Snakepit Obama - The Weekly Standard

I was called last Wednesday night by The Weekly Standard to do this piece for them. I had to go out of town for the Weekend, leaving only Thursday to both start and finish this little illustration for them. I loved the idea of drawing the snakes, animals are always so much fun to draw. But I knew there was no way I could paint this in one day, so I had to create a new style of sorts, which I rather like and really enjoyed working on. I decided to really simplify Obama's features turning him into more of a cartoon character. I'm a big fan of Disney's Jungle Book, and I also love the sketchy look of Aristocats and 101 Dalmations. So those films as well as the work of one of my favorite artists, Peter de Seve influenced my style and technique with this piece.

Now, to be clear, I didn't watch the Jungle Book, or the other two films, or reference any of Peter de Seve's work for this job. Instead, I thought about what I really like about their work, and then fed off that inspiration. I only had about 7 hours or so to finish this piece so I had to work fast.


I know that this is something so very different from my "normal" look and style, but sometimes I find myself under certain deadlines that require me to come up with different ways of doing things.

I had quite a bit of fun doing this one and learned a lot as well.





Quick head studies, trying to come up with the look and idea of this piece.





For this piece I wasn't trying to just "caricature" Obama, but instead cartoon him and come up with yet another way to draw him. I enjoy pushing myself and discovering new ways of drawing the same person.





The a.d. wanted a specific type of expression for this piece, and I couldn't find any reference of Obama with the expression that we needed. So, I took pictures of myself making the expression I thought would work and then made up Obama's face while looking at my own.