This week's Caricaturama 3000 entry...Michael Cera

Another quickie pencil sketch (with touches of Micron pen and PS CS3) for this week's challenge, Michael Cera. Although I'm not much of a movie buff, I actually did see Superbad and thought it was uncomfortably hilarious. I wonder what Sixteen Candles (my era's teenage coming-of-age movie and one of my favorites) would be like if it had been made in 2007...
Check out Caricaturama Showdown 3000, this young actor ( he also starred in Juno) is another difficult likeness, as was Seinfeld last week.

A little girl's 1st birthday picnic

On Sunday afternoon, I found myself in a pavillion situated in a beautiful park, celebrating this little angel's birthday with a family caricature:

Sometime after I drew her, she changed into this little pink number to blow out her candle:

Here you can see her daddy wearing his "Team Sophia" t-shirt!

It wasn't the usual picnic fare....yummmmmm!

Oh yeah, here are a few of the caricatures! I had a blast drawing this family!



And on the drive home, this was my view ( taken at 40 MPH!):

A 15th birthday pool party

I drew some inventive teenage girls tonight at a birthday party...none of them asked to be drawn playing a sport or horse-riding (which are the more common requests):

Instead, the themes chosen were:
1. Shopping with a hot pink/zebra stripe background 2. Riding a shark (!) 3. Photography 4. Listening to music on giant headphones 5. Listening to music on an Ipod 6. Painting
Funnily enough, the girl who asked to be shown as an artist was named Emily!
Since there were only a few girls, I was really able to go to town on color and details. At the end, a guest asked me to draw a toddler from a cell-phone photo. It was a very clear, zoomed-in photo, so it was possible to do :-) Her favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba, so I included the host, DJ Lance Rock. Funnily enough (again) I had just watched this show while babysitting my little grandson!

And I wore my new "Caricatures by Emily" t-shirt! It was simple to do...I just printed a large version of my business card on fabric transfer paper and ironed it on the back. Now I can draw and advertise at the same time!

Thank you, Kelly, for the photo! And happy birthday, Lauren!

My Youtube channel...

...now has all my caricature-reaction videos in one place. Enjoy the laughter...I do!

Caricaturama 3000-this week it's Jerry Seinfeld

The subject of the week is Mr. Puffy Shirt himself.

Many of the other artists on Caricaturama are going for Jerry's older, stand-up self, but I preferred to immortalize his whiny attitude ("but I don't wanna be a pirate") in this quick Ebony pencil sketch.

A 65th birthday surprise...

Last night, I had an unusual gig-- in several ways. A lovely lady was being feted for her 65th birthday. Her daughter and other family and friends surprised her with a dinner party in an elegant restaurant, housed in the tallest skyscraper in Philadelphia...but those aren't the reasons it was unusual for me:

Instead of sitting at my easel, I sat at the table with my 18" x 24" sketchbook and clip-on lamp, creating one large-group caricature of the birthday lady and her guests. It made for a very intimate, low-key way of working, as everyone enjoyed their meal and a slide-show of family photos that played on the room's wide-screen monitor. I started off by moving around the table during the cocktail hour, but as entrees arrived, I decided to stay put and draw from my main vantage point near the guest of honor.
The presentation!

Here we are with the finished piece, which took me two hours to do:

Thank you, Donna and family, for including my caricatures as a way to remember your birthday celebration!
Below: where we were---albeit only on the second floor, of the fifty-eight-story Comcast Center, as I arrived, and when I left:

The lobby in this building has a mesmerizing attraction--a two-story jumbo screen. There were masses of people just standing and viewing it, (including me!) both on my way in and out. What I really wanted to get on video, was a short clip shown from Buster Keaton's "One Week" but I couldn't get my camera out quickly enough :-(

Update: The client left a glowing review on Gigmasters. Thank you Stacey!
Emily created such a special memory for my mom's 65th birthday that she will have and cherish forever. Emily was a wonderful addition to our party and her professionalism and talents were much appreciated.

A fun 1st birthday (just like last week:-)

August seems to be a huge month for birthday parties ( I have five booked in a row in two weeks)---and yesterday was this cute little guy's:

It was held in a nice suburban back yard and even spilled over to the neighbor's, where I was situated:

Here's a few of the guests, and one reaction clip:




After being asked to draw even longer than originally planned, which is always a pleasant surprise, I then got to sit and enjoy the next entertainment: a puppet show!

A milestone-birthday digital caricature

This fine gentleman, a physician by profession, received a surprise---a digital caricature of mine--- from his sister for his ??th birthday party, which was held last week. Nowadays, many people are so young in attitude and mind, that they don't want to be reminded of chronological age--- so it's not alluded to anywhere on his caricature :-)
Thanks to my client for sharing this awesome photo of him displaying it.

