An evening with Steve Brodner...

Recently, one of America's most prominent satirical illustrators, Steve Brodner, took the train down from NYC to Baltimore, so he could spend an evening chatting to folks interested in his work. I was one of those folks!  

I'd actually met Steve once before, in 2004 when he was the guest speaker for ISCA's (then the National Caricaturists Network's) annual convention, in Florida that year. Of course I didn't expect him to remember me, but he did remember that it was a crazy week with us. ;-)

This time, he was sharing his thought process with an audience at Johns Hopkins University.  The evening was actually re-scheduled from 2014...when it was cancelled by a snowstorm. This year's event skated in just after a hellacious ice storm. (But global warming is a topic for another day!) The facilitator for the evening was Tom Chalkley, a delightful JHU professor, caricaturist and friend, who is also the man responsible for introducing my colleague-in-crime Celestia Ward to the world of caricature in her college days. Yes, caricaturists comprise a small, some-might-say-incestuously-small, industry in the larger world of artists. 

Steve gave an amusing overview of his career, his process, and his politics, and told some very witty anecdotes...he is quite comfortable speaking in public, which I find amazing as a visual artist. The turnout was around eighty to a hundred. But the real one-two punch of the evening was the visuals:

The thing I find most inspiring about Steve is how passionate he is about his work, and that comes through when you look at how witheringly he sees his victims. 

(Interestingly, Steve's art is a current subject on an illustration blog I read....

held up as an example of "extreme" caricature. The blogger's opinions don't jibe with mine, as he seems to be saying that Hirschfeld's, Levine's (whose work I LOVE) and Drucker's art fall in a different category as "mere likenesses". Sigh. Anyway, be prepared to read a LOT of LOOOOONG comments if you like debate. 

http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2015/03/extreme-caricature.html

Too bad it's white text on black too, I hate that!!!)

Back to Baltimore: I had a chance to say hello. :-)

Afterwards,  a few of us adjourned for a pleasant meal....Fellow ISCA members from Maryland Rick Wright and Mike Hasson joined us, along with artist pals Toonboy Smith and Patrick Harnett... and my devoted Other Half.  :-)

Draw, Mike, draw!!! 

DrawInn Vlagtwedde 2014----in the Netherlands

No sooner did I return home from my month in Texas, drawing caricatures at their State Fair, (which I still haven't blogged about!) than I was setting off for Europe (!!!) to attend a caricature-artist mini-convention, called DrawInn Vlagtwedde. Held in the northern part of the Netherlands, for twenty-seven artists from nine countries, the venue was the lovely home of my friends Johanna and Johannes...

The great room of their house, originally the attached barn, was instead an artists's studio for most of the week: 

Well, actually it's always Johanna's studio. She's a sculptor of the highest caliber. So, the creative vibe is ever-present. 

The event was also organized by Jan Op de Beeck, who's been a friend now for more than ten years, ever since meeting him at my first ISCA convention back in 2003. 

I was the only American in attendance. The local newspaper ran a story about the convention, featuring the hostess and her two most distant guests:

Jan asked me to do a slide presentation about my experiences with retail caricature in the US. That was one topic even a nervous public speaker like me could handle!

If you'd like to see many more photos:

This link goes to my album of general convention photos on my Caricatures by Emily FB page. 

And this link goes to my artwork, and the artwork done of me by other attendees...but here's a little preview:

What a wonderful experience! I am SOOOOOOOOO glad I went, and am extremely grateful to the organizers (who are very dear to me). :-)

I learned to draw lobsters...

…because they were my schtick for some caricatures in Boothbay Harbor, Maine last week! Folks don't care about cartoon crabs or seagulls way up there.

Complicated little buggers!

The trip took all day and my arrival coincided with sunset… and the drive up was my first time in New England, ever! This is the first photo I took in a VERY picturesque state:

Unfortunately, that was the last sunlight seen for a few days, as the rains from Tropical Storm Arthur arrived to drench the region and make Fourth of July celebrations impossible. :-( 

Below: Boothbay Harbor itself

This one is the actual Atlantic Ocean before the storm came. 

