subwaysurfer blogggg

MAKE ART THAT PLEASES YOU FIRST.

2012-02-08T19:40:00.000-08:00

Every now and then, I say something that sounds so truly profound that I wonder if it really came from me in the first place. I had that experience recently while writing a young artist and was so blown away by this revelation that ace to me that I wanted to share it with you readers here. The young artist in question is a conceptual artist, who also is dabbling in photorealism. Following is my reaction to what he told me about himself.

THE LETTER

I believe it's good for artists to have a photorealism base. It's a great place of departure even for conceptual or abstract artists. Artists have to have some type of springboard to jump off of even if they're jumping into the void. That springboard seves as an anchor point for them to refer back to, otherwise IMO, their work becomes a chaotic mess that makes sense to no one but themselves.

No matter how independent an artist believes himself to be, he must realize or at least be honest enough to admit the he is creating art for SOMEONE no matter how narrow the audience.

If an artist s truly doing it just for him or herself, then they would never share their work with anyone.

And that's fine too.

Art is a profoundly human thing.

Elephants don't ponder what beautiful lines they're going to make with their trunks, nor do rattlesnakes wonder if they're "rattling on beat" only humans do that. And we do it on a primal level because it's pleasing to us.

Remember to always make art tat pleases you. First.

DOG EAT DOG IPAD ILLUSTRATION

2012-02-04T19:11:00.000-08:00

I was in the mood to draw today and thought I'd illustrate this old, tired cliche. It's a Dog Eat Dog World. I thought it would be too much to draw a globe, so I opted to draw the dog in corporate attire. I figured the expression probably originated in the business works anyway.

The illustration was originally drawn in pen and ink, using a Pitt artist brush pen, scanned into the iPad, and airbrushed using using the art studio app.

BOOK REVIEW: SUBWAYSURFER Extreme life drawing on da train

2012-02-03T19:15:00.000-08:00

Doing a plug here for the book I pulished featuring a collection of subway inspired drawings of mine during the 2006-2008 period. I was really into my extreme exaggeration drawing phase during this time, so the art reflects that. I use the mediums of pen and ink, graphite, colored pencils, and Prismacolor art stixx in the book, and there is some commentary. Hard copies can be obtained through blurb.com and an EBOOK version is also available on ths site by going to the ebooks and products link on the right side f the blog page.

Fixing it in Photoshop, The Caricaturist's salvation

2012-02-03T18:57:00.000-08:00

EXAGGERATED BLUE MAN IPAD CARICATURE

2012-02-03T18:43:00.001-08:00

THE KIDS STILL GOT IT!

While looking through some of my old books I found an exaggerated sketch that I think I missed posting. I threw t into the iPad, did a little digital coloring using the ArtStudio App, and came out with this masterpiece. I don't remember tge gentleman that I drew, but I'm sure I saw him on the subway. Undoubtedly this was done during my profile drawing period."

MEMORIES OF BUTCHE DOG

2012-02-02T11:54:00.001-08:00

A friend is one who is always happy to see you come and sad to see you go.

It's been a full week now, and I still find it so hard to let go of my best friend, my Beloved "Staffie" Butchie Dog.

He was fourteen years old.

"Beloved" is one of those words that you don't hear spoken much. It's most often written and read. It's like a sacred word, reserved only for those souls that touch our lives so deeply that their love for us, and ours for them transcend words.

Butchie Dog was 14 years old.

That's 14 Christmases , 14 New Years Days, 14 4th of Julys, and 14 years of quiet loving companionship.

As I've said numerous times in this Blog, being an artist can be a lonely life sometimes. Unlike regular nine to fivers, there's no daily morning commute, no ganging around the water cooler with your co withers, no confrontations with your boss... It's just you alone in an empty studio, with a sheet of paper, a computer screen, and the radio with the volume turned up for company.

To break up the monotony you can go out on location, see clients, or even have an occasional friend stop by, but the sat majority of time, it's just you a d the sound of silence.

For me, Butchie Dog filled up that silence. As I bent over my computer screen today banging out another late assignment, I found my eyes becoming wet with tears as I started to miss that old familiar sound of him coming down the stairs, and finally aging at my feet like a dog skin rug. I can still feel his cold, wet dog nudging my my ankle, reminding me that it was time for his morning walk. I would complain to him on cue, about needing to get my work done, but always felt more refreshed having gotten fresh air from our morning romps. I always took special pleasure in feeding him, because he had this curious way of "thanking me" for his food. He would always tae a few bites, then stop cold, pause ad turn in my direction making eye contact for a couple of seconds before returning to his meal. That's way too much thinking, for a dog"I used to say to myself, but Butchie Dog apparently did a lot of thinking!

I recall the first couple if months wen we got him, and tried to put him in a cage when we keft home. Wed come back hours later and found him on the coach fast asleep. I was always reprimanded for leaving the latch unlocked, until one day I returned home unexpectedly a few minutes after leaving, to find him slipping out the cage, by squeezing his body through an impossibly narrow opening until the match was released.

After that incident,he was awarded his freedom and had full run of the house!

One time we wished we hadn't done that. As he got older, he began to suffer from serration anxiety, and couldn't be left alone. I left the house one morning and returned to find the plaster near the front doing literally eaten away, exposing wiring and wood underneath, a bathroom door knob crushed like aluminum foil, and numerous shredding of door frames.

It officially became my job. To stay with Butchie Dog after that (which I was doing anyway) and the only time I could leave for appointments, was by meaning him with a boarding service at the local pet shop for days ad weekends.

Did I mention how he single handedly escaped not only from his cage one night, and also set free EVERY OTHER DOG IN THE PET SHOP TOO???

The owner found it so hilarious that he never even penalized us.

Lots of good memories...

I'll always miss the fact that he'd be here to comfort me when I was sick. Especially when i got so sick I'd be in bed for hours and hours, never complaining to go to the barroom, never demanding to be fed.

He'd just wait for me to Be Better and we both would take it from there.

When i noticed the timings growing on his body i tried to ignore it. When I noticed him becoming winded after our walks, I pretended not to notice. wen I would see him stumble walking down a flight of stairs, or whimper on the couch in pain, I'd pretend not to hear.

But that day at the vet one week ago, I could no linger deny it.

My friend was dying. Bit by bit. Slowly and painfully.

I had to let him go, and because I knew that this was the last time I would see him, I couldn't bear to even look in those eyes again.

I didn't want that memory.

I wanted the memory of long walks in the summer. Of digging paths for him to walk in the winter snow, of watching him endure having reindeer horns put on him on Christmas Eve, of listening to him snore at my feet while I drew, and of him slowly, painfully purposefully climbing the stairs that lead to my bedroom just because he couldn't bear not to be near me.

That's love.

And that's what I'm going to miss the most.

Goodbye Butchie Boy.

Thank you.

I love you.

And I'll miss you every day.,

HERES A POST AND CARTOON I DID LAST YEAR OF BUTCHIE WHEN HE WAS THIRTEEN

Well maybe it's not going to the "DOGS" but at least ONE dog, anyway. My dog, Butchie. Butchie is my 13 year old American Staffie aka a Pitbull Deluxe. Butchie dog, as I call him, has been my constant companion for years as I sit in this lonely basement studio that is either too hot, too damp, or too cold, as I crank out caricatures, create cartoons, communicate with clients , or cry continuously because of cranky customers! LOL. It occurred to me that Ive never really drawn the one who is truly, "mans best friend" ... shhhh is my wife listening?....One day, after coming home
from a vet visit, he came into the living room, and was so happy to see his dinner waitiong, that he wagged his tail stuck out his tongue and held this pose for a couple of seconds, long enough for me to get just the gesture drawing I needed to make this great Doggie Caricature

DISADVANTAGES OF DOING STREET CARICATURES

2012-01-31T11:41:00.001-08:00

ADVANTAGES OF DOING STREET CARICATURES

2012-01-31T11:38:00.000-08:00

DRAWING THE PERSONALITY PART THREE

2012-01-30T16:24:00.001-08:00

DRAWING THE PERSONALITY PART TWO

2012-01-30T16:22:00.000-08:00

DRAWING THE PERSONALITY PART ONE

2012-01-30T16:18:00.000-08:00

STOP LOOKING FOR THEIR APPROVAL developing self confidence as an artist

2012-01-26T16:25:00.001-08:00

IS USING TECHNOLOGY TO DRAW EXAGGERATED CARICATURES CHEATING?

2012-01-20T11:27:00.000-08:00

A CONTROVERSIAL SUBJECT
One night while playing with my wives new iPad 2, I discovered a neat little application called photo booth. This crazy app enables the user to manipulate photos using filters that stretch, squash, and contort, in tge sane way Photoshop filters do in one eat step. I became intrigued and took a photo of myself and started playing. Instantly it struck me how surprisingly simple these "photo caricature" were to create, and brought back to mind a question I asked on a caricature forum I frequented several years ago.
IS using technology to draw caricatures cheating? I even went as far as to pose the question if any of the artists on the forum had ever used Photoshop, or another photo manipulation program to give them an edge over other computer illiterate artists who struggled doing exaggerations the old fashioned way, namely using our imagination. The overwhelming majority insisted they never used technologhy, except for one prominent artist (who really is brilliant and no doubt can draw outta his head)who confessed that e had used technology occasionally to enhance a drawing, and to solve visual problems.

WHY THE OUTRAGE

At the time, I suspect that along with my peers who were against the practice of using the computer to "help out" we felt that whoever did so. Want being a "real artist" as we loos,y defined as one who used their own hand, brains, and imagination to create works of art. We were the "caricature purists" who were holding to a higher standard.

But there was also a very real fear....

Those of us, like me, who had struggled sooooo hard to "crack the exaggerated code" took pride in the fact that we had labored hard and long to achieve our level of proficiency. While there were many talented, competent artists in our tribe, only a select few were able to achieve those wonderfully grotesque caricature renditions that simultaneously resembled the subject, and a creature from outer space. The air we few breathed in sitting upon Mount Olympus was rare, and sweet!
But that blasted photo editing software everything! with it, even the modestly talented neophyte could achieve dreams of Exaggerated caricature glory! And unlike us poor souls who labored to obtain this exalted knowledge, they could do so in less than half the time!

The other fear was that people who possessed no talent at all, could now, with this diabolical device, thumb their noses at us caricature artists, and exclaim" who needs YOU?? We can now create our OWN caricatures!"

Yeah.... I was a purist, alright.....but recently, as I've grown older, and more open to new ideas, I've begun to re examine if I've been too hasty in condemning the use of technology to create caricatures. They way I see it now, there are actually some real advantages.

TECHNOLOGHY ISN'T "BAD"

Is technology really bad to create art with? If I'm honest, I really would have to conclude it isn't. Like most artists I've used technology to scan my pictures, clean up my sketches, juxtapose images together, re size them, and of course color them. If any purist would come up to me and say I wasn't a "real"artists because I wasn't using rulers to resize, or mixing my own paint I'd totally ignore them on the way to picking up my check from a satisfied client. While I can't cite any examples now, it's safe to say that artists have AKWAYS used the available technologhy of their day to enhance their work, or make it simpler to execute. In our day, that tool just happens to be the computer. With so many other people
In other industries from accounting to zoologhy using it to enhance their performance, we would be nuts to neglect it.

YOU CAN'T DRAW WHAT YOU CAN'T SEE

One time as a beginning artist, I was asked to draw a picture of a unicorn which as everyone knows s really just a horse with wings and a forehead horn. Simple. Or so I thought. When I was told I had drawn it wrong, I was a little confused... I knew what a horse looked like, having seen them in person and pictures I internalized an image in my head I could recall at will. What I neglected to realize, however was that the front and the back legs were wry g. Apparently I hadn't noticed noticed that the back legs of such animal was different from the front. I literally could t draw that, because I couldn't visualize, which means I didn't see it! And the source I was using was my imagination.
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DRAWING FROM THE IMAGINATION SCREEN

Whenever we decide to draw a subject in an exaggerated way, we do two things. First and foremost, we look at the subject objectively to see what they look normally. At this stage, we aren't applying a subjective opinion about the face's individual parts, we take everything in as a whole, first. After we've gotten a good look we start to look for facial "flaws", promise t attributes, etc. Finally once we've got that info, we start to imagine the face stretched pulled, and Shawnee based on the info we've obtained in the previous stage. This process happens quicker than it takes to write or tell, but it does happen. We draw based on what we see with our eyes, objectively, and also what we superimpose whats in our imagination. The level of exaggeration is keft up to the individual artist, but for the purpose of this article, I'm talking about extremely distorted exaggeration like my "peanut head shape"photo here.

AN EASIER WAY TO LEARN EXAGGERATION

Before I continue, let me stress that although you certainly can throw a photo into an image editing program, and trace or copy it to get a likeness quickly. I'm advocating using the tecnologhy as a tool to help you visualize the concept of exaggeration. Let's face it.for the average artist, doing exaggerated work is challenging. Some get close to understanding it, while others never seem to understand it. Master exaggerators often speak of maintaing proper relationships in the face when we stretch pull or squeeze. It's a ard concept though to visualize and remember if you don't have a picture to look at and imprint. In the aforementioned photo, my image is forced into a peanut shape, where the forehead and lower part of my face are ballooned out, and the middle is pinched in. By viewing the oho to, one can easily see what happens to the corresponding facial features of eye brows, eyes, nose mouth, even my goatee "react" when forced into that peanut shaped container. The same can be equally seen when my face is forced into an egg shape and a square shape. by taking your face or any for that matter, and playing around with it, you will get a "feel" for how the corresponding facial features are likely to react when subjected to a given geometric container. In short they will be locked into your imagination, and now that you can "see" what a given exaggerated face is likely to look, you can impose that principle on the current face you are observing.

I realize this approach is a mechanical one, but it's a starting point, a way of training your mind to look through a fun house mirror just a little faster than if you'd have to conjure up the image on your own.

A GREAT TOOL FOR FANTASY ART AND CHARACTER DESIGN

If youve ever been commissioned to draw fantasy. Type art, you know how difficult that can be.
The trick is to create alien characters no one has seen before, but still contain a certain kind of "reality". While some may find this easy to do without a visual aid, if you're like me, you more than likely end up drawing a stereotypical green colored alien with three round eyes and two antentaes on top of the head.

Playing around with a variety of faces in photo manipulation software provide you with endless options so that you can make alien critters so grotesque, you puke on your keyboard. Once you are satisfied with your character, simply copy it, with the confidence that you are not plagiarizing someone elses character.

EMBRACE THE PRESENT
regardless of how you feel about art and computer technologhy, the fact is that this tool is here to stay. As artists WE ARE SUPPOSED TO BE THE CREATIVE ONES! And that means having the desire and ability to use whatever tools the culture gives us to our advantage. If we can find a way to enhance our work, to do it faster and easier, there's no reason why we shouldn't. Photo imaging software is nothing more than using a specialized brush or pen to get our work done.and that should be what's most important to any artist. Getting the work done.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this. All opinions, pro and con are welcome and encouraged.
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WHATS THE BEST MARKER TO USE?

2012-01-18T13:05:00.000-08:00
WHAT IS THE BEST MARKER TO USE???

Ah! This age old question is asked of me more than any other, especially by beginning artists. I don't mind answering the question,(well, obviously since I'm writing an article) but sometimes I can't help laughing inwardly whenever the question is asked. Usually the question gets asked whenever a person finishes viewing a particular piece of work drawn seen online or drawn in person. The question is funny to me because I feel it's not REALLY what the person is, or should be asking. I feel what they really want to know is what technique I used to make the picture look humorous, exaggerated or interesting? How do you get "life" into the drawing? Why does it have a sense of movement? How do you get that dynamic quality in your work?

Asking What's the best marker to use, is akin to the Harry Potter villain, Voldermort, seeking the Power of The Elder Wand.

The truth is, it AIN'T THE WAND, in this case, it's the skill of the Magician.
At least, in part.

Markers are tools(which vary from one artist to another) that enable us as artists to do a job easier, that's all. They, in themselves don't do the job for us. There are tools that are better suited for what I happen to be drawing. For instance, if I HAD to limit myself to ONE marker to use for live party caricature, I would have to revert back to childhood....

CRAYOLAS AIN'T JUST FOR KIDS

Crayolas are, hands down, my favorite marker for live drawing. Don't get me wrong, I love Markettes, Tombo Brush Pens, and Chart Paks, too, but CRAYOLA holds a special place in my heart.

First off, it's how they make me feel, emotionally.

Whenever I draw with them, It feels like I'm getting ready to play, not work. I've watched caricature artists who draw exceptionally well, technique wise, but sometimes their faces are contorted in this mask of intense concentration, as the do their "job". For me I want party work to seem like fun, not labor, and this is exactly the tool I need to get me into that space.

Economically, the price of the markers can't be beat. Three to five bucks for a pack of ten. If you shop for pens regularly, you know how they eat into your budget.It could be argued that I'm not saving money, if I'm just using the color, Black from the box, but I use the dark colors if purple, blue ad brown as well with equal success and appreciation. People being drawn feel they're getting a color drawing, even though I'm just doing line. Another great way to save money is to wait until Kate August when Staples has their Back To School Sales. You can get the ten box for. As love as .99 at some locations!

Convenience wise, the Crayolas can be obtained from a variety of locations. You can't buy Tombo Brush lens from your local mom and pop candy store, CVS Pharmacy, Target, Duane Reade, or the stationary isle of your Super market, can you? This availability alone has saved me on numerous occasions wen I had forgotten my markers and couldn't get to a name brand Art Store.

Saving money, and Convienience are important factors, but what about functionality? How do these tools really perform in the field? I thought you'd never ask!

SUPERIOR LINE QUALITY

Even with ne ranting on about the skill of the artist, blah, blah, blah, earlier, I must say that the CRAYOLA, in the hands of a trained professional, deliver a quality if line so elegantly, that I come close to weeping looking at my completed drawings.

The secret of this superior line quality us found in the markers wonderf
ul conical tip. This conical tip is unbelievably durable, and might be expected, since it was designed to withstand the pounding of children. It works great for adults like me would are notorious for "heavy handedness" when we draw. With just minor adjustments of your ha d, you can get a curved calligraphic line, a fine thin line, or a bold massive one.unlike other pens whose tip usually loses some of it's firmness after a couple of drawings, I've used these tips until they've comp,etey dried out and they still hold their shape, This is definitely the kind of marker you want if you have a long line f people, find yourself in a zone" and don't have time to change markers, lest you break your flow.

LETS NOT FORGET PAPER
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I must admit, that not all drawing surfaces are CRAYOLA Marker friendly. All if the aforementioned be benefits of using the marker will fade away like your childhood dreams uf you use the wrong paper, stay away from papers that have a lot if tooth to them. You want your paper to have a smooth finish. Glossy paper works best of course, but can be pricey. I recommend card stock and cover stock paper that can be purchased at Staples ranging from 8X11 in size, to 11X17. The price us very reasonable for either size, the paper is sturdy, and you will have saved the life of a marker.

Oh yeah...good old notebook paper like I'm using in the photo works great too! I use notebook paper when I'm practicing. It saves money on sketchpads... Recession ya know...a mans gotta save money....

THE WRAPUP

I hate to get all corny on ya and conclude that no marker is really the best, it all depends on YOU! So I won't. I will say for certain jobs like the one I described, live party caricature, there are markers that ARE better. Yeah, I'm taking a stand.... Argue me down if you must.....
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STOP PROCRASTINATION NOW!

2012-01-15T18:38:00.001-08:00

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HIP HOP ELF Cartoon by Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

2012-01-13T17:05:00.000-08:00
I was in a playful character creating mood today, so I decided to draw my version of an Elf. As a kid, the Elves I remember were all happy little critters, and some were a little mischievous. I decided to up this mischievous level a couple of notches, turning my Elf into a doo rag wearing, gold teeth and ear ring sporting, sneaker wearing, hip hop graffiti tagged Elf complete with spray can.

