Here’s a recent effort for The Economist to draw Senator Joe Lieberman. The senator has a face made for caricature and I enjoyed exploring his crevices and wrinkles with glee.

The Maryland Film Festival held a Gala fundraiser featuring Baltimore native filmmakers Barry Levenson (Rain Man, Wag the Dog, Diner, Liberty Heights), John Waters (Hairspray, Serial Mom) and David Simon (Homicide, The Wire).

I was asked by the festival to create drawings of the three heads (with foreheads) to use as promotion materials and auction items. The drawings (see above) were used in several capacities throughout the evening. An enlarged print of the artwork was signed by the three guests and myself then auctioned off.

My favorite use was a special edition of M&M candies that were made with the images of each of the 3 filmakers embossed of the candy shell.  Clearly the smallest reproduction of my cartoons to date!

Above is John Waters signing his caricature and below is me (on the right) with old chum, fellow Baltimore Sun alumni and creator of HBO’s “The Wire”, David Simon.

Here’s a rough sketch I have created for the Maryland Film Festival.  The Festival is having a major fundraiser celebrating three of Baltimore’s film-making stars: Barry Levenson, John Waters and David Simon.  I am producing special artwork for the evening which will be auctioned off to raise funds for the cause.  I will post the final artwork in the weeks ahead!

Here’s this week’s editorial cartoon from The Economist.  I enjoyed getting the three caricatures in this drawing.  After some false starts I think I am beginning to get the feel for Ahmadinejahd’s face now.

I was searching through an old thumb drive and found this digital version of a cover I drew for The Economist 11 years ago.  It was during the early discussions of a stock market “Bubble”.  Fed chairman Alan Greenspan was talking about “Irrational exhuberance” in the stock market (and no one was listening).

I had completely forgotten about this cover… it is always interested to see old work… like re-discovering an old friend.

The Swiss magazine Der Weltwoche asked me to produce a cover for this week’s edition featuring President Barack Obama and England Prime Minister Gordon Brown.  You can see the results above.

While much attention is focused on how we cartoonists are adapting to the new president… there is another person whom we must master. The First Lady may not dominate the news as her husband, yet Michelle Obama is clearly becoming a household personality.  I enclose one of my earlry versions of Michelle Obama from this week’s Economist.

When a new President hits the scene, it is fun to watch the evolution of the Commander-in-Chief’s caricature. Artists and impressionists struggle to define and refine the essence of the President’s personality in a neat little package.  This process for me never stops during the reign of a prominent politician. I endeavor to continually develop my caricatures.

This week while visiting London, I had the good fortune to draw the cover for this week’s edition of The Economist which featured President Obama.

The artwork was quite large as you can see in the first image above but my rendition of Obama was quite small within the artwork. This required a very simple rendering of the President.  I am pleased with the final result.  I feel that I am getting better at capturing his face… though I don’t think I have it mastered by any stretch.

I drew this for a Swiss weekly called Weltwoche. When I draw characters, I sometimes watch and listen to video and audio of the person while drawing to emerse myself in their personality.  I am already getting a little tired of hearing Sarah Palin’s voice. If she get’s into the Vice President’s chair I think Tina Fey and I will have plenty of material to tap.

I have been working on my caricatures of the two Presidential candidates. It takes time to fully understand the dynamics and subtleties of a target’s face.  After months of observation, I am beginning to get the hang of these two personalities and the peculiarities of their faces. My experience suggests these caricatures should continue to improve. Let’s see!