Courtroom Artist Elizabeth Williams Breaks Down the Art of Illustrating the Sean "Diddy" Combs Trial | THR Video - video Dailymotion

The Hollywood Reporter

Courtroom illustrator Elizabeth Williams shared with The Hollywood Reporter the art of capturing key moments in high-profile cases. She discusses being the eyes and ears of one of the most talked about trials: Sean "Diddy" Combs and feeling "a big sense of responsibility" and wanting the public to see the room as she saw it unfold. Williams also talks about covering many high-profile trials over the past 30 years – such as the Martha Stewart trial, the Trump/Stormy Daniels case, the R. Kelly trial and more.

Transcript

00:00there's so many things happening you know we did this and that and then it's over then he's out of

00:15the room you have to be able to figure out what are those key moments my focus is on diddy yeah

00:28right right because that's what everybody's asking me about or what what is he what is diddy doing

00:33right so well no one can see it so you're the you're the eyes and ears exactly so i've that

00:38responsibility

00:39my name is elizabeth williams i am a courtroom illustrator

00:49he's so larger than life you're focused on him look at him

00:57his family and then you've got witnesses i mean my goodness and like just look at all these lawyers

01:03it's like this isn't even all of them one two three four five six seven eight just think about

01:12that i mean most people okay if i just pull out a picture from another trial this is a classic

01:21defense right two lawyers even trump one two three lawyers three lawyers three lawyers three lawyers

01:31for trump eight lawyers for diddy

01:33i live in new york and i've been doing this drawing people and things and fashion and crime since 1980

01:50and still do fashion but whatever not so much anymore crime pays folks crime pays not dashing oh

01:59well damn it you usually start with the head when you're drawing somebody yeah i think the head or

02:08sometimes the eyes especially like with diddy when he had that that note and you know they were

02:16like gathering around him i mean everybody thought oh boy diddy's going down well they did get a conviction

02:24during diddy's verdict it's like drawing like a person falling out of a window because he's

02:39doing this he's doing this he's doing this he's doing you know i mean the audience is doing something

02:46and also you have time constraints so you got to figure out what will be important to news editors

02:54right now i work primarily for the ap cnbc and sometimes tmz they're rolling deadlines but they

03:00want it as soon as possible more often than not you know you'll send something out and you'll be upset

03:05because she could have worked on that some more but also if you sit there and fiddle around with a

03:10picture forever it's never going to see the light of day and then people will be bugged because like

03:15where's the ap pictures yesterday i did seven sent out seven because there was so much going on i mean

03:21there was there was the verdict and all those reactions um and then there was the when he got

03:28the bail hearing and he didn't get bail he turned to me i mean i saw this face he was so shocked

03:36and i've drawn his face so much so it was easy to kind of go like okay oh my god you know he's

03:42and he was relatively close to me so i mean that was that was what he looked like he couldn't believe

03:48it i couldn't believe it you know i feel a big sense of responsibility because of that because i'm

03:54really trying to inform people of what happened in the courtroom you know so i really i want them to

04:00see it like i saw it you know i mean i want them to get a sense of being there you know i mean and

04:08i've always felt this way i mean when you look at this drawing this is for the pizza connection case

04:12in 1985 this was done for nbc news but you know i want to give people a sense of you're sitting in the

04:17courtroom with me and you get a sense of where you are in space in that drawing right i mean it's the same

04:24thing with all of them so what would you say your go-to materials are that you would take for like a

04:31quick or sketch a brush pen that has two sides sometimes you want this thick one really fast

04:39and then sometimes you want the thinner line i'll never take these colors to court i don't need those

04:44colors i mean all right mangione with the orange i have some orange now i have been caught flat-footed

04:51without orange i have i admit it some of these like basically they're big crayons okay they're big

04:58high-end crayons they're oil-based this is called a water brush and it works really well the difference

05:07too i should say between the way i approach it and the way other artists in the east coast approach it

05:14i have a line-based approach okay mine's all line and then i put in the color right the line

05:21is the foundation of it right uh pastel artists who are primarily portrait artists all right

05:29they're dealing with shade form in a different way and they're building it up in a completely

05:37different way that is the structure of their picture the structure of my picture is based

05:42on this line here see and then see i don't like the way that looks so i'm just gonna

05:49take that out i'm gonna cover that up with my handy dandy white royal pastel

05:57see west coast that's how i was brought up west coast no east coast no pastel we don't that's the

06:08main difference we don't well it's it's also the way you approach it you approach it with wine

06:13you're sitting just like charles manson this is very interesting

06:21yeah you and charlie yeah see arms folded you're smudging with your finger is it just as a it's

06:29easier than like using a brush yeah and then also if you're using a brush it can you can start to

