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!

Super Hero Kid caricatures!

My local children's hospital had me come in to draw SUPER HERO caricatures for siblings of patients, at a party just for them, complete with a correctly-spelled "CARICATURIST" sign!!

It was  a bit unusual, in that each kid was photographed on an Ipad, and I worked from that; although, the kids were in the same room doing activities, so I could look at them in real life, too. So it worked out very well. My client told me the parents were VERY HAPPY with the caricatures when they came to pick up their kids. :-) 

I do love my job!

Corporate Happy Hour Caricatures...super-hero themed!

POW! Bip!!!! BOP!!!! I drew alongside Batman and Robin!

What a hoot!!! This event was unusual for me in that I did color caricatures with bodies. 

Caricatures at a three-day Biotech convention!

One sunny, hot morning in June, I found myself at the Pennsylvania Convention Center, ready to represent a local biotech company....by caricaturing an international audience of professionals as SUPERHEROES!

I drew and copied the bodies beforehand, along with the company logo, and then added the faces. The time it took me to do each person's caricature, was also exactly the time needed by Vencore's team to explain what their company is all about. :-)

Yes, the men outnumbered the ladies...but I drew some super-heroines too!

This lady immediately made it her Instagram profile pic!

A few more guys:

I drew folks from all over the globe: The Netherlands, the UK, France, India, Korea, and of course places all over the USA. 

This is a two-headed American superhero!

There was lots of laughter, photo-taking, and comments that Vencore's convention swag was quite  enjoyable and memorable!

 I also created, a little at a time as each person's schedule permitted,  a group caricature of the Vencore team---incorporating lots of little elements relevant to each person. 

Thanks to Vencore for having me...and Gigmasters for making it happen!

Homeowner Man, High School and April Fool's Day

As an event and studio caricature artist, my clients can come from ANYwhere. They can be folks I know, folks who know people I know, or strangers. Or they can be folks I went to high school with...and due to life taking us in different directions, haven't seen since graduation day in 1982!! (ok well, Senior Week then. ;-)

Facebook has eradicated the oblivion that our generation's friends disappeared into, as adult life encroached. Unless you were an inveterate letter-writer or phone caller back then (when it used to be expensive) there were probably plenty of people you thought of fondly and wondered 'whatever happened to'. So, it's nice that FB reconnected so many of us.

I've done quite a few drawings for folks like that. All of them, until this one, were private commissions. Oh, I've displayed them on my blog, but didn't share who my client might have been...

This one is a little different.

This is Homeowner Man, the alter ego of my friend Steve. Since re-friending each other on Facebook, he's seen me do all manner of caricatures...and was inspired.
In the bowels of stately Homeowner Manor, he hatched a plan to dominate the blogosphere with his humorous Homeowner Man musings (which he's been penning for years) illustrated with a Caricature by Emily.  Read them, you will laugh! I like this one.

When he approached me about doing a caricature for him, I was excited. It's fun to do super-hero caricatures, even more fun when it's a completely hilarious super-hero with his own blog (not to mention the prospect of illustrating WifeGirl and SonBoy at a later date! ;-)

When I received the reference photos, I was floored. I already knew Steve looked like he'd aged about six months since graduation..but the photos were every caricaturist's dream to work from. You wouldn't believe how often we get postage stamp size, lo-res, super-pixellated photos of subjects (in harsh sunshine) from twenty feet away and we're expected to draw a caricature from that?? Steve's pics were hi-res and from lots of angles. These are just three of the dozen-plus he sent:

He said his son had fun doing a photo session for the project. So, thank you, SonBoy!

Steve pretty much allowed me to art-direct myself and was quite happy with the results, as was I. 

He was happy enough to give me a completely over-the-top review on my Yelp page:

Then Homeowner Man added his thoughts on his blog (skip the Yelp thing, he posts that too)...although his super-mind's remembrances need some calibrating because I definitely did not own the car he mentions. My bad. ;-)

It's April Fool's Day today...remember those reference photos for the caricature?

 Resourceful Homeowner Man found another use for them---taping them on doors all over his house and scaring the crap out of himself and Wifegirl, but not the intended victim, Sonboy! Haha!

Finally, there IS a photo of both of Homeowner Man and Caricatures by Emily, courtesy of my dear friend in the front row center. 

This group of seniors from the Class of 1982, (mostly newspaper staff---I was a reporter and cartoonist----tv crew, yearbook staff and other assorted geeks of that ilk) just about to graduate here, went on to become: an actuary, a dentist, a radio on-air personality, a psychologist, an attorney, a writer, an engineer, a marketer....and a blogger and a caricaturist. :-)

I love my job. 

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! 

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!!