Last gig of 2011...

...was a birthday party for eleven-year-old Ally, complete with noisemakers and happy-new-year decorations:

The boy guests really outdid themselves on the cheesy grins--here are a few, in order of increasing cheese!

 These two cousins were so much fun to draw because of the contrasting...well, everything!

Happy New Year, see you here in 2012!

Illustrator Drew Friedman was the guest speaker at our ISCA con this year...

...and he has a huge post on his blog today about his experiences with us. Here are two photos I took from my second-row vantage point at his seminar:

Mr. Friedman has a penchant for drawing old Jewish comedians, and a particular liking for rendering liver spots, but I really preferred this drawing of the non-liver-spotted Joan Rivers, while her face still had some elasticity....check out that link at the top for lots more images and info about a very talented, detail-oriented artist.

Season's greetings!

This is the second year in a row I've been under the weather at Christmastime. I didn't even want to look at markers or Wacom pens...but I am feeling better, and this is the result:

2011 is almost over, I hope it has been good for everyone who has visited here (for which I thank you for reading!). Happy New Year, everybody!

Caricature Christmas card...

Here is the lovely card created by one of my MD Irish Festival customers, scanned from all the single caricatures I drew of her kids, of her and her hubby, and their dog from a photo she sent me:

She added the cute little red-and-green hats, bows and holly to make it very festive, and also included my business card on the back! Thank you, Joan!

Last holiday event for this season...

Yesterday, I was asked to draw all the members of a small firm, by one of its members--it was his gift to his co-workers! It was a full-color-with-themes afternoon. :)

 When I asked this gentlemen what he liked to do in his spare time, he said, "work"!

Here they are, minus a dad/daughter one that went home with its owner before I got a photo. Can't believe the holidays are almost upon us!

Another holiday party...

...that I look forward to doing every year. It's held for the family and friends of a vocational training center, and many of the guests have multiple caricatures from me spanning the years, including this young lady:

The attendance was up this year so I did not get many photos...

 Loved this gal's hair!

She was itching to get back to capturing balloons that were dangling everywhere! :-)

The gig without any photos!

Well, except for this one:

Pat Harrington and I drew at a corporate holiday event yesterday that had quite an amount of directions we had to follow, beyond just getting there. First, we were told to have photo ID, as there were two places we would have to pass through security, and to allow time for that. We were told to look as "holiday-ish" as possible ( I think we covered that pretty well). Finally, there was to be absolutely no cell-phone use during the event. We weren't quite sure why that was, as we don't take calls while drawing, but it scared us into not taking photos either! Before we started, we saw the party-goers taking photos with their phones, so we snuck this ONE pic you see above. But no pics of any of the great faces we drew :-(

Drum line caricatures

Did these last week for some college seniors, to be presented at their band banquet---I sent them to the young man who ordered them on behalf of other band members, and here is the email I just received from him:
"They loved them! We got a picture and it is attached. Thank you so much! I will pass this idea on to the freshmen next year and other members of the band, they were the hit of the banquet! Everyone was jealous."

They sure have some good faces! 

Company Christmas party

On Saturday evening, I was cozily caricaturing by the fire for a small company Christmas party:

Santa and Mrs. Claus made an appearance too, and handed out homemade cookies to everyone!

I asked the client if she had hired them through Gigmasters (that's where she had booked my services) and she said, "No, this is a surprise to me!" It turned out they were two of her guests! (the middle couple below!)

Some more jolly faces:

 (Below) The center gentlemen's wife was under the weather and didn't attend...but Iphone photos came to the rescue once again. :-)

I really have to thank a colleague, Chad Straka for making caricature fans out of my client and her husband. They had a framed drawing he'd done of them that they were very happy with, but he's no longer in this area. Thanks Chad!

Children's Christmas party

This was our line a half-hour BEFORE we caricaturists were due to start!!

Needless to say, it was one of those parties where we cranked out the kids, to the strains of Nat King Cole. I worked next to Pat Harrington:

It was so warm in there that both our Santa hats had to come off. :-(

Here is one of Pat's hilarious drawings in progress:

Here are a few of mine:

I'm pretty sure this was my 10th year drawing at this party. Thank you for having us, as always!

December birthdays...do they get swallowed up by the holidays?

Not in this case!

On Friday, I drew for the guests of a late-night party, where the vivacious birthday girl was so busy greeting her guests that she messaged a photo to my Iphone--and I was able to come up with this!
The festivities were held in a beautiful former DuPont mansion built circa 1739:

My easel and I were situated in a lounge just outside the ballroom, which made it nice for me--I could talk to my subjects and still enjoy the live band:

Here is some of my night's output!

I love getting to see so many interesting venues.

I'm sure the people who lived here in the eighteenth century never envisioned this for their home's future:

Doggie commission!

I like to draw canine facial features as well as human ones:

This handsome chap belongs to a family I drew at last month's Irish Festival. They decided to combine all my caricatures for their Christmas card, but were missing one family member---Archie here. So some photos were emailed, a drawing to match the other ones (BW party-style) commenced, then was scanned and sent back. I hope I get one of their cards! :-) Boston terriers are particularly adorable, aren't they?

There's still plenty of time for me to do this type of commission before Christmas. If you are interested,  $25 for one BW subject with color background, includes scan and shipping (USA only). Please email me at Emily@Emilyarts.com.

A magical, memory-making Christmas party

Every December, this family-owned company does something completely magical for the kids of its employees---a Christmas party like no other:

And that's just the entrance hall! The showroom floor is transformed into the actual party area:

All the kids get to make a gingerbread house, along with other kids' crafts, and there are also carolers, a face painter, a photobooth, gifts and a visit with Santa, and of course, two happy caricaturists! That's my colleague John Sprague who brought his blossoming beardly beauty.

We were in a newly-expanded party area that encompassed part of the company's warehouse. Thank you to the gentleman who facilitated that:

I told him that as much as I loved our previous very festive location in the main room near the tree, (this was my fourth year doing this party) it was very loud (the carolers' speaker was always next to us) and not as open as where we were this year. And he'd provided benches for our sitters, so whole families could sit comfortably. This party is definitely about families! I barely use any paper because it's mostly threesomes, foursomes and fivesomes. Or sometimes it's a whole lotta of elves:

Yes, John fit all six of them on one sheet of paper :-)

Here's a few of my sitters:

Some of these families have been drawn every year that I've been there, so their collection is growing! :-)

To our right, the talented face painter plied her skill and Santa skied his way over our heads. 

Here are some of her creations:

We are always invited to eat at this gig, and I am always happy to see soft pretzel bites, because they are one of the few things I can handle while drawing. :-)

And my day ended with my own visit to Santa:

Merry Christmas!!