A run on ballpark BW's

For some reason, I was inundated with requests for black-and-white drawings at the Phillies game last night. This seems to happen once in a while, when you get a crowd with a follow-the-leader mentality watching. They like how it looks, maybe don't realize there is also a color option, or just don't want to spend the extra to get color. I think there is also a correlation to how the team is doing--right now, there is not much hope for the Phighting Phils to make the playoffs.

Muggy night in Baltimore

The Orioles hosted the Red Sox last night so I headed down to draw in the late summer twilight...
This couple traveled all the way from Iowa to see the game and head on to the beautiful beaches in Delaware.

More Degas Sketches..

I am still working on the Aug/Sept NCN Face-off, and got some very good pointers from the judges. Here are the current results. The next stage is to paint it in Photoshop.

Out-of-studio caricature

On a perfect, gig-free Labor Day weekend, I still managed to get some artwork
(caricature from photos) done in the company of wonderful friends, in a most peaceful, soothing place...
Here's the artwork:
A foreman father and his two sons...

And here's the place: (thank you Barb!)

Offending the Masters, Part 2

Here is a revised sketch of Degas. One of the judges felt I should try to be less subtle in my exaggeration, so I enlarged the eyes and made the mouth area smaller. I'm not sure about it... but trial and error is usually helpful. He also said it takes going through the 90% of bad ideas to get to the 10% good ones...

Offending the Masters

This month's new NCN Face-off Challenge is to caricature an artist, from their own self-portrait, in their style. I chose Edgar Degas because there are many things about his art that I admire. His portraits are incisive in that there is uaually one feature that is so striking you have to look, and look at it. In this one, it's the eyes. Here is my first rough sketch for it...

And here is the reference:

It needs some work, specifically the nose and thrust of the chin, but today's deadline called for a first likeness sketch.

Charlotte by Jan Opdebeeck

This is my prize for taking 2nd place in the June/July NCN Face-off competition-- a beautiful caricature of my daughter Charlotte, by renowned artist Jan Opdebeeck, of Belgium. He's been the honored guest speaker, given informative seminars, and won prizes as a master member at our annual NCN conventions, and authored several books on caricature. However, to me, (and many other grateful artists) in addition to those accomplishments, he is a fantastic human being. At my first convention, when I felt quite small as an artist, he was gracious and accomodating. I learned so much about what was possible with caricatures from him.
THANK YOU JAN!!
By the way, my daughter Charlotte is a wonderful person, too--I am so proud of her. She is a nursing student. Jan caught her personality in so many ways; the colors he chose and how he applied them, the delicately textured background, as well as his gentle treatment of her features.

Series Sweep!

The Phillies won four games in a row against their arch-rivals, the New York Mets, the last one today a thrilling roller-coaster of a game that will have local baseball fans in a tizzy for ages. In between caricatures, I watched some of the excitement, but mostly I heard the delighted screams of fans and the dinging of the giant neon Liberty Bell as Phillies players hit home run after home run.
Afterthought: Here's one of my caricatures...

Full moon at the ballpark

Amidst a weird night at the ballpark, that included several people asking for caricatures from unsuitable photos, (one from a cellphone, which I turned down because it is just too problematic), a bunch of teens getting a triple caricature and then telling me they'd come back to pay for it (wondering if I'd get stiffed for the money-- eventually I caught two of them walking by much later and told them I would like to get paid--"What! Our friend never paid you??" which they then rectified) and lastly, a game won by the Phillies on a technicality, angering half the stadium....here is a nice couple that wanted a drawing to display at their wedding in October. I told them it would be funny if their wedding coincided with the Phillies being in the World Series....what are the chances??

Ballpark musings...

Here's a couple of cousins who totally got into the spirit of caricaturing, cackling madly throughout the whole process and screaming when they saw their drawing. The dad ended up getting three drawings of different combinations of family members,and took this photo for me (he'd asked to take his own photo, too!)

These two pretty ladies sat for me, explaining that the drawing was going to be hung in the blonde's dad's sport-bar-themed basement. I'm always somewhat nervous when attractive young women are the subjects, because sometimes they don't "get it" when I draw them "silly". Anyhow, these two seemed great throughout, until a male heckler walked by when I was 3/4 done and told them "Hey-- seriously! It doesn't look anything LIKE you!!" That happenes on a occasional basis, actually, and the culprits are almost always males who have had too much beer. My theory is that aside from being a jerk, someone who would do that just can't stand seeing a really good artist making money at something that seems so easy. Anyhow, judge for yourself if it --seriously-- looks like them...

They were relieved and happy once they saw it!