BLACK AND WHITE SKETCH

I drew this simply using a very thin line, knowing I was going to digitally paint it in art studio. I imported the initial sketch(not shown) into the art studio app, by first taking a photo of it ane emailing it to myself. I then meticulously traced the sketch until everything was in place exactly the way I wanted.

ADD FLAT AREA OF COLOR

Know lay down the basic colors that I'm going to shade in later to give the picture a more three dimensional feel.if I was doing basic animation, where I had to draw this hundreds f times, this would generally be the end. Thankfully, I'm not done yet!

SHADING STAGE

The shading stage is where I especially start to get excited. I always enjoy seeing the fat colored picture start to pop as I begin to add highlights and shading. Often times at this stage, I get new ideas for the sketch that I hadn't thought of previously. Initially I thought it would just be comical to give my youthful Elf Boy big bucked teeth, but once I decided to make one tooth gold, it enhanced that whole hip hop vibe I was going for.

FINISHING TOUCHES

In the final stage I pay close attention to the eyes adding more shadow to make them slightly more menacing. I also purposely add more white highlights which for me, is reminiscent on how Grafetti artists used to color their pieces. Believe it r not, a lot of my color inspiration comes from observing and copying the way artists color the crazy characters you see inhabiting your breakfast cereal boxes! Have you looked at the way Captain Crunch is colored lately? It's absolutely breath taking!
To complete the pic, I've added yellow spray mist to the spray can,and f course it would be complete with showing how hes tagged the two mushrooms in the background.

What I love about this character is that he can easily be turned into a comic char act that I can build a story around. Now if I can only think of a name?...
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THE ART OF TEACHING ART part three by Elgin SUBWAYSURFER Bolling

2012-01-11T14:18:00.000-08:00

YOU ARE THE MASTER

Ever heard the expression,"jack of all trades, master of none?" its seems like a good idea to be a "jack" initially, I admit. After all, if you know a little bit about a variety of subjects, then you will be versatile enough to do whatever a client calls for! What's wrong with that?? Well, while you WILL get a couple of assignments, you may not feel entirely comfortable doing that particular thing. For instance, I can DO background drawing, but it's a labor intensive activity for me, as opposed to cartooning and caricature which I can do in my sleep. When a client hires you to do a job, they're not expecting a generalist, they're expecting a master, who not only knows their subject inside out, but can even re invent and re adjust on the fly. When you are teaching, you don't want there to be any guesswork. You also want to have fun! Strive to teach on the subject that you KNOW. Doing so will help you develop your own niche, and it's this Niche which will focus you and make you stand out from the pack.

TEACH ON A SPECIFIC TOPIC

When I first began teaching art I was so excited to have the job, I started teaching "everything" I knew about the subject in the first session! I talked endlessly, never passing to take a breath, switched from one aspect of my subject matter to the next, gave multiple examples to accent my points, and sincerely wondered why I was getting blank stares.

PEOPLE ARE NOT MACHINES

The one thing that must always be remembered when teaching is that your audience doesn't know what you know. For many, this will be the first time they've been introduced to your subject, and they cannot be overloaded with too much information. THEY WILL NOT RETAIN IT! It's best when teaching, to teach on one or two topics and explore those topics from a variety of angles. It may seem like you will not fill up your allotted time if you teach only one or two things, but don't forget that you will be lecturing, demonstrating, having your class do hands on exercises, evaluating their work, and answering their questions. Trust me if you do things right, you will actually run out of time in most cases.
Teaching on one or two things also allows you the opportunity to do subsequent workshops on the same subject showing a different aspect, and can also give you the opportunity to introduce your products, books, DVDs etc. That expounds on your teaching, and your private lessons.

If you teach "everything" in the first lesson, there's no reason for them to reach out to you again! THIS is a lesson I had to learn the hard way!!

BE YOURSELF

Artists in general, even at an early age,"march to a different drummer"we think different, we talk different, we dress and behave in ways that the general population feels is strange. For the most part, people aren't ready, especially when they're younger, to embrace and accept anyone who is not in any way similar to them.as a result in childhood and adolescence, artists are subject to the ridicule, anger, and fear of others. Some become the butt of cruel jokes and pranks, others the victims of assault. The young artist, if he is not affirmed by someone, carries the scars obtained in childhood, and can still hear the ridiculing voices in the corridors of their mind. In an effort to quiet those voices, some take on other personality traits and behaviors more acceptable in the so called "real world", after all, it's much too hard to be an artist, and have an artists personality....

THE POWER OF BEING YOURSELF

I was that young artist, that I eluded to in the previous paragraph. In an effort to bury the artist personality, I tried to adopt a personality more suited to the so called real world. Without going into detail, let's just say the result of that left me feeling angry and exhausted. Angry, because I knew I was presenting a "plastic person" to the world, and exhausted because it became to hard to keep up the charade. In despair, I reverted back to the "artist personality" no one seemed to like.
Then one day all of a sudden, people began to say the strangest things about me...

"wow, you really have a commanding voice!, it sounds like radio!" "wow, I never knew you were so funny, you're kinda zany!""wow, that's pretty deep what you said, I never would've thought that!"

Out of no where I was actually bein affirmed for being ME! so I began to embrace myself even more, and the more I accepted, the mire beauty I found and the more I wanted to show THAT guy to the world!
When I taught something being my old fake "this is what the real world accepts, self" responses from people were......acceptable.
But when I started being this articulate, zany, thoughtful, spontaneous artist guy, people began to respond so enthusiastically that it almost made my heart stop. I recall one insident where I brought an entire high school auditorium to it's feet in thunderous applause, something my son recalled had never ever happened with that tough crowd. I even had kids, now young adults stop me in the streets to tell me how much they enjoyed what they saw and heard...

YOUR AUDIENCE WANTS YOU

It really is that simple. People are hungry for authenticity from teachers. When they get that, it makes the entire teaching atmosphere more enjoyable for both parties. If you are YOURSELF sincerely around your students, you will give out an energy that is going to resonate with them, and once that happens they will ask you back to teach again and again.

TEACHING NEED NOT BE A CHORE

Teaching art gets a bad rap, in my opinion. Some look at it as a default job because you just couldn't get your REAL art jib started, or it's just a way to pay bills. Teaching is very rewarding. Most of us have devoted outpr lives to learning how to draw, paint,and sculpt why should thatknowledgejust die with us? It shouldn't. We have a responsibility to impart what we've learned to other generations so that they might expand and grow, and one day teach others. In a way, by teaching, no matter what the age group or setting, we're putting pieces of our selves into others ane insuring in a small way, that we will live forever.

Don't YOU want to live forever?
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THE ART OF TEACHING ART part two by Elgin SUBWAYSURFER Bolling

2012-01-11T11:04:00.000-08:00

PUBLIC SPEAKING IS SCAREY

I ain't gonna lie, public speaking is a little scary. Prior to speaking, and sometimes during speaking, your heart pounds, your blood pressure increases, your breathing becomes shallow, and you may even tremble. It's definitely an adrenalin rush. But as I eluded to in my previous article, anyone can get over the fear of public speaking, including the introvert.
I KNOW. I was an introvert.

WHAT, EXACTLY ARE WE AFRAID OF?

Simply put, we are afraid of being ourselves. Much as we try to not admit that we want the approval, and positive regard of strangers, we in fact , all do want it. At least, to some degree. No one wants to be thought of as incompetent, dumb, ugly, or "uncool". It's maddening to not know how people are predicting us, and that creates fear of rejection. I feel this is the major reason why people shy away from speaking. Another fear is that we feel people will see through us, and see our insecurities. When we speak we do tend to reveal things about ourselves through our posture, our gestures, and our voices. We want to appear strong and capable, not insecure and hesitant.

HERES THE FACT

The fact is that we are simply being too hard on ourselves. The so called introvert who wants to avoid public scrutiny feels this eternal pressure in greater degree than perhaps the so called extrovert, but BOTH personalities are prone to the same opinion, and that is "EVERYONE'S LOOKING AT ME!!!" While it's true that you are being watched, for the most part, the vast majority of your audience WANTS you to succeed! Yes, I will admit, that there are a few who want you to fall flat on your face, but more people are with you than against you. It's important to remember that your audience is there because they are perceiving you as an expert, as an authority. They are anxiously awaiting to receive information from you that they don't have knowledge of. You owe it to them to deliver. It's also empowering, and a tremendous ego boost to know that people have gathered to hear YOU. That fact in itself. Should be enough to increase your confidence, which is precisely what you need to give a great presentation

ABOUT THAT ADRENALIN RUSH

That "butterflyfeeling" in your stomach is not going anywhere. Im willing to bet that it is this physical sensation that makes you feel like you're "afraid". But let's analyze that feeling. I bet that you feel those same "butterflies" when you're enjoying a ride on a dollar coaster, about to board a plane, en route to your dream vacation, or watching a nail biting football game! Adrenalin is just your body's response to an intense activity. That's it. The great thing about it, is that it makes you more energized, and alert. If you simply reframe the way you feel about the adrenalin rush, it will no longer be viewed as fear. Instead of TELLING YOURSELF how nervous and afraid you are,TELL YOURSELF how excited you are, how charged up you are. There's something that is truly magical about positive self talk. Your mind, body, and emotions tend to believe what you SAY! let's face it, it believes you when you say that you're scared,dent it? Why not reverse what you say to yourself and have it work for you? I guarantee if you do this, it works!

HOW ABOUT THE TEACHING PART?

So far, we've already established that teaching art(or anything else) is just public speaking, art only being our subject. We've examined why we must speak public ally in terms of benefits, and also the things that hinder us as speakers and some solutions. We haven't quite answered the question yet about how we actually, in an idiot proof way, teach the subject of art. I've wanted to save the best for last, so tune into the next session where I will go into a few of my teaching methods.

Oh, just in case you were admiring the black and white sketch in the above photo,HERE IS THE PICTURE OF THE GUY I WAS DRAWING .

This picture is a revised version of my subject in the top photo. Its taken from a lecture that I gave at a NYC DARE TO DRAW/DRINK AND DRAW presentation I gave on the art of character design.This picture was eventually used as the cover for an ebook of mine on the art of character design. The ebook is available for purchase on this blog in the Ebooks and products section in the upper right corner
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THE ART OF TEACHING ART by Elgin SUBWAYSURFER Bolling

2012-01-11T10:02:00.000-08:00

There comes a time in every professional artists life when you absolutely, positively MUST speak/teach in front of a group. That group may be a group of public school kids on career day, a continuing education course at The Learning Annex, or community college, or a seminar like I'm teaching in the above photo.

WHY MUST YOU DO THIS?

Actually there are a number of reasons why doing this is beneficial to your career. Among them are:

NOTORIETY AND VISIBILITY

Let's face it, no matter how good you are as an artist, in the public mind "artists are a dime a dozen." most people "know"someone who can draw, or think one artist, is just as good as another. Part of the reason for this erroneous public perception is due to the way most artists present themselves, or rather don't present themselves. For the most part, art is a solitary activity, which takes a lot of time to create. Because we artists spend a lot of tmrw focusing on our work, we may not spend an equal amount of time focusing on, and interacting with people. I've met artists whose work is brilliant, visually but whose personalities seem to evaporate when they have to explain it to someone. Most feel that their work should "speak for them". However, in the non artist world, people make themselves known by speaking for themselves.

In order to stand out from the art crowd, you must become adept at speaking for yourself. You must be able to transfer, and impart what you know to other people. So few artists are able to do this, that those who can, will be the ones who stand out and will be remembered.

A GREAT WAY TO GET NEW CLIENTS

Another benefit of teaching/public speaking is that it's a great way to get clients. Even if you give a free seminar,you never know who is in the audience listening. Often times another person will hear you speak and present, and will be impressed enough to hire you for a business venture they are involved in. This is precisely what landed me a job with EHOW.COM where I was commissioned to do 90 instructional videos entitled "drawing 101" for children. Potential clients are always on the lookout for people who can speak and present well.

FINANCIAL REWARD IN LEAN TIMES

It's great to have a client with deep pockets who keep you afloat, but all good things eventually come to an end, and you will be out of a job, wondering where the next one is coming from. Teaching fills in the gaps, and if you are popular, your teaching gig can last for months. Seminars and workshops can also be lucrative. The great thing about doing a workshop is that you Jacobs total control over what you want to present.

THIS ALL SOUND GOOD, BUT IM SCARED TO DEATH OF PUBLIC SPEAKING!! HOW CAN I TEACH WHEN IM AFRAID TO SPEAK?

I've read thar public speaking is the number one fear most people have and number two is the fear of DEATH! So speaking in front of a group for most people, is close to dying! Trust me, I feel your pain! I can assure you though, that it s possible to get over this fear even if you are an introvert like I was.

WANNA KNOW MORE?
Read part two of this article!
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THE7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ARTISTS by Elgin SUBWAYSURFER Bolling

2012-01-10T18:41:00.000-08:00
7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE ARTISTS
By Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling
(Apologies to Franklin Covey)

So there I was, reading Franklin Covey's fascinating book, The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People, and as usual, my creative mind began to free associate as I went down Covey's list. Although I've done a tongue-in-cheek play on words of the principles, these really are habits of highly successful artists that I've read about,come in contact with, and implemented myself.

Enjoy.

1 BE ACTIVE PROFESSIONALLY

When I was a younger artist, I loathed alliances of any kind. "they're not going to steal my clients!""they're not going to steal my ideas!" I said to myself, and I did make decent money. But I was lonely and unfulfilled. As I got older, I realized the power and practicality of aligning myself with other professionals like myself, and being active in organizations. Not only did active participation make me a better artist, but t also created a sense of community in a profession that is solitary. Oh, did I mention that my income did not suffer?

2 BEGIN WITH NO END IN SIGHT

In regards to working, I've found that you create an infinite amount f stress when you're always focussing on the END of the project rather than enjoying the process, the journey. Whenever I forget about clock watching, I get into a creative zone where I become so involved that I get much more work done, with Kessler stress.

3 PUT FIRST THINGS LAST

Most people focus primarily on the thing they do best FIRST rather than working on their weaknesses. That's putting first things first. Try saving the first easy thing for LAST, and you'll find you'll gain more control over the stuff you're bad at.

4 THINK GRIN/GRIN

There's nothing worse than coming out of a. Negotiation or business deal where you're happy but your client isn't, or even worse, when your clients happy, and you aren't! Both scenarios will not get you repeat a referral,or repeat business from that client, and that is what need if you are to make a living as a professional artist.
I would refer to these as GRIN/FROWN scenarios.
In GRIN/GRIN scenarios you seek to walk away from a business meeting where you both are satisfied. To achieve this takes compromise, business savvy, the gift if gab, a d even a little luck, but it can be done, and a client who is Grinning is sure to eel you winning. (their money, that is!)

5 SEEK FIRST TO UNDERSTAND, THEN YOU WILL BE IN DEMAND
I've always been turned off by salespeople and business professionals who just look at e like I'm a dollar sign. These types never ask my opinion, keep firing questions at me, without giving me time to respond, or if I have objections, mentally write me off as not being a potential paycheck. I've found that if I seek to understand my clients needs, objections, fears, and concerns, not only does it make my work with them easier, but they also end up purchasing a lot more from me than they normally would, people haye to be treated like statistical data. Threat them like human beings and you'll be in demand.

6 PRIORITIZE

As an artist, it's natural to be loose, carefree, and spontaneous. Much if the creative process has that air of unpredictability, it's how we find our muse. Once that muse is found, though, it's time to take off the"artists hat" and put on the "business person hat."
You will never get a project done in a timely fashion for a client unless you prioritize. As a young artist I literally avoided some business projects because I felt they were too "labor intensive" and instead did my "fun"stuff first, vowing I'd get to the hard stuff once relaxed. I remember many a sleepless night burning the proverbial "midnight oil" in an effort to get my "labor intensive "

7 SHARPEN YOUR FLAW

Before Arnold was Governor of California, he was a world champion bodybuilder. Seven times mr Olympia in fact, beating out consistently world class competitors all over the globe. Arnold boasted that he won consistently because he ad no weak parts, which was not just an arrogant boast. In professional bodybuilding, the top competitors are judged, objectively on how well proportioned each particular muscle group is in relationship to the entire body. Although it's true that Arnold's charismatic personality didn't hurt his chances for obtaining victory, objectively, he was found to be "perfectly proportioned"according to competitive standards. However, this wasn't always the case. In a candid interview, Arnold revealed that early in his competitive career,his physical flaw was his calve muscles, which he referred to as weak, and constantly lagged behind the rest of his body in terms of continued growth. To improve, he purposely wore pants cut off that only revealed his weak skinny calves. Doing this forced him to work even harder on their development since he was forced to constantly look at them. Arnold didn't run away from his flaw pretending it didn't exist, but continued to sharpen it working assiduously unlit it was no longer a weakness,but one of his strengths.

As artists we too must not run away from our weaknesses but sharpen them into strengths. I recall early on having terrible line qality when I drew, as was pointed out by a fellow artist I respected. I practiced continuously until I got to the point where I actually became sought after BECAUSE of my great line quality!
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CARICATURE EXPRESSIONIST CHRIS CHUA

2012-01-07T21:11:00.000-08:00
I discovered Chris Chua by accident. One day I was randomly searching the Internet for caricature artists, and came across a name that I didn't recognize(at the time Chris was not yet a member of the NCN) I thought he had a cool name that sounded like a candy bar, and noticed immediately that he was doing something so zany that gave me the impression he was taking dope and dog food. Chris' caricatures were a total departure from the exaggerated squash and stretch drawings I was accustomed to seeing. In fact, his renditions were reminiscent of looking through a kaleidoscope, or at times a broken mirror. The likenesses were definitely discernible from one angle, then when you looked at it again, the likeness you thought you saw, seemed to vanish, only to appear again! It was totally trippy!I remember reading about drawing a portrait on a distorted grid, and this is something he seemed to do naturally.Shortly after finally joining THE NCN, I noticed,that many of the members didn't quite "get Chris" (although many of the members might deny this now)I recall discussions on the forum criticizing his caricatures as not being consistent, or lacking a likeness if the subject. I recall watching Chris with fascination defend his way of drawing, and knew that he was on to something really edgy, different and unique. I wrote him several times encouraging him to close his ears to the naysayers, and to realize instead that soon his style would become a force to recond with, and would give Birt to a host of admirers and imitative. (turns out I was right)

AS ONE OF THE LEADERS IN THE NEW SKOOL OF CARICATURE, HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE IN AN ELITE GROUP?

Umm...I didn't know I was one of the leaders? says who?...so I don't know how it feels...but I like the way "skool" is spelled, so I'm glad to be a part of it! yeah! Oh yeah! skool-aid man! heh.

YOUR STYLE OF CARICATURE CUBISM ,ABSTRACT EXAGGERATION,REPRESENTATIONAL REARRANGING OF PEOPLES FACIAL FEATURES HAS CAUGHT ON IN A BIG WAY . DID YOU ALWAYS DRAW THIS WAY?

Huh?! Again, who are these people that are saying it's catching on?! is it my mom? it's prolly my mom, heh. Actually, my mom is just confused a lot of times when I show her some of my work, heh. Anyhoo to answer your question, no...I was pretty into cartoons and especially comic book artwork for most of my life so my art reflected an amalgamation of those influences...ok, I just wanted to use the word amalgamation...hope I used it right, heh. I was always interested in shapes/design and slowly became more and more stylized and experimental. It wasn't until I caught the caricature bug with my nifty net later on that I played more with abstracting the face more. But the one consistent that I've always done and I think most people don't know about me and still do to this day (although a little bit less) is practice drawing more realistically for practice to keep myself in check so I don't use style as an excuse or crutch. I've always tried to balance moving more and more stylized with improving my knowledge of traditional. I love all styles of art, from abstract to realistic and everything in between and that goes for caricature styles too. I feel that I can learn a bit of something from it all and increase my bag of silly rabbit trixs.

