Football coaches galore!

Another repeat client recently had me do these digital caricatures to be given to an entire school district's various football coaches at their annual awards banquet:

Each caricature was done as a single 8 x 10, so in combining them all together here for my blog, it's pretty amazing to me to see all the facial variety! I definitely do love my Wacom Intuos and Photoshop's painting capabilites...

Caricaturist get-together...

Every now and then, some of the Maryland-area caricature artists have what's called a draw-in...this particular one was held at my friend Rick's house, so John and I headed south last Monday for an evening of football-watching and face-beating (metaphorically speaking, of course!)

L-R Rick himself, artists Dan Ginter, Dave Thompson, Tom Chalkley and Gary Smith. Seated: John, myself, Rick's webmaster Steve and agent-man artist Mike Hasson.

Mike was on fire, and created some very funny takes on us all...I didn't get any photos of what I drew, but had loads of fun (and chips and salsa!)


Gary by Mike. Look Ma, no chin!

On the way home, John and I stopped to enjoy the Christmas display at the Herr's potato chip factory:



It's that time of year. And I am definitely a "multicolored lights for Christmas" person!

Beach couple caricature

This was commissioned by a repeat client for whom I'd recently caricatured her dad and step-mom. They liked it so much, she decided to have her in-laws done too, and here they are!

Retirement Caricature!

A dapper British gentleman who lives and works here in the U.S. will receive this digital caricature by me, as a gift from his colleagues. It was a fun challenge to fit in the elements needed to personalize it for him, especially the company airplane!

Caricatures at a grand opening...

...of a new long-term-care medical facility. On a rare Monday evening gig, I was asked to draw the corporate staff, patients (of which there were only a handful) and medical staff--during a cocktail party/open house...I had a blast-as usual, both drawing and chatting!

Baby Shower!

I'm going to be a grandmother-- my daughter Charlotte is expecting a baby!
Of course, for her shower on Sunday afternoon, she had to have a caricature sign-in...which was a re-working of the graduation caricature I had done of her some time ago.

She was TOTALLY surprised, as the shower was thrown by her practically life-long friend Anna, on her OWN birthday, so Charlotte would be fooled into thinking it was Anna's birthday celebration she'd be attending....

She received many hand-made gifts. Creativity abounds!

Back in the pre-caricature mid-nineties, when I was a pastel portrait artist, Anna's mom Tammi (she's the blonde on the left in the right-hand doorway; Anna is the blonde seated in front of her) commissioned me to draw her five children. I was very happy to see it hanging along their beautiful staircase!

Pretty soon, I might have to get out those pastels to do a proper baby portrait of my grandson!

Wedding Reception

On Saturday, after drawing at the Christmas Bazaar, I made a three-hour trek down to near the Delaware beaches to draw at an evening wedding reception. The majority of my gigs are within a 50-75 mile radius to where I live, but I do make exceptions depending on the amount of time I am booked for. The wedding couple hired me for four hours of festivities, so I decided to get a hotel room for afterwards, to avoid getting home at 3:30 am (after drawing for a combined ten hours that day!).
I started out in the ballroom and then moved into a side room where I was more able to converse with the guests. I had a wonderful time drawing some VERY interesting faces! ( I always do, ;-)
Thank you, Christina and Bethany!





The following morning I treated myself to breakfast and a sunrise on the beach before heading home. All in a caricaturist's day's work!

Christmas Bazaar

For the last five or so years I have drawn at a local church's huge Christmas bazaar. This year was no exception, many people come every year to have their kids drawn...

One word: CHEEKS!

I told this little girl that her name would be a good one for an artist!
And when I remarked that I certainly couldn't use a marker to draw her delicate eyebrows, her mom told me that when she was very small, she had asked, "Where's my eyes-brows?" :-)

Two little kids with lots of attitude!
Below: the view from the easel. Merry Christmas ( a wee bit early!)

13th birthday party

On Sunday afternoon, I drew for a surprised thirteen year old and her friends...
Originally, her party was to be at 2 pm, however, her soccer team advanced to the finals and the game time was, of course, 2 pm! So her mom just had me come later, and brought her daughter home right from the game. Her friends (and I!) were waiting for her!
Since it was a small group I was able to do full-color, full body caricatures, and did such varied themes as acting, bowling, horse-riding, chinchilla-owning, and cat-owning! The mom thoughtfully provided frames for each guest, too. I heard from her the next day, and appreciate the feedback:
Thank you Emily for all your hard work yesterday! The girls LOVED their caricatures. This party seemed to have a life of its own after the multiple changes. I really appreciated your patience and will recommend you highly to anyone I can!

Irish Festival!

Even though I'm merely 25% Irish, (John is 95%!!!) that was plenty enough to thoroughly enjoy participating in a huuuuuge Irish festival held last weekend in Maryland. I brought both my airbrush and my artstix, and drew all sorts of green finery...and yes, the Guinness was flowing freely for lots of folks! (not me, though--I like Bailey's...and especially nutty Irishmen ;-) These two used actual pitchers for drinking vessels. LOL These adorable munchkins were drawn from photos, their parents asked me to draw them at a bar ;-D Above--some of my airbrush work. The lovely lady harpist had a photo of her harp on her phone, and I am happy with the atmospheric effect I was able to get for the background with my airbrush. The gentleman wanted to be "buff" to attract the ladies! :-) Irish dancing! Irish sports jerseys! More Irish dancing! Below--There's a caricature for EVERY age! Below--this little one's parents said she was an "Irish girl, made in China"... John's cousin Jay, (a member of the Ancient Order of Hibernians and mega-Irishman) lost a bet with a friend and had to wear a green Penguins jersey all day, but his true colors were underneath! Here are some more sights---and sounds---from an exhausting yet exhilarating day!