3rd holiday event of 2024...company party in Philly with GROUP caricature!

 The Friday night traffic was terribly gridlocked in Philly, which caused me to walk in right at my start time for this event...so I didn't get any photos of my setup, or of the atmosphere in this very cool restaurant. :-(

However, it was a fabulous gig! :-)

IG: Reel 1.    Reel 2 (reaction).

This company of creatives invited me to come and do a large group caricature they could hang in their office, and also do some drawings guests could take home from the party. Here are a few:

The guests were VERY happy! And so was I...because they all insisted I try the amazing yoghurt-washed, lemon-gin house cocktail (I usually NEVER imbibe while working, but how could I resist THIS?)

My lovely client had this to say on The Bash afterwards:

Emily was a DREAM to work with (before event and during!). She was so quick and able to do a huge group sketch along with all the couples at our event. Would hire her and recommend her to people in a heartbeat!

Thank you so much!

A Holiday party--perfect time for a company GROUP CARICATURE!

 This was an enjoyable challenge! 25 people in one composition, that I drew organically...meaning I started with the two owners, bottom center, and just kind of drew others in randomly. It's done with Copic Sketchmarkers on a 24" x 36" YES!All-media canvas, which I had never tried before--but it suited my purposes perfectly. I was situated in a lobby area just outside of the ballroom... so I worked from photos, that I took of the employees. Once I finished the large group caricature (which took about two hours and fifteen minutes), I drew individuals and couples for the rest of the party!

Lovely area just outside the ballroom, for me to work from. Usually I ask to be IN the main room with the guests, but this suited my purposes better  and was also good for social distancing as people were more spread out!

And some of the later individual ones:

Finally, this jolly fellow was wandering around! Ho ho ho!

Open House Caricatures: Midweek and mid-afternoon!

 A previous client passed on my name to someone else in her company, and the someone-else hired me for the headquarters' Open House!  I sat in the lobby and drew lots of group caricatures! :-D

Brunch caricatures for a leadership retreat day!

Once in awhile I get to do a gig, where there are only a few guests... so I can do GROUP caricatures (like the above) and elaborate COLOR caricatures (like below)

 Thanks to GIGMASTERS! And I got to see some caricature love on FB afterwards. ;-)

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. :-)

Family Reunion Caricatures

I love drawing at family reunions. The mix of generations, and how people stayed bonded together across distances, is really intriguing to me. Not to mention the variety of related faces!

The gathering was held at a lovely rural home. I set up my easel poolside and drew the family matriarch first:

She had a whole bunch of children and grandchildren:

Hahah, nice reaction!

 Below:The host and hostess were completely wonderful and hospitable. (Thanks again, you two!)

After everyone got drawn with their significant other, I stayed longer to do a few family groups! How much fan is that!?! (Alot!)

Have I said lately HOW MUCH I LOVE MY JOB???

Group caricature commission...

with a team of soccer players!

This was to be presented at their end-of-season banquet. I did this piece last year as well, so I did not have to recreate the background, the coaches, or the photographers...just the players: all 15 of them! :-)

This had to be finished before I trekked off to Vegas for my convention. To save time, I drew each boy on paper first and scanned the sketches, then used Photoshop to color them and place them in the group. Somehow when I do rough sketching directly in PS, I seem to take longer...not sure why. 

A 65th birthday surprise...

Last night, I had an unusual gig-- in several ways. A lovely lady was being feted for her 65th birthday. Her daughter and other family and friends surprised her with a dinner party in an elegant restaurant, housed in the tallest skyscraper in Philadelphia...but those aren't the reasons it was unusual for me:

Instead of sitting at my easel, I sat at the table with my 18" x 24" sketchbook and clip-on lamp, creating one large-group caricature of the birthday lady and her guests. It made for a very intimate, low-key way of working, as everyone enjoyed their meal and a slide-show of family photos that played on the room's wide-screen monitor. I started off by moving around the table during the cocktail hour, but as entrees arrived, I decided to stay put and draw from my main vantage point near the guest of honor.
The presentation!

Here we are with the finished piece, which took me two hours to do:

Thank you, Donna and family, for including my caricatures as a way to remember your birthday celebration!
Below: where we were---albeit only on the second floor, of the fifty-eight-story Comcast Center, as I arrived, and when I left:

The lobby in this building has a mesmerizing attraction--a two-story jumbo screen. There were masses of people just standing and viewing it, (including me!) both on my way in and out. What I really wanted to get on video, was a short clip shown from Buster Keaton's "One Week" but I couldn't get my camera out quickly enough :-(

Update: The client left a glowing review on Gigmasters. Thank you Stacey!
Emily created such a special memory for my mom's 65th birthday that she will have and cherish forever. Emily was a wonderful addition to our party and her professionalism and talents were much appreciated.