I NOTICED YOUR KNACK FOR DOING THIS YEARS AGO WHEN YOU FIRST CAME ON BOARD THE USS NCN NOW KNOWN AS THE STARSHIP ISCA. AT THE TIME THE NORM WAS DOING KRUGER-esque TYPE OF EXAGGERATED PORTRAITS. DID PEOPLE REACT TO YOUR OFFBEAT STYLE IN A NEGATIVE WAY?
People, as in other caricature artists? or customers? well, I guess it's kinda irrelevant, as I don't think I've gotten that much negative reactions from either...or maybe people just kept it to themselves, heh. But for the most part, fellow artists have been very welcoming and encouraging to my style which has been awesome! I honestly have been blown away by the sheer amount of awesome, friendly, way more talented than me caricature artists that I've already met in the few years I've been associated with caricatures. Seriously, most caricature artists are amazingly cool, willing to divulge their process, down-to-earth fun people! Oh, except Sean Gardner, he's a jerk and a hack. just kidding, heh, he's actually one of my best buds as whale as one of the best caricature artists!

I HAPPEN TO KNOW THAT THE THEME PARKS HAVE A "HOUSE STYLE"THAT EVERY ARTIST ADHERES TO, SO AS TO ACHIEVE A UNIFIED LOOK WITH THE TOURISTS. SINCE YOUR STYLE IS A DEPARTURE, HOW DOES THE CROWD, AND MANAGEMENT VIEW WHAT YOU DO?

I don't necessarily agree with your statement of the "house style" that artists HAVE to adhere to. I've drawn at half a dozen theme parks and have never seen that being enforced...maybe I've just been lucky? At the park I work at and help train I encourage individuality in styles and I'd say pretty much all our 15 or so artists all have their own distinct style, no one really draws like anyone else. Our sales are VERY solid as well and it's rare that we run into any customer issues either. I believe if you can sell it, and regardless of style if it looks professional/executed with confidence and looks enough like what a caricature is, it's fine. As far as crowd reaction, I don't always draw extreme, I pick and choose, sometimes it's based on how much I think a customer will enjoy a more out-there caricature, other times, I'll just do it if I feel like it. I don't think management has much issue with what I do, I'm one of the top sellers in my park because like I said, I don't go crazy on every sketch. I'm a pretty decent hustler and feel like I go about things in a smart enough way to still have fun and do what I want and still make money for my company and myself. Well, I do have a reputation of taking WAY too long on some sketches but I balance it with quicker, tamer sketches and my sales are still very solid, so I can't really see them having too much issue. I rarely get rejected drawings and usually if I do it's oddly enough the more tamer ones where I purposely try to draw a more pleasant and customer pleasing sketch. And when I do the more out there ones, sometimes they are kinda confused, but like I said, I usually am choosier on what customer I think would enjoy that so I rarely get a strong negative reaction.

HOW DID YOU START DRAWING LIKE THIS?

Mushrooms. next question. just kidding. Drugs are bad kids! Stay in school! I mean skool! Actually, it's funny, as I used to get asked every so often if I did drugs when they saw my art, which I don't. and this is before I got into live caricatures where I started pushing it even more too. Anyhoo, as far as how I started drawing like this, I've always been one to keep pushing my art and experiment, never satisfied with most of my work or current style. I've heard people say that you shouldn't worry about style and that it will just come naturally...and to an extent I agree but I pretty much did the opposite of that and have always been aggressively conscious of trying to find my style. I'd intensely study artwork I like and try to take the things I like and incorporate them all into my own art stew style. This was much easier said then done, because I liked SO many different styles of art, like cartoony, graphic, realistic, minimalist, highly detailed, angular, curves etc. it was hard to figure out what even I really wanted especially since a lot of the aspects I liked contradicted each other. I'd say it's only in the last year or so that I feel like I'm starting to figure out what I want, at least the general direction I'd like to take...and even still, I still feel I change my viewpoints a lot from day to day...and especially depending on if I have shrooms or not. just kidding! drugs are bad kids!

WHAT ARE YOUR INFLUENCES, AND HOW DID THEY CONTRIBUTE TO YOUR CURRENT WAY OF WORKING?

Ever since I got the caricature bug/started doing live caricature at the end of 2006, other caricature artists, especially fellow park caricature artists that use similar marker/artstix have really influenced as well as been tremendously inspiring. When I was starting out and trying to teach myself live park caricature, I looked at Brian Oakes' work a lot for inspiration and influence. Other caricature artists that influenced and/or greatly inspired me early on were: Al Hirschfeld, Philip Burke, David Cowles, Steve Brodner, Turcios, Tom Bachtell, Kruger, Grigor Eftimov, Paul Roustan, Aaron Philby, Nate Kapnicky, Joe Bluhm then later on artists like: Andy Urzua, Tomo Tabata, Matt Zitman, Alex Clare, Dan Hay, Marlo Meekins, Sam Gorrie, Pablo Lobato and many more. Also those old great cartoons such as Looney Tunes, Tex Avery cartoons and all that stuff on TV I loved, as well as Ren and Stimpy, Animaniacs, Samurai Jack, Powerpuff girls, some older awesome 2-D Disney films like Aladin, Emperor's New Groove, Hercules. Some anime like FLCL. Hey look! I like to list things! I like all kinds and styles of art, but especially liked things that are more on the stylized, graphic or very cartoony side, so anything I see that falls in those veins I'd say has influenced me. I'm always looking out for inspiring artwork or cool designs, like recently the cartoon animal labels for Suave shampoo for kids really caught my eye. Go google image those and tell me how awesome they are! Comic book art which was my 1st love for most of my life until I found what I feel is my true calling with caricatures so it's definitely influenced my style. Although I'm not sure how much it's influenced my caricature work...well, my live caricature work maybe not so much, but some of my studio caricature work where there's more line work I'd say it's definitely from my comic book art influence. Oh I also loved those old "Garbage pail kids" cards. Those prolly shaped some of my love of demented humor and puns, heh.

IM PRETTY FLUENT IN A VARIETY OF STYLES MYSELF, FROM THE MINIMALISTIC TO THE EXAGGERATED, YET YOUR STYLE I'VE FOUND TO BE THE MOST CHALLENGING TO INCORPORATE. WHAT IS YOUR THINKING PROCESS WHEN YOU CREATE THESE?

My process and way of thinking is in constant flux almost on a weekly/daily basis so it's kind of hard to say a definitive...I do a LOT of sketching of caricatures on a daily basis and make lots of notes on things I want to work on, things to try and/or to remember. I take a lot of pictures of my live caricatures and often go back and study/resketch them to see what I could have done better/differently. A few things that I think have been a more mainstay in my thinking process are: trying to breakdown the face and understand it's unique proportions so if I go for an extreme caricature or even any caricatures really that it hopefully still retains decent likeness, try to come up with solutions that are unique, max out contrasts, avoid patterns/being predictable, a lot of times I don't have a real game plan and just improvise based on the previous line drawn and think more as a design. Also..."wow, how do I fix/save this" goes thru my head a lot of times and sometimes being forced to come up with a unique solution to that problem turns out some of my more favorite and unique drawings.

ON AVERAGE, HOW LONG DOES IT TAKE FOR YOU TO DRAW ONE OF YOUR CARICATURES IN A LIVE SETTING?

My live caricature style and speed can vary A LOT. Sometimes if it's busy or I just want to get it done, I'll draw really fast and tamer which can take me 5 minutes or less for each color face. Then if it's slow and I have time I can take 30 minutes or more on each face especially if it's one of the more complicated out there ones. On average for a decent caricature that I don't go one extreme either way and something I can be moderately be happy with I'd say around 10 minutes a color face.

AS A LIVE CARICATURE ARTIST MYSELF, MY MOST CRITICAL AND TEMPERAMENTAL CUSTOMERS ARE WOMEN. IF THE GIRL DOESN'T WANT OR LIKE HER PICTURE, YOU LOSE THE BOYFRIEND TOO. AND THAT'S IF YOU DRAW HER DECENT LOOKING! IN ALL DUE RESPECT, CHRIS, I CAN'T SEE A WOMAN ACTUALLY "WANTING" ONE OF YOUR PICTURES! LOL! HOW DO YOU CONVINCE THEM TO SIT?

Hmm...I don't seem to have as much issue as you do with women customers being critical as you do, like I said before, a lot of it is reading the customer and figuring out if they are ones that would be more accepting of something more extreme. You can exaggerate and stylize to extremes and still make it non offensive or vicious and in some ways make it more customer pleasing than a less exaggerated caricature. Also, when something looks less human and more graphic/iconic it can be less offensive because the viewer associates it less as human and thus the direct connection of "them" is less...hope that made some sense...cause I don't know what I just wrote, heh.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOURSELF, WHO YOU ARE, WHERE YOU WORK, AND WHY YOU DO WHAT YOU DO.

I like cake, buffets, bbq, french fries and long woks on the stir fry. I work as the assistant manager for Kaman's At Shoppes at Dorney Park, in Allentown, PA. My good buddy and one of the best caricature artists, Matt Zitman, is the manager and along with our awesome staff we pretty much rule and have tons of fun while ruling, heh. I look forward going to work every single day, drawing, interacting with our staff and customers. As far as why I do what I do, I truly love the art of caricature and the challenges and limitless potential it has in interpreting someone's face into unique works of art. Doing live caricatures adds a whole other level of unique challenges that is both nerve-racking and tremendously exciting.

WHAT ELSE ARE YOU WORKING ON BESIDE CARICATURE?
ANY PARTING SHOTS?

Most of my work is caricature related whether it's caricature commissions or personal work that is caricature. What can I say, I LOVE caricature! I do still dabble in some freelance illustration and comic book art when it comes up. I wrote and illustrated 4 pages for Marvel Comics' "Strange Tales vol 1." issue #3 called "Suenami Cupcake!" that will prolly make your eyeballs vomit, heh. I also drew in a ton of cameos of my awesome caricature friends...as sea animals. Also, there's lots of violence and silliness. and puns. yeah, I like puns. and cake. yeah, I mentioned it twice. I trade caricatures for cake, heh. no really, hit me up :)
SEE MORE OF CHRIS CHUAS WORK AT....
  http://chrischuaartturtle.blogspot.com/ and my webcomichttp://www.tentonstudios.com/webcomics/turdles/

--
Chris Chua
Assistant manager Dorney Park
Kaman's Art Shoppes
http://www.chrischuaartturtle.blogspot.com/
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CARICATURE ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONIST ERIC GOODWIN INTERVIEW

2012-01-06T18:12:00.001-08:00
Eric is another one of those intrepid, out in the fringe caricature abstract cubist expressionless that I love so much. Eric's caricatures remind me of a car wreck! There's something so grotesquely compelling about them that I find myself mesmerized, unable to turn away. Eric's caricature interpretations have a "bendable" quality to them. Kinda like a rubber toy being pulled to the extreme! It's what I personally love the most about his work. It appears to be in motion, this rendition of comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, is a perfect example of this caricature cubist masters work.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ARTISTIC BACKGROUND. WHATS YOUR DOSSIER?
I studied illustration at the Hartford Art School for 4 years and started drawing live caricatures at Six Flags in Massachusetts about a week after I graduated. I spent that summer and the next 2 working at Six Flags and doing occasional gigs and a bunch of craft fairs in the fall and winter. I've had my own caricature stand at 2 different malls in New Hampshire (where I'm from) during 2 Christmas seasons and once during April vacation.

This past summer I drove out to San Diego to work with some of my favorite artists in the world at Sea World. I've currently been drawing a lot at Balboa Park in San Diego by myself or with friends, doing free caricatures for donations.

At the 2010 International Society of Caricature Artists convention, I won my first awards for caricature (besides winning for my Jerry Seinfeld piece on facebook's Caricaturama Showdown 3000): 3rd place for Outstanding Exaggerated Style and Outstanding Abstract/Design Style, and #3 Caricature of the Year for my painting of Derek Brennan. I also won 3rd place for Sick & Twisted at the 2011 Cripple Con (another caricature con).

Oh yeah, and I've done illustration work, both caricature-based and editorial-based, for magazines and websites every now and then as well.

LIKE CHRIS CHUA, YOU ARE ONE OF THE BEST CARICATURE ARTISTS CURRENTLY UTILIZING WHAT I CALL THE CARICATURE CUBISM SLASH ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTIC EXAGGERATION APPROACH. DID YOU ALWAYS DRAW THIS WAY, OR DID IT JUST EVOLVE?
I've been constantly pushing myself to try new things and to improve overall since I started working at Six Flags. I've worked on improving my exaggeration, likeness, composition, color, funniness, uniqueness, structure, cartooniness, attention to detail and assymmetry; you name it, I've worked on it. Working on caricatures in 3/4 views and profiles came about during my 3rd summer at Six Flags and was like almost starting over, but I knew that all my favorite caricaturists could handle any pose, so I knew I had to break out of my comfort zone. After that summer and a winter season at my own mall caricature stand, I felt myself at the top of my game but also felt that I was becoming a bit too comfortable with the way I was doing things and wanted to learn the way of the Beastheads since they were my biggest inspiration. At this time my art was exaggerated and fairly solid but was mostly done in a frontal view and relied on a rigid formulaic structure that limited the range of how my caricatures could look.

So I moved to San Diego to draw with the Beastheads (Aaron Philby, Nate Kapnicky, Andy Urzua, Brian Oakes and other awesome artists) to learn caricatures all over. Their way of approaching caricature was a lot more based on the "feel" of a person and on creativity instead of always relying on realistic structure and a formula for the face. My caricatures at SeaWorld changed from what I had been doing, but mostly my studio art became a lot more free and creative. I started drawing and painting sometimes cartoony, abstract, surreal, more exaggerated or just all-around different from how I'd approached caricatures before. And it was the most exciting that caricatures had been for me since I first started working at Six Flags and started discovering what was out there. I tried and still try to not develop a certain style; instead I try to make each piece look and feel different from the last. To this day I'm constantly trying to outdo myself in a way that I haven't done before, and it's a helluva fun time I've been having these days!

OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE TO BE "WIRED A CERTAIN WAY"TO EVEN GET A RECOGNIZABLE LIKENESS AT ALL USING THIS STYLE, WHICH YOU DO CONSISTENTLY, BY THE WAY, WHAT IS YOUR THINKING PROCESS?
Thanks! But my likenesses definitely aren't there 100% of the time. That's the gamble of trying something that's a bit out of your comfort zone every time because it's like exploring the unknown. I'm not sure that you have to be "wired a certain way;" I think it comes down to practice and trial and error more than anything, which is the case for anyone tackling the art of caricature.

When I do approach a caricature in a bit of an abstract way, I think it comes about from trying to capture all of the unique qualities I see in a face in a way that maybe can't be done realistically. I think what can make a piece abstract is simplifying shapes, depicting features at conflicting viewpoints, flattening form and space, using lines to depict separations of form instead of relying solely on value, lighting and color differences and otherwise intentionally changing what exists in reality to accommodate a graphic, design-based or stylistic look. I sometimes like to contradict form by making my lines connect or overlap in a way that doesn't make sense anatomically but that works in a design sense and that looks interesting. Most of this decision-making comes about in the sketching process and can evolve in a couple sketches or (more often than not) take 10-20 sketches to come about. A lot of the time I don't think about the abstraction until I see the sketched lines on paper and think about how they could work together. If my sketches look like they'd work better in a surreal way or illustrative way then I'll go with that approach, so I normally don't try to force a style or approach to a face that won't benefit from it.

ARE YOU INFLUENCED BY OTHER ABSTRACT ART/ARTISTS?
I love the work of Picasso and Dali. They're obvious choices, but their approach and way of thinking is probably just as inspiring as the art itself. I'm really influenced by too many artists to name, but some of my favorites are Ralph Steadman, Steve Brodner, Sebastian Kruger, John Tenniel, the San Diego Beastheads, Kev Jackson, Chris Chua, Marlo Meekins, Dan Hay, Joe Bluhm, Grigor Eftimov, Omar Figueroa Turcios, Stephen Silver, Tomo Tabata, Ty Jones, Chris Singleton, Jeremy Townsend, Joaquín Aldeguer, Seo Kim, Dylan Glynn, Andrea Gerstman, Jorge Barroso, and many others. Some are more abstract than others, but I don't think you can only be influenced by and obsessed with a couple artists while trying to make original art. And listing only abstract artists as my influences wouldn't do the other artists justice, as they're just as influential. And what is abstract art, exactly? Haha just kidding, that's a whole different discussion.

HOW DO PEOPLE REACT TO YOU DEPICTING THEM THIS WAY? ISNT IT SORT OF A RULE TO DEPICT PEOPLE IN A PLEASING MANNER?
When it comes to drawing customers live in an abstract, exaggerated, surreal and/or otherwise creative but "unflattering" way, I almost always get strong reactions that most of the time include a lot of laughter, surprise and sometimes a bit of shock. But I'd say that 90% of the time, people love the drawing. Of course, when I'm at my own mall stand with all my own exaggerated sample drawings hanging up, and I have a fun conversation with the customers while I'm drawing them, the odds of them liking the drawing are very high, especially when they can tell that I enjoyed working on the drawing myself. I'd say that people deserve a lot more credit than you'd think when it comes to being able to laugh at themselves when they're in a friendly environment that encourages having a sense of humor. I stopped holding back on my drawings a while ago and for the most part draw as crazy and jacked-up as I want.

FILL IN THE BLANK:CARICATURE, TO ME, IS...
is an opportunity to capture the essence of a person, including their likeness and feel, in an infinite amount of creative ways.

ANY INTERESTING STORIES INVOLVING YOUR WORK?
I was drawing a couple young kids at Six Flags during either my second or third season while their family watched. It was a boy and a girl, both around 4 or 5 years old, and I was really exaggerating them to hell and doing a really funny drawing. The laughter from the family started slowly at first as they watched me draw and then turned into loud, constant laughter by the time I had started drawing the second kid. At this point the kids were looking a bit sour and upset that everyone was laughing at the drawing so hard, thinking that really the family was making fun of them and laughing at them instead of at the drawing.

After a couple more minutes of non-stop laughter, the kids both jumped off the bench and ran off away from the caricature stand crying loudly. Meanwhile, I wasn't done with the drawing and still needed to airbrush it. A few minutes later the kids slouched back onto the bench, their faces dripping with slowly drying tears. I was able to finish the drawing and the kids were ok with it after seeing it, but that was the only time I've made 2 people cry with 1 drawing. I've made people cry from my drawings a few other times, but never simply because of how much laughter the drawing was getting. And they hadn't even seen the drawing! Pretty epic.

WHAT OTHER THINGS ARE YOU PURSUING WITH YOUR ART?
I'm going to try to get some more illustration work for myself, as that's a really fun and challenging form of art that I've only had experiences with a handful of times. I'm currently trying to figure out what my options are for this summer. In the meantime I'm going to continue to work on studio caricatures, draw live at Balboa park, try to get more caricature gigs and continue to make impression videos of friends and singers. I also just bought Logic, so I'll be making some music too. Staying busy!

EVER HEAR OF THIS SUBWAYSURFER GUY? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM?
Yeah, I've known of this Subway Surfer guy for at least a couple years now. From what I'm aware of, he surfs subways and draws people a lot. And he draws all funky and crazy, which I like. Seems like he's not afraid to exaggerate a lot, which I like. I hope to meet him someday at a caricature con if he decides to show his face again!
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SUBWAYSURFER CARICATURE TOP TEN

2012-01-06T09:52:00.001-08:00
Considering the thousands of faces I've drawn over the years, it really is hard to make a really definitive top ten list. However, the pics that I've chosen here do hold a special place in my heart a d I find myself going back again and again to admire them. Each one marks either a particular prolific drawing period in my artistic life, the adding of a new principle,or an artistic breakthrough on a new method. It's not listed in terms of priority, meaning number one n my list is superior to number ten, it's just that I have to start SOMEWHERE, so I dd. Hope you enjoy the pictures ad the commentary.

