Corporate Workshop

My gig this afternoon had an international flavor. A local company was hosting some overseas employees (most were from the Netherlands!) and wanted to give them a treat during their week-long workshop, which had an Olympic theme. So each caricature featured the person doing a sport, and I was able to display my signed Kerri-and-Misty gold-medal beach volleyball caricature. Several people chose that sport as a result!





Afterwards, all the employees hopped on a trolley car to head to Center City Philadelphia to enjoy a murder-mystery dinner theater. I drew every person on this trolley!!

Birthday party

On Sunday afternoon, I drew lots of guests at a big party for a cute little one-year-old's birthday. The girl of the moment slept through most of her party!

Bar Mitzvah caricatures!

This afternoon I found myself at a very friendly Bar Mitzvah celebration. My caricatures were a hit, as once again after drawing all the kids I was asked to stay longer to draw more adults! :-)




After it was over, I skedaddled to my car in a downpour ( tropical storm Hannah was dumping on us) but luckily, I was prepared with a big plastic bag covering my pull-behind art-cart!

Update 9-8-08: The agent emailed me this nice-to-hear feedback ...
"Thanks! Customer called with glowing reviews - she loved you and your work!"

Trying my hand at political cartooning---the Republican ticket

These were drawn in a somewhat new method for me...I did rough sketches directly from the TV screen (no photo references!) as John McCain and Sarah Palin gave their speeches at the Republican National Convention in Minnesota this week. Then I inked and colored with markers, scanned into Photoshop and added more color and the background. Thanks to cartoonist Pete Emslie for suggesting this way on the NCN forum.

A talented wedding photographer caught this caricature reaction...

This is a funny moment caught by the photographer at one of my recent wedding gigs. It's the mother of the bride reacting to my caricature done of her son and his friends, and I am so tickled by it! To see more of Matthew Wright's wonderful photos, (and my caricatures are featured in a few) click here: Fig Tree Photography. Thanks to both Matt and the wedding families for sharing these with me!

A master caricature artist now has a blog....

The amazing, wonderful and humble Jan Opdebeeck now has a blog!
I met Jan at my very first caricature convention in 2003; he was the guest speaker. Aside from being a phenomenal caricaturist, he is an approachable teacher and a gentleman.
These two pencil drawings were done by him in 2005, of myself and my fiance, and I treasure them..

Bon Voyage party....

Signature mats for a caricature make the best gift for any occasion! This time it was for a bon voyage party for my son, who is off to Bangkok, Thailand, for several months for yoga teacher training. I fervently hope that the unrest there is settled soon, for everyone's sake....

I drew a few of his friends at the party, including his best friend from since they were five years old, Katie, who was a good sport about me experimenting with a less-than-flattering caricature of her....

Two-time Olympic beach volleyball champs get a caricature from me...

My fiance has run the mobile Jumboscreen on the AVP Pro Beach Volleyball tour for the last four years. As a result, he has seen alot of the sport, (and it IS a grueling sport, despite what they wear) and of its stars, including Kerri Walsh and Misty May-Treanor. Usually, every year, I visit him on some stop of the tour and I've met Kerri and Misty, too. In fact, on one visit to California, I met Misty and watched her play on a Sunday, flew home on Monday, and on Tuesday saw her husband Matt Treanor catch for the Marlins vs. the Phillies while caricaturing at the game! They are both more than gracious to fans, so I decided to caricature them as a gift on winning the gold in Beijing!
John was able to present them with their own framed, matted version yesterday, at their first tournament home since the Olympics. He told me they were both very happy with it! ( Kerri is holding the version they signed for us.)


The little sun with the golden feet above Kerri's head is a pun on her nickname- "Six feet of sunshine" while Misty's super-wrong nickname is "Turtle"--especially now that she'll be one of the contestants on "Dancing with the Stars"!
I decided to use markers and artstix for this piece, they each have a copy.

My night-blooming flower waits til I'm not caricaturing to blossom...again

I have a potted plant that's very dear to my heart. It's called a Night-Blooming Cereus, and every year in late summer, it flowers for just one night. The buds get large very quickly, and usually I can pinpoint approximately when the time will come. This year, the four buds seemed likely to coincide with my first caricature gig that required a two-night hotel stay!! ( see previous post). Here is how the buds looked when I left:

When I arrived home yesterday afternoon, to my delight, I saw that they had waited for me! ( This happened last year as well, amidst my old hectic baseball caricaturing schedule.)

This is a view of the entire plant; (in white pot) it's very sprawling and even somewhat ugly. The buds come out of the sides of older leaves towards the bottom.

The flowers and fragrance are worth a year's care and wait!

Since I had four, after they were all open by midnight, I plucked two to bring inside and enjoy the scent til morning...

Too bad this video clip can't include Smell-o-vision...

Carica-shirts & Hatz

Marlo and I motored WAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYY upstate for a college event! Don't you wish you had a CARICATURE SHIRT of your very own!?? (or hat?) We had a blast! And our client even sprang for a nice hotel room for two tired travelers.
Here's a view of the long trip north, and a little video of the campus and surrounding area from the hotel.