Cocktail party/award ceremony super-hero caricatures...

This gentleman film historian was one of two recipients of an award from the prestigious Philadelphia Film Society (I didn't get a photo of the lady recipient , as I drew her before she won)...

The client, who came to me via The Bash, requested super-hero bodies for everyone! So I printed up a male and female version, then had only to add the faces. And, in the interests of getting everyone drawn in inside of two hours, I did my line-drawing only caricatures.  Here are some of the other guests:

The  festivities were held in a nice commons area in a Center City condo...

These were VERY cushy and unusual chairs from what I usually sit on at gigs!

Here's a view out the front window, some of the old and new buildings of Philadelphia:

Thanks for having me!

ISCA convention 2016...awards night!

Roomies ready to descend on the dinner/awards banquet! Well, actually our room was on the ground floor, so we didn't really have to descend, but...you get my drift.

Below, a panoramic view of a roomful of caricaturists all dressed to the nines! Click to enlarge!

Check out some of the amazing styles of these artists!!!

The Austrians!!!

The Michael White!!!

The dear, dear Dutch friend!

Tablemates...

Anticipation!!

There were lots of lady winners in 2016; these are the Outstanding 3d winners!

After all ceremonies are done, the subjects receive their caricatures:

Til next con, adieu!

ISCA convention 2016...my caricature efforts

The 2016 ISCA convention was held the week after the shocking 2016 Presidential election. So there were a few Trumps in the Studio Caricature competition. I decided to do a paper doll of the new First Lady, Melania...in her pussy-bow (real fabric, fake pearl ;-) shirt, next to her pussy-grabbing(!!!!!) husband (done by my friend, Sundini).

So, during the convention, we caricaturists do drawings of each other, to be judged by our peers for several categories of awards. I decided to do more paper dolls...

My subjects were the ever-popular Lar de Souza, Jeff Redford, (above) and Court Jones and his lovely wife Debbo. Here they are in progress at some ungodly hour of the morning...

This is how they looked on the 3D table for voting:

Wearing their little wardrobes:

To my surprise, they took third place in the Outstanding 3d Caricature category!!!!

My ISCA con studio piece...the British Royal Family

Last November (yes, I really do have a backlog of stuff to catch up on blog-wise) I was considering what subject to do for my entry in the annual ISCA convention's studio caricature competition. In the news was Prince Harry's latest peccadillo...being photographed naked in his hotel suite with some ladies, in Las Vegas (who woulda thunk it???). Anyway, I thought it would be funny to do him as a paper doll, whose clothes would not be included...and with the famous Vegas sign covering his nether regions. Then his sister-in-law the Duchess of Cambridge was photographed topless, and I thought, ooooooh...how nice for me, now I get to draw her too, but that meant I might as well do the whole Royal Family as paper dolls, since it was also the Queen's Jubilee! The idea of depicting the Queen in an old-lady slip with her tiara and giant purse really tickled me. ;-)
Airbrush was my choice of medium for this project, which meant they were drawn in pencil and marker, then painted with my trusty Iwata.  This part was done in between customers at my boardwalk stand in August. When I got home, I scanned them into Photoshop for some painted touch-ups, then had FedEx Office print them on a glossy cardboard. The clothes (which were lots of fun to design) were printed on magnetic paper so they would stay on the paper dolls without tabs (I later affixed magnets to the dolls' backs.) Here is one stage of their creation...on the carpet in my studio, my first test printing:

Once I had them printed and cut out, it was time for a pretty backing paper. A royal blue glittery scrapbooking paper seemed just right. This part was done between customers at my booth at the Irish Festival!

Once at the convention, I still had work to do... constructing a little Buckingham Palace backdrop for them out of more scrapbooking stuff, adding stick-on rhinestones wherever appropriate*, and making stands for the dolls. I'd bought some black-and-white checkered packaging tape that suited my purposes very well (especially since it reminded me of the floors in Westminster Abbey which I'd visited earlier that year...). Finally I added a little "please dress us!"sign.

The display was organized at first...then people started to play with them! yay!

Someone put Prince William in drag...... :-D

Prince Phillip had been in very poor health for most of last year...if he had passed away after I made his paper doll I was going to put a "discontinued" sign on him!

The ISCA convention attracts some of the best caricature artists in the world and there were many, many entries in this category that were amazing. Imagine my surprise when my name was called for second place for best studio caricature!!

Thanks to Celestia Ward for the video!

First place was taken by Brian Oakes for a fantastic watercolor painting of Marky Mark...third place was won by Karel Opdebeeck for a massive sculpture of his brother Jan Opdebeeck (they are a family of amazingly talented artists).

My award was a painted scroll by master calligrapher (and friend) Jeff Redford. I am just as happy about having his handwork as I am about winning an award. :-)

Now what will I create for this year?????

*Kate got a rhinestone pasty.