Covert sketching...waiting room edition

Yes, she was playing with her phone.

Character studies..at the beach

I don't ever go anywhere without a sketchbook.

The beach is one of the best places to people-watch...and draw:

The Other Half and I had a peaceful day to spend at the edge of the Atlantic. 

I put together a bunch of separate little sketches in Photoshop to make the composite above. You can spot three of my subjects in the photos below:

Dolphins! (not sharks ;-)

You can hear the soothing sounds of surf in this Vine clip:

If you're on an Ipad, here is a link to see the above clip:

http://seenive.com/v/978413810899906560

60th birthday party for both husband and wife...

Saturday's early evening hours found me feeling some definite deja vu.....doing the same thing I had done the previous night. (Drawing caricatures, on a hill, under a tent, listening to a live band!)

This occasion was the joint 60th birthday party for Linda and John, thrown by their kids and capably organized by their daughter, who found me on Gigmasters.

Drew LOTS of couples at this one:

including these two brothers:

And this couple, too (a boy and his camera ;-)

Gigmasters also provided this juggler, (for some reason he reminded me of Joe Cocker) and he went over wonderfully! My subjects were able to watch him as I drew them.

Chalk up another beautiful PA sunset!

Thank you to Linda and John, and your family and friends... for having me celebrate with you and even extending my time! :-)

Caricaturing in Chocolate-town

Last night, I ventured west for an About Faces Entertainers gig at the famed Hotel Hershey, in Hershey, Pennsylvania...where even the street lamps are chocolate kisses:

The hotel is on a majestic hill overlooking the chocolate factory and HersheyPark:

Above: the view from my PARKING SPOT!!!

The event was held in a tent behind the hotel, overlooking the koi pond, gardens and a beautiful sunset..here is the view from my easel to the left:

Oh yes, beyond all my gawking, I drew caricatures!

Fun for them, fun for me!

5th birthday caricature...with Grandmom

Did this 1/2 from photos, 1/2 live from the subjects (you can guess which one sat serenely and which one was busy-busy-busy!) last night at a 5th birthday party. 

Trying out Procreate on my iPad...Viven Leigh

I added the Procreate app to my iPad and am liking it! This started as a pencil sketch of Viven Leigh that I photographed and imported into the app, then painted over. The reference only exists as a BW photo, so the colors are my own choices...

This is how Viven appeared in a pre-Scarlett movie role, as Madeleine in 1937's Dark Journey.

Sunset over Charm City

I love looking at clouds over my easel wherever I am....and last weekend in Baltimore, there were some pretty amazing colors in the sky after the drizzle cleared out:

Below: This is the actual looking-left-from-my-easel shot.

The third-place Orioles were playing the Seattle Mariners...so a fan sighting for that team was a rare thing indeed.

 Below: Her shirt was obscured by her son's head. so I made sure 'Tater Tots' was inscribed in there somewhere!

Met and drew a new colleague, Matt!

Using the Vine app...

If you have a smartphone or an iPad, chances are you've heard of the Vine app... 

it's a 6-second video-loop camera (overseen by Twitter) that you can use all in one fell swoop, or chopped up into stop-motion animation. Creatives of all types from comedians to cartoonists (often they are the SAME person, as you'll see when I give some recommendations at the end of this post) have discovered its uses. I've been using it mainly for caricature reactions. 

Here's a link to Seenive, a web viewer for Vines---click to see all my Vines.

When I have some free time, though, one of my favorite things to do is make little rock-star homages:

When you download the app, you can see who follows who, but here are links to the outstanding Vines of two of my friends: Marlo Meekins and Celestia Ward.  

Caricatures under fireworks!

I finished drawing this young couple just as the fireworks began at the Fair, so I shooed them out the back of my tent to enjoy them while I colored most of it. This is what happened when they came back:

My Other Half got this wonderful footage with his iPhone, and I edited it with iMovie (and while doing so, could NOT stop smiling! :-)

Here they are with their caricature.

At the Fair 2013

July is usually a month of heat waves, thunderstorms, sausage sandwiches, ferris wheels, fireworks and caricatures...

Although this year, my fair featured surprisingly pleasant and cool weather (notice the hoodie I'm wearing in the above photo).

It didn't start off that way. Monday and Tuesday's high temperatures were broken by some vicious thunderstorms, that came the night after I took this photo:

Although my tent was lowered and staked in securely, this is what I found when I arrived on Wednesday. :-(

So, off I went to the nearby sporting goods store:

Back to caricaturing!!

First up: three boys...

Then some little daughters: ( two different families, though)

On the right, the mom is holding a photo of last year's drawing on her phone. :-)

On the left, my Other Half got a photo of this little lass watching me draw and patiently waiting her turn:

Some couples in BW:

and in color:

One word: EYEBROWS

Below: Another phone-wielding dad with a whole COLLECTION of my caricatures of his sons pictured! Whoa!

Now for some girls!

Finally, a young man whose family has been my Fair next-door-neighbor for many years, and whom I first drew when he was about ten years old. He was due for another one!

Below: My Other Half came along again for the last two days, and took good care of me with lots of lemonade. He also kept the sausage sandwich vendor in business. ;-)