This week I’m going to tell you how I stumbled on the idea for my latest drawing in the New Yorker.
One Friday morning, I headed to a local coffee shop to sniff out some ideas.
Usually, I will have noted a few thoughts over the course of the week. I might also make a list of (somewhat random) things to think about. For example:
Typewriters
Cheese
The word noggin
Peter and the Wolf
Art Boy!
Elbows
Trees with faces
Owls
I’ll aim for a dozen or so of these ‘starters.’
The next part is unreliable. Sometimes I start to draw and something emerges. Other times a phrase will grow from a word. Often I find my head is full of tumbleweeds.
If it’s working, it might lead to expanded thoughts like, silly cheeses, a man with no elbows, or owls with secrets.
I could tell from the sketch above that I had found something worth pursuing—for one thing, I was having fun.
Sure enough, after some word wrangling, they made it into that week’s batch of submissions. A few months later, they swooped into the magazine.
Below: from last week’s New Yorker. Buy this cartoon.
More Critter Cartoons
Useful creatures in Wired, 2020. Buy this cartoon.
Above: also featured in this week’s Toon Stack.)
Cats on Manhattan Roofs, New Yorker, 2022. See all seven here.
A snappy one from my sketchbook. Buy this cartoon.
What a hoot. See you next week!