06:36lose control of it you know and white white's a funny color white actually to do white right

06:43really takes a long time because white isn't really white as i learned in art school it's really all

06:51relative so you it's not really white

06:55it was pretty intense i mean it was pretty intense the schedule and the type of testimony

07:17it was well a lot of them are unsettling but he would hand them post-its and read things and also

07:28would keep his eye on the jury i mean he was as i said like this even though it's the one that chose

07:35his clothing but you know he's over here he's watching his lawyer he's watching the jury i mean and

07:42also but then you look at man jiao i mean man jiao is doing the same thing right man jiao is reading

07:47this is him reading the indictment okay a lot of them don't do that i sort of remember parts of her

07:54cassie's testimony i just remember that when she passed him i thought that was such a juxtaposition

08:02i managed to get her as she walked off the stand she passed him as he's standing up and the two of them

08:09and they just like literally like ships in the night i got that drawing i got a lot of play because

08:15that was like now you're worlds apart here you were this 10-year-long relationship it's extraordinarily

08:24intimate and now you might as well be on another planet like this is um the thinking out loud ed sheeran

08:34um copyright trial and he his guitar and he actually played a few things for the played a few lines

08:44for the jury martha stewart so martha had all these bodyguards because she was out on bail older men

08:52that martha wanted to be around r kelly verdict because it's sort of hard to get his expression

09:00because he was wearing a mask but he was found guilty we couldn't really see r kelly because r kelly

09:07was all done from an overflow feed because it was the middle of the pandemic did he was you know he

09:13was easy to draw and so was trump they don't care they're they've got bigger fish to fry the only

09:18time i ever really had a problem was with the trump drawing and that was because he was a little upset

09:24and i drew him that way and but i got his hands let me see if i can find this picture here i got the hands

09:30you know the accordion hands that's how he talks the accordion hands he was on the stand and he looks

09:36upset the news business has changed and um it's a totally different business now than it was when i

09:46started it was the big three nbc cbs and abc and they had all the advertising dollars and they used to

09:55fly us all over the place i'll never forget at any rate those days are gone it's just a different

10:02business entirely because of social media and the dilution of news the ones who started 10 15 years

10:09before me boy they had a great run plus they were paid a lot and then there were people on contracts

10:17i mean it was so different than today i don't know you know it's a hard job and it doesn't pay a lot

10:27and it doesn't have regular hours so i don't know what they're going to do individuals must be as

10:33pictured as they were in the courtroom i mean you know you just can't make stuff up but that's the way

10:39i was taught when i started out in la that's how they did it how everybody did it drew it the way it was

10:46not something convenient yeah wouldn't i love this to be different boy i sure would have i hated

10:57this it was so this was so nice because i could draw them this way and they were like looked like

11:03this that was so nice you so much experience being a trial um as you you know sit through them

11:10ever ever able to predict the outcome no i i kind of thought it was going to be a little hard with

11:16diddy to prove rico you're surprised at how fast they turned around yeah i was i was surprised at how

11:23fast i turned around and it was an acquittal yeah right yeah because that's what happened like when

11:28they came to him and they said there's this note what was this yeah a fast note i mean they're all

11:37like freaking out you know i mean they're grabbing each other holding each other they're freaking out

11:44you're sitting there and you're like okay yeah i'm sure he's bracing for the worst you know and

11:48you're sitting there okay this is gonna be you know and like what's gonna what's the family gonna do and

11:54i have to be prepared and all this and then boom not guilty boom not guilty the falling down on the

12:02chair the praying when the jury walked out all that occurred after the fact because now he's really

12:10sort of coming to terms with what just occurred now this on the other hand was was the the shock sketch

12:19that was immediate and i i i was just i must have had the same face because i was like

12:28he didn't show a lot of his emotions i mean i that was really the most emotion i've seen now maybe that

12:35was also intentional for the jury because you sort of hear about this guy's temper and his mercurial

12:42nature and yeah and i would take the binoculars sometimes and try to study and see what he's doing

12:50and i never saw a tear come out of his eyes i mean i saw him do this sometimes he would do this you

12:59know rub his eyes but he never kind of broke down i think the violence and stuff i think he it did seem

13:07to bother him the violence he had his hand in his head he i think he felt bad about that you know the

13:13sexual stuff i i don't know i don't know well he's going to get something and this judge seems to be

13:20the judge seems to be pretty serious about it you see but i mean still he could have been going to

13:24prison for the rest of his life so i mean boy this whole experience being a courtroom artist and

13:35covering these cases has really given me a great sense of history and the importance of doing the job

13:44right

Courtroom Artist Elizabeth Williams Breaks Down the Art of Illustrating the Sean "Diddy" Combs Trial | THR Video

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