#diffee

Bio: Matt Diffee has been published in The New Yorker, Believer Magazine, Time Magazine, and Texas Monthly. His new book, Hand Drawn Jokes for Smart Attractive People, is out now. Matt was also the editor for The Rejection Collection: Cartoons Your Never Saw, and Never Will See, in The New Yorker, The Rejection Collection Vol. 2: The Cream of the Crap, and The Best of The Rejection Collection

Find this print and more here.

Tools of choice: Pencils for my New Yorker cartoons. I use cheapo Paper Mate mechanical pencils to sketch on regular ol’ printer paper. Once the sketch is set I put it on a light box and tape a sheet of hot press (very smooth finish) bristol paper over it. I then switch to darker pencils. Usually a combination of dark 6B art pencils and a Palomino Blackwing which might just be the best pencil in the world. I sharpen those with a utility knife to get more of a chisel tip so I can get a thin or thick line by giving the pencil a little twist. On the sketch I work lightly. On the finished art I bear down. The sketch takes most of my time, working very deliberately until I get everything looking right, then I try to do the finished art fairly quickly so it has some life to it.


Tool I wish I could use better: The computer. Illustrator in particular, especially the pen tool. That thing baffles me.


Tool I wish existed: A drawbot. And an Ideabot.

Tricks: I have a handheld mechanical eraser that I don’t use very often, but when I do it's a lifesaver. I can use it to lighten a very tiny spot in a drawing (since I use really dark pencils, I can only lighten things. I can't fully erase). I had a great one of these for a while that looked and felt like a prewar relic. I don’t even remember how or where I got it, but it was amazing. I’d sharpen the small eraser to a point and I could get it whirling then just touch it to the paper and erase a tiny white dot for even a thin line through a shaded area. But that eraser conked out a few years ago. I've bought several since then and none of them have had enough torque to get the job done. I finally got a Japanese one in an art supply store in Germany (weird, right?). It comes closest to the old one. The brand name is Denkeshi. It’s about 80% of what the old one was.

I have an old Mayline drawing board that has an electric motor so that the surface can be raised and lowered with the touch of a button. It makes a big difference when you work at your board for hours at a time. Being able to make tiny adjustments as I go keeps me from having back and neck and shoulder pain. I can even work standing up. When I first got it, I cut a hole in the table top and mounted a light box in it, then covered the whole thing with plexiglass so it’s a smooth drawing surface.

And of course, being from Texas, I can't really do any decent cartooning work without my Stetson hat and Lucchese boots.

Misc: I have learned that for me it takes time and a relaxed state of mind to come up with the ten ideas I need each week. Last minute pressure can work sometimes, but nothing beats starting early and taking all the time you can for the idea part which is ten times more important than the drawing part.

Website, etc. 

www.matthewdiffee.com

twitter: @matthewdiffee.com

Instagram: mattdiffee

The latest Fisticuffs! went down at the 92Y Tribeca last night, where Hilary Price and Drew Dernavich narrowly annhilated Matt Diffee and Eric Lewis in a live cartoon-drawing contest moderated by funnyman Patrick Borelli, and where the music of Howard Fishman and co. helped to diffuse the clear hostility in the room. Here is an inside peek at the proceedings. 

  Diffee, Price, and Lewis laugh it up backstage, seconds before they taunted each other with vile threats. 

Diffee and host Patrick Borelli talk about how to try to break up the inevitable mob brawl that will occur.

The view from backstage, just before showtime.

This was our raw cartoon material, created by the audience. They were clearly in a combative mood. 

Borelli took the liberty of drawing photorealistic portraits of audience members, so that it would be easier to identify them in a police lineup. 

Guess what these pointe-shoed dancers are doing? 

Guess what this pointe-shoe, umm... dominatrix is doing? 

Hilary Price (who then screamed "Rhymes With Orange You Jealous?") shreds the wrapping of the much-deserved Fisticuffs! winners' trophy, which is a half-gallon of cold, delicious milk. How prestigious is this award? Tom Hanks has a shelf full of Oscars but not a single one of these. 

This is a picture of Diffee and Lewis graciously conceding, minutes before they angrily rabbit-punched Price and Dernavich backstage.