Freddie Mercury--digital pen and ink study.

Not a caricature, but more of a stylized portrait, this man's features (and voice, and songwriting) have always intrigued me, and maybe that's why I find him difficult to caricature. His teeth are an obvious target for many caricaturists, but there are so many other things that make him worth a second look.

Part of the reason his looks seemed so exotic, and wasn't really widely known until after his death, was that Freddie Mercury was a member of a tiny ethnic minority, the Parsis, based in India, but which originally came from Persia (modern-day Iran). His birth name was Farrokh Bulsara, and he attended an English boarding school in Mumbai for most of his childhood. The Parsis, who follow the extremely ancient Zoroastrian religion, have intermarried among themselves for generations; as a result, they have a characteristic look and Freddie was a good example. Even his famous teeth were due to a common genetic mutation in Parsis--he and his mother had extra molars which pushed out the front incisors. There are only an estimated 100,000 Parsis left throughout the world today.

Freddie downplayed his background during his lifetime and instead embraced the British rockstar lifestyle. In this wonderfully done caricature (which I have not been able to find any information on...I'd love to know who the artist is/was, and the circumstances of its creation) which graced the sleeve of the 'Somebody to Love' single in 1976, it's obvious that Freddie and the rest of Queen had an affinity for our artform!

Yet another reason I find him so interesting: he was an accomplished artist! He didn't call himself one, in the 'painterly' sense of the word, but Queen's logo and their visual sensibility were all Freddie's. And you can't look at this pencil sketch of Paul McCartney, done while Freddie was a college student (he had a degree in graphic design) and not be impressed by its likeness and sensitivity.

I find it amazing that Freddie drew one of his musical idols while in college and ended up singing onstage with him at Live Aid twenty years later!


And now it's been almost twenty years since Freddie's untimely death and his talents are still missed by many.

Happy 67th birthday, Freddie Mercury...

Freddie Mercury of Queen would have been 67 today. He is still missed by many, including me.

Two weeks ago, he was the subject for Traditional Caricature Art Contest on Facebook. The only rule is that artists may not use digital media.  It was the week I was drawing on the boardwalk, so on one early afternoon before it got busy, I did a little marker drawing with the implements shown. My entry got a healthy number of likes, but the one I was really enthralled with belonged to an artist from Spain, Joaquin Aldeguer. It' s a little gem. Most artists chose to depict Freddie in the mustache phase of his career (early to mid 80's), but Joaquin nailed his mid 70's glam image. 

In my humble opinion, even though Freddie seems like he should be easy to caricature, what with the crooked teeth/overbite, iconic mustache, aquiline nose, exotic eyes, and interesting head shape, he really is not. The main problem I saw was that so many entries went overboard on beefing him up, because he was such a compelling presence on stage. Very few entries (again, IMHO) caught his essence...that of a campy yet elegant, slender, charismatic powerhouse of a singer. (those links go to other drawings I found amazing :-)

I really like drawing him because his face is so intriguing. Here are a few of my not-always-caricature (and not-always-successful) attempts:

Above: This was the start of my ink sketch. you can still see the pencil lines.

Below: If you check out my Vines, there are several starring Freddie.

Happy birthday, Freddie...

September 5th would have been Queen's Freddie Mercury's 63rd birthday. He's still one of my favorite singers (in fact, 'Somebody to Love' is my phone's ringtone) so when Jan Opdebeeck chose him for the ISCA forum's birthday person for 9/5, I just had to digitally paint him.

His jaw and cheekbones always seemed very exotic to me, so I decided to emphasize those instead of his famous overbite.
RIP Freddie...

Digital 70's Freddie Mercury...

I am still learning the ways of Mac and Photoshop, and the combination is a wonderful one. This piece wasn't done for any particular reason except that I wanted to...Thanks to Nick Cross for helping me get my Wacom Intuos working perfectly with my Mac (the driver that came with my tablet was out of date and prevented it from opening the application if I shut down the computer).

Mini-caricatures at the Mutter!

 A client booked me via The Bash for a combination Halloween party/trade show at one of my favorite venues, The Mutter Museum in Philadelphia! 

Ambiance Reel!

So I did my speedy line-drawing-only mini-caricatures and drew 35 people in two hours. 

Here's his reaction, ha!

Some folks were in costume, some weren't. All had fun!

I asked her if she was Freddie Mercury, and she said No," Ted Lasso!! But interesting alternative."

The very next morning this feedback was waiting for me on The Bash: 

"Emily was great at our event and will book again for our next one. " 5 stars!

Thank you!!

Rockin' Sweet 16

My second event last weekend was a type of party I always enjoy, a Sweet 16. This one was especially fun, as the birthday girl had opted for a theme near to my heart....rock stars...such as the Beatles....lots of Fab Four images adorned both the walls and the guests!

I couldn't decide which of my numerous Beatles t-shirts to wear, so I opted for Freddie instead!

The birthday girl was representing Green Day.

They knew how to throw a party! It was held in a parish hall/gym so guests could shoot hoops, chat, eat, and dance to the music all in the same room.

