Graduation party!

My final (and closest to home) event of the weekend was a high school graduation party for four fine young men, all good friends, held at one of their homes on a pastoral horse farm in Chester County.




After enjoying a meal poolside, I headed for the barn loft, which had various entertainments going on. Air hockey or ping pong, anyone? They also had a continuously-playing video montage of many photos on a large projection screen. I'd previously drawn all four boys' caricatures for sign-ins, which were situated by the door: Here's how they looked later on: More smiling faces next to my easel! Last but not least, there's Ryan (the grad whose family so graciously hosted the party) and his girlfriend. Thank you for having me!!!! :-) :-) :-)

At this party, and the previous two, I was able to tell my caricature-ees about my new Facebook fan page, "Caricatures by Emily" ! (I am only able to do that when I am not representing another company or agency.) It'll be interesting to see if anyone finds their way to my FB page. :-)

2nd post-prom in as many days

After drawing at the wedding reception, I packed up and drove two hours to do another post-prom---one I have enjoyed doing for the last several years. When I pulled up, to my surprise, I ran into my friend and fellow caricaturist, Patrick Harrington*--whom I had no idea was going to be there! We also had the always-hilarious John Sprague* on hand. It's fun to work as a group, because everyone's styles are so different.
This event's theme was County Fair. Pat and I set up under a tent:

The ladies' room had everything but straw on the floor! Patrick told me the mens' room was decorated as an outhouse and was very dimly lit! (?)

Here are some from my pen!






*Hopefully these two knuckleheads will have blog posts of their own from this gig!:-)

Wedding Reception

On Saturday evening, my caricatures and I were privileged to be a part of a lovely wedding reception, held in an elegant historic mansion: I set up in a wide, airy hall, near a string trio, who played all during cocktail hour and dinner (the guests were spread out in intimate dining rooms off the main hall).

Listening to this was quite a change from my early-morning gig next to the karaoke! :-)


The bride and groom, who were both warm and wonderful people, met each other in a Starbucks! :-) And now for some caricatures!
I absolutely can't believe the groom found time to post feedback on the Gigmasters site about my work, but he did already!
Emily was absolutely terrific, from the beginning of our process. Very friendly, responsive & accomodating, and she performed brilliantly at the event. Emily was a huge hit for our wedding reception, and we're so glad we hired her ! --

Paula and Dania, the pleasure was all mine. Thank you for having me-- and I am so glad you and your guests enjoyed it! :-)

Rock and Roll After-prom!

This morning's after-prom was a real blast from the past. The theme was vintage rock and roll from the sixties, seventies, and eighties! (It was pretty obvious that the parents running this one were re-living their own prom era!) Check out this spectacular entrance, it even had dry ice spewing out the door! I particularly liked THIS decoration: Here are some of the faces that were a total treat to draw: The ladies' room was all about flower power: This after-prom had me seated right near all the action--the Guitar Hero and Karaoke-Video set-ups! I could barely hear but kids wanted their names written on their caricatures anyway.
Awwwwww:

Sneak peek of my next comic

The International Society of Caricature Artists, of which I am a long-time member, publishes a quarterly newsletter in a full-color magazine format. My friend and fellow caricaturist, Celestia Ward, and I have finished and turned in our 2nd comic strip in an occasional series, "Girl Caricaturists." It's so hard to wait from that point until publication! And it's so neat to hold the finished product in our hands once it reaches our mailboxes. The first installment met with some high approval from our audience of peers...which motivated us to keep at it. Here's a tiny sliver from one of my panels. Once it's published, I will put the whole thing here on my blog.

Celestia is in Las Vegas, and of course I am here in the Philadelphia suburbs,so we collaborate over the internet and telephone late at night! Her method of choice is her Cintiq-- a computer screen you actualy draw on like paper. I use a Wacom Intuos, a small drawing tablet connected to my laptop. The big difference is that I look at my screen, not my hand while drawing, and Celestia can look at both (more like traditional drawing.)

FACEBOOK page: Caricatures by Emily

My caricatures have a new web presence: on Facebook!
For the past nine months, I have had a personal page on Facebook, started when my son moved abroad. It proved to be a fantastic way to keep in touch with him. Along the way, lots of real-life friends from all over the world showed up there, too. Mostly it was for personal postings and socializing, but occasionally I would post caricature-career related stuff.
Lately, I have had so many of my caricaturees tell me they wanted to use my drawing of them on their Facebook profile, but not knowing their names and not having the time at gigs to follow up on this, it was a lost cause. With a Facebook fan page, the address of which I am now printing on my gig paper, anyone can now find me and join--and I have a FB home for all my caricature art. What a fun way to market! :-)
It will have links to this blog, photos and commentary both from me and whomever feels so inclined. Thanks to everyone who has become a fan already (closing in on 100 as of this moment :-)

Here is the link to Caricatures by Emily. Or you can just log onto Facebook, and put Caricatures by Emily in the Search box.

Grad barbecue

My younger daughter, a high school senior, has decided to go into nursing as a profession, and has been part of a class which shadowed health care professionals at various hospitals this past school year. Last night, that class had a barbecue at the beautiful farm home of one of the students. When we got there, since there were only a dozen or so kids, I decided to draw them. (I didn't draw Madeline though, because she knows she is getting her long-awaited digital caricature from me for graduation-- I already have done both her siblings that way.)

The students were surprised and pleased, and they were all asking Madeline if she could draw, too! She kept replying, "Yes, but not like that..." :-)






The two young men have been in Madeline's classes since they were little, and the one on the right has several caricatures I did of him when I was just starting out, drawing at elementary school fairs...

Below is my daughter helping herself to a Rice Krispie treat...mmmm!

Today's celeb birthday: Helena Bonham Carter

She was great in Sweeney Todd, but so was Johnny Depp.... :-)

Rainy O's game...

The sun shone for a bit before the thunderstorm came :-( I had fun drawing the camouflage O's caps that were the game giveaway for Memorial Day...