Brilliant Woody Allen

I just watched Woody Allen's 'Midnight in Paris' and loved it. How phenomenal would it be to travel in time and meet all of those creative icons? It was filmed and cast pitch-perfect and made me yearn to see Paris for myself.
Here is an illustration I had done for The Associated Press of Woody Allen. Fun.

Happy Holidays!

Peace on Earth, good will to all. Happy Holidays!

Choking sea life in LI

Last week I was assigned this piece on how the Long Island waters are being hit by red tides and algae blooms that have been very toxic to the local marine life. The idea of a watery skull seemed fitting as a good visual statement about this issue.

Positively colorful portraits

Recently I completed this assignment- a mix of my line drawing with colorful
digital color overlays. Simple, clean portrait illustrations. Photoshop and layers,
with varying opacities and transparency, keeping my palette for
each harmonious yet varied and something that would work individually
as well as grouped.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Interview with Voice of Russia about court sketching in Guantanamo

Diana Ray of Voice of Russia interviewed me recently, right after the Nashiri arraignment in Guantanamo. Her questions were excellent, and shed some light on the experiences that I've
had sketching in Gtmo.
You can listen to it here:
Voice of Russia interview-Janet Hamlin

Guantanamo, one year later- Nashiri arraignment

It has been over a year since Omar Khadr's sentencing October 31, 2010. I had not been 
back since then. Nashiri, accused USS Cole bombing suspect, had an arraignment today
and it is a death penalty case. Media arrived to find new work stations for both print and
TV and a reorganized Camp Justice. 
Nashiri has not been seen publicly in 9 years, so we were all anticipating what he would look like.  The arraignment was held in court 2, a venue that is much more difficult to draw in than court 1. 
We are held in a glassed-in viewing room, watching from behind sound proof panels in the back of the court. Sound is piped in at a 40-second delay. Victim family members were in attendance, and with permission, I sketched those that I could see. We are now done, and the case will take some time before going into trial. 

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Martin Luther King, Jr. -an homage

I recently completed this poster of Martin Luther King, Jr.- the final poster will have a wise quote on the bottom.   If you are in Washington, DC treat yourself to a visit and see the new MLK Memorial.  

Reports Gadhafi dead

It is reported that Gadhafi is dead- see link HERE for CNN
and HERE for NYT articles.

Akbar court martial, Fort Bragg

 A few years back I had traveled to Fort Bragg to sketch at a court martial. 


It was my first military court experience, prior to working at Guantanamo. 


It was also the first time I'd been back on a military base in years. Having grown up on bases, with a father that served in the Air Force it felt so familiar to be in that kind of environment.


My goal in every court sketching assignment, is to capture to the best of my ability and honest and telling scene. 

Remembering 9/11...

Muammar el-Qaddafi

Muammer el-Qaddafi remains elusive as of this writing hiding from the wrath of 42 years of extreme and unpredictable ruling he held over Libya. Read more about Qaddafi aka Ghaddafi (among many names he is known by) here:
NY TIMES Muammar el-Qaddafi

Steve Jobs

The

announcement that Steve Jobs was resigning from his post as CEO at Apple hit me like a brick. What would the world be like without Apple? Here is a link to see all the patents Jobs has: Steve Jobs Patents (NYT)
Enough said.

Pat Summit's courage

It was with a heavy heart and great dismay to learn the news of Lady Vol's winning basketball coach Pat Summit share her diagnosis: early onset dementia. With frank and honest grace, she shared the news today:
Pat Summit's announcement
NY Times has a good article:
NY TIMES SUMMIT ARTICLE

Super committee

A few weeks ago I had an assignment to illustrate the 'super committee' that's been formed to vote on budget reform. Half are Democrats and half Republicans, and the hope is that they can come to an agreeable solution to several budget cuts and issues. The term 'super' applies to the fact that this particular group overrides many hurdles and their decisions can be enacted fairly quickly.

I chose to approach with a little bit of humor while making the point.

Media circus

I recently completed this piece for Newsday Op-Ed on how the Casey Anthony trial became a classic
example of a 'media circus'. Media now having so many options, I thought a combination of all the screen sizes would make a good visual staement.

Violence in Syria

Here is a recent illustration I did for Newsday to accompany an Opinion article focusing on possible reasons for the lack of response from peaceable countries such as America, to violence in Syria. You can read the Opinion article HERE

Please remember image is copywritten by Janet Hamlin Illustration and Newsday.

UBL

Here is a portrait I created for the Associated Press of Usama bin Laden.
President Obama's confirmation and announcment of the death of Usama bin Laden, courtesy of NYT online:
Obama announcement

Elizabeth Taylor

Today Elizabeth Taylor passed away at 79, which seems young. She had quite a full life- a wonderful obituary from the NYT
can be read HERE

Some recent work

I've been busy and not always posting, so thought I'd share some recent work from a court here in NYC. This was a day of streaming witnesses, a personal best - I did 8 sketches. This particular hearing gave me the perspective of 9/11 from the other side, our firefighters. The casualties from that day are still adding up, unfortunately.

Autism; a sensitive topic

I was recently asked to illustrate an Op-Ed on Autistic programs and how budget cuts could affect them. The focus was on children, and how programs specifically for them can help bring a quality of life, expression and awareness. I thought of 'square to the circle' because often that must be how it feels; not quite fitting in, or 'staying in the lines'.

Painful cuts

Not long ago, Newsday hired me to do an op-ed piece on education cuts. With today's announcements of NYC Board of Ed's teacher cuts, I thought this would be a timely post. Such a painful fallout from our struggling economy. Here's hoping
things lighten up soon and these educators can be placed back where they belong- teaching our children.

Recent work- Pace University's Annual Report

When I was contacted to work on this by an art director I'd worked with in the past, I was thrilled. He had these great ideas, and is the kind of art director I truly enjoy working with- he pulls out the best in me, praises my aesthetic, but adds his own in a very
precise way. Here you see select pieces of the project, which was a cover and 4 inside spots.