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Arab Spring, Obamacare, Republicans and Teachers!

Here are my three most recent cartoons! I just finished this one on the Republicans’ 40th vote against Obamacare and their recent attempt to shut down the government over Obamacare. They will be run over each time.  They don’t learn.

135509 600 Arab Spring, Obamacare, Republicans and Teachers! cartoons

Since you folks like to see my messy, rough sketches, here you go …

ObamacareSketch600 Arab Spring, Obamacare, Republicans and Teachers! cartoons

The next one is the Arab Spring in Egypt.  Here is the line art that most people will see in the newspapers.

135225 600 Arab Spring, Obamacare, Republicans and Teachers! cartoons

I try to do enough line work in these that I get some dark and medium areas to anchor the composition.  I wouldn’t worry so much about that if I knew it would only run in color.  The color version is below.  I’m trying to use more texture in my color now, mostly with a rubber stamp pattern in Photoshop that looks like a sponge.

135235 600 Arab Spring, Obamacare, Republicans and Teachers! cartoons

And I did this cartoon about teachers, then and now …

135351 600 Arab Spring, Obamacare, Republicans and Teachers! cartoons

This is a refurbished oldie which has been a big seller in pay-per-use. I noticed another nice book sale on this one in our system last week, and I thought the cartoon needed to be freshened up.  Here’s the original …

77685 600 Arab Spring, Obamacare, Republicans and Teachers! cartoons

I always tell cartoonists not to put the year in their cartoons.  For some reason artists like to put the year after a copyright circle ©, which just makes the old cartoons, that should sell as evergreens, suffer for their age.  Now this cartoon isn’t dated, and I think it is greatly improved with the black and white in the first,  1960 panel.

I noticed after I posted this last week that almost every newspaper subscriber was downloading it, even though I marked it as a revision.  Some cartoons strike a chord.  I got this idea from my Israeli cartoonist buddy, Uri Fink.  Thanks again, Uri.

 

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Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot

Here’s my weekly batch of new cartoons.  The first one is my “Stand Your Ground” cartoon.  Any cartoon about guns gets a lot of crazy response – as this one did.  People are such nuts.  Here is the rough pencil sketch.

SketchStandGround600wide Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

 

Next I did the finished line art. I dragged three different speech balloons into position in a layer in Photoshop, rather than actually drawing all the speech balloons.

134920 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

I had mixed feelings about whether to leave it as line art for the black and white version. There is something elegant about line art with no tone – but I couldn’t make up my mind, so I did a gray version, and I made both versions available to the syndication customers. Interestingly, half of the editors downloaded the line version, and half went for the gray version. Go figure.134921 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Here it is in color.  I added some subtle texture to the ground.134922 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Here is how it looked the next day in my local newspaper, the Santa Barbara News-Press.

NewPressStand600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Lots of cartoonists were drawing cartoons that were critical of the media attention paid to the new baby future king of England. I thought I would go with cute rather than critical. I don’t have any angry feelings about this subject. Cute is fine with me. Here is the line art that most people will see in the newspaper.

134962 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

And here’s the color.  I’m trying to do more color that looks like I’m using a sponge, as I used to do back in the days when i painted with gouache.

134967 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

We almost saw the “Nuclear Option” happen in the Senate, when Senator Harry Reid threatened to get rid of the filibuster rules that Republicans were using to block Obama nominees.  There was a compromise, but I suspect we’ll see this Nuclear Option thing happen again soon.  Here’s the gray version, with sponge texture (the line art was too spare on this one, it needed gray tone).

135011 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

Yes, that’s a very Herblockian “Mr. A-Bomb.”  Gotta love Herblock.  Here’s the color version, with spongy texture.

135021 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

 

Most of the country had a crazy heat wave last week, which is always a good excuse for a trite, Global Warming cartoon.  This one was fun to draw, and I went with the line art – no gray tone for the black and white version of this one.

134866 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

And here’s the color version …

134879 600 Stand Your Ground, Baby King, Nuclear Option and Soooo Hot cartoons

That’s it!  I think I’ll draw Detroit tomorrow.