1. "HAMMER HEAD SHARK DUDE ON THE BUS"
I will never forget the unbelievably large protruding forehead of this guy who sat across from me on the Q32 Bus. I immediately thought that if Hammerhead sharks were to evolve into humans, this guy would be the result. I originally drew this in pencil, then colored it in my iPad using the art studio app. This was the first time I'd used the app to color over my pencil lines which took my coloring technique to a new level. Aside from his forehead, I loved the way I was able to capture his subtle expression and personality. It was just like I'd caught him in mid sentence.

2 ANTHONY WEINER GETTIN KICKED BY TWITTER BIRD
I drew this Editorial caricature of Anthony Weiner following his "sexting" scandal where he accidentally sent a provocative message on twitter to what he thought was one of his liaisons.the caricature was dead on and had just tge right amount if exaggeration and animated quality to it.

3 DUDE WITH THE GIGANTIC EARS

I love this caricature because it was done during a period where I was trying to go all out with my exaggerations while still maintaining a likeness. At the urging of a collegue, who suggested that I draw the ears reaaaaalllly impossibly oversized, this "butterfly head" bag was the result.

4 GIRL WITH A WEAVE! WITH LIPS LIKE A DUCK

This pic is so memorable because it marked the absolute first time I did an extreme exaggeration in a live setting. I drew this caricature on 11X14 paper with a colored penci. She was an especially beautiful girl with an unbelievable mane of thick curly hair that seemed to be everywhere! That was my first visual hook, the next one was her full lips, and mouth that was slightly open. I saw her completely from profile view, which enabled her to be totally unaware of me, and enabled me to get a really good look at her. Prior to drawing this caricature, I avoided drawing profiles, but after this began to love them.

5 BI-RACIAL COUPLE

Ths was drawn during my colored pencil period, and was a gift caricature of a Bi racial couple I'd met in Starbucks in Brooklyn Heights. She had this cutie pie face, with a mane of curly hair that framed her face perfectly. The most outstanding thing about him was his looooong neck. Possibly te longest on a guy I'd ever seen which didn't seem to match his height.

6 CARICATURE COMMUTERS IN PEN AND INK
I KNOW this is a group, and technically not a single "sixth" caricature, but they all have that same awesome ink line which demonstrates my skill when I was really into doing pure "open" inked caricatures minus shading colour and other props. It also represented my signature party caricature style

7 CARTOON FAMILY PORTRAIT

This is one of my personal all time favorite caricatures because it was a departure from my caricature/portrait style that I had grown comfortable doing. During this artistic period, I began to be heavily include by several "caricature cubists" like Andy URZUA, Chrs Chua, and several Japanese artists from the NCN. I always wanted to break out and use this style exclusively, but never quite developed the confidence to Donita live....YET.

From left to right, Wife Charlena, Me, Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling, Son, Gerard, daughter Janine, and oh yeah, my doggie,, Butchie!

8 CARICATURE OF JOHN THE BAPTIST
THIS S MORE OF A CHARACTER DESIGN!cartoon/caricature of the biblical,l prophet.

9 BUGS BUNNY GIRL
She had a tremendous mouth like a cave

she looks a little like bugs bunny dont she?

10 HUMAN BEAVER
Raul, a fan from FACEBOOK requested that I draw his caricature highly exaggerated after viewing my work. It had been weeks since I'd gotten my iPad, and I wanted to prove to myself that I could do a commissioned drawing from start to finish, entirely on the device itself. I did all my initial pencil lines and digital painting. It took days to complete, but the end result was magical, and gave me a lot og confidence.

As soon as I saw that overbite of Raul, I knew EXACTLY what flavor THIScaricature was gonna be! Drawn/ painted in art studio app, on the iPad, using the, you guessed it, the ifaraday stylus, and a lotta patience.
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HOW TO BECOME A CARTOONIST prt three and four

2012-01-05T20:26:00.000-08:00

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HOW TO BECOME A CARTOONIST SERIES prt one and two

2012-01-05T20:23:00.000-08:00

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Caricature Expressionist series: ANDY URZUA

2012-01-03T12:27:00.000-08:00
The word,"Caricature"to the lay person, brings to mind exaggerated theme park, street corner portraits with big noses, tiny bodies, and oversized heads. And while this is one style of caricature, the truth is that there are many different styles ranging from the realistic, to the abstract and iconic. It is the last two categories that I'd like to focus on in ths interview series. I've ad the privilege of associating with a special group of artists from around the world and nation who make up The ISCA( International Society of Caricature Artists) formally known as the NCN (National Caricatrists Network). Over the years I've noticed an elite "fringe" group within the organization, who seemed totally unconcerned with drawing so called conventional caricature, instead preferring to not only push the envelope of exaggeration, but rip the envelope to shreds and burn the pieces of paper! The result if their labors emerged a totally new exciting and highly personal way to draw caricature. In tge first interview of the series, meet Andy Urzua!

I REMEMBER WRITING, HOW YOU DRAW LIKE A LITTLE KID! NO DISRESPECT MEANT BY THAT! LOL what I meant is that its unrestrained and free. Have you always drawn this way? Well, I never used to draw this way?

In fact I never used to draw caricatures. I used to only draw little comic strips and a few drawings here and there with markers for friends of just random things. My last real job before being hired at Sea World through Kaman’s Art Supplies were I do caricatures was at Safeway/Vons where I was a baker. So I really had no connection to caricatures at all. It wasn’t till 2yrs at Vons when I met Gabriel Hunt he had told me about a try out for caricatures at Sea World for the SeaWorld/ San Diego zoo. So I submitted my portfolio of drawings. Went to the try outs and was quickly swept up by Beau Hufford who was the manger at that time for Sea World who told me that I would be great for Sea World and that the zoo was lame. True story. 7 mths in my job at Sea World I had learned so much I had never known about the human face and myself. After my first convention within my first 7mths in it had changed my view on caricature once again. This is when I started experimenting with my own cartoon strip style with live faces along with some other styles I had seen at this convention like my buddy Tomokazu Tabata from Tokyo, Japan. Since then my style has slowly improved, but I’m always learning new techniques.

TELL US A LITTLE ABOUT YOUR ARTISTIC BACKGROUND. WHATS YOUR DOSSIER?

I had only high school training in the arts really. I mean I only attended art classes as electives I used to always get C’s in class. I always wanted to do the projects my way. I wasn’t good at listening. But I also was in Journalism as the editorial cartoonist which I would draw everything from fillers to full on strips, I would also go on to compete for the school at state wide journalism competitions. I placed 4th usually locally, 13th state wide. After high school I had know plans for college, I never really had any sort of direction. I went with the flow. I had a caricature job once before when I was 18 but it only lasted a few months and I never really enjoyed it then. My head was somewhere else.

LIKE CHRIS CHUA, YOU ARE ONE OF THE BEST CARICATURE ARTISTS CURRENTLY UTILIZING WHAT I CALL THE CARICATURE CUBISM SLASH ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISTIC EXAGGERATION APPROACH. DID YOU ALWAYS DRAW THIS WAY, OR DID IT JUST EVOLVE?

My style has totally evolved. It’s funny you mention Chris Chua, when I first saw his work during a pre NCN Reno Convention issue of Exaggerated Features I didn’t really like his style. I remember having conversations on his choices. My boss then told me I had to keep an open mind. But I did how ever like Tomokazu Tabatas style featured in the same issue. Which is the whole reason why I attended my first convention. As far as my style and where it originated from well it just came from everything I had accumulated through the years be it cartoons I watched, artist I admired or just the motivation from knowing I had the skills to create something completely different then someone else. I dunno really. Right now my favorite artist is Makoto Wada an older Japanses artist from japan. He doesn’t do caricatures anymore.But I came across a book of his through Tabata and it has helped me categorize myself as a minimalist caricaturist defining my child like style

OBVIOUSLY YOU HAVE TO BE "WIRED A CERTAIN WAY"TO EVEN GET A RECOGNIZABLE LIKENESS AT ALL USING THIS STYLE, WHICH YOU DO CONSISTENTLY, BY THE WAY, WHAT IS YOUR THINKING PROCESS?

Thank You. But it can be hard, and not all the time am I happy with my likenesses. When I draw live I sometimes wish I had more time since most of the time your decisions final. But I’ve had lots of practice to get it right most of the time. But when I work at home and have more time to work on a likeness of a celebrity or client/friend then my decisions can out easier for me, theres no pressure. But my process is usually looking at objects that reflect the design I have in mind and then exaggerating from that one idea.

AWHOSE WORK DO YOU LIKE? WHOSE DO YOU HATE? WHY?
I have many artist I like most of them are my friends, I don’t have to many that I hate since that word for me seems to strong, I would have to care to much about one style to hate it. But there are times when I disagree with decisions an artist makes.

ANY INTERESTING STORIES INVOLVING YOUR WORK?
As far as this interview goes? I’ve gone on to win some awards from the now ISCA convention and have been able to travel around with my work. Drawing in another country is something I will cherish forever.

WHAT OTHER THINGS ARE YOU PURSUING WITH YOUR ART?
At the moment I’m taking it slow,I’m drawing mainly for some online competitions once and a while since I have a curious 17th month old son running around. But I have some plans on children books and other such illustrations not having to do directly with caricatures.

EVER HEAR OF THIS SUBWAYSURFER GUY? WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT HIM?
Yah, I’ve heard of him alright, this punk owes me money!

:
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WATERCOLOR CARICATURE OF RADIO K-LOVE DJ CHUCK

2012-01-03T09:59:00.000-08:00

I got a chance to follow through on one of my New Years resolutions of experimenting with a new medium, Watercolor, in 2012. After working beside my collegue, Kenly Dillard, I always admired the beauty f his caricature paintings, nit to mention his audience response, whenever he added watercolor to his caricature. I vowed several times in 2011, that ud follow his lead, but never did. I decided to dive right in, a d started with a face that I thought was kinda fun, namely DJ Chuck of K Love radio. I don't know hw Chuck feels about the picture, but I love the results! I applied the same shading principles to the watercolor as I would to pencil, and the results were great! I feel very encouraged. Since I'm just getting used to this, I decided to severly limit my color choice and I think I will stick to monochromatic for a while.
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I GOT A CHINESE GUY TO DO IT!"

2012-01-02T20:52:00.001-08:00
"I GOT A CHINESE GUY TO DO IT!"

Let me start off this post first my saying, rather strongly, that I am not in any way, shape or form prejudiced against Chinese people, I am not angy wit them, I have no ax to grind with them, I have no desire to ridicule them, I do not hate them. Anyone who walks away from this article thinking otherwise has made up their own minds about what THEY believe I am implying.

So, why the title?I GOT A CHINESE GUY TO DO IT!"

Recently, in the latter days of 2011, that phrase,I GOT A CHINESE GUY TO DO IT!" was uttered a lot by potentially high paying clients, and the frequency of this response caused me to reflect on just hiw many times I've heard this phrase uttered by a client.

It would be an understatement to say, I've heard it a LOT. So many times, in fact, that it's become a private joke. A bad one, but a joke nevertheless, and the "funny"part is, that the jokes on me, and my fellow NYC caricature artists.

Here's how the scenario usually plays out...
Client A calls me up frantic and excited , ranting about an assignment that involves a caricature of a boss, employee, family member, or lived one. The client assures me that I was chosen specifically from a cast of billions of other caricature artists. I am told that it was MY work, MY Style, MY special intangible, irresistible "something" that made me stand out from the pack. I purr like a freshly petted kitten and bask in the sunshine if their praise before inquiring as to what they need. Client A explains that they have an impossibly tight deadline, and require my services, or a picture that includes caricature, scenery, and my own sparkling personality. I smile and give my price waiting for that familiar sound of wallets opening, and cash being cheerfully pulled out into my waiting hands. I look up, and Client A's face has become a stoic mask of concentration. I begin to hear as if coming from a far away dimension the words, "I have to consult with my husband, colleagues, dog whisper, etc. But I'll get back to you!"

I flash another smile and say, "OK" with as much enthusiasm as possible, knowing that this may be the end of what started out to be a beautiful business friendship... I still hold out hope though!
After all, they DID choose ME because of MY style , my "special something"right? I mean, you can't just get that anywhere! It's MY "special something" after all, and only I can make it!

I recheck with Clent A within the hour to find out how their consultation with the other parties went. I call with renewed confidence! I was worried for nothing! Just a silly, momentary Lack of confidence....

Then I hear the dreaded response on the other end:

I GOT A CHINESE GUY TO DO IT!"

For those of you readers who are not NYC Caricature artists, the afore mentioned line, I GOT A CHINESE GUY TO DO IT!" may ave gone over your heads. Allow me to shed some light on this.

In NYC caricature is big business. Tourists love them. And all , they have to do to find one is go to the "caricature Mecca spot" Times Square. From West 42nd street up to about west 50th street, you can practically trip over a caricature artist as you're being dazzled by the bright lights, jostled by the crowds of shoppers, and gawking at the tall buildings. You would think in the proverbial cultural belting pot that NYC is famous for, you'd see a variety of artists of all creeds and races, curiously, that's NOT SO! The fact is that Chinese portrait artist have the place on lockdown taking every available spot

Whenever a cheapskate client doesn't feel like paying an artist what they are worth, they always can go for the default plan of going to Times Square and ayi g a Chinese guy to do it for a whole lot less. I can understand saving money, but what's unfkrgivabe is that these clients ask the world of you And expect to get it for discount prices. The fact that they choose the Chinese guy tells me that they don't even NEED all the trimmings they demand from me, when they KNOW they know will settle fr less....

Because they do.
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SUBWAY COMMUTER MULTI-TASKER CARTOON by subwaysurfer

2011-12-27T09:51:00.001-08:00

As I'm sitting on the train vegging out one day, not even remotely interested in drawing, which is extremely rare for me,I happen to glance up, and regain my creative conciousess long enough to spot my muse.
If you've been on a New York City Subway lately, it's becoming increasingly hard to tell if your actually riding a commuter train, or sitting down inside BEST BUY, or the APPLE Store!
Electronic gadgets are EVERYWHERE! People are talking on cellphones, playing, video games on playstation devices,popping their fingers while listening to iPods, swaying to unheard beats with gigantic headphones! And that's only the beginning! You see women of all ages, with contorted faces of intense concentration, playing games on their cellphones, teenage girls typing at breakneck speeds, texting with their thumbs, and incredibly, people with DVD players if every size and shape,watching movies like they're in they're living rooms. If course, there are the ever present iPads, iBooks, and laptops.

Judging by what you see you never ever would have believed that at one time there were actual announcements to COMMUTERS to NOT display their electronic devices! Man!it's unbelievable How far we've come!

Which brings me to my muse...

In the middle if this intense scene of talking, texing,and video viewing, was thus businessman with this enormous laptop typing as casually as he might in his own office. With Wifi soon to be coming to the subways, followed by an increase in cellphone reception power, I see the subway itself becoming even MORE of a mobile office than it us now! In the future the need to "go to work in an office" will be totally obsolete. The subway car itself will BE your office! I thought ud illustrate my vision by drawing an executive hard at work,multitasking if corse, talking on the cell to a client,which simultaneously emailing over a contract, in operation to take a sip from his hot frothy latte (there will be latte vendors on trains in the future folks).
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Singing Success JESSE NEMITZ new Caricature by Elgin Bolling

2011-12-22T08:16:00.001-08:00

http://www.singingsuccess.com/products/daves-top-7-vocal-style-secrets

Just received my Christmas gift to myself today: a audio/DVD set from Singing success.com featuring two of my favorite singing success vocal coaches, Dave Brooks, (The master of Compression!) and my artistic muse, Jesse Nemitz. The title of the DVD audio set is The Top7 Commercial Singing Secrets by Dave Brooks.

Although I have no aspirations of taking my show on the road, I am an avid vocal musician and I do a lot of singing in my local church congregation, and when I perform spoken word poetry.(no one has booed yet, so I must be pretty decent) This DVD is not for the beginner, of course, (singing success has other products geared towards that) it gives advanced and intermediate vocalists the tools they need to enable them to infuse their songs with personality and vocal styling. I didn't plan on doing a plug for the product, but it's just that good! From what I understand, the set is originally 29.00 , but they're having a holiday sale where you can get it for 19.00. The mail silvery is soooo fast that you'll be amazed.

JESSE'S CARICATURE

Speaking of amazed, I got another opportunity to work on Jesses amazing face. Don't get it twisted, I don't have a "love jones" for Jesse! But as an artist who makes his living by drawing faces(maybe yours, HINT, HINT) there are some faces that jump out at you and make you say, I WANNA DRAW THAT! Jess, IMO.has one of those faces.
I got an opportunity to draw his profile a lot this time, since it's the dominant angle he gave while talking with Dave(rhyme unintended). The response to my last sketch of Jess was so positive, I decided to draw a more cleaner sketch this time using a Tombo and Pitt artist brush pen, and digitally painting it in Photoshop.
Sometimes a face can look less interesting in profile view that frontal view, and three quarter, but Jesse's face is even more interesting. There's still that edgy look that comes from the dark .large deep set eyes, and that five o clock razor stubble adds to that suble ferocious appearance. The hair angle is really fun to draw, and from the side is almost Anime like. Jesse could easily be drawn in an Anime cartoony style and still be recognizable. (I think I'll go for a full body shot next time to prove my theory). As I stated in my previous drawing he has this "bird of prey" visual quality about him. Intense, fiery, but under control. His mane of thick black hair is reminiscent of feathers, visually.

Hope Jess and his fans and Singing Success and on his FACEBOOK site, like THIS take on him. Comments are welcome and appreciated, as well as inquiries how you can get your Ian caricature avatar drawn by me(it's more affordable than you think!)

Feel free to contact me via email at

cartoons4u2@aol.com

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Elgin

P.S. DAVE BROOKS AND BRETT MANNING ALSO HAVE INTERESTING FACES!!...heh, heh...
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CARICATURE OF BABY WITH BIG BEAUTIFUL EYES

2011-12-21T13:21:00.001-08:00

Folks when I say this baby had large eyes, I mean they were like tennis balls! This kid was a newborn who a mother wanted to have drawn at a recent party at The State Building on 125th street. The baby was sleeping initially, and I asked his mom to take off his winter hat and scarf and just hold him up so I could see him better. I could see that even though a newborn he already had an impressive head of ink black shiney curly hair that would have made any woman jealous. Then....he suddenly opened his eyes, and I'm not kidding, I nearly yelled in surprise when he fixed those peepers on me. They were unusually large for a child his size, they were expressive, intense, and almost seemed like automobile headlights! The whites of his eyes in contrast to his chocolate complextion made his eyes appear luminous. I immediately drew a memory sketch of the kid which you're looking at niw. I don't know what he will be when he grows up, but if he's an attorney, you're going find it hard to lie to him!
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Heroic ADAM CLAYTON POWELL JR. statue at the state building

2011-12-21T12:55:00.000-08:00

I recently did a gig that was held at The State Building om West 125th street, spitting g distance from the world famous Apollo theatre in Harlem NY. At te entrance of the building s this magnificent, jaw dropping statue of Adam Cayton Powell JR. For those of you shoring know who he was,Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was best known in his role as chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. He was a leading figure in passage of the backbone of the much of the social legislation of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies.

He helped steer the passage of the minimum wage bill, the Manpower Development and Training Act, the antipoverty bill, and bills providing federal money for student loans and for public libraries.

The above quote was taken from this site:http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/remembering-adam-clayton-powell-jr/

What I love about the statue is that it's depicts Powell the way I AKWAYS read him. Powerful, persistent, insistent. And progressive. He was the proverbial "man in motion" an articulate, informed, furry spokesman for Afrjcan American people during one of histories most tumultuous racial periods. The staue as I mentioned earlier is absolutely heroic. Powell appears to be able to walk off the podium into heaven itself, jus trench coat blowing behind him in a way that reminiscent of Supermans cape in flight.
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Caricature Avatars for two satisfied clients.

