Live from Baltimore Orioles Opening Day 2008

Today was a misty, drizzly, clammy kind of day, but that didn't stop thousands of baseball fans from enjoying the first game of the season in Charm City. At first, the stand was under the concourse but eventually it cleared enough to work outside.

My easel displayed a bunch of finished caricatures waiting for the owners to pick them up later; nobody wanted to hold on to them during the game for fear of being spritzed on...

My first subjects of the day were these brothers, the older of whom sported an Under Armour sweatshirt. I swear by this brand of thermal underwear, they really keep you warm better than anything else. The company is actually native to Baltimore...

This couple were happy to have the caricature, because they told me no photos of them exist!!?!

My last subjects of the day were this father and daughter, who have a tradition of attending Opening Day together. Since all the inebriated patrons were leaving the ballpark after the game while I was drawing this, they were treated to hearing "That doesn't look like yoooou!" several times. However, as I drew them separately, they knew the likenesses were dead on, and laughed---and gave me a good tip! :-)

Live at Orioles Fanfest 2008

Yesterday was my fourth appearance at the annual Baltimore Orioles Fanfest, a full day of baseball events such as autograph signings, memorabilia shows,
on-the-field happenings, etc. held at Camden Yards. Oh, and live caricature artists, too! Rick Wright and Co. have been drawing at Oriole games and events for 21 years now, and it is a fun gig. (See Rick's blog in my links list.)
Here are some of my drawings from a busy day...

Two brothers with vastly different fashion senses!

A lady baseball fan!

Rick's crew also offer BW profile drawings at a lower price than front color ones. It's the only time I get any experience doing them, so they are actually a bit harder for me to draw...

Here's a couple who had never gotten a caricature before! They seemed pleased with the result.

Here's the view from my easel...Gary, Rick and Jerry, busy drawing away.

My vinyl banner design is coming along...

Here is the latest version of my soon-to-be-ordered vinyl stand-up banner.
I am pretty satisfied with it for now, down to the 'studio digital' samples, which may not end up in that order. The last one on the right, of my yoga-fanatic son, is still in the preliminary stages---so that's the hold-up...

My focus is on "real people" samples rather than celebrities; I may do a "celebrity caricature" banner next time. For now, I'm using as samples ( find them!) my three children, one of their boyfriends, one of their best friends,Edgar Degas, my fiance, myself, and a bunch of other people I have drawn in my travels!

Toonweekly submission

I haven't had time lately to enter Toonweekly's character design challenge, but this week's theme was very appealing..."Good Cop Bad Cop."
Here's my digital entry...

Marketing after-prom clients...

Here in the Northeast, (I don't know if it's a custom in other areas) many high schools hold an "After-prom" or "Post-prom" party in the wee hours of the morning, after their school's Senior Prom. It's a way of entertaining the soon-to-be graduates that does not involve alcohol. I've caricatured at these kinds of parties, from the most elaborate to the most casual, and they are alot of fun. It's also the only kind of event where I drink Red Bull! Many of the schools hire me every year. However, marketing to new clients is always a good thing. Today, I put up a new Craigslist ad targeting that particular type of customer. Forgive how tiny this visual shows up here, I made it horizontal so Craigslist-browsing-people don't have to scroll to see my samples.

Another creative outlet...not caricature, but still fun!

I've made scrapbooks since childhood, meaning long before they became an industry unto themselves. When arts-n-crafts stores began devoting many aisles to scrapbooking, it was heaven for me!
This past weekend, my daughter returned from a class trip to London, England, and its surrounding countryside. To my delight, she'd taken over 400 photos, so a scrapbook was begging to be born. She handed me a bag filled with boarding passes, brochures, tube tickets, shopping bags and even receipts from very British establishments such as Marks and Spencers. I printed out her best photos, and got to work.
About nine hours later, I presented her with a 20-page, 12 x 12 memorabilia-packed scrapbook complete with custom-Photoshopped laminated title card (see below). She found it funny that I did not need to purchase anything to do this project, my magic scrapbook drawer provided it all.

The only piece that did not fit in it was her big beach pebble from Brighton (on the English Channel). Here are a few pages...

Happy Easter!

Pen & ink with Photoshop background.

'Caricatures' is tough to spell for some...

...as hard as it is to pronounce. This sign was provided by the venue for a gig I did some years back.

I ran across the photo while hunting for high-res caricature samples for my banner.

New image for a stand-up floor banner

While at the St. Louis NCN mini-con, Teresa "Okie Artist" Farrington presented a workshop on marketing techniques. One of the sample items she brought along to show was a 6 foot tall, 3 foot wide stand-up vinyl banner. The benefit of such a banner is obvious, it draws attention to the artist at live events! I decided to order one, (she runs a sign business along with caricatures) so I am working on the graphics that will be included on it. So far, I have completed this upgraded self-caricature with my contact info. Samples of my work will be below it.

Teresa's website is www.okieartist.com.

Digital Fine-tuning of nurse graduation caricature

I am still playing with my daughter's graduation caricature. Some professional peers of mine on the NCN forum gave me some very constuctive critiques, so I worked on the hair, necks, bodies, and size/placement of blood spatter. Then, their cute little shoes and the title were added.

Graduation gift

My daughter's graduation from nursing school is coming up soon, so I did some more work on her gift, which will be part of a sign-in board at her party. She requested a different hairstyle, and I added a new background feature ( yuck!)