 

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Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare!

Here is my weekly post on my new cartoons.  My most recent cartoon, on George Zimmerman’s acquittal, was a quickie.  Here is my rough sketch – I took a scan of the Community Chest Get Out of Jail Free card, made it light in a print out, and did a rough sketch on top.

MonopolySketch Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

Then I dropped in the color.  I had it all done in ten minutes, a new record for me.  If only all of the cartoons were so quick and easy.  Usually I muddle and fiddle for a long time with each cartoon.  This one got a lot of attention in social media because it was fast.

134528 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

The previous cartoon was Obama in the Arab Spring bathtub, with lots of dangerous appliances.  Don’t stick a fork in the toaster!  Here is the rough sketch – this one took some muddle and fiddle time to get the position and appliances to be the way I wanted them.

ObamaTub Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

 

Then I did the finished line art, and added a bit of gray to make it read a bit more clearly. The black and white image is what more readers see in the newspapers.

134523 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

And here is the color that you see on our site, and the newspapers that print in color. I had fun with this cartoon.

134524 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

The previous cartoon was about the one year postponement in the employer mandate on Obamacare.  Republicans “jumped on this” as evidence of Obamacare’s “failure” and “chaos.”  Here is the rough sketch.

ObamacareSketch600wide Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

… And here is the line art, that most people will see in the newspapers that print black and white.  I always like to black and white version better.  There is something more elegant about black and white.  Readers always tell me that color is better.

134422 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

And here is the color.  I did this one a little differently, with quick, transparent colors.  I think I’ll probably do messier color like this going forward.  I really like Pat Bagley’s sponge texture – that’s the next thing I’ll try.

134536 600 Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

POSTSCRIPT: Well, after writing that, I couldn’t get the sponge thing out of my head and I added a subtle bit of Bagley texture to the background.  I should do more of that.  And more boldly.  I’m timid starting out.  Here’s the revised version, not too different, but nicely textural. Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

Here’s a detail from the revised version.

detail Zimmerman, Arab Spring and Obamacare! cartoons

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Superbug, Obama’s Budget Battle and more L’il Kim!

Here is the back story on my last three editorial cartoons!

With Obama’s “middle of the road” budget that was attacked by both sides last week, there have been lots of budget cartoons showing both the left and the right angry at Obama. This is much the same thing, but without picturing the budget, so it might last a little longer.

Notice that in my drawing, Obama is not exactly in the middle … from the reader’s perspective, Obama is a little to the left of the middle -although, from Obama’s perspective, he has moved a bit to his right.

Maybe I’m overthinking this. Here is the rough pencil sketch, on tab sized copier paper in pencil.

MiddleSketch600wide Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

Next I drew the finished line art for the cartoon (below), also in pencil, on drafting vellum. This is what most people will see in the newspapers, that still usually print in black and white.

There is something lovely about a black and white editorial cartoon, particularly if it is only line art, without gray tone. I know that people will choose any color over black and white – but I think it is kind of like a classic sail boat vs. a speed/power boat – the sail boat is slow and classy, the power boat is fast, flashy, and people will choose it over the sail boat – still, the sail boat has more class and is nicer to look at.

130233 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

Here’s a detail – isn’t the black and white nice? It is saved as 1000 dpi tiff and has a nice pencil line quality, up close.

detail Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

Then I add the color, for the image most online visitors see.

130234 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

The previous cartoon was another one about L’il Kim. Here’s the black and white – I thought I had to resort to gray to make the multi-panel format work. I like to avoid gray when I can.

130080 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

Here’s the color …

130081 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

The next cartoon was intended to be an evergreen. There was a big, Sunday section front in my local newspaper Health section about  “superbugs” – antibiotic resistant diseases that are a new plague in hospitals. The newspaper didn’t run one of our nice cartoons or illustrations with the feature article, they had some lousy clip art; and I noticed that we didn’t have good “superbug” art in the database – so this is an attempt to fill the “Superbug” void in the CagleCartoons.com/PoliticalCartoons.com databases. Here is the rough pencil sketch on 11″x17″ paper.