2011-12-08T15:20:00.000-08:00

REALLY had fun on the last face! As soon as my client showed me a profile of his face, my mind went immediately to the character, King Leonitus, in that scene from the movie 300. Who could forget that famous line that he screams at tge Persian messenger before kicking him into a bottomless pit;"THIS...IS...SPARTAHHH!!!!!!" of course, I did a little play on words, THIS IS SOCCER!!!

Both guys are best buds, bar owners I believe, hence the beer mugs they're holding onto.

The dude on top gave me a photo reference of him in a checkered shirt and I could help but think of hay, barns and scare dancing. Of course, I had to give him the Lil' Abner Boots!
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Character Designs for Bankable Script.com

2011-12-03T15:45:00.001-08:00

https://www.facebook.com/BankableScript

It's always a joy when you have a client who respects your creative talent enough to be able to let you "do your thing" without micro managing everything. Vince, the brains behind Baabe Script is tgatkind of client.Vince commissioned me to create characters based on him and a cat who would be the mascot, and our relationship has been smooth sailing. If you are serious about doing screenwriting, and getting paid, this is the place to put up or shut up. There's no guarantee that you will win the competition, but you'll be a definite loser f you don't try.
Follow the link to the FACEBOOK page, which will give you more information on hw to enter.
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Congressman Meeks "Racecard"Defense

2011-12-03T15:18:00.000-08:00

Even though so much has been already written on this issue of Congressman Gregry Meeks calling my Editorial depiction of him "racist" , I can't help but speculate on how he must have felt once the "awful truth" was revealed. That the artist, was a Back man like him! I think Neeks figured he could gain some sympathy by referring to The Wave newspaper as a racist propaganda rag, and the cartoon drawn by a white Artist. Again, I can only imagine his surprise....good thing that I'm an artist who can actually draw what he imagines!
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WHAT AN ARTIST CAN, AND CANNOT EXPECT FROM A VIEWER

2011-10-25T13:26:00.001-07:00

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WPIX 11 Interviews Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

2011-10-24T15:42:00.000-07:00
My thanks to the people at WPIX Channel 11 for giving me an opportunity to appear on air this morning.
Copy this link and put it into your browser

http://www.wpix.com/videobeta/33dca5b5-a170-4678-903b-ddc53cd2af02/News/Racist-Cartoon-Causes-Controversy

After viewing the broadcast clip, I'd like to say first how
thankful I am to my mom, for teaching me to sit up straight and tall, and talk in a clear strong voice, when discussing something important.

The actual interview was considerably longer, but Network News understandably has strict
time restraints to devote to each story, some of which never see any airtime whatsoever, so I am very grateful to the folks at Channel 11 News.

I would truly welcome a media opportunity to tell my side of this more extensively, and in it's entirety. This is an important issue that is worthy Of discussion and shouldn't not be reduced to a few soundbites. this is an important issue on many levels, and people need a balanced view that they can only receive when hearing both sides.

It's not right for someone as influential as a Congressman to label me as something that I never dreamed I'd be called in my life! He's not just attacking the entity known as "The Wave Newspaper", he's attacking me, the cartoonist who drew the picture. After all cartoons don't draw themselves, people draw draw them.

This is an act of bullying.
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A few parting shots before I move on...

2011-10-21T15:02:00.000-07:00
I must say that it as been quite a week for me. The recent events of the past week have certainly taken up a lot of my time and energy. A lot of space has been alloyed in this blog to cover this, and I thank you loyal readers for being patient and putting up with all the political noise.

For me, at the end of the day, it comes down to a man who didn't like hs picture being drawn and wanted to complain about it. This happens frequently enough to any caricature artist as to be something not even worthy of discussion, the reason that I've focused on it for this length of time is to defend my reputation as an artist Asa person and as an African American.

Defending myself as an African American....I would much rather NOT even have to "go there" the funny thing about being an African American in this country is sometimes have to "prove" to OTHER African Americans how "Black " you are.

It's not discussed in public, meaning amongst other races, but this is one of the stupid little dialogues that re surface in the Black community as we "talk amongst ourselves"

HOW "BLACK ARE YOU?

The question comes up when you decide that you like to crack open books instead if sell crack
The question comes up when bring your white boyfriend home to meet the parents
And, thanks to the Congressman it comes up when you draw cartoons.

Anyone who doesn't lock step and agree with "conventional" Black opinion gets a label and not a favorable one.

Now that it's common knowledge " that I am Black, I 'can't be a racist" but I can be something worst.

A race hating, Uncle Tom.

Labels. I guess some people need them in order to tie up their universe nice and neat. If you abel something "bad" like "racism" then you can become a hero and "fight it" I'm sure Congressman Meeks feels as though he was "fighting racism" by pointing out my cartoon. I suppose every politician likes to envision himself as the champion of something. I imagine that American elected officials feel, on some level, a moral obligation to defend a standard set by our Civil Rights forefathers, like Martin Luther King and others who spoke out against racial injustice.

HALLOWEEN IS JUST AROUND THE CORNER

To engage in this fight is honorable and noble. I fault no African American elected official for doing that. But when you dis ingenuously put on the civil rights champion costume, and conjure up an imaginary enemy to fight, you're little more than a poser and pretender.

Funny how Halloween is just around the corner. It seems the Congressman couldnt wait to put on his costume.

Speaking of which, I've got some great Haloween toons coming up folks, so stay tuned!
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IN DEFENSE OF ELGIN BOLLING by Thomas Kerr

2011-10-21T13:52:00.000-07:00
The following letter is taken from this weeks lettes to the Editor, section of THE WAVE by my collegue, fellow editorial artist, Tom Kerr. I'm no slouch with words, but Tom here makes me sound like I'm stuttering and stammering by comparison. All I've got to say to Tom is, "Thnk you, I couldn't have said it better"

THE LETTER

Reading the open letter from Representative Meeks in last week’s issue of The Wave, held – for the most part – no surprises. A congressional representative caught in a litany of serious ethics violations defends himself in the face of editorial criticism. What more could or should we expect? In his lengthy defense, Meeks singled out the caricature of Elgin Bolling, one of the triumvirate of cartoonists whose editorial images grace these pages. I, along with Robert Sarnoff, happen to be the other two. It is to this portion of the letter I’m responding.

In the last third of his open letter, Meeks goes on to charge that Elgin’s caricature was “explicitly racist,” violates “necessary sensitively” and inaccurately compares it to D.W. Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation,” a century-old film about the Civil War and Reconstruction. The idea of this comparison being, I suppose, to show how far back, in terms of racial equality/sensitivity, The Wave happens to be. Pure hyperbole.

Meeks is off the mark on a number of counts. First, it should be made clear that Elgin is an African American artist. A quick survey of Elgin’s work, easily seen at his subway surfer web blog, immediately confirms that he has done far more offensive caricatures of his own face than anything ever leveled at Meeks. Further, The Wave, in my experience, has always given a free hand to its contributing artists, but never, to their credit, asking them to either reign in or take vitriolic aim at any specific subject or public figure. In fact, as the news cycle goes, there is a one in three chance that any one of The Wave’s contributing artists could have leveled a graphic broadside at Rep. Meeks. It just happened to be Elgin’s turn.

Elgin Bolling is, first and foremost, a caricaturist; drawing from a rich tradition of “portrait-charge” or the loaded portrait, as it came to be known when first popularized in French magazines, around the time of that country’s revolution. Like Meeks, officials there were also offended by those drawings, more than once throwing the cartoonists into the clink for their efforts. Later, in the hands of Americans and the freedoms found here, the graphic vitriol became even more pointed with artists like Thomas Nast, whose graphic excoriations helped take down Boss Tweed and Tammany Hall. Boss Platt, who was to follow, attempted to pass legislation at the turn of the 19th century that would have blocked such political commentary.

In fact, it was Tweed who said, “I don’t care a straw for your newspaper articles, my constituents don’t know how to read, but they can’t help seeing them damned pictures.” So, it would seem that Gregory Meeks is in good company when expressing dislike for caricature. Almost confirming that history is – in fact – cyclical.

As it turns out, my likeness, too, has been inked by Elgin and I’d like to state — for the record — that it was a caricature and unflattering. I didn’t think to fire off a note to Elgin for singling out my Irish features, but why should I, this is what caricature’s function is. To exaggerate, distort and make fun of, otherwise it would have no teeth, becoming unremarkable, milquetoast and impotent. Elgin has nothing to apologize for; he was doing his job as an editorial artist. On the other hand, time will tell if Meeks, in sharing the opinion of Boss Tweed about caricature, will, one day, share his fate.
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Does ERROL LOUIS of NY1 WANT to hear Elgin Bollings side of the story?

2011-10-21T11:03:00.000-07:00
Following is a letter I wrote to Errol Louis of NY1 Inside City Hall show, in response to him having Congressman Meeks appear to air his grievance about The Waves editorial, and my cartoon in general.

As I have maintained in my blog posts since this issue raised. The Congressman is entitled to his opinion, and should be allowed a forum to express himself concerning the issue that the cartoon points to.

He has the rift, from his point of view to call the cartoon racist.
It's that statement that I take odds with. Since cartoons don't create themselves, if you follow the logic, the creator of the cartoon must be a racist as well.

I have a right to defend my reputation as much as the Congressman has to defend his. It was my hope that NY1 would see it that way.

Thus far, they have chosen not to respond.

I wonder why?
HERE IS THE ORIGINAL LETTER SENT TO NY1

From: Elgin Bolling
Date: October 20, 2011 11:58:32 AM EDT
To: "insidecityhall@ny1.com"
Subject: Attention ERROL LOUIS INSIDE CITY HALL

Dear Mr. Louis
My name is Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling Editorial Artist for The Wave Newspaer in Far Rockaway NY.
The first thing I would like to make clear is this:

IAM NOT A RACIST.

Unfortunately, Queens Congressman, Gregory Meeks doesn't share the same opinion, as evidenced by his remarks on page 29 in a recent letter to The Wave, and most recently, on your broadcast, as listed below.

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/inside_city_hall/148939/ny1-online--representative-meeks-responds-to-reports-of-his-political-demise

The editorial cartoon, he feels depicts African Americans in a way that is reminiscent of racist portrals from the film Birth of a Nation

As an Editorial artist who draws public elected officials, I am fully aware that from time to time I will encounter someone who is not pleased with what has been drawn, because a picture really is worth a thousand words, as another editorial artist, Thomas Nast, would agree, no doubt , if he was still among us.

Surprisingly, throughout this whole affair, I have not received one email, or phone call to give my side of the story, and to answer these accusations, save for the Queens Tribune, last week.

I am easy enough to find, I am one of New York City's most sought after live Caricature Entertainers, and my blogsite, at

http://www.subwaysurfer.blogspot.com

Is one of the most popular of it's kind online.

Since this issue first came to my attention, I have posted on my blog, numerous rebuttal articles, and audio podcasts refuting his claims of racist, divisive characterization of black elected officials, and show numerous pictures of past cartoons drawn for The Wave to demonstrate that.

For me, as an Editorial artist who draws Caricature,my intention is usually to find something humorous in the facial features if a subject and exploit that, by squashing, stretching, Emphasizing or De emphasizing.

I demonstrate, how I have also, given equal exaggerated artistic treatment to Caucasian Public officials like Former School Chancellor, Joel Klien, Anthony Weiner, and even our very own Mayor.

I have no Ax to grind. I illustrate and interpret editorial copy. If I've committed any crime, it's been in being too humorous maybe, but don't sit there and assert that I'm a RACIST! After all, IM A BLACK MAN TOO!

Or did anyone stop to look at that fact? Does The Congressman truly think that I would purposefully draw a cartoon which demeans my own people? At best, that makes me a race hater and a fool. At worst, it makes me an Uncle Tom.

Feel free to go to my blog to validate what I've said here.

Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling
(ps I'm called Subwaysurfer because I draw caricatures of subway committed, NOT because I ride outside the train!)
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Random Thoughts on Racism, Editorial Cartooning ,perception, and Thomas Nast

2011-10-19T20:34:00.000-07:00
I've been doing some more thinking about all if the above issues, and here are some of my thoughts.
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SUBWAYSURFER THE ARTIST WANTS TO DRAW THE J TRAIN SUBWAYSURFER!

2011-10-19T14:39:00.000-07:00
Like millions of New Yorkers, I've seen the famous Subwaysurfer J train clip that has made an instant celeb out of this guy who's using my moniker.

I registered it on Go Daddy, and everything!!

I'd live to draw this guys face! Please dude, if you are listening, and reading posts about yourself, contact me!

Listen to this appeal:

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ELGIN BOLLING INTERVIEW ON RACIST CARICATURE ALLEGATION

2011-10-19T10:46:00.000-07:00
This is a recent interview with caricature artist Kenly Dillard.

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EXAMPLES OF CAUCASIAN POLITICIANS DRAWN FOR THE WAVE NEWSPAPER by Elgin Bolling

2011-10-19T06:07:00.000-07:00
Following are editorial caricature cartoons I've drawn for The Wave Newspaper that feature Caucasian Politicians. Study these caricatures and you will see gigantic foreheads and chins, oversize noses, and even...GASP... LIPS? My purpose in displaying these pics is to demonstrate that I am an equal opportunity facial exaggerator no matter WHO I'm drawing BLACK or WHITE.

This is another in an ongoing series of Bi weekly Editorial cartoons that I'm doing for The Wave Newspaper, that services the Rockaways, Broad Channel,& Howard Beach sections of Queens. For those of you who dont know what this is about, local politicians, are locked in a race for a coveted city council seat, in an upcoming election that will take place this month. In order to earn a place on the ballot, each candidate was required to accumulate a total of one thousand signatures from registered voters living within the district,before a predetermined deadline date. According to one candidate, Geraldine Chapey,(with the BIG hair) her political rivals, Mike Ricatto,(wearing glasses)Glenn DiResto, Frank Gulluscio.(with the great hair) and Eric Ulrich,(in the black suit) signatures are not valid, and they should be eliminated from the race.
I'm not taking any sides on this issue other than caricaturing the heck out of everyones face! This group of people were really fun to draw and I cant think of the last time I've truly enjoyed an illustration assignment more. The journalist who wrote the article as well as Howard, the editor of The Wave, loved the illo so much that it made the front page of the paper, something, to my knowledge at least , that has never been done before in the paper's history. Even if I'm wrong about this, it's still an honor for an artist to get this.

MAYOR BLOOMBERG AND CHANCELLOR JOEL KLIEN

ANTHONY WEINER

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I don't Exaggerate Races, I exaggerate faces part two

2011-10-18T21:29:00.001-07:00
Here are a few more examples of random subway caricatures done of people where their faces are squashed and stretched. This is another past post.

There are days on the train when the caricatures practically draw themselves! Man! if i didnt get paid to do this i wouls still do it for the sheer joy of capturing the souls of these people on paper!
I especially liked the tall black gentlemen on the bottom... he had the vibe of a certain presidential candidate.... maybe he was going for that look. I noticed also that with the small black fedora he had a frank sinatra or Run DMC thing going too. This is also my fave because he came walking by so fast that I had to do a very quick gesture drawing of him. As a result I gat this delicious mouth watering design that sort of pops.The Indian lady had eyes SO wide open I swear she didnt seem to blink. It was almost like she was a bird of prey looking for some rodent to pounch on.... Needless to say i didnt make eye contact..... This other dude had a head that looked like he was hiding another person inside it, and the chick with the glasses had this look on her face that said: Damn! i cant see! My prescription is NOT working!!!!

HERE IS ANOTHER GROUP FROM A PREVIOUS POST notice the variety of Races and the exaggerations. I'm an equal opportunity face stretcher and squasher. If you've got a face, you'd better keep it from in front of my paper and pen!

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I EXAGGERATE FACES NOT RACES! Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

2011-10-18T21:06:00.000-07:00
If you've been following my blog for the last couple of days you know about the accusations leveled at me from disgruntled Queens Congressman, Gregory Meeks, concerning what he feels is a racist caricature drawn of him and Senator Malcolm Smith in a recent Wave Newspaper Editrial.

Wow..sorry about the run on sentence! Take a moment to get your breath back before continuing...

The Congressman may be under the impression that I'm targeting him and his collegue for visual abuse, but the fact is that I'm just doing what I've always done as a caricature artist.

Let me make this perfectly clear:

I DON'T EXAGGERATE RACES

That would be, and is, divisive, negative and inflamatory.

But....

I EXAGGERATE FACES!

Which all races, happen to have!

I do this in my work as a party artist(when requested, and if the person can take it) I do this in my personal depictions of subway riders as can be seen on the blog, and hence the moniker, "Subwaysurfer" and yes, I do it in my Editorial Political Cartooning.

I am re showing a series of pictures from my archives here to demonstrate that this is my standard way of drawing, it is specific to the caricarture art form as a whole, and it's just plain fun! I'm done this to folks of every race! As I will demonstrate in future posts.

Blackafroamericannegroafricanamericanpeopleofcolor are just plain fun to draw. You get such a diversity of very EXTREME features already with noses lips and headshapes. I've met a lot of white caricature artists who can really draw who somehow get a little shy when having to draw a black person for fear of "offending them" While its TROO that you will sometimes get gripes about "you made my nose too big," "my lips aint that big!" etc. Just think, these are the gripes that EVERYONE gives us regardless of race. I say if theres an outstanding feature , GO FOR IT! I always do....
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EXAMPLES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WAVE CARICATURES BY Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

2011-10-18T14:06:00.000-07:00
Another in the series of African American caricature representations.

Stick him with a fork! He's DONE!!! This Governor's Goose is Cooked! Latest Editorial Cartoon for THE WAVE Newspaper Far Rockaway NYC
Paterson's face..... MAN! What can I say??? He was MADE for CARICATURE!!! for the purposes of the paper, I stick a little more closely to a more realistic rendering, but you can really have fun with his face which, I plan on having later...heh...
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EXAMPLES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN WAVE CARTOONS President OBAMA

2011-10-18T13:50:00.001-07:00

Pieces of a Dream coming together today. It's a proud day to be an African American in America. For me, it's always been a proud day thanks to the dedication, and sacrifices that were made by others.\I did this drawing for the "Editorial Comment" Section of my local paper, "The Wave".

This is an early caricature of President Obama shortly after winning the election. I feel fortunate having a platform where I caN draw our first Back President, and thank the "caricature gods" that he's easy to caricature.
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CON MEEKS ON NY1 Talks about Elgin Bolling WaveCaricature

2011-10-18T13:39:00.000-07:00
In this NY1 Clip, CON GREG MEEKS addresses inside Washington, and blasts The Waves cartoon drawn by Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

http://www.ny1.com/content/news_beats/inside_city_hall/148939/ny1-online--representative-meeks-responds-to-reports-of-his-political-demise

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EXAMPLES OF WAVE CARTOONS FEATURING AFRICAN AMERICANS By Elgin Bolling

2011-10-17T07:17:00.000-07:00
This is the first in a series of past Wave Newspaoer cartoons where I, the editorial artist, look back to re examine and re evaluate my depiction of African American people and politicians that have populated the pages of the publication for the last three years I've been on board. It is my intention to demonstrate that outside of interpreting the editorial copy given to me, I have no personal racist agenda which has been suggested by Congressman Meeks as the result of an unfavorable caricature of him and Senator Malcolm Smith.

The Wave reports frequently on both elected officials, so I get a chance to draw them frequently, as I do other elected officials as seen in the caricature below. While I did go for comical effect on Senator Smith(what can I say, he's just so much fun to draw!) I would have to say, with the exception of Gov Patterson, depicted as "Charlie Brown" everyone else, looks rather dashing! Even heroic by my visual interpretation.yes, the lips are prominent in all these men, as full lis are an African American trait, but there's no sign of explicit race bating parody in any of the drawings. I understand that audience reaction may vary, and I have no control of that.

