How to Create Editorial Cartoons Like Mike Luckovich

Editorial cartoonist, Mike Luckovich has come a long way from working as a door-to-door salesman as a post-graduate. After getting his foot in the door at South Carolina's "The Greenville News" in the mid-80s, Mike Luckovich eventually made his way to his current paper, "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" in 1989. Since then, Mike Luckovich has gained national attention through syndication and twice received the Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Cartooning.

Instructions

1. Study other cartoonists. Mike has cited former "Chicago Tribune" cartoonist, Jeff MacNelly as his biggest influence. Prior to that, Mike admired the caricatures of "Mad Magazine" illustrator, Mort Drucker.

2. Build your portfolio. Mike advises any aspiring editorial cartoonists to practice consistently, so that they will have an up-to-date portfolio ready if a position opens up.

3. Scan the news daily and jot down topics. On an average day, Mike reads a variety of websites and papers to glean ideas for his cartoons, including the "Wall Street Journal," the "Atlanta Journal-Constitution," "USA Today" and the "New York Times."

4. Forego humor in times of tragedy. In an interview with JournalismJobs, Mike confessed, "After Sept. 11th, you just couldn't use humor. The tragedy was so enormous, you couldn't be funny. It's almost like you have to come up with cartoons using a different part of your brain." The result was a solemn illustration of the Statue of Liberty, with the collapsing twin towers reflected in her eyes.

5. Use crosshatching to shade your cartoons. Mike adds depth to his illustrations with the "crosshatching" technique, which requires crisscrossing fine lines to create a shading effect.

6. Get syndicated. Mike has been with "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution" since 1989, and since then, he's gotten national syndication to over 150 newspapers through Creators Syndicate.