Artist responds after courtroom sketch of Tom Brady goes viral
BOSTON -- A courtroom artist whose gaunt sketches of Tom Brady at the first "Deflategate" civil suit hearing in Manhattan federal court led to a Twitter flurry says it's her job to show what's going on.
Jane Rosenberg's drawings of the New England Patriots quarterback yesterday were compared with everything from "Lurch" in "The Addams Family" to the figure in Edvard Munch's "The Scream."
"I try to capture somebody's essence quickly, so it's not going to be perfect," Rosenberg told CBS New York.
Rosenberg has long been considered one of the top courtroom sketch artists in the country. She's sketched Sean Combs, Rev. Al Sharpton, Bernie Madoff, and more. But her work has never been so harshly criticized as her sketch of Brady.
"I don't do social media. I'm not on Twitter," said Rosenberg, who isn't sure why her sketch became an online obsession. "I feel really bad when I do a bad sketch. I apologize for not making him look pretty enough to the world. Tom Brady's a very good-looking guy."
She said Brady spent most of the hearing checking his cellphone, frowning and looking down.
Rosenberg said it is particularly challenging to sketch someone who's very famous or good-looking, and Brady she pointed out, is both.
"It was a big composition and Tom Brady was a tiny little head in that composition. With pastels, it's very hard to get accurate when you work small," she said.
Rosenberg seems to be taking the criticism of her work in stride.
"It's kind of cute and fun. I'm glad people have time to make it art," she said.