Editorial Cartoon of Gov Paterson depicted as Charlie Brown Holding his poor "Political Report Card" much to the displeasure of NYC Black Leadership Power brokers, Al Sharpton, (top left,) Carl Mc Call (bottom left) Charles Rangle (bottom right)Greg Meeks (middle right) and Malcolm Smith (top right) drawn for The Wave Newspaper Far Rockaway NY
A series of recent Political flops, mishaps, and blunders, from an experienced Politician like Gov Paterson "earned him " the title of "Blockhead"

The picture with the cops and the gunman feature two African Americans in staring roles. In my toons I've always made a point to introduce black characters in key roles, something Caucasian artists generally don't think about. Notice in this cartoon it's the AFRICAN AMERICAN officer who wants justice to be done to stop the criminal, and is restrained by his white partner. Clearly, in this toon the back cop can be seen as a heroic figure, even with the presence of the Black criminal. It can be argued, "why did you make the BLACK guy the criminal, in this drawing?" my answer would be, "WHY NOT?" in the effort to uphold Bkack pride, some of my people, and I've done this too, in the past, want to hold up the entire race as paragons of virtue, who never do anything wrong. Such a view is untrainable, and insulting. Some people who are Back, DO commit crimes. Just as some, thankfully more DO NOT. THAAT is what is being depicted here.
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Excerpts from CONGRESSMAN MEEKS OPEN LETTER TO THE WAVE

2011-10-15T09:17:00.000-07:00
Friday Oct 14 issue of The Wave Newspaper on pg 29 featured an open letter To The Wave by Congressman Gregory Meeks. The Wave graciously devoted an entire page to the letter where the congressman shares his thoughts on the allegations of the article, and the editorial cartoon depiction I drew of him, and Senator Malcolm Smith. I have lifted excerpts from that article so you can get his point of view.

America is a great place where we all can express our viewpoints. Without further delay, Congressman Meeks remarks

Both your column and the cartoon explicitly suggest that I stole funds from the New Directions non-profit. You and your colleague are perpetuating an outright lie. The fact is I welcomed an investigation into New Directions and promised my full cooperation with any and all authorities. And there has been no credible allegation, let alone any investigation that has supported this dishonest charge.

Finally, I will not let it pass that your provocative, incendiary, and deliberately inaccurate column was accompanied by what I believe most observers would regard as an explicitly racist cartoon caricaturing State Senator Malcolm Smith and myself. I don’t use that characterization lightly or frequently, but it definitely applies in this case. The cartoon crosses way over the line of civility and violates the necessary sensitivity that a publication in 21st century America ought to consistently and conscientiously display on every page of every issue, particularly when a publication has a racially diverse readership and relies on ads from retailers and other commercial enterprises that have a racially diverse customer base.

It is one thing to disagree with me politically or on policy, or to just dislike me personally for whatever reason. However, none of these reasons justify or authorize you as managing editor, or The Wave as “Rockaway’s newspaper since 1893” to resort to gross racial caricature reminiscent of the portrayal of Black elected officials during Reconstruction in the film, “Birth of a Nation,” nearly 100 years ago.

What the publication of the cartoon by Elgin Bolling reveals is the length to which The Wave will go to drum up animus toward me and other African American elected officials. This is not the first time you have published a demeaning depiction of African Americans. Therefore, I am left to conclude that the comfort that you as managing editor and a columnist, and The Wave on a whole, evidently have in publishing a racist caricature of African American elected officials as conniving thieves with thick, oversized lips, speaking in some sort of street vernacular, actually expresses a general view of African Americans.
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RACIST CARICATURE? in the eyes of the beholder

2011-10-14T08:42:00.000-07:00

As a professional live party caricature and humorous illustrator for over ten years, I've drawn at every conceivable party event, fundraiser, and corporate venue. I actually think I've done more Bar Mitzvahs than the average Rabbi!
I'm taking a long time to say that over the years I've drawn thousands, if not millions of faces and that's not even counting what I've drawn on the subways of this city as the "Subwaysurfer" that you loyal readers are well familiar with if you follow this blog.

Caricature, by it's very nature, exaggerates, amplifies,stretches, squashes, and liquifies the facial features of the extended target. Webster defines the word, caricature, as a "loaded portrait" one that has "weight," and " "impact".

Some people find it difficult to receive that impact. From time to time, I've heard the words, "THAT DOESN'T LOOK LIKE ME!" "YOU MQDE ME LOOK LIKE A WITCH!""MY NOSE ISN'T THAT BIG!"
I'm accustomed to hearing these remarks and totally understand them. Heck, I've even said them myself when I was caricatured for the first time by fellow artist, Kenly Dillard. My objection to the artists depiction was the same as most others. We all have a physical image of ourselves that we project onto the screen of our minds, and think every one else sees the same altered image objectively that we see in our imagination. This altered image we project onto our mind screen is crucial to our self esteem. We see ourselves as having chiseled features, soft curves, seductive eyes, where none exist. Most artists, even some caricature artists, and illustrators, are willing, for a price, to engage peoples fantasies and draw that "imaginary image".
And then there are some who aren't willing.
I'm one of THOSE artists. At least when it comes to drawing political editorial caricature.

EDITORIAL CARICATURE AIN'T PARTY CARICATURE

A distinction needs to be made between political editorial caricarture and party caricature.
PARTY CARICATURE is drawn in drawn in 2-5 minute time frames. Which necessitates that an artist uses a streamlined approach so that the maximum amount of party goers get drawn. The overall vibe is lighthearted and whimsical.

POLITICAL EDITORIAL
Is more illustrative. More time is given to the picture, and facial features and subtle nuances can be pushed squashed and pulled for effect.

BUT IS IT RACIST?
I've taken a while to get here, but wanted to set a tone for my answer. Recently, the above caricature featuring Sen Smith and Con Meeks has gotten a reaction out of some people, perhaps supporters, I'm unsure whether or not the politicians themselves feel this way, that my representations are racist.
I received a call from a reporter of a major Queens weekly, asking for my response to peoples response to the picture.

My reply can be summed up in my general approach to caricature.

MY APPROACH TO CARTOONING CARICATURE
First off let me say that no other artist has any control whatsoever of how their work is going to be received by the viewer. I do, however, have control over what I draw and know what my intent is.

It's not divisive, I can tell you that.

I'm an AFRICAN AMERICAN artist myself, and more than familiar with derogatory images and their power to incite, demoralize and ridicule. I did not depict anyone in Blackface, I seimply amplified facial features, of an Afrucan American man. Period. Because I am a caricature artist, I have a tendency to see things through a fun house mirror, so to speak. In other words, if you have a big fore head, it gets bigger, if you have a weak chin, it "goes into your neck" if you have large eyes, they become saucers, and your eyelashes, wings.

And if you have big lips

They become BIGGER.

It's not racial, some of us Bkack folk have big lips.

We do.

Perhaps it's the color, which is a darker gray, than the face, cases attentioned to be drawn, pun unintended, to them. In this case, I simply used a darker color to separate the lips color from the rest if the face. It could be argued that I could have used a lighter shade of gray, but, what's done is done.

I've seen JayZ in person.... trust me, some of do have big lips.

Beautiful full lips are a known, observable physical trait of African Aericans that vary in terms of shape and size.

If a person has a reaction to the way they are drawn, it might have more to do with thoughts they have internalized on what is racist and divisive.

For me, I'm being objective, making an observation, caricaturing it, and drawing a picture. That's all. Sen Smith seems to have, in my opinion, a lot of space, visually, between his nose and his top lip. It's long, comparatively speaking, compared to what caricature artists call "the average face prototype"

THE JOB OF EDITORIAL CARICATURE
Unlike a political columnist who can make his point in two or three paragraphs, I must make my visual point in a single panel, using the strongest images. Can I draw them humorously? Yes. Divisively? No. Keep in mind also, that the editorial artist, in some cases, acts as illustrator to the editor writing the copy. Although I have done cartoons on my own of political figures like former Sen Anthony Weiner, in most cases I am interpreting editorial copy, and coming up with the cartoon angle that I feel expresses visually the overall article. I am, since coming on board at the Wave, have increased the visibility of African Americans in my cartoons, many if which feature African Americans in prominent roles.

I have no Ax to grind.
If some one thinks the toon is racist, it's in the eyes of the beholder,

SPEAKING OF ANTHONY WEINER...
A past cartoon featured Anthony Weiner, following the Twitter fiasco. Weiner, a Jewush Politician, s depicted with a large Nose. Is that to say, I'm making a statement about Jewish People?

NOPE I'm just making fun of Weiners facial features.

At the end of the day, as a CARICATURE cartoonist, I'm using making fun of their FACES. I've even made fun of mine.

SEE ANTHONY WEINER EDITORIAL CARICATURE HERE

FEEL FREE TO COPY DOWNLOAD AND SHARE THIS PIC IF YOU LIKE IT, JUST TELL PEOPLE WHERE YOU GOT IT. IF YOU WANT TO USE IT ON YOUR BLOG YOU HAVE MY CONSENT! JUST CREDIT ME AS THE ARTIST AND GIVE ME A LINK
http://www.subwaysurfer.blogspot.com
Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

CARICATURE OF ME DRAWN BY ME. Folks, I'm African American, right now I'm built like a chocolate version of the pillsbury doughboy(but I'm losing!) I have large eyes full lips bigteeth with some spaces,a full nose, bug nostrils, and I'm full of enthusiasm! I've posted this in hopes of clarifying what CARICATURE IS as I express it. Your comments are welcome...and feel free to hire me,

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WAVE NEWSPAPER SEN MALCOLM SMITH ,GREG MEEKS CARICATURE

2011-10-14T08:33:00.000-07:00
HERE IS THE CARICATURE AND EDITORIAL COPY AS IT APPEARED IN THE WAVE NEWSPAPER WHEN THE CARTOON WAS INITIALLY INTRODUCED

Senator Malcolm Smith has been the subject of numerous Editorials Ive done for The Wave In the Past few weeks. In this episode, He's pictured here with Con Greg Meeks. Sen Smith is drawn here "milking" their Non Profit Cash Cow, "The New Direction Developement Corporation" I got this illo in just under deadline, because I had an difficult time drawing a believable looking cow! LOL! this is just another case of why it is SO important as an illustrator to be able to, quote, "DRAW ANYTHING". In a recent discussion with Fellow artist, Andere Jardine, he mentioned how if you asked the average artist to draw a "superhero action scene" they'd be able to draw it with ease, yet would be scratching their heads trying to render a man tying his shoes, or putting on his jacket. It's SO important to learn how to draw the "ordinary" and mundane things in life.

HERES THE EDITORIAL
All In The Political Family
It seems clear to us that the dual investigations centering on two of our local politicians, State Senator Malcolm Smith and Representative Gregory Meeks points out once again that non-profits should not be run by and for the benefit of politicians and their families. Take, for ex-ample, New Direction Local Development Corpo-ration. Founded in 2001 by the initiatives of Meeks and Smith, state papers show that Smith’s wife, Michelle, was a founding board member. Also on the initial board, papers show, was Cathy Green, the wife of Darryl Green, Smith’s former business partner. Green was convicted in 1999 of stealing $500,000 from city agencies and private firms that hired him as a consultant on affirmative action hiring practices. He was also a partner, along with former Congressman Floyd Flake, in the Aqueduct Enter-tainment Group, which was just awarded a $300 million “Racino” deal at the aging racetrack in Ozone Park. Flake, you will remember, was the political mentor of both Smith and Meeks. Records show that between 2001 and 2006 Smith helped funnel at least $56,000 to the char-ity through state earmarks. The largest chunk of money came to New Direction at the behest of Smith, $250,000 from the devel-oper of a cargo facility across Rockaway Turnpike from JFK Air-port. The deal to trade the right to build the facility in return for community development money was brokered by Smith, Meeks and City Councilman James Sanders Jr. Edwin Reed, who is listed as the treasurer of New Direction is also the head of the development arm of Flake’s church, the Greater Allen AME Church in Jamaica. Flake has become the power behind the scenes in Queens Democratic circles. His development group was recently given the keys to Aqueduct Racetrack to run a gambling Racino there. A week before Flake’s group got the nod, the min-ister was talking up Andrew Cuomo for governor. Shortly after the deal was made, Flake visited the governor in Albany and then declared that his mind was not made up and that he might back Paterson for a full term. Under the New Direction um-brella, Smith and Meeks started a charity for Katrina victims who had come to New York city. It collected some $30,000. It paid out less than $2,000. Now, federal investigators are looking for the missing money. They are also looking into New Direction and the connection between Meeks and Smith and the Aqueduct deal. Some non-profits that deserve a closer look are also closer to home. You’ll remember Democratic District Leader Geraldine Chapey’s Trinity Seniors organization. She ran a single van, providing rides for seniors to luncheons and events. For that, she took in more than $1.5 million in public money over a ten year period, both from city agencies and from local politicians who provided her with earmarked funds. Allow politicians to run their own non-profits, or to turn them over to family and cronies only provides the possibil-ity of corruption, and the practice should be stopped now.
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CARTOONING FOR KIDS! HOW TO DRAW A COW

2011-10-13T16:32:00.000-07:00
Here's another beginner drawing tutorial for kids! How to draw a steak! ...er.. I mean cow!....same thing!

How to Draw a Cute Cow —powered by eHow.com
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CARICATURE QUICK TIP THINK ABOUT DESIGN

2011-10-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, cartoonist/marketer extraordinare, Bruce Blitz made the observation about me that although I was adept at drawing exaggerated caricatures, a semi realism, that I was, as he put it, "A cartoonist, FIRST!" He was definitely right. Cartooning is my first love, and I love to incorporate it into my own caricature style. I'm inspired by other great caricature/cartoonists like Kenny Durkin, Pete Emslie, Steve Silver, Hrschfeld, and the afore mentioned Bruce Blitz.

Although each artist has their own signature style, each share that intangible element of clean crisp design of their characters.
The concept of good design is somewhat elusive, but it's a combination of clear flowing economy of line, store clear geometric shapes, and easily identifiable curves and straights. When these elements are present in ones work, the cartoon/caricature takes on a personality that makes their characters instant,y recognizable, and pleasing to the eye.

When putting together your cartoons always strive for goid clean design. Start learning by copying the work of other artists who embody this quality. In time you will learn it by imitation.trust me, it's worth it. It helps to pretend that you are part of a production team of animators, and ten other artists have to copy your design. This exercise will develop your design skills in no time, and you'll have a new skill under your belt....Character Designer!
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DRAW ME

2011-10-11T16:34:00.000-07:00

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PRESENT YOUR BEST SELF EVERYDAY

2011-10-11T09:22:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard the term, "Starving Artist" there's a reason for this. Truth be told, most artists are "starving" in the sense of personal prosperity. Niw all prosperity means is INCREASE. So when I say prosperity, I mean Increase, advancement, progression in all areas: social, amongst ones peers, professionally, in terms of clients and sphere of influence, and of course, financial. Prosperity has to do with a posture, a mindset, an attitude. When I was a younger artist, I thought that all I had to do was show up with my ability, and I would get the job. Sadly, in a lot if cases, I didn't. What's worse was the jobs I did manage to get paid so marginally, it was like working for free. As you might expect, I approached every job with a "let's see if this works, I hope it does" mindset, and correspondingly I spoke hesitantly, and unauthoritatively, and dressed like a bum...heck, I looked like I was starving, and was treated as such. I can literally recall clients saying to me, " I'm giving you this job, just so I can help you out, so you can get exposure"
Whoopie....
I was tired of this, and knew that I needed a change.
I asked my Father for help, and being the wise guy that HE is, I finally began to listen. First thing I did was to see myself as HEE saw me. That I was loved, valued and affirmed. I began to hang on the words he said concerning me, and slowly my attitude and self esteem changed. I began to speak positive words over myself, and instead of waiting for things to happen, I put my nose to the grindstone and worked.
HARD
CONTINUOUSLY
DAILY
Working hard is one way of presenting your best self, to yourself, and to God.
He's my Father, by the way. There's a passage if scripture that says that whatever your hands find to do, that you do it with all your might, and that one should do ones work, enthusiastically as unto the Lord. I dud that and began to see results that were tangible. I've also had a few things miraculously drop in my lap too, just another by product of getting in alignment, and presenting my best self everyday.
Once my attitude changed, I actually became more relaxed. I no longer felt anxious and nervous, trying to "fake the funk" wearing a mask of false vibrado. Instead, I became eloquent, articulate and decisive in my speech, with just the right amount of HUMOUR. Those who couldn't accept me, were just not "my clients". I was able to accept peoples right to refusal, and move on. I did notice, there were a lot LESS refusals though... Oh yeah, about the dressing it became much classier. No more jeans and tee shirts. Clothes "really do make the man" and I've noticed a marked increase in personal confidence when I'm quote,"dressed".
The last secret is that you have to be committed to doing your best everyday. If you let thins slip, you'll slide gradually back into starving artist, failure mode... Trust me, been there done that too.

Wow. That was preachy.
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SPRINT STORE SALESMAN FLATBUSH/NOSTRAND by Subwaysurfer

2011-10-11T09:06:00.000-07:00

In keeping with my policy of drawing outstanding customer service people, here is caricature of a CSR I drew recently who instructed me on how to upload a number of films and pictures I recorded on my communication device.
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DRAWING LESSONS FOR KIDS BY SUBWAYSURFER ON E HOW.COM

2011-10-11T07:45:00.000-07:00
Have you ever wondered how to draw a dragon dancing?, No? Well, how about a werewolf head? Not really?, c'mon, you must wonder how to draw a scared bear? Negative, you say?
Well, this particular post isn't for YOU....and rightly so.

Because its for KIDS!
Let me explain.

For the past couple of weeks, I've been working with the folks at ehow.com in putting together a DRAWING 101 series, that focuses on beginning artists, KIDS! I like kids, after all, I used to be one! I was delighted when the folks at ehow approached me to do this, as it was something I've always wanted to do, just like two of my cartooning heroes, Bruce Blitz, and Mark Kisler.

Don't expect to see complicated, highly exaggerated drawing in this series, I'm not promoting myself as a caricature artist in this venue. This is a way of getting young artists started on their cartooning journey...some of which will get so good they will one day challenge me, but that's a risk I'm willing to take!

I filmed a little over 90 instructional videos with ehow, which can be viewed at this site

DRAWING 101 for kids ehow.com
http://www.ehow.com/videos-on_12133783_drawing-101.html

Be in the lookout for my CARTOONING FOR KIDZ book that will be out soon!

Incidentally, if you ARE curious about seeing a Dragon Dance, check it out here

http://www.ehow.com/video_12133799_draw-dragon-dance.html

VIDEO

How to Draw a Dragon Dance —powered by eHow.com
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"THE BATTLE FOR BREAKFAST" CHARACTER SKETCHES

2011-10-07T07:17:00.000-07:00

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MORE GREAT SUBWAY CARICATURE FACES

2011-10-07T07:13:00.000-07:00

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CARICATURE OF SINGING SUCCESS VOCAL COACH JESSIE NEMITZ

2011-10-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hands down, Jessie is the best Vocal coach IMO on Brett Mannings wildly successful and informative singing success site. What makes Jessie such a great teacher is his no nonsense, yet unconfrontational teaching style. Jess gives clear analogies to explain complex vocal theory, demonstrates the exercises in a way that's easy to follow, tells you what you are likely to have difficulty with, and tells you what you should be thinking as you practice. He has certainly helped expand my vocal performance, and while there are many fine coaches on Singing Success, I encourage everyone to check out Jessie first.

Jessie Has a great look. The first thing that you notice are the eyes. Penetrating and dark, like a bird of prey. Firey,intense, and intelligent. He also has this edgy scruffy look that reminds me of the punk rockers http://subwaysurfer.blogspot.com/2011/10/caricature-of-singing-success-vocal.html ago that populated the village in NYC. These were the tough unpredictable, cool white guys that the brothas respected, cause you never know what they would do.....Jessies vocals are the same way. Unpredictable, strong, and ferocious.

