In 2022, Elizabeth Williams only worked 11 days as a courtroom sketch artist, relying on her other job as an illustrator to pay the bills. This year, work exploded.
Williams has covered these cases since the 1980s, providing sketches for outlets such as the Associated Press and CNN as countless celebrities made their way through New York City’s court system. Just when she thought she’d seen it all, the scene outside Manhattan courts started to resemble a red carpet, with news cameras and paparazzi jostling to get their photo of the many famous faces who stopped by in 2023. Whether it was one of Donald Trump’s numerous appearances or Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto trial, sketch artists like Williams had no shortage of inspiration as they gave the public a peek at proceedings inside the cameras weren’t privy to.
