Hallowe'en party!

I couldn't keep the glee off my face last night as I drew couple after couple--all in such great costumes!!! Glad I wasn't judging the costume contest.










And to my surprise, the host unknowingly played some of my favorite concert DVD--- of one of my favorite bands--Queen!
Thanks for having me, your Halloween bash was this caricaturist's pleasure!

Romantic welder birthday!

This client wanted a simply rendered caricature of her dad and stepmom, done in romance-novel style!

I love how I never know what kind of project is going to show up in my inbox!
:-)

October wedding caricatures

This month, I painted two digital wedding commissions while still working the State Fair of Texas:

I used each wedding's signature color as a background, and was able to adapt the tuxedo for both paintings, which saved me a little time. The Fair's hours were 10 am to 10 pm, which meant my digital sessions were either late night or early morning. Celestia took this photo of me at work with my Wacom tablet, which is what allows me to paint with Photoshop. Our sleeping quarters were over the RV's trailer hitch so we definitely didn't have much head clearance!!

Of gigs and postponements...

I had three scheduled events this past weekend that unusually, got whittled down to one. The first two, on Saturday, were both postponed; one because of heavy rain (it was an outdoor event) and the other due to the hosts and many of their guests having swine flu.
:-(
One postponement's new time made it impossible for me to do, since I did have another gig in that slot. The second, I'll be able to do next weekend, hopefully they'll be feeling better by then. :-)
My Sunday gig, which ended up being my only, was a raucous birthday party for a ten-year-old boy and twenty-five or so of his closest friends...all boys except for three girls! All the kids were given kazoos, so it was very loud and merry. These two decided to give me crazy faces which were very fun for me to draw.

The locale happened to be not far from my daughter's college, so I mentioned to the host I was going to go see her after the party at her dorm. He and his wife graciously gave me three entire leftover pizzas to take there! That made me "awesome" to the college students.

Last days in Texas...

I'm actually home in PA once again. The last week at the State Fair of Texas became progressively busier and busier, and the weather brightened up too. There was just no time to blog, and as a result I have alot of photos to share:


Celestia and I paid a final visit to Big Tex!

After three solid weeks of airbrushing and learning once again from my fellow artists, I started to LOVE my Iwata airbrush and not be so intimidated by it...luckily, it only suffered one minor hiccup when the needle was out of alignment, causing it to spray incorrectly, but Celestia advised me and I got it working again.
Below are two triples, where I decided to use the paper horizontally instead of vertically.

This was a family of Lakers fans, so I asked them if they knew Kobe was from Philly (they did!).

This trio asked to be drawn as the Three Stooges, for whom I have a great affection!

A quadruple caricature of brothers, one of whom had to be persuaded to sit...of course, he liked it after I was done!

Three lovely ladies...

A bunch of little kids...

An early morning customer...

Father-son and mother-daughter caricatures....

An expectant couple...

An elderly gentleman...

Friends...

Couples!

This scene was taken as I finished my final break of the fair...
Adios, Texas! Thanks and see you next year!

Texan COUPLES

Every time a couple sits for me, I am amazed at the immense contrasts that happen with two unrelated faces. See here:

I talked this couple into getting a COLOR caricature because they were just too colorful of a pair not to do them justice!

These two had such great features to caricature, it was almost an overload! :-)

This married couple were very funny to talk to and didn't believe at first that all four of us artists were actually living in an RV park with all the travelling carnies! ( We are!)

These two had great smiles and their kids enjoyed watching them be drawn.

I kept hearing this girl's friends saying snickering "duck lips" behind me? :-)All in good fun, though!

I asked this lovely lady if she was a teacher, as I was getting that kind of vibe from her; and she admitted yes, that was her former occupation. Now she's a funeral director! I told her to hang up the caricature in her office :-)

This guy SORT OF reminded me of Will Smith from certain angles. They really laughed when they saw this!

Okay, fooled you! This couple actually IS related (cousins) :-)

Texan doggies, etc.

Still here in Texas, drawing pooches and people!


Handlebar mustaches are ALWAYS funny! This family were a hoot to draw and chat with. Poor daughter, being saddled with such cool parents!
Below, a girl, and a boy. I am really feeling more confident airbrushing this year.



Paul drew this guy, observing that he looked like 'Webster' and all his friends laughed and agreed!

Even MORE Texan faces

The Fair has been plagued with overcast skies, intermittent rain and generally chilly weather but we caricaturists are coping with it. And still drawing our little fingers off...
Below are four teenage friends who got drawn simultaneously at our booth by (l-r) Celestia, Vlad, myself and Paul.

Here's a close-up of mine:

Below are a son, mom and daughter; Dad chickened out of being drawn ;-)

Some more interesting faces:



Below is one of Celestia's witty masterpieces:

Couple drawings are twice the fun!


Even Santa makes a visit to the State Fair of Texas, ( and eats those infernal corny dogs) but he didn't get a caricature. :-(