Right now you’re mixing the color for president Trump’s skin.
How exactly do you color match that?
It’s a little yellow core, a little yellow, and a little vermillion, will get you to Donald
Trump orange you don't have to be a great artist to be a great cartoonist.
Some of the great cartoonists figure out a very simple way of drawing the argument would
be the drawing doesn't get in the way of the idea that way, and that’s true.
I’m an old fashioned guy.
I think you can add a lot to a cartoon by adding visual humor, visual excitement caricature
and maybe some interesting color and things like that.
Matt you’ve been in this business a long time.
When did you get into this?
The first professional cartoons I did were in 1978, for lamit week in Portland Oregon.
The little alternative week when jimmy carter was president.
I would go down and bring my black-and-white cartoon to them, and they would send it to
the engravers.
I’ve been in this for a long time.
What did you major in, in college?
International affairs.
I thought maybe I was going to go to the state department.
But I cartooned in high school and college.
I wanted to also be a cartoonist, but the odds of becoming a professional cartoonist
are long, so I had other fallback plans.
Now you're at this place in Washington that actually has a footprint all over the globe,
and everybody reads and everybody sees, but it took a while to get here.
Yeah, it took me 25 years.
I mean-- more than, actually.
This is the first-- I got the job at "Politico" when I was 50 years old, and it was my first
staff job as a cartoonist.
Prior to that, I did all this other freelance work and I sold cartoons to the la times and
the Oregonian and Washington post and a Hodge podge of newspapers but only as a freelancer.
This is called a— what?
Little shop of horrors, Venus flytrap.
Yes he’s basically a carnivorous plant.
Well, he overtook and completely rearranged the Republican Party, and then you have him
pretty much eating.
The metaphor is this is Republican Party that after eight years feeding brotherism and vitriol
against Obama has created this giant carnivorous plant that consumes the republican part.
That was my favorite cartoon from the 2016 campaign actually.
Traditionally, the editorial cartoonists in a news organization work as a commentator,
we're basically the same as a newspaper columnist.
I have my own personal opinion, which does not by any means reflect the official opinion
of politico, so therefore, I also operate off the leash, in that none of my editors
come in and say "matt, we want you to make this point about this issue."
what did you win the Pulitzer for?
The Pulitzer you get it for a portfolio.
You submit 20 cartoons.
It was a portfolio of 20 cartoons that won it, and, you know, it's a huge honor, and
it was such a thrill to win it, but, you know, the more you look into these things, the more
they’re so subjective.
If someone wants to become a political cartoonist, it takes a whole lot more than just being
great with a pen or a paint brush, I imagine.
What does it take?
Well, I go back to the advice that Paul Conrad gave me when I was in high school.
The first advice he gave me was read, read, read.
You have to know the topics, the issues, and have something to say, so have an opinion.
Watercolor is this really fun thing when you're pushing puddles of paint around.
See how much more fun this is than digital.
You’re in front of screens all day.
It’s a nice tactile experience.
It is, and you get this nice colored picture at the end.