A Hollywood star-studded post prom

My internal time clock is still on a post-prom schedule! ( I'm blogging at 5 am)

The festivities were held in a high school decked out as Tinsel town...

...complete with its own Grauman's Chinese Theater, and red carpet bedecked with Oscars.

Above: There's screen goddess Marilyn!

Below: A tribute to Emperor Palpatine.

I got to work alongside a new (to me) colleague, Missi Allen. We cuddled up to Bruce Willis (wow, funny he should turn up after I just drew Alan Rickman) before drawing time started:

Without further ado, my caricatures:

This particular group of seniors was REALLY INTO caricatures. Wait til you see some of these reactions!

Caricaturama-Alan Rickman

This week's CS3K challenge is an actor with a mesmerizing voice, especially if one likes British accents!

I don't usually care for action movies, but when the first Die Hard came out, Mr. Rickman as the ultimate bad-boy Hans Gruber shook me from my (then) allegiance to Bruce Willis. Below are the stages this piece went through--it was a pen-and-ink before I decided to paint it.

Most of the other artists are rendering him as his character of Severus Snape in the Harry Potter movies, a role JK Rowling said she always envisioned him playing.

A breezy first birthday

Yesterday afternoon, I helped celebrate little Damir's 1st birthday at an outdoor party spot. It wasn't too hot, in fact the temperature was just right, with a nice steady breeze going--just enough that getting my caricatures into their plastic bags was a feat! I also draw in a mat during windy conditions--normally I don't do that at gigs.

Grandmothers just don't look like old ladies anymore!

Little girls will always be little girls, though.

And the same for tweens!

I was situated near a child-size basketball hoop and a giant inflatable. So between errant basketballs, soap bubbles from kids wielding bubble guns and flying teens in velcro suits, I did pretty well! :-D

Thank you for having me!

An actual prom! (NOT the after-prom)

Last night, I drew at a Junior Prom and found out that strapless dresses are IN!
It was held in the ballroom of a 1920's grand hotel that was absolutely gorgeous:

That's the lobby, with prom-goers arriving, as seen from the second floor promenade. The ballroom was just as exquisite. That's my easel, below left:

Because I do so many after-proms, (where dress code is shorts, tees, and sometimes even PJs) I always get to see the elaborate hair-dos, but not the pretty dresses. This event changed that.  My favorite was the one below... she just looked so elegant!

Justin Bieber is still influencing some in the hair department:

Here are more dressed-up couples:

And a bevy of belles:

Out of curiosity, I kept track of how many I drew at this one. In four hours of non-stop drawing, I completed 55 faces. That's 13.75 per hour...pretty good for an old lady!

'From Emily's Archives #4: Pen & ink house portraits'

Another art discipline I enjoyed in the '90's, which carries into the present day (but digitally now) was pen & ink work, and the occasional house portrait. Back then, it was a painstaking, time-consuming affair; a mistake on the one and only original was permanent if white-out couldn't fix it...

...but now with digital, I can do this kind of style much faster. There's just no original, though!

'From Emily's Archives #3: pastel portraits'

Before I got into caricatures in the mid-Nineties, pastel portraits were my thing. I liked using pastels because they didn't smell or need solvents, and interruptions while working with them were okay (I had two school-age kids and one toddler at the time). This is my display showing photos of completed works from people's photos. Can you tell I liked gray Canson paper? I owned a bunch (still do) of different brands of pastels...Nupastel, Rembrandt, Yarka, and one precious half-size box of Sennelier that were 'like buttah."
It was in the course of doing an outdoor art show with pieces like this, that I first laid eyes on a professional party caricaturist... and you know where that led...

Caricaturama-Gary Sinise

This week's CS3K challenge was CSI- Forrest Gump-Green Mile actor Gary Sinise:

Many of the artists commented that he is a difficult likeness to achieve. I concur. Click here and scroll through to see if you agree...
Below: my preliminary drawing.

10th birthday party

Yesterday I was invited to draw at a 10th birthday party for the oldest daughter of a very warm-hearted, fun family. They'd had me for her 8th birthday party, too, and she asked to have me come back! :-)

Here's the birthday girl:

And here are her two sisters (the theme was 'pretty in pink')

Some guests:

...and Mom and Dad:

While I was drawing, the family and guests were enjoying viral videos from the internet on their big-screen tv, laughing out loud--this particular one I was able to see too, and I have to share it here:

   Dance Assasins

The stairway was a little gallery of my past caricatures of the kids:

After I got done, they fed me some wonderful barbecued pork and beef (the dad is SERIOUS about his BBQ). Thanks for having me again!!! :-)

A worldly post-prom: Ooh La La!

This morning I spent the wee hours drawing at another post-prom party. The theme was "The World is Yours" and of course, we ended up in Paris:

I got to work alongside John Sprague and Patrick Harrington, colleagues in caricatry. (Don't think that's actually a word, but it sounds good. Or maybe I just haven't gotten enough sleep.)

 We were situated off to the right of the stairway. The rest of this health club was also fitted out for the seniors: including the POOL!

 Yup! Las Vegas AGAIN!

Now for some faces:

Below: Pat and John in action at 3:30 am!

I walked out at 4:30 or so and it was still dark. Parents were already removing the decorations.

Here's the Youtube clip this week!