John Cleese-digital pen and ink

Here's this week's entry for Caricaturama Showdown 3000.


Took about an hour and a half in Photoshop. Although he's not a currently 'hot' celebrity, he'll make a nice portfolio piece for a long-time Python fan (me!).

Sparkly vampire boy and his GF

I'm on a mission to caricature some current hot celebrities,to use as both airbrush samples and digital portfolio pieces. Here is the dreamy (if you're a teenage girl) duo from Twilight....this is the very preliminary rough sketch.

And here's a link to MY favorite vampire....

"Khate" Gosselin....

Imagine my surprise when I googled "Kate Gosselin caricature" and found that very few artists have attempted her---and it's especially strange since she has been a tabloid staple for quite some time...

For those unfamiliar with her, she is a controversial reality-tv "star" from PA (not all that far from where I live, actually) who is infamous for having had 10-year-old twins and 6-year-old sextuplets. Her celebrity and constant freebies are contingent upon continually exploiting her children, whom almost since birth have had their entire childhood splayed out for public viewing. There is ongoing debate and pending legislation on filming kids for reality shows and what rights the children have...anyway, I was inspired to caricature her because she recently appeared on 'The View' denying she'd had a boob job, and it is so obvious that she has!

And actually, last fall, this artist (meaning me) made her the subject of a caricature. Her appearance has changed wholesale since only a year ago.

Below are all the stages it took to me to get to the finished piece. It went from a pencil rough, to a marker drawing, to airbrush before it ended up in Photoshop.

Jack Black digital caricature....

I finished my Jack Black last night:

The sketchbook rings from my original scan stayed, because I like how they and the way his head is cropped emphasize how big his personality is! (too big for that little paper :-)
Here's the link if anyone wants to check out other artists' versions: Caricaturama Showdown 3000. This group has exploded exponentially, with over 1000 members!

Digital WIP-Jack Black

Just got back from little beach vacation with my family--(had to introduce the baby grandson to the Atlantic Ocean!)...now it's time to get back to drawing.

This week's Caricaturama 3000 victim--I mean subject---is Jack Black, of Tenacious D-School of Rock-Shallow Hal fame. What a face!!!

This started out as a pencil sketch which I scanned and brought into Photoshop to finish. However, I'm not sure yet what degree of finish I want to give it...

BTW: My tenuous 6th-degree-of-separation to Jack Black is that two of my friends, Marlo Meekins and Nick Cross, did the fantastic backgrounds for John Kricfalusi's animation of Tenacious D's 2006 music video "Classico"... and now the aforementioned two friends are married and coming up on their first anniversary already!!!

Shout-out to a FB fan!

I am sooooo tickled when I see new FB fans of Caricatures by Emily using a live caricature I have drawn of them:

Thanks, Sebastian!

Caricaturama 3000-this week it's Megan Fox

I have to admit, I haven't seen any movie she's in--but I do think it is pretty sad that a twenty-three-year-old would have so much plastic surgery that she's been reduced to a tight, expressionless mask. Like "overdone steak" as a friend commented...

Check out Caricaturama 3000 on Facebook to see many, many other artists' interpretations of her...

Avoiding art-caused carpal tunnel...

Every vocation on earth must have its inherent risks, and being an artist is no exception. In my case, beyond the mental ones (haha, more on that some other time) I find that I am prone to occasional wrist, shoulder and back pain, depending on what I'm doing. For live caricaturing, having my arm raised to draw on a French easel can bother my shoulder and mid-back if I do it for too long or too frequently. When I use my Wacom Intuos alot or am drawing flat, my wrist tends to bother me. However, thanks to my friend Nick, I found a little gizmo that helps! It's called a Dynaflex Pro, and it works by having a spinning internal gyro within a ball that you twist in your hand. I was a little skeptical when I tried it, but it really does make your wrist exercise in ways it normally cannot. And after you use it, your entire arm feels rejuvenated! ( well, mine does!)


Here's a little video of it in action:

Yeah, I went for the one with LED lights... :-)

Contest: Name that tune! I'll do a free digital line-drawing caricature of the first person who can tell me what song is playing in the background...

Steamy company picnic...

Yesterday afternoon, I joined a few hundred employees who eschewed their company's air conditioning to enjoy (?) a company picnic in their parking lot...

Actually, I'm not complaining. I'd much rather draw in sultry heat than bone-chilling cold, when my fingers are numb. That sure wasn't the case here--it was more like sweaty fingers grabbing slippery markers!



These two youngsters, who were helping run things (one's mom was the picnic-co-ordinator) asked me to include the "man" of the moment...Justin Bieber!
The young man below ribbed all his co-workers while I was drawing them. This was his come-uppance...in photo and video form:


One of the perks of being the boss: getting dunked in the dunk tank!

Project Grad and some caricature statistics...

Last night and early this morning, I did a huge Project Grad party with seven other artists. This year, they had us spread out on the elevated track in the gym rather than crammed in a crowded conference room:

It was a five-hour event, into the wee hours, so my preparations included a little cooler of Red Bull! The kids came running en masse and the drawing started. I'd taken photos of the first few, and then someone asked if I took photos of ALL my caricatures. I replied 'usually not'...but then thought, 'why not?'
So, without further ado, here is EVERY drawing I did at this event, in order. I drew 73 people in five hours; that's a rate of 14.6 every hour. It took me approximately four minutes to complete each face. There were forty separate drawings: seven triples, nineteen doubles, and fourteen singles. The ratio of girls to boys was 52:21.
I did not take a break (which is sort of a bad thing healthwise; but I get in the zone and almost forget! Plus a thoughtful student brought me a soda and a plate of goodies to munch while I was drawing.)