Arthur did make for some dramatic photos. :-)

When the sun returned, so did the caricaturists.  I was the "guest artist"of my friend Ben, whom I met at the ISCA convention and through mutual friends….

Here's some of his wonderful airbrush work, and his subjects' happy reaction:

So I had a lot to live up to! :-D

Here's the working environment: 

Here's the standard diet:

Haha, no, I didn't eat lobster rolls every day. But I could have!

On to: THE CaRiCaTuReS! 

I wanted to make a Maine-centric sample, and almost everything I knew about Maine came through the writings of this man. So Ben and I both made samples of him. Ben's is meaner….and funnier. ;-)

I caught this couple taking a photo of my Stephen while it was still on my easel. 

Here, I have to say that I really didn't enjoy using my French easel for airbrushing. I had the top slanted down far more than I do when using markers and art six, to better be able to see my subjects. Ben's sturdy desk worked much better. Live and learn...

Lobsters adorned many, many of my drawings for the week. It was extremely appropriate for the little family shown here, as he was proprietor of and chief lobster-roll-maker of the little deli across the way. (and where I got the delicacy pictured above. :-)

These two worked in a local restaurant and had a great reaction…such an awesome one, that I flubbed which way to hold my phone because I was enjoying them so much:

I also drew lots of lighthouses and  a few moose…

The above gentleman was ninety years old, a WWII vet, and his family wanted him to sit for me! He said, "Make sure you get my hat right" and I promised him I would. 

It was interesting to me (and very cool!) that many more senior citizens opted to get caricatures done than what I'm used to. Below, a grandmom and grand-daughter done in black-and-white: (with a lighthouse, of course.)

I also drew plenty of kids during my time there.

This young lady came along when Mars was visible right next to the waxing moon. Yup I drew it too!

SHE wanted a lighthouse, and HE wanted GRUMPY CAT! (luckily, Ben had a sample of the ubiquitous feline, so I just copied it…the credit is all his ;-)

Lest dogs be left out, THIS one came along:

This teenager put her caricature in the window of the adjacent pizza place while she was eating with her family! Free advertising!!

I did get a few spare minutes to get some lovely photos of Maine in the sunshine. This is the harbor some ways up from where we were situated:

And this is the ocean again:

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, that would be the life!

Thank you, Ben,  and goodbye Maine! That's the LAST photo I took on my trip. :-)

Being Caricatured in Bangkok...

Even though our trip to Thailand was a little over a year ago. I juuuuuust got around to making some videos. This one is of the day my son, my Other Half and I got a caricature in Jatujak Market.

Misc stuff from the Texas State Fair...

State Fairs are an interesting mix of unexpected happenings and this year in Texas was no different.

It rained every weekend til the last, so then it was no-room-to-breathe crowded...

This was the best scooter design I've seen in forever!

I did some in-your-face marketing on my drawing board and gained some fans on my FB, Vine and Instagram. Sadly, most folks were unaware of just who was telling them to follow me! One mom said to her kid, "Look at the little man with funny teeth!!"!?!?!?!

A t-shirt that educated me! I thought they were all about football. ;-)

One night, a group of engineering students came and got caricatures...from all of us artists. Can you guess which one I did?

 Another night, early on, we found out that the band on the main stage was BLONDIE!!!! Paul and I hoofed it up there pronto, just in time to hear sixty-eight-year-old Debbie Harry belting out One Way or Another... ( I still have my 45 rpm single...)

After she sang it, she proclaimed, "THAT'S how it's done, ladies and gentlemen!!!" I guess she's heard some lame karaoke versions of herself. ;-)

On the way to the ladies room every day, I passed a glass case with the winners of the annual shoe contest. These were my favorites.

This is Celestia and I devouring practically the final Fletcher's Corny Dogs of the whole fair, right after closing on the last night. That's our friend, Michael the manager...who has a corny dog tattoo on his shin. 

On the way home I saw a sunset over the Chesapeake Bay.