SuperbugSketch600wide Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

I know, I know, bacteria don’t look like this kind of bug. Here is the black and white line art.

129945 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

And I thought it might need a bit of gray tone – I’m not sure on this one.

129946 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

And here is the color, added behind the line art in layers in Photoshop.

129947 600 Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

This one was fun to draw. Here is a detail.

BugDetail Superbug, Obamas Budget Battle and more Lil Kim! cartoons

 

 

 

 

 

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Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court!

Here are my latest three cartoons – hot off the drawing board and Wacom tablet!

The Supreme Court heard two gay rights cases this week, California’s Proposition 8 and the Defense of Marriage Act. The pundits seem to agree that these cases will likely be decided by 5 to 4 votes, so I drew the four, ugly conservatives on the court angrily brandishing their gavels at the cowering gay couple on the cake. Fortunately, the ugly conservatives on the court are also the easiest justices to caricature!  Here is my rough sketch.

ScotusSketch600wide Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

 

Drawing caricatures like this is so much easier now than it was years ago! All I have to do is type some public figure’s name into Google Images and I get a page full of great thumbnails. In the old days I had to cut photos out of newspapers and magazines and save them in a “morgue” in case I ever needed to draw a caricature. Technology is grand.

Here is the black and white version of the cartoon, which most people will see in newspapers that still print in black and white.

129230 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

I draw everything at about 11″ x 17″ on vellum in pencil, and I scan at high contrast so it looks like ink. Then I color it in Photoshop with my Wacom tablet.  Here is the color version.

129286 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

Next I drew a Republican elephant flogging himself as his intolerant views about gay rights do nothing but give him a sore back. Here is the rough sketch.

FlogSketch600wide Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

And here is the finished drawing, in pencil on 11″ x 17″ vellum, with the gray tones added in Photoshop.

129309 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

It is better if a drawing holds up as just line art with no gray tones – but sometimes I have to resort to gray. This one needed a little tonal substance. Here is the color version.

129398 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

Lite Great Wave off Kanagaw Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoonsThe most recent cartoon is another riff on an art masterpiece – these seem to be the most popular cartoons I draw. This one is based on a famous 19th century print by Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, titled the Great Wave off Kanagawa (pictured on the right).

This image made for a popular Yahtzee, in editorial cartoons, after the Japanese tsunami. One thing that is interesting about Japanese prints is that the Japanese read from right to left, so the boats in the Hokusai print are sailing from calmer seas into the big bad waves. Of-course, editorial cartoons must read from left to right, with the set-up on the left and the gag on the right.

I printed out the Hokusai image and sketched a little GOP elephant to the right for my rough sketch.

WaveSketch600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

 

I drew it up like this, then I noticed that the elephant was too big – he needed to be smaller for the wave to look more threatening. Here is the finished line drawing with a smaller elephant.

129467 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

And here is the color version.

129473 600 Gay Marriage, Prop 8, Republicans and the Supreme Court! cartoons

That Hokusai wave is a wonderful wave!

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Mail, China, Immigration and More!

Here are my most recent cartoons! Here’s the rough sketch for today’s cartoon, a little snarkiness pointed at troubled newspapers. I drew the three characters on the left, and then took a piece of tracing papers to make some changes for the panel on the right, to keep them looking consistent.

sketch600wide Mail, China, Immigration and More! cartoons

 

Then I drew it up as line art, in pencil on vellum.  This black and white version is what most people will see in the newspaper – if newspapers will print this one. I always like the black and white version best.

126784 600 Mail, China, Immigration and More! cartoons

And here I added color, in Photoshop layers behind the black line art.

126785 600 Mail, China, Immigration and More! cartoons

Those young people are so disrespectful of Grandpa! Here is yesterday’s cartoon …
126723 600 Mail, China, Immigration and More! cartoons

My wife’s Uncle Keene e-mailed this idea to me, which he tells me was given to him by a friend who prefers to remain anonymous. I usually don’t draw other peoples ideas, but what the heck, I liked this one.  Thanks, Keene. Here it is as it looked in my local newspaper this morning.

