November is always an exciting month for me, it's when the International Society of Caricature Artists holds its annual get-together somewhere in the USA. In 2015, the city was Sandusky, Ohio, which meant I could drive to it. The first night is our opening ice-breaker reception and Artfight, which is always fun. Caricaturists of the world, unite!!
Bright and early the next morning the seminars started with Caricature 101, featuring past Golden Nosey winner Paul Gaunt. His style is classy and funny and clean all at the same time. He did several caricatures while explaining his particular process.
One of our guest speakers was a personable young illustrator named Torren Thomas, who spoke of his inspirations, and diligent hard work on his part--to become proficient and then a master of digital portraiture. That's his Breaking Bad sketch and color chart. We also had noted artist C.F. Payne with us, who did that lovely little John-Lennon-as-a-child sketch...and showed us a range of his art (heavy on baseball figures ;-).
Next up was the Likeness Competition..a roomful of artists all drawing the same subject:
Here was my version:
and here are those of my colleagues:
They run the gamut, don't they?
In another room, there's a time slot set aside for the Party Artist competition. A real party is simulated for the competing artists...with music, food, and hecklers!
While that's going on, in the main ballroom there are dozens of artists hard at work on their "walls" which will be judged by their peers at the end of the week. This is my dear friend Lar...beyond him was an area of heavy hitters...two past Golden Nosey winners, and 2015's eventual winner.
One of the aforementioned heavy-hitters: Jason Seiler and his amazing Steven Tyler caricature which Steven himself shot down for commercial use--he HATED it!
Another competition some artists look forward to all year is the Speed Competition. How many recognizable likenesses can one artist draw in five minutes? Bruce here has the right idea!
An amazing silhouette cutter showed up this year and I was mesmerized by his work:
I want to do that!!!
People pull all nighters at this convention!
Once free competition time is over, we have a break before the awards ceremonies. So we decided to go see what there was in Sandusky...
We did find a pretty manhole cover!
Part #2 will be next---artworks and awards.
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