A Bluesy-cluesy 1st birthday

On Saturday afternoon, I found myself at a little boy's balloon-festooned first birthday party:

It was Blue's Clues all the way!

There's the boy of the day. All the kids came next:

Then the grownups joined in:

Look at this cookie :-) Happy birthday, Drew! Thanks for having me!

Congratulations to William and Catherine...

This is still a work-in-progress, but now the new Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are wearing their wedding regalia---she made a beautiful bride! Time to go to sleep now, I've been up since 4 am watching the coverage from London.

Hopefully, I will finish this by Monday evening--they are this week's subjects for Caricaturama.

Take-Your-Child-to-Work Day 2011

One company's corporate staff thought it would be fun to bring to have caricatures done of their kids today....they also got name tags, t-shirts, and other swag!

My two cohorts in caricature today were Rick and Dave...

Here's a tableful of caricatures (they were kept with us until departure time, so the kids didn't have to carry them around). Can you tell which ones are mine?  (Clue: I seem to draw on the large side!)

And after we got through the kids, we did the adults!

 This man's son said it made him look like a "psycho clown"!!! Hah, yeah, it kinda does!

From Emily's Archives #2: Royal wedding 1981

The last time there was a major Royal Wedding, I was an entralled teenager--- and I sketched the new Princess of Wales many times. It's hard to believe it was almost thirty years ago that Charles and Diana married. I actually remember doing this conte drawing in art class my senior year, the fall of 1981:

Ah, the likeness is sorta close, but not quite there. (Improvement in that came with age and practice--- I keep wanting to go in and fix it!)
Of course, wake-up time is 3 am tomorrow, to watch Diana's son William marry his Kate. I think this marriage has a much better chance of succeeding. Back then, despite the fairy tale aspect,  I had doubts about a twelve-year age gap and the very short and formal courtship of Diana and Charles...so sad how it all turned out. Hopefully William and Kate will have every happiness.

Work-in-progress: William and Kate

Whether you love the British Royals, loathe them, or are indifferent, it's hard to avoid their dominance in the news right now (and at least it's a happy diversion, with all the bad news in the world at the moment) --the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton is two days away. I started a digital caricature of them and plan to have the faces done by Friday morning, and will finish their finery once I see what they're wearing!

Latest FB avatars (that I know of!)

Every now and then, I check out who has joined my FB Caricatures by Emily page, and happily find that people are using my caricatures as their profile pictures! Here are the latest two, one is from last year's State  Fair of Texas, and one is from a recent birthday party. Thank you for the honor, ladies!

I'd be willing to bet there are more avatars out there that I just don't know about--so many people mention doing this (not to mention myself)  when I hand them their drawing... :-)
If you have, or know of someone who's done this, let me know!

Update: I heard from a Facebook fan--someone who modeled at one of our NCN/ISCA conventions at a seminar years ago, she put up my life-drawing of her as her avatar! :-)

Thank you and nice to hear from you!

Yankees vs Orioles vs torrential thunderstorms...

Before the deluge...

(Note the preponderance of Yankee fans in line)

I don't ever want to forget a navy blue prismacolor artstick on a Yankee day---it looks almost identical to the black one, which I use more often, so it's easy to think I have one when I don't.

One girl asked to be drawn in O's regalia, but it turned out she was visiting different ballparks and just wanted home team stuff!

Below is Gary drawing a guy with sunglasses---is that caricature cheating? ;-)

And just as the game went into extra innings, the skies darkened and opened the floodgates, luckily JUST as we boarded the shuttle to the parking lot!

5th birthday party for two cousins

Peanut butter jelly time!!!! Peanut butter jelly time!!!!
I still have it going through my head from this afternoon, drawing at a Rock-Star themed birthday bash for two five-year old girls.  :-D
It was definitely speed mode today, at one point I drew three kids in less than ten minutes. (They were the last three, that's how I know!)
Here's a couple of pics from before my line grew: (and I didn't get pics of the birthday girls, but theirs were full-body in color--and their outfits were adorable...)

 This young man liked his so much he gave me a hug! :-)

Aaaaagh! I forgot to sign and date this little guy's drawing! 

Lots of the little girls had adorable outfits, come to think of it...

Thank you for having me!

Caricaturama SD 3000-Natalie Portman

At least she's not this skinny anymore...

Unlike actresses and ballet dancers, I'm glad I don't have to starve myself for my art!! Digital, took a little over two hours.

Here's the link to an entry by an amazing Russian artist: Caricaturama Showdown 3000.

Carny Land.

This is our (Celestia Ward's and Emily Anthony's) 

comic magnum opus:

( click to enlarge)

Enjoy! We really crammed this one full.

It was published in the most recent edition of our ISCA trade magazine, Exaggerated Features.

Just for kicks, here is the actual Candy Land board game...

And here is a 2010 photo of Celestia, Vlad, myself,  my fiance John (who starred in last year's comic), and Paul at the fair:

We don't know how we can top this one...