NewsPress600wide Mail, China, Immigration and More! cartoons

 

I notice they picked up some gray scuzzy tone in the background. Yuck. Why do newspapers take pretty, clean crispy cartoons and muck them up? Here’s a previous cartoon, about the terrible air pollution in China.

126670 600 Mail, China, Immigration and More! cartoons

This one was fun, and it is nice to do cartoons with no words. The previous cartoon was this quicky for Groundhog’s Day.

126414 600 Mail, China, Immigration and More! cartoons

I didn’t bother doing color for this one. The previous one was about the immigration debate …

126386 600 Mail, China, Immigration and More! cartoons

Now I’m caught up!  I need to post more often.

 

 

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Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso

Here is my latest cartoon, about the Republican infighting while Obama just sits back and waits for a deal.

BattlingGOP 600wideCOLOR Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

 

This Fiscal Cliff mess came about because of the failure of the “Super-Committee.” I remembered a drawing a did of the Super-Committee some time ago, with a nice fight scene between super donkeys and elephants …

98752 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

I liked that Super-Committee cartoon. Super political stuff is always great for cartoonists, especially when super-politicians fail. It occurred to me that I could use the fight scene again, if the donkeys were elephants, so I printed it out lightly and sketched in some rough changes, adding Obama and making the donkeys into elephants in the same, fighting positions …

Sketch600wide Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

… and then I drew over it for finished line on vellum.  This black and white line drawing is what most people see in the newspaper …

BattlingGOPlineart600wide Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons
… and then I colored it in layers on Photoshop. The line drawing is always better than the color, but readers and editors never seem to think so.

The previous cartoon was also about GOP angst, this time in the form of Picasso’s Guernica (below).

guernica600wideforweb Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

Oh the GOP suffering; oh the humanity!  I did pretty much the same thing with this one. I printed out the Guernica painting and traced a nice line drawing on vellum.

124469 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoonsI wanted it to look like it came from my hand, which is why I did all the cross hatching and un-Picasso like line quality.  Then I added the gray tone …

124470 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

Oh!  Those poor Republicans! My most recent one was the New Years Fiscal Cliff cartoon below. This one probably works better on the Web because you have to scroll down to get to the gag.

124677 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

My wife thought this one was too cruel to babies. She told me I shouldn’t draw it. My Australian cartoonist buddy, Peter Broelman did a similar one today, without being cruel to the baby – and his will get reprinted more because it isn’t in a vertical format.  My wife likes Peter’s better too.  Oh well.

124642 600 Cliffs, Fighting Elephants and Picasso cartoons

 

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Super Committee Thanksgiving

Super-Committee Thanksgiving COLOR © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,supercommittee,democrats,turkey,deficit,republicans,elephant,donkey,jackass,jack-ass,pilgrim,thanksgiving,holiday

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Supercommittee

Supercommittee © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,elephants,donkeys,republicans,democrats,superman,dc comics,congress,senate,budget

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Rick Perry Border Fence

Rick Perry Border Fence COLOR © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,border fence, Teas, Governor Rick Perry, illegal immigrants, undocumented workers, jobs, in-state tuition, subsidy, republicans, Campaign 2012, taxes, government

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My Debt Ceiling Cartoons

So President Obama and Republicans finally came to an agreement on extending the debt ceiling. Too bad all their bickering created more problems then it solved…

Many liberals are mad at the President for essentially giving Republicans 98 percent of what they wanted. His posture certainly has changed since entering office…

The stock market plummeted after Standard and Poor’s reduced the country’s AAA rating for the first time in our history. Many have questioned S&P’s integrity, especially since the other two ratings agencies have reaffirmed our AAA rating, but that seems besides the point…

As the stock market plummets, our representatives in Washington scramble to blame each other instead of working together to fix the problem. So much for leadership…

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Time to Eat the Peas

Time to Eat the Peas Color © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,budget, debt ceiling, Democrats, Republicans, donkey, elephant, peas