Here’s a cartoon I did for my teacher’s union on school reform.

Potential client asked for a sample of my Obama caricature, so I thought I would prepare a new one, just to exercise my muscles. Without any specific illustration instructions or context, I took a generic Obama as showman approach. I also focused more on his grin. The guy has an electric smile.

It’s now my computer’s wallpaper. You could create a whole comic just out of these image types alone. To some extent, this already is.

stevelieber:

Wally Wood’s 22 panels That Always Work have been passed around like cartoonist samizdat for decades now, and this is a good thing. But keep in mind, they aren’t a lesson in how to make good comics, they’re something to keep handy in case of emergency. The emergency in question is when a writer has handed you a non-visual script. (Read this letter from David Mamet to his writing staff for more about such things.)

Comics are a visual medium, and work best when they use pictures to advance and enrich the narrative. Sometimes a script doesn’t do that, but an artist still needs to communicate the impression that there is something dramatic taking place. Tv and film have sound and movement to help accomplish this goal. In comics, we’ve got variations in gesture, lighting, and composition.

At six or seven panels a page, you can run through a lot of clever shots very quickly trying to keep the reader’s eye engaged. When you’re all out of good ideas, that’s when you need to break the glass and deploy some of Wood’s 22.

In lieu of new drawings from sick me, here’s an old one, courtesy of Kip.

thecityofroses:

Another view of Messrs. Keightlinger and Charlock, mercenary magicians, along with Ysabel: “Observe. Do not engage.” —Drawn by Kevin Moore.

Nancy Brinker, founder and CEO of Susan G. Komen For the Cure, tried to defend her foundation’s recent decision to pull funding from Planned Parenthood for breast cancer screening; but failed. So today Komen HQ decided they would fund PP anyway. Sorry. Or as Rick Perry once put it, “Oops.” Anyway, we’ll see how things play out when PP is applies for another grant next year. But for now, women in poor, underserved communities will continue to get life-saving screening for breast cancer from Planned Parenthood.

BTW, despite this caricature, I have respect for Brinker; she has done a lot of hard work on the issue of breast cancer and many lives have been saved as a result. I hope she has learned that letting the right wingnuts influence your charity’s policy decisions ain’t no good for no one no how.

Jeff Tweedy caricature.

Taking a break from political subjects, turning to more cultural ones. Tweedy (Uncle Tupelo, Wilco, etc.) is on the cover of the latest Acoustic Guitar magazine. He has an interesting face - lots of fleshiness. I may return to it later for more study.

Bashar Assad, President of Syria.

Tired of US politics? Me, too, and I’m a USian. Here’s some commentary on the Syrian government’s brutal response to peaceful protests — which, of course, have turned into violent protests, because, hel-lo?! Says NPR:

The Syrian uprising, which began nearly 11 months ago with mostly peaceful protests, has become increasingly violent in recent months as army defectors clash with government forces and some protesters take up arms to protect themselves. The violence has enflamed the potentially explosive sectarian divide in the country, where the Alawite minority dominates the regime despite a Sunni Muslim majority. The U.N. estimates that more than 5,400 people have been killed since March.

Also: torture and murder of kids. Hence, the brutality of this caricature.

State of the Union 2012. Here we have Unka Joe, the Change Agent and the Orange Leathery One as they appeared to me as I watched the SOTU last night. Well, really, Biden always appears that way to me. And I have a hard time drawing Obama in a harsh light. I like the guy, for all his faults (which, compared to his predecessors, are relatively few.) My only regret is that I made Boehner seem more intelligent than I think he is. And, yes, I know how dumb I make him look here.