Grad commissions...

Every June, I draw a few cap-and-gowns for party-sign-ins and this year was no exception...

Congrats to all!

Incoming college freshman know how to party...

Get back now y'all....cha cha real smooth...

Yeah, I get THAT ONE stuck in my head sometimes!

While that crew was dancing, I had another bunch waiting patiently for a caricature. And again, it was a night where my paper stack dwindled only slightly. :-)

Good luck, new frosh!

College Grad party

Sunday's festivities honored a recent college grad....the first thing I did on arrival was to letter her lawn sign :-)

Here is the lovely grad herself, she's still getting used to cute short hair-- after having a long flowing mane cut off. I didn't recognize her at first because her sign-in grad photo still showed looooonnnng hair. My caricature captured her new look:

Deja vu also sneaked into my mind immediately: in addition to having drawn in the same gazebo a few weeks ago for another party,

...they were also serving the same delicacy as Saturday's party!!

This one had stuffing in it and was so tasty. The caterer, Aquilante's, and I exchanged business  cards...his food was definitely worth raving over.

I drew lots of family and friends. Here's a sampling:

 The proud parents...

 Every family needs an Uncle Bob!

 The hot grandmom! I made sure to draw the glittering lizard brooch on her bosom.

 Friends...

Below: the grad and her BF. I love height discrepancies!

Someone brought me a delightful dessert---frozen orange pieces with sorbet on top. Mmmmm.

Her cake was pretty awesome too!

Caught a little snippet on video!

Thank you Gina and family!!!!!!

Pig Roast Caricaturing (burp)

Yesterday, I worked with colleague Patrick Harrington at a big backyard pig roast...

Two about-to-draw caricaturists before the festivities began, with the deceased guest of honor:

We started out in a beautiful air-conditioned sunroom that had clouds painted on the ceilings:

The fruits of our pens:

 This couple had been to Bangkok so we compared notes on our travels!

Below: Pat doing his thing!

We had a steady supply of faces, but not much of an audience while we were inside, so we moved out into a shady part of the yard:

 Here's a mother with her four youngsters! ;-)

 Their kids scampered off to the pool, leaving Mom and Dad to collect their caricature.

 Below: They were all making jokes about 'who was the baby daddy', so of course I had to include

 that in-joke!

They even had a piggy piñata!

Pat had to evacuate the piñata-smacking area!

Some more views of a happy bunch of people:

 Pat and I had some of the fantastic pork and other picnic food---scrumptious!

The giant beach balls were hilarious as people gently bounced them on unsuspecting party-goers. 

My wonderful client, whom I've drawn for several times before, had invited me beforehand to bring a guest and my bathing suit. Couldn't bring the former as he's out of town, but I did bring the latter! Thank you Joelle!!!

Here are some reactions to enjoy:

Brand new college students get oriented....and caricatured!

These kids were high school seniors earlier this month--but their new college holds orientation in June. Par-tay!! :-)

I barely used any paper at this gig because so many of them wanted quadruple caricatures! 

And some very mirthful reactions ensued:

Sweaty sketchin'

A heat wave doesn't stop live caricaturists from their appointed rounds! :-)

Yesterday, I was challenged not only by 96 degrees F, but also a request of the client. The occasion was an open house/fair for a dental practice, and the dentist wanted his family and staff drawn in color on three 18 x 24 sheets. The challenge wasn't so much the larger format, but how to compositionally fit everyone, as they requested bodies and a fair theme as well. Here they are in the order I completed them. The ladies sat one at a time, and I drew all their faces first, then added the bodies.

At first, I was told eleven people total, so I figured four ladies on each end and the dentist and his wife and son in the middle, but then I found out there were nine dental technicians-- and they hadn't thought I could include the dentist's younger children...so I had to put one dental tech flat on her stomach to fit her in the second drawing, and add two more kids to the third! 

Another fun aspect of this is that I wasn't in it alone, sweltering along next to me 

was my friend Colin Harris. We were representing Entertaining ConXections. Here he is gripping that marker in his uniquely-Colin way:

 Every kid I drew had a flushed face, and I am 100% certain I did too!

People will come out for fun no matter how hot it gets!

Here's a little piece of the day's vibe, and you can hear how loud the generator for the inflatables was---we were situated right near it:

Afterwards Colin and I sought out some AC and found it in a nearby pizza place, before I had to head off for an evening college event which, thankfully, would be held in their gym. :-)