Another FBer using my caricature :-)

..for her profile pic!

Monday means my entry on Caricaturama Showdown 3000

This week it was Cee Lo Green. Digital, took about an hour and a half.
I love seeing all the other artists' versions: click here.

Another 60th birthday digital caricature

I think 60 must be the new 50...as I have gotten quite a few 60th birthday commissions this year and no 50th's!

Caricaturing on the Strip...

While in Las Vegas before the Thanksgiving holiday, I had the opportunity to pull a shift at the caricature booth in the Miracle Mile shops, a mall attached to the Planet Hollywood casino. Truth be told, I wanted to work alongside my friend Celestia's husband Rob Sundin, while our respective s.o.'s went off to play (boring....) golf!
It turned out to be busy enough that I didn't get a chance to study Rob's live airbrush technique or even get any photos of his work that day. And since I was using Celestia's airbrush and supplies, it felt like driving an unfamiliar car---I knew how to drive, but not where all the controls were, so I was a little discombobulated...

Above: Rob and I anticipate our day...

Below: Almost all of the people I drew were foreign tourists, mostly from Japan, the UK and Canada. I asked everyone where they were from, as the atmosphere here was very chatty and happy.

This couple was from Japan, he especially did not speak much English but they seemed happy with what I drew!

 This foursome was made up of two brothers (it was one's birthday) and their wives from Canada.

One Alabamian couple and more Brits and Canucks!

I got a lot of practice drawing the complicated and time-consuming 'Welcome to Las  Vegas' sign, but it sure does make each caricature a special momento of their visit.
The video below is from another day when we saw Rob in action at the stand:

Group caricature commission...

with a team of soccer players!

This was to be presented at their end-of-season banquet. I did this piece last year as well, so I did not have to recreate the background, the coaches, or the photographers...just the players: all 15 of them! :-)

This had to be finished before I trekked off to Vegas for my convention. To save time, I drew each boy on paper first and scanned the sketches, then used Photoshop to color them and place them in the group. Somehow when I do rough sketching directly in PS, I seem to take longer...not sure why. 

Caricaturama 3000-Liv Tyler

I haven't participated in quite awhile, but managed to eke out a sketch before the deadline...this week's subject is the daughter of Aerosmith's singer-turned-nasty-looking-old-man Stephen Tyler. My opinion: she's a beautiful Amazonian elf with big lips, big ears and slightly-crossed eyes. ;-)

Here's the link: Caricaturama Showdown 3000
So far, there are 85 entries from artists of all skill levels, many of which prove the difficulty of caricaturing someone who is attractive.

The Christmas spirit--in November

It's not even December yet, but Santa and his Christmas vibe came early at an annual craft fair that I do:

Lots of kids at this event:

One lady who'd returned this year to have her granddaughter drawn again, showed me a laminated newspaper clipping of some press coverage I hadn't known about, and a letter she'd received from her state senator (!) who'd seen it (!!?) What's more, my website address had been prominently displayed, yay! Free advertising! :-)

 And here's this year's version of her granddaughter.

Finally, I did draw a couple of adults--I thought he sorta looked like Ray Liotta. Click here to see their reaction!

ISCA con wrap-up...

My final post on this year's ISCA con is a mishmash of memorable moments and art--my favorites from other people's walls, and some of my pieces with their owners. 

First up: the two caricatures I received from artists I really dig!

Mine is not a face that usually nets me a ton of great drawings each year at the con. Along with Court Jones, Debbo Burmeister and some others, I have what's considered a tough face to caricature: no obvious stand-out features or proportions. That's not to say it can't be done, but I've always thought the hallmark of a really good caricaturist is how well he or she can capture the likeness of someone with more subtle features. Mike Tofanelli and Lar DeSouza took on the challenge and succeeded! I love both these pieces and have hung them in my studio already.

Below are some of my week's works. At the end of the awards banquet, each artist gives them to their new owners and it's always a crazy, hectic but happy chaos!

Above: Wayne Savage, Mike Tofanelli, Bob East.  Below: Wade Collins, Jeff Redford, Hilary Cole.

Below, in no particular order, are other artists' pieces done at the con that I was especially taken with. 

 Mikey Shields by Michael White. Those are real glued-on googly eyes! Trippy, huh?

