My portrait illustration series continues with appreciation for the comedians on Saturday Night Live. The present political and social situations in the United States, and globally, can be both horrifying and absurd. The writers and comedians at SNL have this amazing ability of pointing out the horrors and absurdity without attacking; instead, using irony and humor.

My illustrations are intended to capture, without being divisive or angry, the way comedians like Maya Rudolph intelligently imitate Beyoncé, and point out how some pop stars are pure entertainment spectacle. The poses I chose of Beyoncé are directly from YouTube stills of a live concert. They look more like a strip show or pole dancing, than a music concert.

The humor of “Black Jeopardy” is simply genius. Without making “the other side” look stupid, or showing an angry confrontation between black and white, the writers, and the actors—Kenan Thompson, Tom Hanks, Leslie Jones and Sasheer Zamata, have an upbeat non-judgemental nature about their behavior while shining a spotlight on some really uncomfortable issues behind class, race, and the 2016 election. Slate has a great article about this skit.

My Illustration was created by capturing YouTube frames of Kenan Thompson and Tom Hanks on “Black Jeopardy”. My portrait illustration skills are focusing on getting Kenan’s likeness, while Tom Hanks was so deep in character, I didn’t see it necessary to try to capture his likeness. Tom is simply, Doug, the only white guy on the show.

The final portrait illustration in this series is Alec Baldwin playing Donald Trump. Stylistically, this illustration is a little lighter with thin lines and watercolor washes bring focus on the two faces and the small hands. This completes my trio of some of my favorite newish SNL cast. I started watching SNL when Gilda Radner was on the show, so even Maya and Kenan seem new to me.

When not on assignment, choosing what I want to illustrate is not easy. When I got started as an illustrator in the 1990’s, portraits were something I rarely did and when I did, was not happy with them. There is this irony to good portraiture—you need to pay attention to the details, while at the same time leave them out. I don’t mean this for, say photorealism, I mean this in terms of the way I work—I want to capture the essence of the person without being too precise. Now, I’m finding a new appreciation for portraiture that has me exploring a way to connect with individuals through drawing.

This series has some parameters to it. The people either need to be my friend, or I know them and they know me. Preferably, they live in Seattle. They need to be doing something important. What I mean is not  living and working for commerce’s sake.

When I moved to Seattle in the 1990’s, it used to be a place where artists, musicians, healers, explorers, anarchists and misfits shaped the character of the city. Now, although many of those kinds of people are still here, their voice have been quieted and suppressed by the extreme wealth manufactured by the tech industry and urban development. So, my portraits celebrate these free spirits who navigate through the world by singing, making, traveling, creating, revealing, and questioning.

These portraits are not fine art pieces I’m creating. I made them on an iPad Pro in Procreate for imagery that I share online in many formats with others. I’m excited about expanding outside of this series to doing portraits of people for blogs, publications, individuals, and businesses. Back in the early 2000’s, I saw illustration really take a back seat in visual communication because of stock and two recessions. But, now, I open up the NY Times (yes the physical paper), and search through blogs, happy to find illustration is back! There even is the possibility of turning this series in to a Patreon campaign. Crazier things have happened.