Sketches As Final Art #3

Here are the sketches for a New York Times Op-Ed letters column assignment which I did last month for the assistant art director, Sam Weber. The assignment was about the tenor of current political conversations in Washington DC.

I always generate a lot of good ideas whenever I do an assignment for the letters column. I often use sketches as final art, as was the case here (thanks to Sam for originally suggesting this). There's a certain quality to the lines that I really love with these sketches, a spontaneity which I can't replicate if I try to draw them again as "final art". I see in these lines the flying-by-the-seat-of-my-pants thrill which I get with these assignments. These sketches were completed in under 2 1/2 hours.

The sketch that was published was ...