60th birthday caricature at surprise party!

This digital caricature was a fun commission to do, for an old friend of my husband's...who loves his bayside house in NJ, even though the horseflies love it there too...;-)

 The easel provided by the venue was a little too large for it---people had to kneel to sign it!!! (I went with a smaller matt for this one since I knew the subject would prefer a not-huge rendition of himself)

 The cake was spot-on too!

 The part decor included masks of the birthday boy at different ages! Everyone was wearing one when he came in, what a hoot!

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! 

3rd Birthday, Penn State style!

A recent party-style digital commission for a little guy whose family has made commissioning a caricature from me, for his birthday, into a tradition!

Happy b-day Aven! :-)

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!!!!

Retirement Caricatures!

In June, there are always plenty of teacher and other school-district employee retirements. These two ladies will now be free to pursue a more leisurely life! :-)

These are examples of my  11 x 14 "Color Party-Style" caricatures done in my studio from photos. 

They start out as very rough sketches which I show the client for approval before finishing. 

I get a general likeness in the rough, but the specific likeness comes as I work on the final. After I get the approval, I transfer the drawing using a lightbox onto good paper, then ink and color away!

Live caricatures AND a caricature sign-in at a stylish wedding!

Last weekend, I drew at a looooong-ago-booked wedding…the bride is definitely more organized than I am! Well, the day finally came and they had me do both a studio caricature for a sign-in, and live caricatures at the reception:

When I asked her what her wedding color was, she said gray…

 (this is the room at Allentown Brew Works---cool place!)

with a touch of pink:

If you noticed in the top photo, their beloved canine family member was included, and the bride said he even visited during the wedding (wearing a bow tie!). The party favors were doggie-thoughtful, too!

Here's my view of their triumphant entrance!

My little area became busy immediately, of course, (plus it was next to the bar ;-) and I tried to remember to tell everyone to sign the framed caricature:

Lots of happy faces!

I had to video their reaction because they were so funny while I was drawing them. He told me people call him Bart…it's pretty obvious why!!

Here's one more close-up of the happy bride and groom at the end of the reception. Thank you so much for having me, Nicole and Joey!!!

And here's what I enjoyed while packing up!

Caricatures make great corporate gifts!

Recently, a local university (famous for its EMBA degree) commissioned me to do some caricatures of business leaders to present to them in thanks for their participation at a conference:

These are my Party-Style caricatures done from photos. My client was great in providing me with good reference photos to work from. (I should do a whole blog post about THAT!) 

Here's the evolution of these, from roughs to finished drawings.

It was particularly fun adding each person's item relevant to them. 

I'm hoping someone took some photos at this event…

Airbrushed "We'll miss you" caricature

This airbrushed drawing was commissioned by a company who wanted to say goodbye and best wishes to this lady, as she went off to another company...the photo wasn't the easiest to work from but I was satisfied with the result. And more importantly, so was the client!

These are the steps it went through on its way to completion:

1. Reference photo 2. Rough Sketch 3. Inked Sketch 4. Final

15th birthday caricature…and I can still draw Pikachu!

What do you give an artsy teenage girl for her birthday? 

A caricature, of course.

With Pikachu.

Before I was a caricaturist, I dabbled in face-painting at my children's elementary school events. The most requested thing to paint on little cheeks and hands was this famous Pokemon character. 

Haven't had occasion to draw him much lately, but my niece loves him, so including him here was a no-brainer. Happy Birthday Jacky!

BW Studio Caricature of a smiling little family

This family caricature was done from a photo, for the photographer who shared her professional photos with me from the wedding reception I did in February. I used my favorite CopicSketch markers and just red and black Prismacolor Artstix.

Here's her reaction: Thanks so much Emily, we love it!!!! Haha, it made my whole family smile!! I love all the red and our huge smiles=). 

Please use my new "contact form"----on the right sidebar here on my blog---- if you're interested in commissioning a "BW+1 color" caricature done from photos! :-)

75th birthday caricature

Sunday morning found a houseful of family and friends celebrating this sweet lady's 75th birthday:

 Her sign-in caricature was a complete surprise to her, as during the brunch, one of her grand-daughters secretly went around to all the guests and had them sign it. Then at cake-time, her daughter presented it to her----and you can see her reaction below!

Happy birthday Marie!

More corporate gift caricatures...

…with their amused recipients, in Germany!

My little Wacom Intuos 4 has certainly been standing up to heavy usage this month. These three digital caricatures were printed here, framed, and flown over with the gentleman in the gray shirt (he's in two of the caricatures, too) to be presented as gifts from his company.

Here's a closer look:

I love including in-jokes.

This one was pretty complex. I love that he's holding flaming pellets!

More silliness. So happy to know these will be putting smiles on their faces every time they look at them. :-)

A 2nd birthday caricature for a toddler's baseball-themed party

A recent cartoon-style digital caricature for a cute little guy's 2nd birthday, featuring his favorite hat:

Where do my caricatures end up after they're drawn?

It's a question that usually has no answer for me, as I metaphorically wave 'bye-bye' to each one as soon as I draw it. However, during my stay in Canada, I went visiting...

...and there they were in a child's playroom! :-)

Party-style wedding caricature

This party-style studio caricature was unveiled at a wedding yesterday---in Tennessee. The client told me the couple "were crazy about the caricature!" :-)

Another nurse graduates to practice on patients...

and this caricature was there to congratulate her!

This one was done in my digital painted-style. 

Congratulations, Jessica!

Father's Day 2013 gift commission

Ah, Father's Day...what to get to honor your dad or husband? This family visualized their jokes into a family caricature, for a waaaaay more creative gift than a weedwhacker or a tie ;-)

For a little insight into the orange background, click this link.

He was surprised!

This little clip shows the stages the cartoon-style digital caricature went through.

 I especially enjoyed including Mr. Hendrix!

Another retiring teacher commission

This is another one of my "party-style" studio caricatures. This lady has a lot of hobbies!!

 After I had sketched it out and inked it, I took a sip of my Earl Grey...and then sneezed!

Re-DRAW! ;-)