Award-winning cartoonist Liza Donnelly turned her eye on the New York primaries on Tuesday, capturing Hillary Clinton’s sense of relief at her solid win in her home state.
Donnelly, a pioneer of on-the-fly sketching of live events — an art she calls “tweet-drawing” — spent the night watching the returns roll in from her living room. She had a fully charged large format iPad on her lap, two styluses at the ready, her laptop open at her side and her cellphone plugged in.
While she monitored the returns, she was constantly searching for any telling moment that might make for a memorable cartoon, including noticing “what they're wearing, who is standing behind (the candidates)” during public appearances.
When inspiration struck she began scribbling furiously. On this night, she captured both Clinton and GOP frontrunner Donald Trump's victory speeches.
Trump's repeated use of the word "amazing" to describe his runaway victory over Republican rivals John Kasich and Ted Cruz caught her ear.
For Clinton, she portrayed the former secretary of state with an optimistic grin on her face and hands in the air. The caption read "Thank you N.Y." with an additional thought bubble that said simply, "Phew!"
The latter drawing, which took just 3 minutes to complete, was posted to Instagram and Twitter before Clinton has finished her remarks on stage.
Donnelly says that her love of technology led her to discover the power of near real-time sketching.
"Cartoons get people's attention,” she says. “Part of [the challenge] is making a quick decision about the editorial part of the drawing."
Donnelly has created hundreds of drawings this election cycle alone, marking milestones and key moments in the race to the White House.
The races have given her great material to work with, she says.
"Donald Trump is probably my favorite candidate to draw at the moment," Donnelly added. "The Republican debates have been so wild."
In February, Donnelly was the first cartoonist to be invited to "live draw" the Academy Awards and red carpet on location.
Though Donnelly is well known for her cultural and political drawings, she also has traveled extensively as a cultural envoy for the State Department, speaking about freedom of speech, women's rights and cartooning around the world.
In 2011 she was invited to give a TED Talk; her speech has now been translated into over 38 languages and has been viewed more than a million times.