 A very Sam Gorrie-y Sam Gorrie by Seo Kim. The difficult-to-get Court Jones by Seo Kim.

Alisa Grodsky by a talented, hilarious artist whose name I don't know, unfortunately.

 Caricature silhouettes by Karel Op De Beeck. An oily Jeff Redford by Klaas Op De Beeck.

 Andy Urzua and his girlfriend Cloudy by someone with impeccable linework.

 Another one of Andy from an amazing award-winning rookie:

 This is Andy's reaction when he first saw it!

Lar "Maple Bear" DeSouza, in a digitally-done escort card by Celestia Ward. Yes, we were in Vegas...

Two masterful oils by Court Jones, of guest speaker Bill Plympton and the omnipresent Lar.

This is kinda cool: you can see the same lady, ISCA manager Tracey Iverson, both above and below, as seen by Court Jones and Lorin Bernsen.

Court also gave a very informative seminar on the muscles used in smiling, that at times was more like a college medical anatomy class. Below is Bob East's award winning (for humor) take on it.

Below, Glenn Ferguson had a whole wonderful wallful of airbrushed Star-Wars-themes caricatures and netted Master of the Year for it.

Glenn also had an award-winning Studio entry. Check this out:

It's made of Sculpey and a whole lot of talent and ingenuity, and it got my vote.

(My own studio entry was a somewhat revamped Kate Gosselin-and-family that I'd digitally done earlier in the year...)

If you're interested in more photos from our convention, check out the public ISCA page on Facebook. where you can see more award-winners and their works. :-)

After the awards dinner, many of us went to an after-party in the (much more happenin') hotel across the street from our convention --the famed Las Vegas Hard Rock Hotel. Would you believe we were STILL drawing caricatures? Cathy McMillan seemed to be another one with not enough caricatures of herself! So a bunch of us passed around a clipboard so she'd have a whole collection. Can you tell which one I drew?

Next year, the Gulf Coast of Florida will host ISCA! Til next November!

Sculpey-ing at the ISCA con...

I sat with some very talented lady sculptors this year at the ISCA con. While I'm nowhere near as accomplished as they are,  we all find it enjoyable to take a lump of Sculpey and make it into something recognizable and amusing. 

Myself, Johanna Veerenhuis and Celestia Ward start our pieces. Celestia already has the four members of the ISCA board roughed in on her...board. :-)

Johanna chose to do one spectacular figurine, of our new ISCA president Steve Hearn as Elvis Presley. 

(Well, we were in Las Vegas!) Click to see a video of Johanna sculpting a hand.

I decided to do a relief of another tablemate, Jeff Redford, (who is also an accomplished sculptor) since he made an especially good model--being just a few feet away!

 Here's a close up of mine:

I learned quite a bit about this discipline from my friends that I plan to put to use this coming year. I wish I hadn't painted my Jeff in quite the way I did (no more high gloss paint for skin--you'll see in a later photo) but I was pleased with the likeness...

Below is a later stage of Johanna's:

And this is Celestia's final touches: ( screws, nails, scratches, etc. )

Being a LV native, Celestia generously shared her home oven with all her friends (aka competitors) as Sculpey needs to be baked at a low temperature before painting or glazing. Thank you, Ms. Ward!

We also shared our space with another gentleman who is very handy with the sculpting tools, Karel Op de Beeck. He made an amazing wine bottle holder of Lar De Souza, for which he allowed me to do the calligraphy on the faux wine label:

Below are all the Sculpey pieces as they appeared for voting. Celestia managed to pull off another entry of three colleagues who had each lost a huge amount of weight over the past year, for a total of six likenesses in two sculptures. (It would have been seven, but Lorin Bernsen made an appearance in both!) The long-necked fellow on the left was a last minute entry by Ellen Lustig, who came over to join the Sculpey fun on the final competition day. 

 The final pieces!

My piece requires a little bit of explanation. Jeff has worn high-top Reeboks for many years, but they don't make them anymore, and he is on his last pair... :-(

Congratulations to Johanna with her first place win, and Celestia with her third-place finish. Second was taken by an exquisitely done pair of shadow boxes by Beejay Hawn, which I'll have in another post.