Jacob Kinney’s courtroom sketch work adds immediacy to intense trial

The commission as it began was simple: come to Lancaster County court to draw a retiring attorney’s portrait as a gift. 

For Jacob Kinney, it’s turned into a media assignment that has had him covering — with his courtroom sketches — one of the local court’s most intensely followed trials in years. 

Kinney, an Illustration senior, has been acting as the courtroom “camera” for a landmark Lancaster County murder trial, an assignment that has put his quick-drawing skills to the test. With pencil and chalk pastels, “in homage to the traditional style of courtroom sketching,” he has followed testimony after testimony and has experienced the inner workings of the judicial system. 

Now, because cameras have not been allowed in the courtroom, Kinney’s work has been picked up by media covering the Jere Bagenstose trial, putting his courtroom work in print and online and providing an opportunity he didn’t anticipate. It’s an assignment that’s been by turns intimidating and rewarding, Kinney said. “It’s just a matter of being in the right place with the right skills, and reaching out in that moment,” Kinney said. “I really want to make a career out of illustration, and it’s been interesting to see that (the attorneys and I) both have a part to play in this trial.”

Defendant escorted into the courtroom. Image by Jacob Kinney, courtesy of LNP/LancasterOnline.

Taking advantage of opportunity

Kinney had been looking for part-time work opportunities, he said, and was talking about that with Maria Provencher, Assistant Dean of Career Development & Internships at PCA&D. She, in turn, had heard about an interesting assignment: drawing a portrait of a retiring attorney. Kinney admits that he was a bit intimidated as the date approached, “but I was already locked in, and I don’t like flaking on opportunities,” he said. So he headed to the courthouse to start work on the assignment. 

When media covering a high-profile murder case noticed Kinney at work in the courtroom for that original commission, they approached him with an offer: would he consider acting as the courtroom artist for their coverage, helping them bring the essence of the trial to the public? “It started as that commission but as the trial went on I was able to use (my presence) for networking,” Kinney said. Those sketches have now been seen by tens of thousands of people, bringing Kinney’s work to a whole new audience. “I’ve gotten to be the sole visual record for this case,” Kinney observed. “My Digital Sculpture course has really been helpful because this starts by me basically building a 3D picture (of the defendant) in my mind.”

Kinney recommended that PCA&D students who have an opportunity to sit in on a court case, or something similar, do so. “It’s so good for speed gesture drawing,” he said, “and there are definitely academic benefits to sketching people ‘out in the wild’ because you have to take a picture in your mind, back it up, slow it down, and then (draw)… it’s definitely a practice, in my mind.”

Top image: Image by Jacob Kinney ’25, Illustration, courtesy of LNP/LancasterOnline