A lenticularly frightening face for Halloween...

Happy Halloween! When this post goes up (it's automated) I'll be dressed up and drawing already at a morning party, wearing a brooch with this handsome countenance on it...

The really cool thing about it is that it's lenticular! I've always been fascinated with such images. (I've owned since teenage-hood a John Lennon/Beatles pin that can be seen in this post.)

What has this to do with caricature or for caricaturists? I recently ran across this Kickstarter campaign for a company that will produce anyone's GIF as a lenticular card. Imagine what this could do with a series of caricatures. or caricature business cards, etc?

BW airbrush caricatures

Back in Texas, color caricatures were certainly king of the ranch, but there was always a small population that opted for black-and-white. Sometimes it had to do with cost, but more often it was that they already owned a collection of BW's. 

Awww! They immediately photographed it to share on social media. :-)

Couldn't resist the lure of yellow on this one!

I told these two they were perfect candidates for caricature!

Couple caricatures + REACTIONS!

The payoff moment as a caricaturist is when I show people the results of my efforts:

Above: A father and daughter with mobile eyebrows...

That's the wife/mom in the background saying "I love it" :-)

Web link here: http://seenive.com/v/1001294787712000000

Beers included!!

I love it when they bend from the waist in all directions when they see it!

http://seenive.com/v/998089179395149824

She had one of the most perfectly round faces I'd ever seen on an adult!

You can really hear the compressor in that one.

http://seenive.com/v/996279897024602112

Finally, two of my favorite faithful yearly be-backs (I video-ed them two years ago, too)

This one was a mental workout for me... my overloaded brain was trying to draw/airbrush it, get in-progress shots and leave enough time at the end for their reaction. I used the Vine app to get these and they have a 6-second limit.

http://seenive.com/v/995818357922361344

Not to mention revealing the caricature and simultaneously shooting video with my phone without missing out on enjoying the reaction!

Caricaturing for Zombies

Halloween, one of my favorite holidays, always includes caricaturing at a Halloween party (or two :-)

Last night, I found myself in a house of undead...

Drawing bloody Amish:

 This is a woman who got progressively more ill throughout the party...

(she was bitten by a feral child, she said...and her injury was not store bought...she made it herself. Wonderful thing, that internet!)

A very few dared to come un-costumed:

The group photos were taken at the very end, so some people had already left, but you can see what kind of fun I had drawing these!!! The red Prismacolor marker got a workout.

The party hosts were deadly serious about decorating. ;-)

Every room induced groans ( and laughter!!)

But the masterpiece was their pantry door: (below right)

Unsettling but ingenious!

There were even custom-made (by the hostess herself) folders for my caricatures!

Gigmasters has really sent my way some stupendous clients. 

Yay! and THANK YOU!!!!

Linework+Airbrush

This is what one of my caricatures looks like---before, and after, airbrush rendering is added:

My drawing part goes quicker than my airbrushing part, but I'd guesstimate I can do each person, start to finish, in about eight minutes.

 THIS is what it looks like when they see it!

We were all moving a bit too much to get a non-blurred photo. :-)

More than One or Two Texans...

...in a single caricature drawing:

This family asked me to add the whole State Fair of Texas experience, which included the new Top 'o Texas Tower ride, on the right. One night, I was able to try that myself, along with colleague Celestia Ward and visiting digital caricaturist Sam Gorrie (who was in Dallas for a corporate gig and spent a day at the Fair):

 or click here to see: http://seenive.com/v/995544601249107968

Yes, the iconic Fletcher's corny dog is stalking Sam.

Here are a few more triple-or-more caricatures from my airbrush:

This family sat for me, and when I showed it to them, the mom was actually pleased I'd included the dad's prosthetic arm. She said, "Thanks! People usually ignore that and it's a part of his life." I told her I always draw what I see. :-)

Above left: a mom with Texan big hair, her daughters and granddaughter. On the right is a group of friends. Whew! I fit them all in!

Below: some more family groups.

 I exclusively used my Iphone for photos this year, and not my regular camera, and was able to use an app (Diptic) to make collages like this one:

Lastly, these are pics where I couldn't get everyone rounded up for a group photo. My usual routine is to draw kids first so they don't have to sit for long...and oftentimes they're back in their stroller long before the end!

The airbrush and the artist have both arrived home from Texas...

Another State Fair of Texas has both flown/crawled by and I got through it! (at my advanced age ;-)

 It flew when it was busy but it also seemed as though all of us artists existed only to draw endless lines of faces, and pretty much nothing else. I rode one ride and had exactly two corny dogs (in fact, one of the LAST at the close of the entire Fair itself) but of course those are not the reasons why I go...this is:

Texans reeeeeeeeally love their caricatures.

Once again, I bunked with airbrush caricature virtuoso Celestia Ward (who has just started a blog! Check out her first thoughts on our experience) and our two male artists/roomies who are no slouches either. I'm really lucky to work with such skilled colleagues. 

Below: Celestia and I meeting the creepy, revamped Big Tex. After last year's roasting, he's been completely rebuilt, and the general consensus is, from people we spoke to: he is ugly and disproportionate.

I don't airbrush much the rest of the year, so there's always a "get back in the saddle" aspect for me once I get here. In this blog post, I am going to share some of my single caricatures...where the sitter had the whole paper to themselves:

Some young ladies...

Some even younger young men...

I like drawing sunglasses...and braces...

 Two more mature young ladies ;-)

This guy asked to be drumming...I think I did better on the spotlights than I did on the drumsticks...

This trio all had stupendous EYEBROWS...

and finally, an overdose of cuteness!

Plenty more Texas 2013 posts to come...

State Fair of Texas 2013

HOWDY, folks! I'm currently caricaturing in the land of Big Tex:

The 'new' Big Tex is a wonky caricature of himself! Last year, he burned to a crisp due to an electrical shirt in his boot. This year's revamped version has a creepier face and his legs look waaaaaay out of proportion. I liked the old one better!

To see what caricatures I've been creating, visit my Facebook page Caricatures by Emily for the time being.