With pen and pad, Deerfield teen offers view of world
BY PAT KROCHMAL pkrochmal@pioneerlocal.com January 10, 2012 10:36AM
Ilana Strauss of Deerfield sketches out an idea on her notepad. | Curtis Lehmkuhl~Sun-Times Media
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Updated: February 13, 2012 8:46AM
Deerfield’s Ilana Strauss is leaving her mark on the world by cartooning.
She not only created artwork for the Daily Illini, the student newspaper at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she attended class for two years, but also for the Daily News at Yale University, where she is now a junior.
“I’ve always been interested in art,” Strauss said. “I have been pretty much drawing and painting even longer than I could read. I would draw storybooks and get my dad to write in what I wanted to say.”
Strauss, the daughter of Melinda and Roy Strauss, has lived most of her 18 years in Deerfield, attending Walden Elementary School, Shepard Middle School and Deerfield High School. Her younger brother, Alex, is a senior at Deerfield High now.
“In high school, I started making political cartoons for the newspaper, and became the art editor,” Strauss said. “Then, I just kept doing cartoons for my college newspapers.”
During the last few years, Strauss also met with a professor once a week to discuss her political cartooning and to help polish her work.
“That was really helpful, because it is really hard to rely on getting insight to cover every event,” Strauss said. “If I can figure out what metaphors or equations work, it’s a lot easier.
“Usually, I pick an issue that everyone knows about, because with a cartoon, there won’t be any explanation unless it’s running next to a story about the issue.”
Sketching
out an idea
Before she begins to draw, Strauss must first decide what she wants to say about an issue. Then she must think of associations she might make with it.
For instance, she decided to do a Sara Palin cartoon when Palin announced she wasn’t going to run for the presidency, but already had collected a “bunch of money” to do so.
“I thought about what I could do that would be about disguising one’s actual motives,” Strauss said. “It was around Halloween, so I thought about a Halloween costume, and it worked.”
Strauss first sketches her ideas in pencil, then brings them to life by shading them with marker and pen.
Professional work
In addition to her college work, Strauss has interned for the Jerusalem Post, the Readers Digest and the Scripps Howard News Wire, and had a cartoon published in the Post after Michael Jackson died.
“He and Elvis were sitting on a cloud in heaven and Jackson had just broken a radio, because he was just so sick of hearing ‘Billy Jean!’” Strauss said.
“Once I have the idea for a cartoon, it may take only an hour to draw it. But coming up with the idea is the hard part. I keep track of all my ideas in a notebook, then when I have time to draw, I’ll just choose one and go with it.”
She is majoring in English and considering a career in journalism, or combining her writing and artistic talents to go into advertising.
“In high school, I was the lowest editor on the totem pole, but I was still in charge of the content that more people would read than any other,” Strauss said.
“It seems really sad that some people read only one section of the newspaper, but they always turn to the cartoon.”
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