ISCA speakers, seminars, and the likeness competition...

Our guest speaker was none other than Bill Plympton. He treated us to a preview of his latest animated feature and some other works. I had actually not been aware of his stuff before and was especially entranced with his short called, "The Wiseman." Enough to buy the DVD!

Actually, I'd seen his Gilda caricature before, but didn't know whose it was.

At a evening reception for ISCA gold members, I got to chat with him and be drawn as a Plymptoon.

After the afternoon seminar, he drew this whole line of artists-- we all know what that feels like!

We were also treated to seminars by some of the best artists out there in Caricatureland. This year's Caricature 101 was done by Sean Gardner (below) who talked about his approach to head shapes and observation. It's always interesting to hear different approaches to what we all do. 

A fascinating hour was spent with Court Jones as he explored the mechanics of the smile:

In order to do that, it's helpful to know something of the musculature of the skull.

Below: her mouth might be slightly smiling but her eyes are not (anatomically speaking!)

A representative from Prismacolor came and talked about their products, which so many caricaturists use. AND she gave out goodies!

Lar gave a very in-depth (for an hour, at least) overview of particular things in Photoshop that are of interest to caricaturists/cartoonists. I took two whole pages of notes for things I want to try. By the way, check out Lar's Ustream broadcast this coming Friday night, I am sure he will reminisce about the con!

Another evening's festivities included the likeness competition. Photos are projected and a whole roomful of us caricature them within a generous ten-minute time limit, then we vote on them. This year's event had some changes---no shading was permitted, it was to be black-and-white created with one instrument only. Two of the photos were strangers, but the third photo happened to be the outgoing ISCA president's mother (he told us so) ...uh oh, there were some irreverent ones!

I'm trying to work fast...seated next to these two jokers:

Ok, I wasn't too nice. (The con is supposed to be where you let your hair down since you're not drawing clients ;-)

 This is what I came up with.

Check out some of the other ones!

Well, caricature art does run the gamut from cute to downright rude. Ha, I like both! As long as the likeness is there.

ISCA con Icebreaker 2010

The first night of the convention is a family reunion of caricaturists!

These two are longtime friends of mine, and both are immense talents: Celestia Ward and Lar De Souza--their con output was tremendous this year ( you'll see in a later post.)
Haven't seen Michael White for a few years, was very glad to see him and totally wowwed by a piece he did later on in the week.
New friend Hilary Cole, who'd emailed me earlier this year asking about getting a caricature career going, and I'd told her to come to the convention. And she DID! :-)
New friend Karel Op de Beeck, (brother of Jan and father of Klaas, whom I already knew) but so much more than that! A very prolific sculptor and artist.
With the hard-working editor of our quarterly magazine, Debbo Burmeister.
With Miguel Aguilar, whom I see every year during my stint in Texas, and one of the best BW caricaturists I know.
With my lovely lady friends, Alisa Grodsky of NY, Gwenda Saunders of New Zealand and Johanna Veerenhuis of the Netherlands. Johanna did a stunning sculpture of our new ISCA president.
With my dear Texan friend Lorin Bernsen, who is now the VP of ISCA. A big job!

With dear Sam Gorrie who is a globe-trotting sweetheart and another big talent!
Of course, I try to bring my own sweetheart, JB, to cons whenever he can make it (and he made it for some of this one) so here we are with SG.
A ballroom filled with caricaturists about to embark on their highlight week of the year...

I have lots of ISCA convention posts coming, but for now...

...here is my body of work for this year. I did mostly pen and inks, a couple of digitals and one sculpture of my colleagues.

In town for the 2010 ISCA convention...

It's that time of year again!

The annual convention for members of the International Society of Caricature Artists will be underway this weekend in fabulous Las Vegas. It will be my EIGHTH one and I am very much looking forward to it--it's like my year-end reward for another year in our topsy-turvy, never-know-what-each-day-will-bring artistic business. :-)

Election Day: While voting...

...in the school that serves as my local polling place, I got to see one of my more sizable creations hanging up in the front hallway:This school had me paint its mascot on a double-wide piece of plywood several years ago. I remember it was tough to get the scale right while drawing it.

How cool is that to see it being used and enjoyed!

Please vote if you haven't yet. :-)

Halloween gig 2010---

It's my favorite time of year for a gig---Woo woo woo!

I absolutely LOVE drawing at Halloween parties, especially this one (for my second year running, and I'm booked for next year already, too).

My client is such a sweetheart, when she booked me, she asked if I wanted to bring my significant other---so I did, in costume of course!
I'm the one with the goatee on the left, LOL. My homemade "Hello, my name is" tag said 'P. Cezanne', and my 'painting' walked around to hearty laughter. Yes, it included naughty bits, which I cropped here (this is a mostly-family-friendly blog). We had those covered up with a fig leaf for the early portion of the evening when kids were still present...

The couple I'm in the midst of drawing came as "black-eyed P's" !!!
This couple came as "White Trash" and a "Bathroom Stall". LOLOL
Here's a reaction photo. I have some videos to do from this event, but they'll have to wait til I have time to do them justice in Imovie.
This is a composite shot of everyone I drew, minus the bartender. Check out some of the FANTASTIC costumes people wore! My time was even extended because everyone wanted a full color, full body caricature! :-)

Noah's sign-in caricature...

This beautiful photo of a sign-in caricature I'd done some time ago, with its owner, recently showed up in my email. Thank you to my client for sharing it with me. :-)

Since it's a professional photo, I wanted to include a link to the photographer's website. In the process of looking her up, I found that she has a blog as well, with a touching entry about Noah's Bar Mitzvah that I just have to share.

Mazel tov, Noah!

Digital pen & ink...and not a caricature for once!

I was recently commissioned to illustrate a save-the-date card for an upcoming Philly-centric wedding. No faces desired, just architecture!The LOVE sculpture is certainly appropriate here!

My client wrote: "It looks amazing and is exactly what I had in mind..."

:-)

Some recent digital commissions...

I've been busy with my Wacom Intuos as well as my airbrush lately:

Above, a 40th birthday caricature for a smiley-face fan.
Below, a leaving-the-company caricature for a Panera fan.

Finally, the one below was a commission for my fiance (and his family), whose uncle passed after a long illness. Everyone knew that Uncle Bill was extremely proud of his Silver Beaver award, which is for distinguished service to the Boy Scouts of America. I purposely tried to straddle the line between caricature and portraiture on this one, because my intent was to invoke warm memories of him for his loved ones. RIP Uncle Bill.

Now it's on to my current commissions, one of which is a very challenging fifteen-person one!

Yet another caricature reaction video!

Check out my Youtube channel to see it!