I didn't set out to actually draw Jessie at first! I was listening to one of his sessions on The Singing Success site, and was randomly sketching his face with a dry black Tombo brush marker. I liked the scruffy result.

I would love to do a CD cover in this style as a way of thanking him....who knows? In the online works anything can happen!
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CARICATURE OF ALPHA PHI ALPHA BROTHER NAMED EVOLUTION

2011-10-07T07:07:00.000-07:00

My wife and I were traveling together on a Manhattan bound bound A Express train outta Queens that day in joyful anticipation. My wife loves driving more than subway riding, so I advised her to bring a magazine along as I would be "working" for a portion of our journey. I took out my sketchbook and randomly started sketching some passengers, which sparked the interest of a young man in the next seat. He was a fan of cartooning, and in no time I began drawing his mug, much to his delight. I found out he was visiting NYC from school, where he was a member of a fraternity, Alpa Phi Aloha. Alpha has the distinction of being The first Back College fraternity. His frat name was Evolution, which undoubtedly eluded to his er..Simeon like appearance...line names are nit picked, but GIVEN to a pledgee by his big brothers, and have a tendency to stick. I couldn't help but feel a slight swing if jealousy as I too, wanted to pledge Alpha in my college days, but that's another story.

UNAPOLOGETIC CALL TO ACTION

ATTENTION ALL FRATERNITY AND SORORITY MEMBERS...ELGIN SUBWAYSURFER BOLLI G DRAWS AT SMOKERS, FUNDRAISERS AND OTHER SPECIAL EVENTS!
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TURTEL ONLI inspired caricature drawing by subwaysurfer

2011-10-06T05:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, remember, the operative word here is TURTEL ONLI INSPIRED meaning I wasn't going for a literal visual interpretation of the Father of The Back Age of Comix Movement, I just took elements from his features to create my own character. This is what character design is all about.

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caricature of black musician with geometric Afro hairstyle

2011-10-06T05:43:00.000-07:00

Barnes and Nobles is one of my favorite bookstores for a lot of reasons.No matter what branch you go into, there is a plush , professional atmosphere, friendly knowledgable staff, and this intangible chill factor effect that makes you want to kick back and relax. Not to mention that Barnes and Noble has a star bucks inside where you can sit and sip coffee, water or tea, plug into the free WiFi and surf online till you drown in information! What's NOT to love about the place? I particularly love the cross section of the population that comes in and out if the store. As a professional character designer/caricature artst I'm always on the lookout for good faces, and Barnes and Noble is a reliable fishing hole.

I was on my way out when I spotting this massive shock of Bkack hair. It was geometrically cut in such a precise way that was startling. I found myself staring and reaching for my drawing pad...who was I fooling though? I knew I'd never ave enough time to get all this fantastic detail, so I tapped the guy on the shoulder and asked my old familiar question?..
"DO YOU MIND IF I DRAW YOU?"

When you blatantly ask a person if you can draw them , or even tae their photo, which I did also, they usually answer with a polite, but firm "No". To my delight he agreed, and stopped just so I could get the right angle. As I had suspected, he was a perfomer, a guitarist in a rock band in fact. I noticed that he also had a big spider tattoo that was in the center of hs chest, the legs extending out over his rib cage, pointing to perfectly chiseled six lack abs. I sucked in my pot belly and completed my preliminaries thanking him for his time and promising to upload the pics on my blog.

As you can see I've done a number of rendition of him which I often do to teach myself how to caricature, exaggerate, and tem simplify, as you can see with the bottom drawing. Whenever you caricature, never bbe satisfied with your first drawing. Keep at it, and you'll make some great artistic discoveries, the least of which is finding your own style.
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Live Caricature drawing of man with a big Chin

2011-10-06T05:26:00.001-07:00

There are those times at alive gig when all the planets align perfectly the wind is at your back, and you're pumping adrenalin in just the rift amount...annnnnnnd the perfect subject sits in front of you. I had this experience at a gig I did for the prestigious Hampton Classic horse show a few weeks ago. In fact, the gig was exactly the following week that Hurricane Irene touched us here on The East Coast.

I drew this with a Tombo Brush pen, and an indigo Primacolor art Stixx on 8X11 card stock. in three minutes flat. It was pure perfection, and started me on a five hour roll that left me feeling energized, and a little richer at the end.

SUBWAYSURFER UNAPOLEGETIC CALL TO ACTION

If you notice, on the upper left corner if the caricature is a printed copy of the company logo. This serves as an advertisement that stays in front of the person as long as they have their picture, and believe me, they keep these pictures. Why not use me to promote your business or special event?
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Caricature of BIG NOSE INTOXICATED MAN ON THE BUS

2011-10-06T05:25:00.000-07:00

I was coming home energized like I always am after a great caricature gig. This "energizer bunny" phenomenon is unique to us caricature artists after hours of intense drawing. It's almost like a type of drawing fever takes a hold of you, and it takes hours to calm down. I do some of my best "subway surfing" during these times, and today was no exception.

I was fortunate enough to get a nice window seat on a Rockaway Bound 35 bus traveling from Brooklyn. The 35 is the only bus that travels directly to the Rockaways from Brooklyn, and comparatively speaking the ride is fast compared to the train. The only drawback is that you board the 35 bus on Flatbush ave, a major shopping area, with 100 of your neighbors, each competing for the same limited seats.

When I say I was fortunate, I ain't kidding.

Within minutes, however, I almost regretted sitting down. Directly in front of me, was a man so heavily intoxicated that he seemed to be sweating Vodka.to say that this guy reeked of alcohol is like saying Niagra Falls is a little wet. It seemed that Any minute this guy was going to pitch over and vomit on his shoes.... And if he turned just a little to his left... I'd have a lap full of vomit stew.... Not a pleasant thought.

Oh....but what a face he had! Beautiful dramatic angles and folds, and a nose that only a caricature artist could love! I HAD to draw him! But HOW?? I mean, he was sitting right across from me! I had to think if something unconventional.... So I put on a pair of dark shades. Now normally doing this would make draw g a little harder, but somehow the dark glasses served as an invisible barrier that gave me confidence to look at him for extended periods without alerting him.
The strategy worked beautifully, and I managed to get this great sketch without one drop of vomit landing on me. We both got off the bus at the last stop,I went happily to my studio to put the finishing touches on the sketch, as I watched him stagger slowly in the direction of the bar...
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STEVE JOBS RIP CARICATURE BY SUBWAYSURFER

2011-10-05T20:09:00.001-07:00

THANKS FOR LETTING THE WHOLE WORLD
TAKE A BITE OF YOUR APPLE
It turns out that "god" is dead today. Alas, Steve Jobs, is mere flesh blood and bones just like the rest of us.

I know my aforementioned remark will come of as cynical to most people, and I apologize for that. My heart goes out to his family, his friends, and the men and women who worked beside him to create the most revolutionary products the planet has ever seen. I'm grateful to Steve Jobs and applaud his vision, creativity and genus. Heck, I'm typing this on the iPad he envisioned, which has made my job as an illustrator a billion times easier.

Yet I maintain that for many of his legion of fan "god died today" and that reality leaves us all with a sober reminder: man, no matter how great, in the cosmic scheme of eternity, is only a vapor in comparison. In our arrogance and enthusiasm to applaud ourselves, we forget that, as we go about worshipping the works and clever devices of our own hands, or those made by the gods we make, like Steve Jobs.

No, I'm NOT saying, that Steve is now "going to hell" and suffering for his "arrogance", what I am saying is that every now and then, with the passing of a notable public figure, we are all reminded of our own frail humanity, and also start speculating about eternity and our place in it.

I find it particularly touching that as his health began to take a turn for the worst, Steve Jobs did not give his undivided attention to the creation if a new electronic device, or business venture. Instead, according to a New York Post article, he was working diligently on a biography for his children. His desire, was that they would know him, in his own words. As a father myself who has written many letters to his children over the years, that is precious to me, and resonates on a deeper level. As men it's sometimes difficult to express in words the deep love we have for our kids, even if, on the surface, it doesn't show. The culture f manhood sometimes demands that we be driven and stoic in our desire to build a business or reputation. The more successful the man, perhaps the most difficult this is. I hope he completed that project. For those of us who remain, there is a great lesson in this. I pray that we learn it. I pray that I learn it as well.

Steve Jobs was a great man who inspired us to dream, and to create. His final lesson causes us to THINK about the one journey we all will take.
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rip steve jobs

2011-10-05T19:57:00.001-07:00

STEPS OF THE FIFTH AVE APPLE STORE THE DAY FOLLOWING STEVE JOBS PASSING
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CARICATURE QUICK TIP INKING A SUBWAY CARICATURE FACE

2011-10-05T19:37:00.000-07:00

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HOW TO EXAGGERATE A CARICATURE EXAGGERATION

2011-10-05T19:28:00.001-07:00

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CARICATURE QUICK TIP DRAWING A SAD FACE

2011-10-05T19:26:00.000-07:00

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HOW TO DRAW A CARTOON DOG

2011-10-05T19:22:00.000-07:00

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CARICATURE QUICK TIP SERIES INKING A PENCIL SKETCH

2011-10-05T19:20:00.000-07:00

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HOW TO MAKE A COMIC STORY THAT IS GUARANTEED TO SELL!

2011-10-05T15:29:00.000-07:00
http://cinch.fm/subwaysurfer/293405

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HOW TO DRAW A BOY WITH DREADLOCKS

2011-10-05T11:34:00.000-07:00
I was having some fun drawing one night and decided to make a video on how to do a boy with dreadlocks! Sorry it's upside down I'm a better artist than ohotograper!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0Qu-K4T4bA&feature=youtube_gdata_player

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WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE AN ARTIST?

2011-09-16T11:34:00.000-07:00
WHY DO YOU WANT TO BE AN ARTIST?
What drives you? I keep coming back to this question because it's an important one. I've found that depending on what my answer is, it will sustain and encourage me through times of discouragement, doubt and disappointment.

BEING AN ARTIST CAN BE LONELY

no matter how gregarious some of our personalities are, art making is a solitary activity. We are confronted with blank paper, computer screens or canvas and forced to bring something into being that has never been seen by the world, or us before. No one can tell us how to do this, we alone must bring it into being, and that requires intense introspection, experimentation and isolation. During these times of loneliness the question of why I'm doing this keeps haunting me...here are a few of my answers and perhaps some of yours

FINANCE
I've grown accustomed to having food in my refrigerator, clothes on my back,and a roof over my head. On a very basic level, I make art to survive, literally. I continue to work because there is that fear that concern that if I stop I will cold,hungry and naked. Fear becomes my companion, motivator that I cannot stop doing what I am doing to maintain my lifestyle. And yet Finance and Fear can't drive me alone, because then I will come to resent my work.

EGO

I absolutely LOVE to be recognized for what I've done. It's a tremendous ego boost. I recall going to a NCN Caricature convention, and overhearing people I didn't know whisper, "that's HIM, that's SUBWAYSURFER!" I was flattered. It was an indication that my peers respected me, recognized me. Just this week I received a phone call from a FACEBOOK fan who thanked me for influencing him! He went on to tell me how he had been following me and read everything I'd written, viewed all my videos and downloaded my printed materials. I'm overjoyed by this. I work hard in not letting ego rule me, that would be arrogant, but I do admit that since I know people are viewing my work, I am motivated to always do my best.

As a professional caricature entertainer my work, by it's very nature is under immediate scrutiny since it's created right there in front of a crowd. Drawing live and being congratulated and applauded publicly has built up my ego and self esteem substantially.

LOVE

I decided to save the best for last.
LOVE. Before there was money coming in for doing my art, before there was anyone to congratulate me, or hang it kn their refrigerator door, there was the pure love of just doing it. There is an indescribable pleasure in drawing a line, creating composition, bringing to life something that I see in my head, being able to personify feelings. Like most artists, I started in childhood, and was a"good kid" mostly because I would entertain and quiet myself for hours on end just by doing art.
I would do it even if I wasn't paid a single dollar on recording a single handclap. It's who I am, my own personal pleasure. To steal a line from the character in the movie Chariots Of Fire, "God made me an ARTIST! And when I draw, I can feel his pleasure!"

For me, art is a form of worship, a form of appreciation to the God who made me.

These are the things that keep me going. How about you?
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911 memorial poem September Memories by Elgin Subwaysurfer bolling

2011-09-10T17:37:00.001-07:00
SEPTEMBER MEMORIES By Elgin Bolling

On a clear day, they say
You can see forever!
But we never thought
That our Friendly Skies
Would ever witness

THOUSANDS DIE.
Or hear Billions CRY..
White Hot Tears
Falling from sorrowful eyes
Of Burning Towers Like
Post Summer Rain

A testimony that Our Great City
Would Be Forever Changed…
Insane Day!
Inane Day!
The Day I hated Planes…

Who’s to Blame?
What’s His Name?
What Foul Victory Did He Claim?
By having people Slain…

If you went to work, THAT Day,
You were sorry that you came.
That is, if you SURVIVED
Some didn’t come home…
Alive.

In September…
I Still Remember…

People Broken and Dismembered!

Towers Falling!
People Crawling
Men, Women, and Children
Bawling.

Running blindly down the Halls
Fire Burning on the Walls
Somewhere …in the desert air…. Osama…Laughing…
Struggling for breath… Gasping …
Getting help from strangers
Without Asking.

Firefighters bravely answering the Call
Hundreds of people starting to Fall…

Flying Briefly in Empty Space…
Savoring the last sweet breath of freedom
Before landing on their face.

The Twins begin to crumble…
People Stumble…
I mumble…
“Our City…..Humbled”.

Who Fumbled?
Who Dropped the Ball?
My mind begins to Stall..
Is this All?
Or is there more to come?
Do we evacuate?
Or Get a Gun?
No Where To Hide
No Place to Run…

The Mayor’s Finest Hour
He spoke with resolve and did not cower.
Regardless of your Political Affiliation
On THAT DAY we were ALL ONE NATION

And even though it was Hard
On that day even Atheists Prayed To God

The pain never ceases
We continue to this day
To pick up the broken pieces
But as Americans we stand strong.
In the aftermath of this terrible wrong

From the EBOOK, "Annointed Verse, Unrehearsed"
available for purchase, here:
http://elprophetthescribe.blogspot.com/p/annoited-verse-unrehearsed-poetry-ebook.html
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Caricature quick tip How to draw braided hair part two

2011-08-26T14:57:00.000-07:00

The first post was so popular, I decided to include this second one in the series. Sorry about the view. I got disorinted on this camera. Hope its not too much of a distraction.
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Live Caricature Drawing on NYC Subway By Subwaysurfer

2011-08-24T15:33:00.001-07:00

I absolutely LOVE it when passengers are bold enough to ASK for their picture, like this gentlemen did here. I was sitting across from him and noticed he had an interesting look for a character design I was developing of a scientist, or something like that. I did a quick sketch and turned the page when he inquired about thedrawing. we went on to have a great discussion about social media, character design, and entrepreneurship. He even gave me some social media tips! what did he tell me? HEY! that's MY secret! Sorry for the shaky picture I was on a moving train and took this with my camera phone. The guy in the picture name is WES. I told Wes I would be doing some character studies on his face, much to his delight,....

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Caricature Quick Tip How to Draw Braided hair

2011-08-24T15:11:00.001-07:00

Have you ever found yourself horrified frustrated and frozen with fear someone with braids approached you to be drawn at a life event? I sure did! I hated drawing braids so much that I carried scissors in my bag with intentions on cutting them off the persons head! since being a barber is not in my skill set, I had to devise a method for drawing them quickly and easily. Nothing can ruin a caricature more than drawing braids sloppy, especially if its a major part of the persons, visual persona... er... is that even a word? This video goes into one of my methods that not only make drawing braids easy, but also a lot of fun! forgive the quality of the video, I filmed it on my smartphone while waiting for my wife while she shopped at Trader Joes....
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William Shakesphere iPad caricature

2011-08-03T07:33:00.001-07:00

Talk about a different and unexpected assignment.... I'm currently working with a client who commissioned me to draw some character designs for a board game he is currently developing, and one of the characters is William Shakesphere. I must admit, I've never had a request to draw that before, and was very excited on how I would interpret the character.

The client wanted the illustration to be a full body shot, no gross exaggeration, and recognizable. I immediately thought of the style and approach that Alex Toth used when he was commissioned to draw characters for Saturday morning toons back in the day. The design had to be elegant and simple. As has become my habit, these days, I drew the character in such a way that if it were being animated, it could be easily copied, and quickly reproduced. I looked at pictures online to see how Shaesphere had been depicted by other artists, and then gave it my own particular flair, as I did with the period clothing, after researching that. Google and YouTube make research like this a snap.

I couldn't resist adding the skull as a accessory, and within a few hours, I had a character design but artist, and client could be proud of.

What I love about assignments like these, is the opportunity to draw people and things I wouldn't ordinarily draw myself. Another great benefit if drawing William Shakesphere, is the potential of bring new viewers to my blog who come, not necessarily because they like art, per se, but because they like William Shakesphere. Hopefully in the process of viewing this illustration, they will be encouraged to check out the rest of the blog.

I'm giving a subtle hint here, fellow artists, so listen up.

If you want to increase traffic to your blogs start including pop culture pieces, as well as "traditional" drawings like Will, here. The goal is to get new people looking at your work, and if you're selling something, hopefully, they will be impressed and encouraged to buy something.

Speaking of buying... It's time for another...

UNAPOLOGHETIC SUBWAYSURFER CALL TO ACTION!

If you are impressed with this character design and have a project that you feel my talents are suited for, don't estate to let me know! Prices are not "cheap" but they're negotiable, and more affordable than you think!
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Newsletter illustration of couple on Jetski

2011-07-28T21:38:00.000-07:00
Just completed this assignment of a couple on a Jetski for their company Newsletter. The hardest part was drawing the Jetski jussst right! they loved it.

As an artist, I have been fortunate to have rubbed shoulders with, taught by, influenced by, and even "stolen from" some of the best caricature artists in the world, all of whom have contributed to, influenced, and enhanced by approach to caricature.
One of my favorite character artists, is Terry Dunnett, affectionately known as TEL from Australia. (http://www.terrydunnett.com.au/Tels_Caricatures/Home.html)
In addition to being an excellent draftsman, Tel is a master of drawing accessories. By "accessories" I mean supporting items in a picture that the main characters interact with. Examples of accessory items, are cars, planes, snowmobiles, and jet skies. Prior to being exposed to Tel's work, I focused pretty much on the individual figures, and pretty much "winged" everything else. Even though my clients did not complain, I knew deep down, I had compromised, and given into lazy drawing. In comparison to Tel, whose accessory items were just as meticulously detailed as his caricatured. Visually, this added to the overall unity to his pieces as well.

That's when I started really concentrating on getting the accessories correct.
If a client takes time to mention they want a particular car or golf clubs in a picture, then obviously the item is an extension of them. This is the Bain reason why they should be given as much attention that you give to your favorite part of the drawing.

This particular jetski took me days to get to my satisfaction. It's not perfect, but definitely better than I might have done, years ago.
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HOW TO DRAW KIDS by Subwaysurfer

2011-07-13T17:52:00.001-07:00

If you've been a professional artist for more than five minutes, I bet you've been asked to draw a couple of kids. For a caricature artist it's inevitable. You are either going to draw a child at a first communion, birthday party, wedding, anniversary , or Bar-Bat Mitzvahs. Dont even let me get started on gift caricature. Drawing children can be quite lucrative, as everyone loves to have their kids immortalized in pictures.
I used to HATE drawing kids, at one time. They were unpredictable, moved around a lot, and for some reason I kept making them look to old in a picture. I really needed help, and kept my ears and eyes opens until I learned how.
Of course now I'm sharing that method with you, so listen up.

