Part 2: Exercise 2 - Courtroom Dramas and Additional Research

Franklin McMahon captured the courtroom drama in an interesting way. His line work was often simplified and yet he captured the facial expression, emotion and stance of each person well. He honed in on skin colour using ink washes and added notes on particular important information that was relevant to the case in question, such as what was said, clothing colours and style.

Whether the person was standing, hunched or slouched in a chair, McMahon captured that in few lines. Some of his illustrations captured just the face of a person and sometimes drew the whole body but no face. Assuming it was to protect the identity of the person.

Looking at McMahon's illustrations in the course material and on Bridgeman Images, McMahon used mostly pencil or ink for his drawings. He was able to capture so much information using simple tools and few lines and yet told the story well.

Bridgemanimages.com. 2022. Results for "prfx:chh emmett till". [online] Available at: <https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-US/search?filter_text=prfx%3Achh+emmett+till&x=0&y=0> [Accessed 6 January 2022].

Lien, A., 2022. McMahon's Drawings of the Emmett Till Murder Trial - Art Lien, Courtartist. [online] Art Lien, Courtartist. Available at: <https://courtartist.com/2013/02/mcmahons-drawings-of-the-emmett-till-murder-trial.html> [Accessed 6 January 2022].

Further Research:

After looking closely at Franklin McMahon's work I then started looking into modern day courtroom illustrators.

Fascinating look at real life courtroom artists and talking about some of what's involved in their role.

Elizabeth Williams - Talking about drawing the persons face several times to get the likeness. Interesting the different approaches and how Jane Rosenberg got slated for drawing Tom Brady 'badly'.

Courtroom illustration factual rather than creative.

Bill Robles - Marker pen technique, drawing all the lines straight off with pen and then using markers to get colour down and smudging with finger. Robles describes how he copes with drawing trials so frequently. "Remain professional and remain true to what you see." - Robles.

Priscilla Coleman UK courtroom artist -

 

Christine Cornell - Talks about studying anatomy being very useful for filling in the blanks when you need to memorize a persons stance. "You need to take the emotion/feeling you have towards the person out of it otherwise it can affect your drawing." - Cornell.

I wondered how many artists are present at modern day trials, Cornell explains "There are usually several artists working during the trials but that has reduced over the years since cameras have been allowed in certain circumstances."

Before attempting to sketch some courtroom scenes myself I looked through a courtroom illustrators book (Listed below). The detail they can capture fascinated me, it gave me an idea of where to start for my own illustrators but I was definitely apprehensive about how to even begin.

My courtroom sketches using black fineliner pen.

Youtube.com. 2022. Oscar Pistorius Trial: Day One. [online] Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-in_tF9-_ek> [Accessed 6 January 2022].

After researching courtroom illustrators I was curious to try it for myself. I searched for a case I could use via YouTube and found the coverage by Sky News of Day 1 of Oscar Pistorius' trial back in 2014. I chose this case because it was known to me through the media all those years ago. The courtroom coverage was quite distressing and I found the drawing side incredibly difficult. I managed to do one sketchbook page from this and haven't returned to it due to it being too emotional for me. I admire the illustrators who do this kind of illustration for a living, being able to capture such important information about the people there in such an immediate time frame is quite a skill, let along being able to emotionally cope with the things you are seeing and hearing. I found this exercise really interesting, I enjoyed researching the illustrators who do this regularly and hearing about how they go about it. This type of illustration is definitely not suited to me, due to the nature of the job.

 References:

Cbsnews.com. 2021. Courtroom illustrators: Going where cameras are banned. [online] Available at: <https://www.cbsnews.com/video/courtroom-illustrators-going-where-cameras-are-banned/#x> [Accessed 4 December 2021].

Youtu.be. 2021. Why we still need courtroom sketch artists. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/WBetE_lRje8> [Accessed 4 December 2021].

YouTu.be. 2021. The Courtroom Sketch Artist | Op-Docs | The New York Times. [online] Available at: <https://youtu.be/z7Hw9u3mVaM> [Accessed 4 December 2021].

Billrobles.com. 2021. Bill Robles [online] Available at: <https://billrobles.com/index.php?id=19> [Accessed 4 December 2021].

The Sun. 2021. Court sketch artist reveals 'odd' moment Ghislaine started drawing HER. [online] Available at: <https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/16935757/ghislaine-maxwell-courtroom-sketch-artist-odd-moment/> [Accessed 4 December 2021].

Scott, D., n.d. Courtroom art - in the dock with the rich and famous. Portico.

Williams, E., 2021. The Illustrated Courtroom book: Elizabeth Williams Studio. [online] Elizabethwilliamstudio.com. Available at: <http://elizabethwilliamstudio.com/> [Accessed 4 December 2021].

Bowes, P., 2021. Front-row seats: Courtroom art. [online] Bbc.com. Available at: <https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20140610-front-row-seats-courtroom-art> [Accessed 4 December 2021].

Priscilla-coleman.co.uk. 2021. Courtroom Artist - Priscilla Coleman :: Portfolio. [online] Available at: <http://www.priscilla-coleman.co.uk/portfolio.html> [Accessed 4 December 2021].