Ugh! Politicians.

Speaking as someone who may be called upon to occasionally caricature or cartoon the President, I’m all for Trump or Cruz. Great hair on one, great faces on both. Absolutely fun to work on -- again, speaking as someone who might have to draw them.

Kasich is a bit more conventional in appearance so – while I’m (uncertainly) certain he is a fine fellow – I’m for the other guys. Bernie and Hillary are also awesome; for my own selfish interest I’d vote for them, too

Open in a new window for a MUCH larger image.

This illustration ran on May 1 in the San Jose Mercury News and East Bay Times newspapers! The fine story by Matt Artz can be read online here. Mr. Artz always does good work!

How it appeared in print.

Drawn in Photoshop on a tight deadline. Actually, I had plenty of time, but I had planned to use photographs of their heads on the bodies; I thought I was done! About three hours before deadline I was told the editors were expecting the heads to be drawn. So, I took about 30 seconds to huff and cuss and sputter angrily before reopening the illustration and drawing like the wind. 

To expedite the process I did an extremely spare tracing of Kasich and Cruz's heads, with minimal strokes indicating mouth, nose and eyes; I don't often do that. I prefer to draw freely and start over if I miss on someone's likeness. I believe my caricatures can be hampered by tightly referenced drawing; and they can end as dull portraits rather than playful or creative likenesses.*

But Kasich's face worried me. As I implied above, he's looks like a generic middle-aged white guy – no offense to me intended. To be honest, before this assignment, I couldn't have picked him out of a line-up.** With so little time to work and such a dull face, I couldn't count on making a good sketch on the first or second try. And still I'm not sure it really looks like him!

Cruz was easy and his came out best, I think. Trump? I could have used the time to take another swing at him. Not totally happy. As the clock was winding down I overlaid the photo I used for reference and tried to correct things, which unsurprisingly didn't help much. Oh well.

That's all for now!

The End.

*Although they look more like dull portraits than creative likenesses anyway.

**I'm not following the Presidential race at all this time. I don't know why, but I'm just not interested. I know I should be, but every time I try to rouse the interest, I lose interest. Wake me when it's over and I can just make funny cartoons about Hillary.