Character Design

The sketch of the spectator-dad from the ice rink evolved into a color character design. My original doodle was scanned into Photoshop, then completed there.
I've been a little too busy to keep up with www.Toonweekly.com (character design challenge) lately, but they should have a new subject today...

Doodling people on the sly...

Many artists keep their skills sharp by surreptitiously drawing their surrounding humans, who are usually completely oblivious to it (see Elgin's blog in my links list). Yesterday, during some down time at the ice rink, these particular people were in my line of sight.

This exercise was quite fun! I may take these sketches into Photoshop and color them later.

Drawing in an ice rink....

Today, I drew mostly teenage girls at a girls' ice hockey tournament. One woman--who'd remembered me drawing there last year--brought a photo of her son so I could draw him too, and not just his sisters!


I wore layers so the cold of the unheated rink wouldn't cramp up my fingers!

March NCN Sketch Contest

This month, Jan Opdebeeck challenged us to draw England's Prince Harry, who was recently forced to return home early from a tour of duty in Afghanistan.

Jan again stipulated no digital drawings, so markers and prismacolor artstix were used. This is more of an editorial caricature than I have done previously.

More corporate party-style caricatures...

...done in my studio. Some of the photos were not easy to work from!

Back to work!

Well, it's back to work, but it's never really work to me. Drawing caricatures is always my pleasure...
Today's event was a lovely, low-key bat mitzvah celebration in a restaurant. The kids were very pleasant and I even had time to draw groups after I had done them all singly. This is one such group...the girl on the bottom right was drawn snapping her fingers-- *snap*-- but her hair obscured the drawing.

Final Evening at mini-con..

The final evening is spent enjoying each other's company at a dinner/awards ceremony, after voting for our favorites in several categories. This post is a shameless "Emily with caricaturist pals" display, but I have been so inspired by these people! They are all great friends as much as they are artists...

The best roomies ever! We laughed ourselves silly non-stop.
Myself, Kristen, Jert, (Funniest Caricatures winner) and Marlo.

Myself with Ed Steckley and Tom Richmond, both of whom had seminars that were very informative and helpful...thanks, guys!

We pose with Roger (Silver Archie winner) and Beast, two of the most obnoxious yet hilarious hecklers at the party competiton. Beast, no one tops THAT one-liner!

Myself with Court Jones ( Best BW Caricatures winner) and Debbo Burmeister..he gave THE workshop for me, how to make Photoshop do things I want it to, and not confuse the #$%^& out of me. Debbo was one of the organizers of the whole event, and tirelessly worked to make it soooo enjoyable. By the way, I won a great door prize from her--a 48 piece Prismacolor Artstix set!!

Finally, myself with Rrrrrick Wrrrrright. After this, it's back to the grindstone for us caricaturists! :-)

Other artists' work at the con...

Marlo Meekins

Kristen McCabe

Patrick Harrington

Roger Hurtado

Rick Wright

Jert

Colin Harris left, Joe Bluhm right

Taka Watanabe

My caricatures at the mini-con...

We were all given wall spaces to hang our work. Here's mine. Below are photos of the subjects with their particular drawing.

Colin and Martha Harris of Philadelphia...they received quite a few good ones from various artists.

Chris Galvin from Texas. I was happy with the way his silhouette framed his full-body caricature...

Kristen McCabe from MissouRAH. She's lots of fun and so talented with color!

Lorin Bernsen from Texas..another recipient of mutiple hilarious drawings at this con. Mine wasn't one of them....but he liked the likeness!

Here's Adrienne from Chicago, the lovely lady of the mini-con's "Silver Archie" winner, Roger Hurtado. His sagging award shelf really needs this latest award...anyway, Adrienne liked the joke ( it says "my eyes are up here").

Jert, from Atlanta, Georgia, called me a name when I gave him this drawing, but he was laughing when he said it!

Paul McCall, another first-time con goer, hadn't ever sat for his own caricature before. Lots of us made up for that!

Finally, Rick Wright of Baltimore,Maryland. He likes cheese.(dotcom)

More mini-con goings-on...

I've just gotten home from one of the most enjoyable NCN conventions I've ever attended. The camaradery of so many caricature artists together in one place is always inspiring, but this con had a particularly friendly atmosphere that everyone remarked on.
So, lots of photos are coming.
These are from the ballroom where we all drew night and day.
(I never left before 4 am all three nights, and each morning managed to get up at 9 for a free hotel breakfast! And they had a free happy hour, too!)

I'm hard at work on a digital caricature in this photo, taken during Joe Bluhm's workshop.

That's Tom Richmond leading his inking workshop. No one spilled any, to my knowledge!

Another group of artists drawing, drawing drawing

These are my new friends Colin Harris and his bride of two months, Martha..it was their first convention. People asked them if the con was their honeymoon!

Court Jones did a workshop on the technicalities of painting a digital caricature. I learned so much from this one! He drew John Goodman in an hour, who happens to be a St. Louis native.

Here's Colin, Marlo Meekins and Kristen McCabe at their marker-strewn work area.

This is a wider view of where I mostly sat for the duration.

Pat "Tori Amos" Harrington...I met him at my first con five years ago--he and his drawings only get screamingly funnier with time!

Marlo---I met her three years ago at a con, and she and her drawings only get more beautifully bizarre with time!

During the party-artists competition, we were heckled by our colleagues, with all the tired old questions/comments we hear way too frequently as caricaturists...
"Are you an artist?" "Why are you drawing a mustache on her?" "That doesn't look like him!" " You draw characters, right?" and worse....

There hasn't been any substantial snow here near Philadelphia, but St Louis got socked with it while we were there.