Corporate gift caricatures!

This was another fun party-style commission, for some corporate gifts, received through Gigmasters. My client shared these two photos of the honorees with me:

I had to ask if the gentleman on the right started working for the company as a small child!! He hadn't, but almost! ;-)

Shown below is my process. I always do a pencil rough first, so the client can make any  requested changes then---but especially for my hand-drawn party-style caricatures. Unlike digital caricature, once it's inked traditionally, there can be no changes.

The rough usually shows a general likeness that gets sharper and sharper, the more I do to the art. 

Kind of like a Polaroid developing….I always used to love to see that!

Here's what my client had to say after their presentation:

THEY WERE ECSTATIC OVER IT!!! The crowd went crazy for both portraits! Thank you, thank you, thank you so many times for the beautiful job you did for us!!!    The honored guests were most appreciative of their gifts!!! I will promote you and your talents every chance I get!!!  

 Thank YOU for being such a great client and enjoying my artwork so much! :-)

Homecoming/Graduation party sign-in caricature

A recent, very-fun-to-do party-style commission! The subject recently returned from a stint in the Peace Corps and is going on to graduate school. Her family gave her a surprise party, which included this sign-in caricature:

This piece was done completely via email---instead of snail-mailing the original, I scanned it and sent it to her local FedEx Office, where it was to be printed on foam-core board. My client said:

"Thank you! Everyone loved it. I gave out your website to a lot of people!"

And today ( 7-27-14) she emailed me THIS:

They printed her BIG!!! It looks like 18' x 24". 

Thank you, again!!!!

Some lively professional photos from a wedding I did earlier this year...

A nice surprise arrived in my email yesterday. Jess Badgley was the photographer for a spring wedding I did, at the Washington Crossing Inn. She shared the great photos she took in my little corner of the reception….I love how they tell the story of what I do. :-)

Thank you so much, Jess! I hope to return the favor in caricature-kind. :-D

Community Day caricatures for the third year running...

This little waterfront town REALLY likes caricatures. Their Community Day is usually one of my longest gigs of the year, and one of the most fun!

For the previous two years, the weather was sweltering, but this year everyone was remarking on the pleasant temperatures and nice breezes coming off the river (which was right behind me!)

Families and kids abound at this very popular event (the whole town goes crazy with yard sales, barbecues, a parade, boats, a craft festival…the only thing lacking is parking. ;-) I had a huge line twenty minutes before start time, so I didn't photograph much all day. I did get these few:

In fact, I had such a big line, that I was a little afraid to take a lunch break. So when I got a friendly lady in my chair, she offered to go get me a sandwich so I could keep drawing the whole time...

Haha, the little blonde kid was a hoot.

This family told me they got many compliments on the one I did of them last year, which is framed and hung proudly along their stairs.

She smiled during the caricature but not for the photo!

 He smiled the WHOLE TIME!

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A reporter came while I was caricaturing in Maine...

…and wrote a very nice article about Ben's and my artistic endeavors in Boothbay Harbor, that appeared today in their community newspaper. She'd happened by on one of my last days up there, watched us draw quite a few faces, and then asked good questions---probably because she's a watercolorist herself. 

Click here to read the whole article:

http://www.boothbayregister.com/article/pencil-mileage-talent-or-both/37326

Thanks, Suzi!

My caricatures used as people's profile pics...

…always makes me feel good! :-)

Emily's birthday AND grad party!

A similarly-named young lady celebrated two milestones this weekend, and my caricatures were part of the fun. Her party was held in a very quaint, Victorian bed and breakfast:

I LOVE when I have comfy benches for my sitters.

There's the girl of the moment!

And here's an assortment of her family and friends:

Siblings. Two showing gums and one not. :-)

I drew hearts and then found out it wasn't like that. So I crossed out the hearts and wrote "Just Friends" 

Three happy ladies.

Two brothers who said they already had a caricature. One said it was a good one, and the other said it was a bad one….so I said, we'll see if I can make you laugh. And I did. ;-)

Grandson and grandmother. Adorable!

