Caricaturists in Chiang Mai's Sunday walking street

Well, there were one or two doing caricatures in a long row of portrait artists...

A walking street in Thailand is just what the name implies; a normally busy street is closed to traffic and vendors are set up along both sides. However, in this case, the artists were in the middle...and the crowd was SO thick even I would have been nervous of being bumped by passersby...

I don't know why Mr. Bean and Obama seem to be the perennial favorites for caricature samples in Thailand...below is a closer look:

Here are most of the artists in action:

 Since almost all the artists were busy doing portraits, I guess it's because that's what sells more.

 Above: This artist certainly caught her expression...

Below: This guy was doing a watercolor caricature from someone's phone:

This is a peek into one art supply box....those Mars Lumograph pencils are popular. I bought a handful for myself and they are nice, capable of a big range of tone.

Below: This sample depicted the subject as a ladyboy! I wish I'd get calls for that here...Thailand is much more comfortable with having a "third sex"than other parts of the world...

If I am interpreting the sign correctly, a live sketch is 200 baht (about $6) and from a photo 300 baht (about $9). Below: This is the view when we entered the walking street, you can see how packed

 with humanity the center is...

I like more elbow room when I draw live!!

Caricaturing a long, long way from home...in Thailand!

January is usually the slowest time of the year for me in regards to live caricature events, so it's the optimal time to go away. I've found myself (along with my Other Half) in Thailand again to visit my son George...and here is the first live drawing for 2013:

George teaches yoga and has also always been a musician. Recently he starting crafting these little thumb pianos, or kalimbas, as they're called. It took alot of pounding pavement in the carpentry and steel-crafting districts of Bangkok to find the Thai artisans to make his components. He uses one at the restful end of his classes and is now selling them to students and anyone else who would like to spread ethereal tones...one lady he was showing it to described it as "twinkly music" :-). Here is a link to George's Sound My Soul page.

George said that the "asana" (yoga position I drew him in) wasn't quite possible.  ;-)

Finding caricature-like art in other forms..The White Temple

During my recent trip to Thailand, I took in so many sights, sounds, and tastes that my senses were overwhelmed on occasion. One experience that really stood out to me as an artist, was a visit to Wat Rong Kuhn, or the White Temple in Chiang Rai. The work of ONE artist, Chalermchai Khositpipat, it was begun in 1996 and is still being worked on by him and his team...

It's his life work and offering to Buddha (Thailand is a primarily Buddhist country) and is a working temple as such. Here is a link to a good article about the Temple.

The interest for me started as soon as our tour pulled up. Buddhism's goal is achieving nirvana through wisdom,  and do that you must go through cycles of life with suffering and passion. These were presented  by imagery like this:

Traffic cones on the way in...

Demons and whisky bottles representing earthly evils...some grotesque caricatures of possibly real figures. The first one looks Hitler-like to me...

Then there was a bridge over a pit...filled with these writhing hands...

Once over the bridge, my Other Half and I continued in...

to see pop-culture themed murals with a much deeper message:

 ...that we need to learn from the evil man perpetuates upon himself and get past it. I found the artwork mind-boggling and its execution was exquisite. I also found it strangely familiar to see caricature-like versions of Michael Jackson and other real figures (like Keanu Reeves from the Matrix) used to make editorial comment in an artwork.

Time limitations kept me from being able to draw pre-penciled lines on the walls, as they were allowing some visitors to do...so I settled for just seeing as much as I could.

Yes, I am a rule-breaker. Couldn't help it in this instance!!!

We left the Temple wishing we'd had more time. Maybe someday I can go back. 

Nature called and even the rest rooms here were artistically embellished...

James Dean and the elusive EE pencil

One of the coolest souvenirs (okay, several  of them) that I brought back from Thailand was the Staedtler Mars Lumograph EE pencil. The majority of street artists there were using them and I am a magpie for art supplies...
It has a nice range of tones--including a very rich black-- depending on your hand pressure and it lays down nicely. Here is a sketch of this week's subject for Caricaturama, done with it:

In doing a little research on the internet, I found out that the EE might only be sold in Thailand and *may* be the same item as the 8B pencil. There are many listings online to buy all the other grades of Lumograph  pencil, from HB on up, but the EE seems to be very hard to find. Unless you're in

 a stationary store in Bangkok!

