I had the privilege to draw the cover for this week’s edition of The Economist. The cartoon involves caricatures of European leaders Angela Merkel of Germany, Nicholas Sarkozy of France, and Gordon Brown of Great Britain. The cartoon did develop quickly during the 24 hours that I had to create the piece… particularly the waiter on the left.  

My first attempt in the pencil sketch had a fellow that was not instantly recognisable as a waiter. My second attempt (on the color art below) created a better waiter but he was perhaps too large and had the potential to distract from the main characters.  

You can see at the top of the post the final artwork with a diminished waiter-like character inhabiting the scene.

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.

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.