I’ve been called in twice this week to do courtroom sketching for a local murder trial. Normally I enjoy this kind of work, but for this trial I’ve spent the majority of my time staring at an empty courtroom while the judge and lawyers debate behind closed doors. That’s left me with a lot of time to sketch the backgrounds, but precious few minutes to insert the people. After two days I’ve actually seen people in the courtroom for a total of about 30 minutes. I drew as rapidly as I could (with somewhat sloppy results), then after the trial I went into an empty boardroom across the hall to add the color. These two drawings are all I’ve been able to do so far. Hopefully better drawings will come soon.
Before the courtroom opened I chatted for a few minutes with a friend of the defendant who came all the way up from Chicago to support him. It reminded me that even accused murders are still human beings with families and friends that care about them. We are all made in God’s image, and no matter what evil we may have done we are still people that Jesus died to save.