I was busy the whole time and saw so many band names emblazoned on chests...The Ramones, Nirvana, Guns'N'Roses, Kiss, Taylor Swift, and One Direction (many of the girls had been to their concert the night before) were just a few.

Dad and Mom opted for Blind Melon and the aforementioned One Direction. ;-)

Happy birthday Alexis, and thank you for having me!!!!! :-D

Update: 8-22-14  Client feedback is always appreciated!

Thanks Emily. We really enjoyed having you there. You were a big hit!

How to use up mostly dead Sharpies and Chartpaks...

...use them to draw Freddie Mercury!

Tim Minchin...eyeliner, hair, and talent

In January this year, I did a Conan O'Brien caricature (see above in my blog header!) to submit to the art gallery on Conan's site. Some of them were being shown on the air, so I tried to watch the show every night (for awhile, anyway) on the off chance they'd use mine. ( I don't know if they ever did.)
One night, Conan's musical guest was a new-to-American-television Australian pianist/comedian named Tim Minchin. He sang a very clever, ribald song about an inflatable doll, that ended with a Beatle homage...and I was completely hooked! A true artist with both songwriting (ranging from the utterly ridiculous to gasp-worthy to sweet, deep and sublime) and mad grand piano skills, I checked out all his Youtube videos and thought, if he ever tours, I'm going!
Well, guess where I was this past Saturday night? Handing him this digital painting after his concert in Washington, DC!

The words are from one of his sillier (he said so!) songs...if you check him out, be forewarned that his stuff is for adults who don't get offended easily (strong language and subjects).
The other half and I had wonderful seats:

Tim has a policy of meeting his fans after his shows, and he came out and charmed everyone (we were already charmed ;-)

Well, if I can't meet John Lennon or Freddie Mercury.... I'll settle for Tim! ;-)

He chatted with my other half too, and signed his ticket. I had actually printed two of my paintings, one for Tim to keep, and one to sign for me, and he did.

Then I had the audacity to give him my business card! :-O

It was worth turning down a few gigs to have this much fun!

Thanks to Danielle for the above video, and Conan for having Tim on his show in the first place. :-)

An evening at an AIDS benefit

Last night was a very stylish event benefitting AIDS DE-- a fashion show was held at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts with lots of red ribbons in evidence. I wore a pin in honor of Freddie Mercury, too, as I drew the throng of excited guests.

I told this gentleman he had epic glasses.

Thank you Daniel, and everyone, for having me---it was a fun night!

Update: 3-8-13. The professional photographer, Paul Pruitt,  shared some great pics  on FB! Enjoy:

My page in the ISCA Artist directory

Just updated my long-stagnant page on the ISCA site. It's so hard to choose which samples best represent what I do, when there can only be a handful...
The whole ISCA website was revamped by member Dave Schwan late last fall, and I must say, it looks very professional and sleek now! The amazing caricatures displayed on its banner are by some of the best artists in our field in the world: from l-r, Jan Op de beeck, Sam Gorrie, Paul Moyse, Vin Altamore, Lar De Souza, Joe Bluhm, and Court Jones.

Yes, Freddie is my Macbook Pro's wallpaper. I had an even more flamboyant photo of him up before this one...

Gearing up for the final weekend of the Fair...

Time is running out for the great State Fair of Texas. We're still pumping out airbrush caricatures...even though three out of our four artists has had some glitch with our airbrushes, temperamental pieces of equipment that they are. Mine had an intermittent clog today that slowed my proceedings down for a bit. I just kept fiddling with it and blasting water through it (and getting the better airbrush-heads to help me--thanks Paul) til it was working again. I do have an extra airbrush with me, but the one I'm using is my preferred one.

This expectant mother had on a t-shirt that...well, you can see that I drew it too! The background is pink because...well, you can guess!

These two teenagers were done by myself (left) and Celestia (right) at the same time. Her girl had on a Queen t-shirt, which meant that Celestia got to recreate Freddie Mercury's own design for Queen's logo.

These two sisters and their mother got a state-fair-themed caricature to take back to Vietnam. The mom told me something really sweet...that she thought my drawing captured her soul! :-) That meant alot to me, as I feel that good caricatures certainly can do that, and she felt that mine belonged in that category. Awwwww!

This couple were from Bangkok, where my son lives. I knew it when I saw the writing on his shirt!

It was fun drawing and chatting with these two sweethearts! It's not often that I get to do a great-grandmother-and-grandfather caricature.

This young man came back for his second caricature by me this week! I drew him with his shades, braces and green gum last time. :-D He wanted a serious one today.

For these three, I tried a landscape orientation.

This little girl that I'd drawn, wanted to show her older sister, who was in the midst of being drawn with her friend, by Vlad.

Paul drew an expectant mom today too, with hilarious results!

It wouldn't be our work environment without the Killdares. We'll hear their set 120 times by the end of the fair, as they play very near to our booth.

Above: A Black Forest ham sandwich. Below: Self-explanatory...