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Cartoons

New Year for Miserable Democrats

New Year for Miserable Democrats COLOR © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,Democrats,donkey,wallet,universal health care,war,iraq,iran,headache,debt,party animal,wine,booze,drunk,hangover,congress, new year

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My New Years Cartoon

Here is my New Years cartoon.  First, I do a rough pencil sketch …


Then I do finished line art, also in pencil, but scanned as high contrast to look like I use ink.  This is the image most people will see in the newspaper.  My drawings are on 11″x17″ paper.  I work bigger than most editorial cartoonists.


And then I color it in Photoshop for the few newspapers that print cartoons in color, and for the Web.

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Cartoons

Digesting Health Care Plans

Digesting Health Care Plans COLOR © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,health care,congress,senate,house,medical,hamburger,food,poop,shit,health bill,republicans,insurance companies,HMO,AARP,illegal immigrants,lobbyists,big business,doctors,nurses,big pharma,health bill,donkey,democrats,democratic party,Obama

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Digesting Health Plans

Here’s my latest cartoon. First, there is the rough sketch; here I drew it in hard pencil and came back to tighten it up with a ball point pen.

Next I draw up the finished line art in pencil on drafting vellum.  This is the image that most people will see in the newspapers.

Then I do the color version, for the newspapers that print in color and for the web.  I really wish I could do “scratch ‘n sniff.”

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How to Draw an Ugly Health Plan and Make it Pretty

I know how you all like to see my sketches and I get lots of requests to explain my cartoons, so here is the latest one.

The goal with this one was to comment on the speculation that the Democrats would use sentiment about Teddy Kennedy’s death to push health care legislation, possibly by attaching Kennedy’s name to the bill.  I started by making the health care character a generic ugly creature, but it occurred to me that a warthog is a better choice, because a warthog is understood to be ugly and it has the aspect of being a pig, to signify waste. Making the health plan a female is a little sexist, I suppose.  I think of a woman wanting her photo to look pretty, so making the wart hog a female made the gag work a little better for me.

Next I had to deal with the mask that actually makes the warthog pretty, and I thought that using a photo of Kennedy rather than drawing his face made the cartoon more interesting.  The mask was a little tricky because it had to have some perspective and Kennedy’s face is defined by its width, so squishing it makes it look less Kennedylike.  I found this photo that seems to be everywhere, and it looks pretty good, even squished, so that was the first hurdle to cross.  Nice photo, I like his eyes.

I did my usual quick pencil sketch.  The donkey didn’t look good so I drew a new one on top with a Sharpie marker.  That usually works for me; if I don’t like what I do after a Sharpie marker I’ll start over.  Here’s the sketch:

After that, I drew the finished line art on a vellum overlay.  In Photoshop I squashed the Kennedy photo into the sign, and drew outlines around it with a wider facing edge to make it look more two dimensional.  And I added gray tone to the rest of the drawing, so it would live in the same world as the photo.

That’s how to draw an ugly health plan, and make it pretty.

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Cartoons

Tea Party and GOP Pot

Tea Party and GOP Pot © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,donkey, jack ass, elephant, democrat, republican, tea party, tax revolt, Fox News, tea pot

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Cartoons

New Yorker Cover Fear

New Yorker Cover Fear © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,New Yorker,donkey,elephant,magazine,campaign 2008, Barack Obama,Michelle Obama

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Cartoons

Trent Lott Resigns

Trent Lott Resigns Color © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,Senate, Trent Lott, Senator Lott, Donkey, Democrat, Statue, resign, fall

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Cartoons

Immigration Reform Bill

Immigration Reform Bill Color © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,president Bush, immigration, reform, bill, senate, donkey, democrat, uncle sam, legislation, mexican, border

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Cartoons

Bloomberg Appeal

Bloomberg Appeal © Daryl Cagle,MSNBC.com,Michael Bloomberg, bloomberg, mayor, new york, presidential, republican, democrat, independent, donkey, elephant, GOP, party, campaign