I started a Tumblr...

Jumping on another bandwagon late!

I started another blog... on Tumblr, which I don't quite know how to use yet. A couple of my friends, Lar, Marlo, and Seo, are having a good time there.

My first post is about drawing at the State Fair of Texas, (co-drawn with Celestia Ward) where I'll be heading very soon---for another round of corny dogs, pig races and Texan faces. 

Here's the link: Emily's Tumblr Blog.

My studio (I wish!)

Last week, I was able to go away for a few days, and meet up with some friends in a lakeside cabin in upstate NY (a place I've only ever driven through). Now I know why people rave about how blissfully peaceful it is up there.

Still had caricatures to do, of course! :-)

Gigmasters photo contest

My caricatures have been featured on Gigmasters.com since 2008 and they have been a reliable source of gigs for me. They have expanded in a big way since then, with better features for clients to find party entertainment, blogs, contests, etc. Right now, they're having a photo contest...and I had the perfect picture to showcase what I do! Taken by my intrepid S.O, (one of dozens that he took) it's from Taylor and Josh's wedding last May, and it shows all the subjects in the caricature having a good time while being drawn. It also shows my look of concentration...I added in the finished caricature via Photoshop.


Here is the link to the contest, voting takes place on Facebook. Please vote for me, and thank you if you do! Right now, I'm in 10th place out of 38. :-)

Company picnic on crisp, lovely day

On Saturday my travels took me to a big corporate park, where the usual fun-day festivities were taking place, on a be-yoot-i-ful day:

There were four caricaturists, which made short work of a long line:

My cohorts to the right were the usual suspects, Patrick and John, whom I've worked alongside on many an occasion:

However, on my left was Schay Glover, whom I'd met at a previous ISCA con but never had the pleasure of gigging with before:

Above: At the end, he did a really cool profile caricature of this couple, whom I'd drawn earlier frontally:

The company must have put out a memo to wear Philly sports team stuff, as we drew lots of green or red:

Afterwards, we celebrated another successful gig... :-)

Photo gift from an onlooker...

I was recently given a photo by a passerby at my fair this past July...

I'm drawing (coloring, actually)  a mom who was in the chair while her daughter watches and waits for her turn. :-)

My monitor is displaying my caricature DVD that took me hours to make in iMovie, which also played in my booth in OCNJ. The current picture is a marker drawing I did of Sophia Loren. Nice snapshot and thank you!

Rolling--oops, I mean DRAWING---on the river...

On Monday evening, I had the rare weekday corporate gig---on a yacht no less!

It's been quite a few years since I last drew on a boat (for several Junes in a row, I did a cruise 'round the Statue of Liberty for a small private school's grad celebration) so I was interested in seeing if I still had seaworthy skills. :-) Guess I did...

This lady blocked the real sun for me while I was drawing her hubby, so of course it ended up in their caricature..

These two were ribbing each other the whole time, so had to include this speech bubble (in his native language, that I dredged up from some atrophied French-speaking recess in my brain). They guffawed for quite a while when they saw it. :-)

I mistakenly thought this woman was half of a couple, so when I found out she wasn't, she got the actual background included in hers!

Below: The sunset was serene and I'd never seen Philly from THIS vantage point! The guests were all from out of town, so I was telling them how our tallest skyscraper, the Comcast building, reminds me of a giant USB flash drive...

As the evening turned into night, we ventured south of Philly's iconic Ben Franklin Bridge and I kept caricaturing a happy crowd...

One gentlemen showed me his daughter's reaction to the photo he'd sent her of his drawing:

LOL!!!!

One more pic of Philly:

I love my job!

Back to Birdland...with a difference

I'm an occasional addition to the roster of caricaturists at Camden Yards...and since my easel has travelled to so many different new venues this summer, I haven't set foot there for months. This past Sunday, I found out that the Orioles are actually in playoff contention and are having their first winning season (winning more games than they've lost) since 1997!!!
So, it was a sellout crowd---composed of half O's fans..and half YANKEE fans...and this couple were one of each!

Here's a few more people who sat for my caricatures while enjoying the game----on a day where the early fall weather was absolutely perfect...

Below: There's the head honcho, Rick, hard at work during the pre-game festivities. The line towards the back is made up of folks waiting to get BBQ sandwiches at Boog's....

Saw some interesting sights, as usual...newlyweds!  (His t-shirt had a tux printed on it, but they got past me before I could snap a frontal photo)

This elderly lady in a wheelchair had just as much spirit as the bare-chested painted-up guys whom one sees at every game...

