Facebook has eradicated the oblivion that our generation's friends disappeared into, as adult life encroached. Unless you were an inveterate letter-writer or phone caller back then (when it used to be expensive) there were probably plenty of people you thought of fondly and wondered 'whatever happened to'. So, it's nice that FB reconnected so many of us.
I've done quite a few drawings for folks like that. All of them, until this one, were private commissions. Oh, I've displayed them on my blog, but didn't share who my client might have been...
This one is a little different.
In the bowels of stately Homeowner Manor, he hatched a plan to dominate the blogosphere with his humorous Homeowner Man musings (which he's been penning for years) illustrated with a Caricature by Emily. Read them, you will laugh! I like this one.
When he approached me about doing a caricature for him, I was excited. It's fun to do super-hero caricatures, even more fun when it's a completely hilarious super-hero with his own blog (not to mention the prospect of illustrating WifeGirl and SonBoy at a later date! ;-)
When I received the reference photos, I was floored. I already knew Steve looked like he'd aged about six months since graduation..but the photos were every caricaturist's dream to work from. You wouldn't believe how often we get postage stamp size, lo-res, super-pixellated photos of subjects (in harsh sunshine) from twenty feet away and we're expected to draw a caricature from that?? Steve's pics were hi-res and from lots of angles. These are just three of the dozen-plus he sent:
He said his son had fun doing a photo session for the project. So, thank you, SonBoy!
Steve pretty much allowed me to art-direct myself and was quite happy with the results, as was I.
He was happy enough to give me a completely over-the-top review on my Yelp page:
Then Homeowner Man added his thoughts on his blog (skip the Yelp thing, he posts that too)...although his super-mind's remembrances need some calibrating because I definitely did not own the car he mentions. My bad. ;-)
It's April Fool's Day today...remember those reference photos for the caricature?
Resourceful Homeowner Man found another use for them---taping them on doors all over his house and scaring the crap out of himself and Wifegirl, but not the intended victim, Sonboy! Haha!
Finally, there IS a photo of both of Homeowner Man and Caricatures by Emily, courtesy of my dear friend in the front row center.
This group of seniors from the Class of 1982, (mostly newspaper staff---I was a reporter and cartoonist----tv crew, yearbook staff and other assorted geeks of that ilk) just about to graduate here, went on to become: an actuary, a dentist, a radio on-air personality, a psychologist, an attorney, a writer, an engineer, a marketer....and a blogger and a caricaturist. :-)
I love my job.
Whoa! I’m going to have to work on my writing skills to keep up with you! That was a beautifully written description of the past 33 years without unseemly mentions of death, taxes, or the little thing that hangs in the back of the throat. I especially like how you noticed that I recycled the photos from the SonBoy photoshoot. (I had to do something with them.) And I’m impressed that you managed to include a photo of a shirtless Tim Bloh without making it feel forced. Thanks for the great write-up and I can’t wait to do business with you again. Fondly, HomeOwnerMan (AKA Steve) P.S. That is an impressive number of jobs you have done! I’ve been at the same company for 27 years and am really only on my second job. Your story is much more interesting.
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