In Black and White Day 2 - Seeds of War

Day 2 and I didn’t get to spend as much time as I’d have liked with this drawing. but something started to emerge toward the end. Although drawing in Photoshop, I tried to emulate a scratchboard technique. For those not familiar with what scratchboard is, it’s basically a clay board, covered in black ink. You then use a sharp object and you scrap away to reveal an image. It’s a challenging technique to do it well, of course with Photoshop, there is considerably less challenge.

Foul Smell From Beijing More Than Olympic Pollution

This week’s Friday Drawing for a Reader, speaks directly to China’s human rights record on the eve of the 2008 Olympics, notably in reference to Darfur. Cooper’s blog, Darfur: An Unforgivable Hell on Earth, inspired the drawing.

While I understand China’s made progress on its Darfur stance, it continues its repression of human freedoms, notably political expression. This is a freedom you suddenly appreciate more fully when you realize you’re drawing something that in another country could get you imprisoned.

NOTE ABOUT THE DRAWING: The inspiration for this cartoon came from a Chinese propaganda poster.