My colleague Jerry was asked to write this phrase on a caricature...and I thought it looked so funny in his signature calligraphy that I just had to take a photo:

After the game ended, the convention going on across the street, the Baltimore Comic Con, ended as well. So Rick and I strolled over to see our friend Lar DeSouza---caricaturist and now online comic genius who was fronting the Blind Ferret Entertainment booth. And just all-around sweet guy. AND GOOD HUGGER!

Bye-bye to OC

My boardwalk-caricaturing experience has come to an end, along with summer itself. Now, when people tell me I "ought to be doing this down the shore" I can say I have!

Although tiring to work every single day for more than a month, the rewards were great: the sea air, the sound of surf, the wonderful families and couples I got to meet, and having my S.O. with me for most of the time. He was a huge help. I even had time to work on my studio entry for the upcoming ISCA convention on slow days...

Without further ado, here are some of the faces that chanced upon me and my easel in the last days of summer...

First, LITTLE KIDS AND BABIES:

Here's that little guy from above again...

TWEENS and TEENS:

COUPLES:

 This young woman had never seen the ocean before, being a Midwesterner, so it was a big day for her, bound to be even bigger when the gentleman silently mouthed to me as they left, "I'm going to propose to her later today." :-)

This couple were my very last customers of the season. It was their 1st (paper) anniversary so a caricature was appropriate. They'd even gotten married on an OC beach. 

FAMILIES:

(Their baby is in the photo AND the caricature!) 

Couldn't resist snapping a pic as they admired it after leaving...

Now for the ETCs....

Below: a grandmom and grand-daughter:

This is the ONLY dog I drew, because dogs weren't allowed on the boardwalk! ;-D

Here are some hot single ladies---

This gentleman had a caricature I'd done of him probably five or more years ago, on his phone! Just bumped into my booth serendipitously!

This one was done as a "thank you" for mentors and dear friends of this lady. Did her from life and the couple from a photograph. Hope they like it! She said she liked her "crazy eyes". :-)

Soooooo...on to some of the beachside vibe of OCNJ

 during my stay. Never a dull moment! Sunsets, storms, blue moons, seagull rampages, weddings, proposals, etc, etc etc. Enjoy!

My little corner in Surf Mall for August...next to the crab fries. Crab fries have become the menu item du jour for these critters:

This beauty was taken from the pavillion next to the Music Pier. You can see where I drew every day, waaay down the boardwalk on the right, with the teal roof. This might just be one of the most impressive photos I've ever gotten, and I took it on my iPhone!

The Chatterbox restaurant is a downtown OC landmark, where we had breakfast. Screen icon Grace Kelly worked here as young teen (her family summered here for many years, long before she became Princess Grace).

One day, I was getting a slice of pizza for dinner, and saw this wedding on the dunes! On another afternoon, a plane pulled this banner through the sky:

The moon was the star of the show for a few nights...this was the blue moon.

Another night, it was already there at sunset:

The sunsets WERE amazing, even though they aren't directly on the ocean. And there was NO CHANCE of me getting up early enough to see a sunrise, sorry...

Storms..there weren't many, and none ruined the evening busy hours, but the few I saw were dramatic!

but after rain comes the rainbow...

The oldest business on the boardwalk is a candy store called Shriver's that's been going strong since 1898. Of course, I had to patronize them...

I wasn't the only artist in town. We chanced upon some other examples of various artistic endeavors:

This one was by far my favorite, a stunningly beautiful mural in a Greek restaurant called Katina's:

I loved how the painted chairs are the same as the real chairs. The faces, expressions and skin texture were rendered touchingly and expertly. The artist, Tony Troy, had (happily for me) signed his work prominently.

Another breakfast restaurant had a nice OCNJ themed mural on its wall...

On the boardwalk, we saw evidence of (but did not meet) two other practitioners of facial arts... one was the resident caricaturist of the north end of the boards, and the other was a pencil portraitist in a spot in a food court (which did not seem as if it had been occupied recently). (My spot was towards the other end of the 2.5 mile boardwalk.)

The old-time photo studio also had some original art adorning its front, particularly General Grant!

Did I show you my parking spot? Commuting was so much fun here!!

Finally, many many thanks go to my long-suffering S.O. who lovingly puts up with my extreme right-brained tendencies. You are a saint, JB. 

And thank you to Tassia and John for this opportunity. :-)