Why Don't We do 12th birthday caricatures?

This young lady likes the boy band 'Why Don't We'! So I googled them and added them to her birthday caricature, along with her dogs---which made it a GROUP caricature! Then I was able to do a group caricature AND individual caricatures for all her friends. Yay tweenhood!

Thanks so much for having me! I was reliving my 12th birthday while I was drawing. :-)

A brandy-lover's 40th birthday!

40th birthdays are so much fun, because 40 certainly isn't old anymore. This gentleman was given a marvelous party by his wife, and this is their caricature!

His cake was pretty awesome!

I'm getting ahead of myself. When I arrived, there was a nice place set up for me in their living room:

The guests arrived, and the caricaturin' commenced!

This last couple told me they were recently drawn in Las Vegas and we deduced it was by my friend Celestia. Cliche: SMALL WORLD!!

30th birthday airbrush commission---Super Ronald!

It's been a Super-Hero surge for gift caricatures lately! I recently did this airbrush commission for a young lady who wanted a great 30th-birthday gift for her boyfriend: 

From pencil sketch to ink to airbrushed final:

Here's what my client had to say:

He absolutely loved loved loved his picture. As soon as he got home he hung it up in his man cave....lol
Thank you so much!

Yeah, I love my job! 

Tween birthday party!

A twelfth birthday party for fraternal twins, during a summer twilight, was attended by their fellow tween-girl guests!

Above photos, courtesy of the party-giving mom. :-) Thanks, Margie!

Since it was a small group, I had time to do deluxe full-color, full-body-with-hobby caricatures. Soccer was an oft-repeated request, but I also had two more unusual ones:

A mud-race on the left, and to the right: enjoying a strawberry-iced doughnut with rainbow sprinkles! When I was a kid, we called those "jimmies." Well. they were fun to draw!

After drawing the young ladies, the good-natured big brother got his done, with his sport (not soccer!).I learned that you can refer to rowing as "crew" but not "crewing." :-)

Then the mom, with HER favorite things!

Here's a view of most of them after I'd finished ( there's one missing, I think)

Thanks for having me, M & M! 

A 50th Birthday Caricature, complete with Jersey-Rock-Star serenade

I had SO MUCH FUN doing this digital birthday caricature:

There's a few reasons for that. Let me enumerate them…

1. Drawing rock stars (I've been doing it since 7th grade ;-) is always a hoot for me---these particular two are local heroes. 

2. My client, the husband, basically let me have carte-blanche on how to illustrate his great idea….of Springsteen and Bon Jovi singing 'Happy Birthday' (in their own words) to his beloved. 

3. I can commiserate with the subject of this caricature, as my own 50th birthday isn't far off at all…(and she looks FANTASTIC. In her case fifty looks like the new THIRTY!)

4. Both the husband and wife are old friends of mine from high school. Happily, Facebook has brought a lot of people from our (pre-internet, pre-texting…gads, we're old!) generation back in touch.

5. This was a payback gift, as the wife surprised him last year on Father's Day with a family caricature. (I basically just reworked her caricature from that one to be dancing like Courtney Cox in this one.) 

So, now they're "Caricatures-by-Emily COLLECTORS":-)

Here's how it looked framed:

Hopefully there will be plenty of spouses to new 50-year-olds this year to whom I can suggest a gift caricature like this (insert your own favorite 8o's icon!)

Snowy Sweet 16

My second live gig on Saturday (and of 2014!)  involved some snowy weather, so I gave myself several extra hours to get where I was going, a pretty country club…here's the view once I'd unpacked my gear and set up:

The girl of the moment had chosen a hot pink/black color scheme which looked fab:

I thought her dress, hairstyle and hair bow

 were perfect for a Sweet 16.

She and her friends definitely enjoyed my caricatures!

It was a wonderful evening----until I had driven ALMOST home, when I hit a heavy snow squall:

Yikes, there was barely any visibility! I was really happy to get home---and have a piece of Jillian's leftover cake. :-) Thank you for having me!

Update 1/28/14: Jillian's mom sent me some much-enjoyed feedback (it put a big smile on my face :-) The kids had a fantastic time and were still talking about the party on Monday, most of them changed their Facebook profile pictures to their caricatures!
Thank you for helping to create a memorable night for Jillian and her friends!

Super-Hero birthday party!

Last week was a whirlwind of activity for me; my friend and colleague Celestia Ward was in town and we did some caricaturing together. One event was her small niece and nephew's super-hero-themed joint birthday party....which was also attended by Batman!

Her sister-in-law really  knows how to throw an awesome kids' party:

She created most of the decorations herself, right down to the H20 labels on the water bottles. And Batman did "Super-hero training" with the kids, i.e. exercise!!

The kids came in to find their "super-hero name" on a big poster which featured my handwriting...they peeled off their initial letter, and took it outside to a picnic table spread with foam shapes, which they then glued to a cape (fashioned out of a t-shirt)!

Celestia caricatured the kid guests, while Wonder Woman did face painting.

And I drew any adults who were game. :-)

It was fun drawing the bodies at this party! Below: kids by Celestia, Mom by me!

Thanks for having me, Sofia and Nico, and family and friends!!

Backyard 2nd birthday party

It was  a sun-dappled Sunday afternoon, but I wasn't lazing around...

because it was time to draw for a little guy's 2nd birthday party in his grandmother's backyard, along with a favorite squeaky-voiced friend.  Family and friends were in attendance and I drew all of them:

 including the FUN uncle. (Every kid should have one of these...I did ;-)

The Big 5-0 on a summer solstice...

Yesterday was the longest day of the year, and I spent its waning sunlight doing what else...caricaturing!

It was this lucky gentleman's 50th birthday:

His beautiful wife threw a crab feast in their yard for family and friends...

and here are few of the faces I drew: ( in order of sun to sunset!)

Took one clip:

(tee hee)

As I left, they were starting up the fire pit and waiting for Super Moon. Which I forgot to get a photo of!!

Thanks to my friend Julie Borysowski for passing this gig on to me, I owe ya one!

21-person digital caricature...

Whew! I managed to fit them all in! :-)

This is a pen & ink style digital caricature of a very special matriarch and her family. They celebrated her 90th birthday recently, and my client (one of her grand-daughters) wanted something amazing to adorn t-shirts they'd all be wearing. This was loads of fun to concoct, (her bridge cards and favorite college football team helmet are in the mix, too) and I can't wait to see photos of the shirts. :-)