Backyard block party

Last night, my caricatures were part of the entertainment at a HUGE block party. It wasn't held on the street ( which scared me as I pulled up, because I thought I had gotten the directions wrong) but in a suburban backyard that adjoined a long right-of way. My hostess had provided a tent for me, near one of the biggest bounce house/playgrounds I had ever seen. She also asked me to take a small fee for each drawing,( and to do either BW or color) to offset some of this shindig's costs (which must have been enormous) but since many of the guests didn't have cash on them, I just took names so they could settle up later...

One of the guests provided clothespins to display all the drawings on the tent..





I was asked to stay an hour longer at this one! :-)

One other notable feature of this gig ( and the previous one at the park) was that it was my first time drawing with my new CONTACT LENSES!!! :-) :-) :-)

Another picnic in a pavillion

Yesterday afternoon, I found myself in another picturesque park on a lake, helping a small company share some good times together with caricatures:

These two young ladies had such an over-the-top reaction :-O to seeing themselves that I wished I'd videotaped them..

Father and son...

This little cutie was proud to show off her toothless grin. Sometimes parents ask me to draw in the missing teeth, to which I usually say, this is such an adorable stage! Immortalize it!

They were enjoying my drawings enough to ask me to stay on longer, but I was only able to add on another half hour-- had to get to another gig that afternoon...:-)

Partypop page update...

Sometimes I forget that I need to update some of my caricature-related web presence...and one website I have been on for a long time is Partypop.com. It's served me well as an entry to my own website, as there's no middleman--potential clients look up what kind of entertainment they want and get direct contact info for many party service providers.
Anyway, that's exactly what I did today, and it's fun and bittersweet at the same time to choose new samples (I get attached to the old ones!). Here's a screenshot look at the new Caricatures by Emily page:

Below is the entire strip of new samples, all from 2010 except for the final one of the nurses. That's my daughter and her best friend showing off what my digital gift caricatures look like!

In the process of looking at other artists' Partypop pages (both for inspiration and to check out the competition;-) I found that my friend Mike Hasson, owner of About Faces Entertainers, was using two of my drawings ( I'd provided them but didn't know they were among his PP samples!) for his online agency, which specializes in caricaturists but also provides many different types of entertainment.

Thanks Mike! Now I am sort of competing against myself! ;-P

Bar Mitzvah sign-in

This young man celebrated his Bar Mitzvah yesterday, accompanied by my caricature of him, which was the party sign-in. I'm hoping his family will share some photos of it all framed and signed! :-)

In all the years that I have been doing caricatures, this was the first one where I was asked to make the teeth very specific. Usually, clients want to downplay them, even when they're nice! In this case, young Noah had just had his braces removed AND his dad is a dentist, so I happily complied!

Not just for college students....

Yesterday I had an afternoon gig at a university. I figured it would be a welcoming event for incoming freshmen, but it turned out to be a nice picnic for the faculty and staff!
I even got to draw alongside my friend Patrick. :-)

There's the skyline view from our tent...


And there's the view from my victim's seat! ;-)

Here are a few of the aforementioned victims! All had a great time on a hot but lovely day. Afterwards, there was even some water ice left over for us tired artists.

August ends with a few caricatures...

Last night I sweated it out at a sultry, breezeless O's game vs. the Red Sox. It was a slooooow night, maybe because the fans were actually watching the game? The Orioles had their best August in decades after a miserable season so far...
Anyway, here are all two drawings I did:
They didn't understand why I wanted them to stand that way....

This couple absolutely made my night! They're going to use my caricature as their sign-in board at their upcoming wedding. I took my time since there was no line waiting and told them they were why the universe must have wanted me to draw at that particular game. It was so slow the other two artists and I were taking turns on customers and this couple happened to be my turn...

They're even planning on having some wedding photos taken at Camden Yards. Congrats, you two youngsters!! Good luck not showing your caricature to anyone for another whole month!

Here's how I whiled away the down time...a bunch of memory sketches of people walking by.....and my colleague Mr. Toonboy who inadvertently posed while he was eating his dinner.

OK, I have no words for this other than the facts: a fire safety company had a costumed super-hero named Sprinklerman greeting fans in front of the men's room. (!!!!!!)

This week's Caricaturama 3000 entry...Michael Cera

Another quickie pencil sketch (with touches of Micron pen and PS CS3) for this week's challenge, Michael Cera. Although I'm not much of a movie buff, I actually did see Superbad and thought it was uncomfortably hilarious. I wonder what Sixteen Candles (my era's teenage coming-of-age movie and one of my favorites) would be like if it had been made in 2007...
Check out Caricaturama Showdown 3000, this young actor ( he also starred in Juno) is another difficult likeness, as was Seinfeld last week.

A little girl's 1st birthday picnic

On Sunday afternoon, I found myself in a pavillion situated in a beautiful park, celebrating this little angel's birthday with a family caricature:

Sometime after I drew her, she changed into this little pink number to blow out her candle:

Here you can see her daddy wearing his "Team Sophia" t-shirt!

It wasn't the usual picnic fare....yummmmmm!

Oh yeah, here are a few of the caricatures! I had a blast drawing this family!



And on the drive home, this was my view ( taken at 40 MPH!):

A 15th birthday pool party

I drew some inventive teenage girls tonight at a birthday party...none of them asked to be drawn playing a sport or horse-riding (which are the more common requests):

Instead, the themes chosen were:
1. Shopping with a hot pink/zebra stripe background 2. Riding a shark (!) 3. Photography 4. Listening to music on giant headphones 5. Listening to music on an Ipod 6. Painting
Funnily enough, the girl who asked to be shown as an artist was named Emily!
Since there were only a few girls, I was really able to go to town on color and details. At the end, a guest asked me to draw a toddler from a cell-phone photo. It was a very clear, zoomed-in photo, so it was possible to do :-) Her favorite show is Yo Gabba Gabba, so I included the host, DJ Lance Rock. Funnily enough (again) I had just watched this show while babysitting my little grandson!

And I wore my new "Caricatures by Emily" t-shirt! It was simple to do...I just printed a large version of my business card on fabric transfer paper and ironed it on the back. Now I can draw and advertise at the same time!

Thank you, Kelly, for the photo! And happy birthday, Lauren!

My Youtube channel...

...now has all my caricature-reaction videos in one place. Enjoy the laughter...I do!