Above: two sisters-in-law, they hadn't seen it yet when I took the photo….  (see further below ;-) 

The last caricature bears a little explanation. It was toward the end of the party, and the daughter asked for a triple with her parents. I directed them to my bench, and absent-mindedly proceeded to draw them as a couple----I'd forgotten to leave space for the daughter!! Since she was light-heartedly busting on her dad the whole time, the perfect solution occurred to me---make her into a little devil. ;-)

I LOVE MY JOB!!!

You can see the last three groups' reactions below:

Thanksto Emily and her family for having me! Congrats again!

Update 7-17-14: Emily's dad just sent me this feedback! :-)

I was planning a high school graduation party for my daughter and felt I needed some sort of entertainment that would appeal to everyone and make for a memorable occasion. One of my first ideas was to bring in a mobile photobooth to have people get pictures together. After researching this and thinking about it I stumbled onto the better idea of a caricature artist. My only experience was at amusement parks where I watched the artists work but never took the time or money to have one drawn. I found Emily Anthony on the net and corrosponded through E-mail. She was Awesome at the party! People who did not know each other began to talk and laugh among themselves. Watching her work and seeing the reactions from the people she drew when done was so much fun! It turned out to be a much better choice than a photobooth at less than half the price!

Thank you so much! It's nice to hear about the aspect that I usually miss, because I am so focused on the people in my chairs and the artwork I am doing right then----the effect my caricatures have on the party atmosphere. It is definitely an icebreaker!

I learned to draw lobsters...

…because they were my schtick for some caricatures in Boothbay Harbor, Maine last week! Folks don't care about cartoon crabs or seagulls way up there.

Complicated little buggers!

The trip took all day and my arrival coincided with sunset… and the drive up was my first time in New England, ever! This is the first photo I took in a VERY picturesque state:

Unfortunately, that was the last sunlight seen for a few days, as the rains from Tropical Storm Arthur arrived to drench the region and make Fourth of July celebrations impossible. :-( 

Below: Boothbay Harbor itself

This one is the actual Atlantic Ocean before the storm came. 

Arthur did make for some dramatic photos. :-)

When the sun returned, so did the caricaturists.  I was the "guest artist"of my friend Ben, whom I met at the ISCA convention and through mutual friends….

Here's some of his wonderful airbrush work, and his subjects' happy reaction:

So I had a lot to live up to! :-D

Here's the working environment: 

Here's the standard diet:

Haha, no, I didn't eat lobster rolls every day. But I could have!

On to: THE CaRiCaTuReS! 

I wanted to make a Maine-centric sample, and almost everything I knew about Maine came through the writings of this man. So Ben and I both made samples of him. Ben's is meaner….and funnier. ;-)

I caught this couple taking a photo of my Stephen while it was still on my easel. 

Here, I have to say that I really didn't enjoy using my French easel for airbrushing. I had the top slanted down far more than I do when using markers and art six, to better be able to see my subjects. Ben's sturdy desk worked much better. Live and learn...

Lobsters adorned many, many of my drawings for the week. It was extremely appropriate for the little family shown here, as he was proprietor of and chief lobster-roll-maker of the little deli across the way. (and where I got the delicacy pictured above. :-)

These two worked in a local restaurant and had a great reaction…such an awesome one, that I flubbed which way to hold my phone because I was enjoying them so much:

I also drew lots of lighthouses and  a few moose…

The above gentleman was ninety years old, a WWII vet, and his family wanted him to sit for me! He said, "Make sure you get my hat right" and I promised him I would. 

It was interesting to me (and very cool!) that many more senior citizens opted to get caricatures done than what I'm used to. Below, a grandmom and grand-daughter done in black-and-white: (with a lighthouse, of course.)

I also drew plenty of kids during my time there.

This young lady came along when Mars was visible right next to the waxing moon. Yup I drew it too!

SHE wanted a lighthouse, and HE wanted GRUMPY CAT! (luckily, Ben had a sample of the ubiquitous feline, so I just copied it…the credit is all his ;-)

Lest dogs be left out, THIS one came along:

This teenager put her caricature in the window of the adjacent pizza place while she was eating with her family! Free advertising!!

I did get a few spare minutes to get some lovely photos of Maine in the sunshine. This is the harbor some ways up from where we were situated:

And this is the ocean again:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, that would be the life!

Thank you, Ben,  and goodbye Maine! That's the LAST photo I took on my trip. :-)