Bar Mitzvah 2016

This Russian restaurant was the venue for a young man's low-key bar mitzvah celebration. I was ensconced in an alcove:

Here's the young man of the moment:

and some of his family and friends!

Mazel Tov, Michael!

Backyard BBQ caricatures

Second year running at this family BBQ! Love-love-LOVE the faces I get to draw here!

Didn't take many pics---I just have these two,  as I was swamped with eager sitters. 

Thanks to my client, for both the event--- and the feedback: Very pleased with Emily. I have used Emily for the last two years for my annual family bbq. My entire family looks forward to the caricatures. Emily is very engaging and professional.  

...and thanks to Gigmasters!

A fine day on campus welcoming incoming freshmen, although I drew many upperclassmen volunteers! Lots of reaction shots at this event. :-)

 

An NFC-East Wedding

What kind of caricature do you draw when a Philadelphia Eagles fan marries a Dallas Cowboys fan? How does this relationship even exist?

Well, I couldn't draw them killing each other, could I? So I did this digital caricature, using their respective football team's--oops, I mean wedding colors, which was used as their wedding sign-in!

  I also drew at their reception:

Time-lapse caricature!!!

PREGNANCY REVEAL CARICATURE!!!

As of this writing, the Eagle-Cowboy marriage is still intact, and the pregnancy-reveal folks have a baby girl. THAT'S HOW FAR BEHIND I AM ON MY BLOG!!!!! But I'm working on it ;-)

Star Trek Silhouettes---in VEGAS!!!!

MY VERY FIRST SILHOUETTE GIG!!!!! 

was at the official 2016 Star Trek convention held at the Rio in Las Vegas!!!

Every day for five days in a row, my fingers kept busy doing a four-hour morning or afternoon shift, cutting live silhouettes for the enjoyment of Trekkie convention-goers. Other artists nearby included my friend Celestia Ward, doing digital caricatures, Roger the Balloon Wizard, a lady face painter, henna artists...all sorts of neat stuff---themed to the science fiction show we all love. 

I designed a background for my silhouettes which incorporated various elements from  Star Trek: The Original Series, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary. They could choose from Command Gold, Science Blue, or Certain-Death-Red. ;-)

Folks were adding them to their binders along with their precious actor autographs and photo ops:

Here you can see me cutting out this fearsome Gorn!!!

(By the way, I crafted my own skirt out of Star Trek Tiki fabric designed by my friend Lar de Souza, which you can buy at that link.  He's an amazing artist who should have been there too---lots of artists seem to be major Trekkies. TOS was definitely my favorite show when I was a kid/young teen.)

Look at all the variety here!!!

My scissors got a workout. I was using small Martha Stewart ones, after this event I decided to splurge on some bigger, German surgical steel ones which I use now.

So what else went on there, you ask?

Let me show you!!

Cosplay on a grand scale:

I don't know how Heisenberg got in there...

When I wasn't working, I was having FUN!

Saw Captain Kirk!!

I got to meet the OTHER John Byrne ;-)

Saw lots of TNG folk...and UHURA!!!!!

This is Roger and his wonderful balloon Enterprise!!

This is Celestia with her incredibly-in-demand digital caricatures:

Many thanks to her for sharing my skills with the convention organizers, which led to them booking me and my silhouettes. :-)

 Mr Spock says we were FASCINATING!!!

An evening of busking in Vegas

Las Vegas has a tradition of street performers all over the place, and the day after my gig at the Star Trek convention ended, I joined them!

The local artists do line drawings only, in the interests of speed, so that's what I did too...even though they feel unfinished to me, without any shading:

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

National Night Out Caricatures--- in a far away locale....

My next gig required a ride on an airplane.
This artist decided to start a new venture in her career, in Las Vegas, of all places, but that will be the subject of the next blog post.  ;-)
The night before that,  though, I did a outdoor caricature gig, alongside my dear colleague, Celestia...in the summer....near LAS VEGAS...HOT HOT HOTTTTT....and I survived!!!