monsters under the staircase as you can see below. I finished the art using gouache and india ink. I’m looking forward to seeing it in print!

I had a second idea of having the creature hidden in a different way which you can see below. Maybe we’ll use it another time!

  This is the first post of my new sketchblog. I will endeavor to regularly post examples of my cartoon sketches and finished artwork with comments here.     This a cartoon I drew for The Economist back in March with its preliminary sketch. I’ll try to get some more up to date art up here soon.