You can see that the good doctor has some more unusual hobbies besides ubiquitous golf!

The client was a joy to work with, as she had very specific ideas about how to make it a great gift for her brother. Here is the feedback she sent me:

Hi, Emily: The caricature turned out amazing! Here is a photo of my brother when he received it. I appreciate all the time you took to get the details exactly the way I wanted them. Thank you, Emily! I will recommend you to my friends!!

:-) :-) :-)

New video clip on my Gigmasters page

Time to update my 'caricature reactions' video on my Gigmasters page:

The sound of laughter is the best way to share how much fun caricatures are! :-)

Since joining Gigmasters two years ago, it has been a reliable source for gigs and I've drawn for many memorable events through it. As an online party-entertainment agency, clients can peruse from many different entertainers, some who are nationwide, and some who are local, like myself. They can then request bids for their event. Once they've chosen, say, a caricature artist, (LOL) Gigmasters hooks them up. They can then leave feedback after the event. I've been lucky enough to have clients who leave really heartfelt words about my service, and that's as important as my samples and video put together...I appreciate my wonderful feedback-leavers!

Caricaturama 3000-this week it's Sophia Loren

These are two quick, young versions of the Italian actress who has kept her beauty and vigor into old age. The left side is my non-digital sketch, done in about an hour with a handful of gray Chartpak markers, which I haven't used in awhile. I'd forgotten that they have a tendency to make other kinds of ink bleed, which they did to the main Markette lines in a few places. The right side is after I sparingly applied some color (add maybe another hour) in Photoshop CS3. As always, check out Caricaturama Showdown 3000 on Facebook to see other artists' versions (from all over the world!) of her.

Now that I am looking at them side by side, there are some things I prefer in the first sketch; it actually has the better likeness, especially around the eyes. But I still like the delicacy of color in the second...and that's what sometimes happens when you 'clean up' or otherwise mess with a preliminary drawing: it might lose its spontaneity or some other element that made it work in the first place.
LOL Now I am reconsidering which one to enter...

A cute little one's 1st birthday...

On Saturday afternoon, this little guy celebrated his first birthday with a backyard pool party for family and friends...isn't he adorable?

I drew him first in color, then did all the other kids in BW....there were LOTS of babies and toddlers, which I love doing. Once upon a time, they were the hardest for me to draw, as they usually can't sit still and their proportions are so different from those of older kids and adults. People usually express amazement that I can get a likeness at all! It's mostly a matter of keen observation and constant practice, as all babies definitely do not look alike.


After the kids came the grown-ups!


One of the best things about being a travelling caricaturist is meeting the wonderful people who have me draw for them. This family was no exception! Thank you for having me! :-)


Update: The client provided Gigmasters (where I got this gig) with some wonderful feedback, which really helps future clients feel good about booking me for their own events:
Emily rocks! We hired her for our son's first bday party. I've never had so much excitement or gotten such great feedback from party guests than I did with Emily. Everyone loved their caricatures and I loved that they got an original and creative party favor! Thank you Emily!!!!

I generated caricatures...

...at an electrical-power generating station! It was their 50th anniversary and Family Day yesterday.
And usually, I don't divulge company names or locations of my gigs for privacy reasons (both my clients' and my own) but today I have to make an exception, so I can show you this cake:

This replica of the whole station scented the entire area with sugar! Every inhale was SWEEEEET. I was told that one of the "Cake Boss"'s underlings made this gigantic confection for the occasion.
So here are some of the faces that my sugar-high produced:






Do you want to see the reaction of these last two? Here it is!

Many thanks to Debi at Entertaining ConXections for the many gigs for this company she has provided me over the years.

Another caricature graces a FB profile :-)

I enjoy seeing these pop up on my Caricatures by Emily page so much! Thanks Lauren, and I LOVE your quote. Fits the caricaturists' ethic perfectly!

"Those who laugh at themselves...never run out of things to laugh at" :-)

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.

A surprise 30th birthday party

Yesterday, my caricatures were part of the surprise for a brand-new 30-year-old!

I drew everybody at this party--and the birthday boy (whose nickname is Ducky) and his lovely lady twice---once in a birthday-themed color caricature and once in a BW with a dragster. He told me he'd found out the other party entertanment that had been considered was a midget stripper!! I am so happy they decided to go with my caricatures! :-D

Here's a few of his guests:



Of course, the cake had a duck on it!

QUACK!

Happy 30th, Joey!