A little artist-ambiance (visual AND musical) from Thailand

Recently I posted about a street artist we chanced upon while visiting Chiang Mai, Thailand...and just now, chanced upon the video I took that night. The live music was coming from a Thai guitarist... I wonder if he was singing phonetically. Everyone loves the Beatles!

Another street artist in Thailand

This artist, in the night bazaar at Chiang Mai,  had a display of large graphite drawings that were quite detailed...this is the one he was working on when we stumbled upon him:

He's using some sort of magnifier to look at his reference as he draws. I would bet that there is a grid over the photo and possibly had been one on the drawing, as it seems to be a virtual copy of the photo...

 He was also dipping his pencil point in a solvent, probably alcohol, to get the rich fluid darks in his drawing. The next night we happened by and this drawing was in plastic, on the right, with his other finished works. Many of the vendors at this marker did not have prices shown, so I have no idea what he was asking.

He had a crowd watching. I know that feeling!

Caricature-spotting on Koh Samui #1

During my recent trip to Thailand, I didn't just get to see Bangkok--we travelled (by night train, bus and ferry) about 500 miles south to the beautiful tropical island of Koh Samui. The most popular beach town is Chaweng, with a thriving main street full of local Thais and tourists from all over the world. One shop had this displayed out front---it looked like a combination of marker and watercolor:

  This particular artist had pieces in a couple of shops nearby:

Many of the small art shops we passed had painters busily working on large canvases of popular subjects; it seemed to be a tie between traditional Thai art and...the Joker. ;-)

Ok, gotta throw in a photo of the absolutely beautiful beach here...

A Valentine's Day proposal....

Today, a client of mine will be using this digital caricature to ask 

the most important question of his life...

I'm hoping she says YES!! and to share the full image here on the blog after I hear from the handsome young man. This commission was actually completely done while I was in Bangkok, Thailand. That's why I always travel with my Macbook and Wacom Intuos! His reaction to the finished piece was:
"I just got all the files and the final picture looks amazing!!! I could not have asked for anything better. I will for sure take and send pictures of the proposal to you. Thanks you so much!!!"
So, tonight he's planning to take her out to dinner and have a "roving artist" draw them, but use my caricature... and turn it around to show the lady at the appropriate time.

HAPPY VALENTINE"S DAY!

Home from Asia and Europe!

My blog has just had the longest hiatus in its almost-five-year existence: my intrepid Other-Half and I went on a month's journey to Thailand, with a four-day jaunt to England tacked on at the end. :-)
My son happens to live in Bangkok, which is about as far as one can get from Philly without being on the way back. It was my first time overseas (unless you count the Caribbean) so I was very excited about:
A. seeing my son after a year and a half
B. seeing sights, eating exotic dishes, and soaking up foreign climes
and
C. finding art/caricature related stuff to share here.
Here's the Other Half, and my son and I, in a water taxi along one of Bangkok's many canals.

So to begin sharing what (little) drawing I actually did, or what I witnessed, on the looooong flights there I doodled Miss S. Germanotta from a magazine. Luckily, I like to do tedious crosshatching sometimes, because there was plenty of time for it:

There's plenty more to come, from street artists to medieval gargoyle faces, once I find the relevant photos among the 18 GBs I took! (video too.) But first I have to get ready for a gig tomorrow---my last one was on February 5th, which may have been my longest break from THAT in a loooong time too!

Caricature-spotting in Bangkok #3

These were displayed in an art/frame shop in MBK mall in downtown Bangkok:

600 Baht is equivalent to about $18. These seem rather detailed for such a low price, but Thailand is well-known for its bargains. The way it works is, an artist takes your photo and you come back several hours later for the drawing...
Here's one that was hanging on the wall:

Finally, some artists were busily painting, scumbling and glazing away here...