Article updated: 1/27/2012 4:54 PM

Need for courtroom artists fades as cameras move in

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Courtroom artist Carol Renaud did this 2009 sketch of former Bolingbrook police sergeant Drew Peterson.

Associated Press

This Dec. 7, 2011, courtroom sketch by artist Tom Gianni shows former Gov. Rod Blagojevich speaking at his sentencing hearing.

Associated Press

Artist Carol Renaud drew fashion illustrations for Marshall Field’s commercials into the ’90s but lost that job when the department store starting relying on photographers. That led her to courtroom drawing.

Associated Press

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Sketch artists have been the public’s eyes at high-profile trials for decades — a remnant of an age when drawings in broadsheet papers, school books or travel chronicles were how people glimpsed the world beyond their own. Today, their ranks are thinning swiftly as states move to lift long-standing bans on cameras in courtrooms.

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