I worked as a courtroom illustrator for KGW channel 8 news in Portland Oregon shortly after graduating from Portland State University. The drawings on the top row are some I did on my own (anyone can go into a courtroom and watch or sketch unless it is a closed trial) using pencil. My boss at KGW asked me to use felt pens and showed me some incredible drawings from a former illustrator. I now realize that the drawings he showed me were done with prismacolor (alcohol based) markers, not the type of markers I went out and bought (the drawing on the far right on the bottom row is the best drawing I did with my new markers...the rest are too embaressing to show).

Courtroom illustration is exciting...riding around in the news van with the camera crew and reporters, sitting in on important trials. Unfortunatley most of the trials were murder trials, and I got increasingly uncomfortable with the murderers noticing me and hamming it up for my benefit. Also, having done many portraits and figure drawings from models, it was hard to adjust to drawing a likeness from such a distance and especially since the lawyers and even the plaintiff were usually facing the judge with their backs to the spectators. I was offered an opportunity to go sailing for the summer and said goodbye to the judicial system.