Yankee fans invade Baltimore

The New York Yankees are in Baltimore for the weekend, and so are their legions of fans! They were treated to seeing the Orioles clobber them...



For some reason, I felt like using the chalk-glove method for color. I always forget how dirty my hands, clothes and pants get when I use the lecturer's chalk, and it seems to be only me! All the other artists in Baltimore use it, and they don't end up looking like chimney sweeps...next time it's back to artstix for me.

Full size answer to yesterday's question

Here is my sketch of Sir Paul in his entirety, as seen in a scrapbook I made at age fourteen. You can even see the effects of Scotch tape thirty years later!!!

Happy First Birthday to My Blog!

My blog is one year old today!
My main goals when I began were to market my caricature art, and to motivate myself to draw more, so I would have something worth showing...
I am very happy to say it has achieved both of those aims, and more. I have made friends, found I enjoy the writing as much as the visual aspects of each post, and expanded my horizons in ways I hadn't expected. I want to sincerely thank all those who read and enjoy my daily caricaturist musings!

In honor of beginnings, here is a cropped piece from one of my earliest drawings of a real person. You might say it was foreshadowing what I ended up doing for a career!
I drew this in 7th grade, of a singer I really liked, but could never render his mouth correctly. I erased and erased and erased til the paper was nearly worn through. I'll have to draw him as he is now, now that I can sketch his mouth with ease!
Any guesses on who it is?

I'll post the whole drawing tomorrow. By the way, I was a baby when this group was popular, so I was a little late (and strange) in my choice of teenage crushes....all my friends liked Shaun Cassidy!

A new challenge for me...

Sometimes, things come along out of the blue and make you wonder how circumstance leads to where you are at that moment...
What does that have to do with the photo of the airbrush on my drawing board?
Last week, while sitting at my daughter's lacrosse game, I got a phone call from an accomplished artist friend asking if I wanted to be a part of a three-week adventure later this year, doing caricatures...the only catch is, it's airbrush caricatures.
I actually did buy the airbrush pictured several years ago, but it has been neglected in my closet ever since, waitng for the day I'd take it out and say, "Today's the day!"
That time is now...to learn airbrush technique and post my learning curve on this blog.
Luckily, there are several virtuoso airbrushing caricaturists among my friends, some of whom I have video in action. I'm excited!

First Post-Prom of the season...

Last evening, I drew at my first high-school late-nighter of the season!
The school was done up wonderfully with worldwide themes; the parents certainly did a fantastic job. My caricature location was in the lobby hallway in 'China', next to a huge Mardi Gras room. On my right was 'India', with henna tattoos; another room held a casino. They were even serving Starbucks coffee to help those up past their bedtimes!
Unusually, I was provided with a student assistant to help with line control and bagging the caricatures (thanks Nick!). It was a fun night for students as well as myself--LOTS of great faces and my time was extended twice!
Thank you all and see you next year!!:-)









Even the bathrooms were decorated so appealingly I had to take a photo!

Prepping my paper...

My marketing push of the past few months is starting to pay off in that I am getting more work, which means I need to be very prepared with the supplies necessary for caricature gigs. The paper I prefer is easily available in office supply stores; it's an 11" x 17" 67 lb. cover stock. The fact that it's "legal size" means I have to cut it down to 11" x 14" with my ancient, but trusty, paper cutter. After cutting, it gets stamped twice--once with an ornamental monogram stamp (which I press onto several different color stamp pads to get an arty effect) and once with a "make it say what you want" pre-inked stamp. That stamp has come in handy many times, in that I can tailor it to the event, and whether it's my own or an agent's contact information.

And you thought all a caricaturist did was show up and draw?! :-)

Final banner design...

It's done, and now my patience will be tested as I wait for these graphics to be put on a 3x6' vertical banner. The plan is to use it next to my easel at all events where I am hired directly, because my own contact information is prominently shown.
However, for agent gigs, I may rig up a separate piece to cover my info with theirs, perhaps with velcro. That's why only the frame holds such information.

Below is a closer look at a last minute inspiration. It seemed a bit empty around my studio caricature of Degas, so I inserted a word bubble near him. But what to make him say?? Obviously, French was out, as I doubt not many will even know who he is. So I went with an answer to a question I am frequently asked at gigs!

Finished digital caricature of my son...

Now I can order my vinyl banner since I've completed caricatures of all three of my offspring. My youngest even asked when she was going to get a digital version, as her sample is among the "live" caricatures. What a compliment!
The final banner design will be posted tomorrow; it's actually a beautiful spring day here and my garden is calling to me!

Toonweekly submission

This week's theme is pirates. What's a pirate without her rum?

Digital work-in-progress

This is the piece that I need to finish to have printed on my vinyl banner..it's my eldest child/yoga devotee, George. Having my family as subjects (with their permission, of course) on my promotional pieces is part of the uniqueness of my profession!
Hopefully I will get this done tomorrow or at least, this week.

"Namaste" is a greeting of respect used by Indian cultures.