I was at an art convention a couple of years back, and master caricature artist, Joe Bulum was lecturing on how to caricature the face. His subject wasn't on kids, per se, but he said one line, in passing, that made a light bulb go on in my head. To paraphrase, Joe, he said that drawing kids was easy. He pictured them as being akin to "little aliens" in appearance, and structure. Joe was being tongue in cheek with his comment, obviously, but I immediately latched on to that visual of a stereotypical "Roswell Alien" with the Giant Forehead area, large lumonious eyes, and small mouth nose and particularly the CHIN. with this image in mind, I never had another problem drawing kids. Of course this doesn't mean that you ignore basic features of each individual child's face. Some kids have fuller lips than others, some have smaller eyes or wider noses, of course, but that basic head-slash- alien structure is crucial.
WATCH THAT CHIN!
Getting back to the chin. NEVER NEVER NEVER add a LOT of space between the buttom lip and the chin. even if the kid has a long face, comparatively speaking, put all the visual weight in the upper head area. If you fail to do this, you WILL age the child considerable.

DRAWING A MOVING KID
The secret to drawing a figity kid is not to panic. Resolve in your mind that this kids will NOT be sitting still. Once you've acknowledged that, start by drawing that Alien head container lightly in pencil. As I said earlier, you KNOW that the head is going to conform to that shape. Most babies also, have those hamster/balloon cheeks so include that too. Next you want to pick your target. Say the nose, you wait until the child is looking in your direction. he WILL eventually, and as soon as he does, BOOM ! you nail that body part, and keep repeating for each facial feature. I mentioned drawing in pencil also because the "sketchy" line quality will add to the overall life of the drawing, at a live event. If you are doing a gift caricature, like the ones on this page, you can sketch even more loosely knowing that you will ink it in later.

THE SUBWAY SURFER
SHAMELESS UNAPOLOGETIC CALL TO ACTION

Hey moms and dads, aunts and uncles, God mothers, and God Fathers! If you loved the way I drew these kids, just think of how gorgeous I can make the little alien inhabiting your planet? digital portraits are affordable, and start as low as 40.00 (yes, we are committed in helping you buy art in these trying economic times.) if you are interested email me at cartoons4u2@aol.com a good JPEG of your kids
and we can get started! Paypal makes the whole process painless!

(these children were digitally painted on the Apple Ipad using the Art Studio App)
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IPAD COMPATIBLE CLOTHING SCOTTEVEST GEAR ROCKS!

2011-07-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

http://www.scottevest.com/
Folks, I haven't even fully written a post for this, but when I found this gem, my eyes popped! Once I picked them back up off the floor, I realized that this was the line of clothing I've been searching for. As a Creative Caricature Marketing Consultant, one of the services I offer clients is that of a live caricature entertainer for corporate events. Oftentimes, I am required to be mobile, especially for events that require me to interact with the crowd,(like the job I did with absolute Vodka) and it is impossible to lug my gear around from one location to the other. With the Scottevest, there are numerous pockets to put pens, books, paper, and the aforementioned iPad for digital drawing. The company also makes pants will multiple pockets. As awesome as Scottevest gear is, from a purely functional standpoint, Scottevest gear also look cool. So you no longer stand out like a sore thumb with your pockets buldging. I almost wanted to keep this news to myself, but hey, this is social media after all, so I'm sharing!

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CREATIVE CARICATURE QR CODE MARKETING

2011-07-08T15:07:00.000-07:00

Audio Link
http://cdn.cinchcentral.com/rec/Recording_255325.mp3

Audio Podcast

Can QR Codes be used Creatively with caricature? You bet they can. I am already helping many of my clients maximize their marketing efforts with this exciting piece of interactive technology. And while it's true that anyone can use and have access to making QR codes, a compelling visual to lead your customers in the desired direction will always be a plus. Listen to the audio podcast to find out more how you can benefit from my services to enable you to come up with a unique strategy in using QR Code technology .
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AFFORDABLE AVATAR DESIGNS FOR THE ARTISTICALLY CHALLENGED

2011-07-07T16:10:00.000-07:00

As a Creative Caricature Marketing Consultant, I created Affordable avatar designs like these for the artistically challenged. I realize that you want to stay competitive,AND remain budget conscious/ Let me help you do both, as I have done for my clients here.
Email me at
cartoons4u2@aol.com
Include a quality Jpeg of your picture and a description of what you need done. Single Characters are as low as 40.00 get YOUR Avatar Today.

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GREATEST TESTIMONIAL SUBWAYSURFER HAS EVER GOTTEN

2011-07-07T09:47:00.000-07:00
I've gotten a lot of testimonials over the years from satisfied customers, but this one from author Dan Guarino, of The Rockaway Artists Alliance, literally brought tears to my eyes..Dan wrote this testimonial following a performance The ROckaway Artists Alliance Writers Group
gave at Peninsula Hospital.

"There aren't enough words to describe the multi-talented Elgin Bolling. Just when you think you've got him defined, he pops up with a new talent.

          Artist, author, caricaturist, cartoonist, journalist, commentator, cyber-reporter, poet, performer, speaker, teacher, actor, entertainer...

         The list goes on.

         I can say, though, I have never seen anybody draw people in like Elgin nor lift an audience out of their seats.

          In short, I have never seen anyone bring their art to life like Elgin Bolling."
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Why I Love drawing people on the NYC Subway Trains By Subwaysurfer

2011-07-05T21:23:00.000-07:00

"The Subway is a microcosm of the world. It is the one place where for a brief moment in time, comparatively speaking, we are all equal. People all over the city of every gender, race, social economic status, religious , political , social sexual orientation, come here to share space. Its a forced kind of intimacy, almost. I am more than an artist drawing funny pictures but a visual anthropologist, studying and recording human behavior. My visual data can be found throughout this blog, especially in the earlier posts, and also through my subsequent Ebooks, two of them are right below you.

I LOVE TO DRAW A GOOFY LOOKING GURL
Written and Illustrated by Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

Is Beauty really in the Eye of the Beholder? Subwaysurfer says, it depends on who is looking at you! Find out what New York City's wackiest subway sketcher sees!

SUBWAYSURFER EXTREME LIFE DRAWING ON DA TRAIN
Written and Illustrated by Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

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Caricature Quick Tip Series How To Draw The Human Figure

2011-07-05T21:11:00.001-07:00

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July 4th poetry

2011-07-02T22:24:00.000-07:00
Miss Liberty’s Got a Lot to Say Today
July 4th Poetry

By Elgin Bolling.

Welcome, Welcome! One and all , to Me!
That’s right, I’m You’re good “Old Friend”
The Statue of Liberty!

Give me your tired and your poor..
But don’t come HERE NO MORE!!
You’re being stopped at the door..

The statue of Liberty! That's me!
BOY! my feet are KILLIN' ME!!
I haven’t sat down in YEARS
And I’ve shed many tears, my dears,
But don’t YOU fear! As you can see,
I’m STILL standing here
Right where I’m supposed to be!

Smack dab in the middle of this here, MESS!
Trying REAL hard not to stress..
Hard to hold it together with So many people
Walking up and down up under my dress!
Putting me to the test

I guess I’ll grin and
Do my best to hold high the torch
Lookin toward Manhattan Island
Sometimes I just wanna drop this torch in the water
And start to crying/
Too many folks fightin’ screamin’ and dyin’
I AINT LYING!

Gimmie ONE plane ticket and
I’ll be a FLYIN!
What I need is a vacation
From being a symbol for the nation

So TIRED of riding this “freedom train”
When do we arrive at the station?
The location where we’re FINALLY All ONE NATION under GOD?
In a world full of atheists,
THAT’S gonna be kinda…hard.

Belief in GOD should be a PLUS
Aint it written on your money somewhere
IN GOD WE TRUST????!!!
LOOK! IT”S WRITTEN ON YOUR MONEY!
LOOK! IT”S WRITTEN ON YOUR MONEY!!!!

Ya know… this aint even funny.

One more thing,
Let me tell you, honey..
Instead of just snapping pictures of ME
From the Deck of the Staten Island Ferry
Why don’t you do me a favor?
Turn to your neighbor
And treat HIM Merry?!

I KNOW it’s not
Christmas day, or any other Holiday,
But loving one another
Is still OK!!
Don’t you forget to PRAY!

On your knees is where you should stay
Then you’ll never stray.

And HEY!...
I aint going NOWHERE.
I’ll be right here on ELLIS.
That is….
If the Mayor
Doesn’t sell us.
Copyright 2010 Elgin Bolling all rights reserved.

SEE AND HEAR IT PERFORMED LIVE WITH TWO OTHER ORIGINAL POEMS
http://youtu.be/ndjH1XbphlI

In Addition to being a visual artist, I am also a prolific poet. And as you can read,see, and hear, my spoken word, and written word is as "visual" as my artwork. Ive spoken to capacity crowds for many years now, and even combine my visual art with my thought provoking, humorous poetry. (gee, I almost broke my arm patting myself on the back like that!)Feel free to hire me for speaking engagements as well. I also create original prose and poems to go with your pictures. Now how many artists can do THAT??!

This Poem and many others are all in an Ebook entitled, "Anointed Verse Unrehearsed" which can ve purchased for 5.00 directly thorough me by ordering here

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Sprint store salesman Daniel Jacobs Sheepshead bay

2011-06-30T20:45:00.000-07:00

LISTEN TO THIS AUDIO PODCAST

http://cinch.fm/subwaysurfer/252735

This is a special shout out to DANIEL The Sprint representative at On Top Communications. The store is located at 1743 Sheephead Bay Rd Bklyn, NY. The dynamic, Daniel Jacobs,sold me my NEW Optimus LG Phone. When it comes to phones, I pretty much always felt that I never needed all the bells and whistles, currently being advertised by Sprint and other dealers. Daniel was so persuasive and patient in answering my questions, that when he finally brought me my phone I literally did the snoopy happy dance of joy. My new Optimus LG is fantastic! Its got some many toys on it I almost ditched my ipad! The reception is clear, I can go online virtually anywhere, it's got a great camcorder than enables the Subwaysurfer to do even more videos on location, and a camera that takes crystal clear shots. The speaker is more like a mini megaphone! Dan is a dynamite salesman, very knowledgeable and has this cool toothpickk that never seems to fall outta his mouth when he talks. Check out his store in Sheep head bay you wont be disappointed.

As is my habit, when I get great customer service, I usually do a caricature of the person. I found out that Daniel is also a graffiti art enthusiast, so he went nuts over the idea of me caricaturing him.

This picture has him SPRINTING to give you fabulous service, which he definitely will. Make sure you Sprint down to his store to get the best deal today.

Oh, one mre thing... Dans store is a literal stones throw from some of the best restaurants in Brooklyn, that overlook the bay. After you buy your phone, celebrate with a delicious meal, and treat yourself to a boat ride! What could better?

ATTENTION ALL BUSINESS OWNERS AND ENTREPRENEURS WHO LOVE THIS PICTURE

If you're thinking to yourself, "boy, I bet that Daniel Jacobs guy is getting some new business every time some one checks out his picture on this blog!" You're absolutely right! DANIEL knows how to think outside the box, how about YOU?

Let me create a cool caricature advertisement for YOUR business, to put in all your social media outlets including my popular blog here. The cost is more affordable than you think, and as a Creative Caricature Marketing Consultant, I don't "just draw you a picture" but help you formulate a strategy for online visibility and success. Just like Daniel Jacobs here.

Drop me a line at cartoons4u2@aol.com for details
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Caricature Quick Tip #14 PROTECT YOUR CONTENT ON FACEBOOK

2011-06-24T16:29:00.000-07:00
Listen to a very valuable lesson I learned on Facebook recently. ALL creatives will find this tip valuable, especially if you are using FACEBOOK to build your brand, and position yourself on that channel. Dont get me wrong, I LIKE FACEBOOK. It is a great social media tool and i support and will continue to use it, but will always remember that
FACEBOOK IS LIKE A MALL. AND I DONT OWN THE MALL. Find out what that means by listening to the audio cast.

Let me know what YOU thinkabout what youve heard!
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WOW! I INSPIRE PEOPLE!!

2011-06-21T22:45:00.000-07:00
Did some web surfing today, and found this particular site whee my vids are featured. Its an inspirational site, called, "INSPIRATIONAL VIDEOS" (what else?) and a ton of my stuff is cataloged there! Nice to know that I'm inspiring other people enough for my work to be going viral. Sometimes Im so busy just sharing and uploading that I dont stop to take a breath.

http://www.movieplay.biz/inspiration/watch-video/BLb-yzQ6cNc&feature=youtube_gdata/TheSubwaysurfer/http:-www.subwaysur-fer.blogspot.com-creative-caricature-marketing-consultant,-and-professional-caricature-entertainer,-....html
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THE FATHERS DAY PRESENT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING

2011-06-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

In 2009, I wanted to give my father a gift that was more lasting than a tie, brut aftershave, or a wallet. I decided to give him a memory. I wrote and illustrated a story in a powerpoint comic book about how he helped me to overcome an all too familiar theme today; BULLYING. My Dad gave me a book of self defense, even demonstrated the techniques in the middle of the living room floor, something very unusual, given his conservative, non demonstrative nature. I went on to regain my self esteem as well as a life long fascination with the Asian Fighting arts that gave me so much in terms of personal development, friendships, and of course, personal fitness. The story doesn't end here. I submitted this PowerPoint comic to authorstream.com and it resulted in me winning a ipad computer tablet. The story resonated with so many people literally overnight,m that I was shocked. I cant tell you how much this little Ipad has helped my work Thanks dad!

All because I wanted to give my father more than a tie, some aftershave, and a wallet.

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THE CARICATURE ARTIST SHOULD NEVER BE THE CENTER OF YOUR PARTY

2011-06-16T20:25:00.000-07:00
There are some caricature arrays out there who feel they're the greatest thing since cheese and crackers, and that somehow when THEY arrive at any event, "The party REALLY starts!"

When I was younger, I was STUPID enough to believe that, too. But not anymore.
Listen to this MP3 and find out why THE CARICATURE ARTIST SHOULD NEVER BE THE CENTER OF YOUR PARTY
PLEASE LISTEN HERE
http://cdn.cinchcentral.com/rec/Recording_129821.mp3

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Gary Vaynerchuk Cartoon Caricature By Subwaysurfer

2011-06-16T15:57:00.000-07:00
If you dont know who GARY VAYNERCHUK is, you have no business being online. Go and ask your parents permission if you need to be on here.
Im not going to give you a bunch of Gary Stats here. If you wanna know exactly who is he and what he's done and why it's important, that you will do the homework on him, and trust me you will be pumped before youre even three quarters done finding out.

I love Gary because hes what i call a Noo Yawk guy by default! He's from Jersey, but had enough of that Big Apple flavor for me to called him an honorary New Yawker. The first time I heard Gary speak, I thought I was listening to Joe Peshi from Goodfellas. I'm sure he gets that a lot. In reality, when I close my eyes he sounds like a thousand other guys from Brooklyn nabes like Bay Ridge, Canarsie, or Bensonhurst. Gary has this In your face, take no prisoners, idiot proof way of speaking that even a moron can understand. His blue collar work ethic is more than inspiring, and his rags to riches story (taking his family's history into account) reads like a blue collar fairytale come true. Only Gary's living the fairytale.... which is real. And so can you. If yew do whut he sez, and boy does Gary Say a LOT! WARNING you may not appreciate the ... er... "Colorful" way Gary Says some things but you are guaranteed to UNDERSTAND his message once he's done.

You can get your very own cartoon/Caricature avatar for your social media pages, E Newsletters, Blog Article Posts, and Ebooks just like this one i did of Gary. You can DEFINITELY CRUSH IT and stand out in the crowd of everyone using their photos or clipart. Just me a jpeg of you with front , side and three quarter view. Tell me the business you're in, and /or what youd like to be doing and I will draw your caricature faster than you can say CRUSH IT!.... okay... I know... im getting redundant....
Email Elgin at
cartoons4u2@aol.com
FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD AND SHARE GARYS CARICATURE! JUST TELL FOLKS WHERE YA FOUND IT!
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Anthony Weiner Twitter Caricature by subwaysurfer

2011-06-14T16:25:00.000-07:00

FEEL FREE TO COPY DOWNLOAD AND SHARE THIS PIC IF YOU LIKE IT, JUST TELL PEOPLE WHERE YOU GOT IT. IF YOU WANT TO USE IT ON YOUR BLOG YOU HAVE MY CONSENT! JUST CREDIT ME AS THE ARTIST AND GIVE ME A LINK
http://www.subwaysurfer.blogspot.com
Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling
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WEINER-TWITT(er) Caricature of Anthony Weiner by Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling with Definition

2011-06-14T15:43:00.000-07:00

WEINER TWITT (er) DEFINITION:( Subwaysurfer Caricature Dictionary)
An accidental Twitter, that should have been a Quitter
One who Accidentally Tweets his Peeps.
Getting caught with your pants down.
A Politician/Person/individual Who doesn't realize, fathom, comprehend, and/or understand that twitter/and or social media is part of the internet ie. an essentially public, downloadedable public forum where your private messages can be sometimes tracked, hacked, caught, and or intercepted by others to make you a laughing stock and unwanted center of attention.

COMMON EXPRESSIONS " I/He/She/We/ They "really pulled a Weiner-Twitt!"

Folks it COULD happen. It's situations just like the one Weiner is in that results in new word definitions like the above being added to the Dictionary.

The caricature artist in me, cant help but jump, markers first, on a story so pregnant with a visual pun such as this one.Sadly , though the everyman in me feels sorry for Weiner. Heck, I LIKE Weiner. I think he's done some good things in congress.I remember him being so strong and resolute in congress, shouting down the Republicans for not having the guts to vote on the 911 healthcare bill. It was inspiring to see a politician actually get passionate about something that was clearly right. That day, Democrats were proud to be affiliated with their party, and some Republicans must have secretly admired him for showing them something they hadn't seen in a while; "a politician with a spine".
  Two years ago in October 2009, when I had to draw his face for a WAVE editorial, I practically would have paid to find a caricature of him online. If there was one, I couldn't find one, and I'm pretty good at finding things online. Fast forward to our present time, and you can almost hurt yourself tripping visually over a Weiner caricature online.

What Weiner did was careless, irresponsible and yes, stupid.

Ive read in the news one person had the arrogance to say, " If he lied to us about THIS, what else has he lied to us about?" I would answer, "WHAT HAVE YOU LIED ABOUT?" Weiner, in my view is guilty of one major thing. Being unfaithful to his spouse. like so many other Americans who flirt online using the social media toys, Weiner forgot that he cannot do what a regular person does. He is, by his position held to a higher standard. By his own admission, he tweeted his peep, (my words here) by mistake when he meant to send an email instead. It was a tragic, boneheaded mistake, but so human that I believe him. Again, he's got a lot of explaining to do to his wife. One crucial thing to remember also is that there has been, as of this writing, no sex involved. just-flirting online. Are we REALLY so outraged over THAT? Does this stupid mistake really erase all the good he's done in Congress and still wants to do? Are any of his staunch accusers innocent if we look into their emails? or are they just more careful? America needs to grow up and stop pretending to be outraged.

There are more important things to get outraged about..

If "Weinergate" has taught us anything, it is that the internet is a not the toy we pretend it is sometimes. It has the potential to be a maker and breaker of reputations and tarnisher of images. What you whisper quietly in a chat room can be trumpeted on the radio. Be careful in how you tweet your peeps. The results may not be neat.

Yeah.... corny... I know.

FEEL FREE TO DOWNLOAD COPY AND REDISTRIBUTE THIS STORY BUT GIVE THE AUTHOR ARTIST CREDIT.
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FUN FACTS YOU MAY NOT KNOW ABOUT SUBWAYSURFER

2011-06-13T08:36:00.000-07:00

Folks I almost punctured a lung blowing my own horn here, but I wrote this post because I want to be all touchy feely, and do the social media, "get to know me"thing...
All jokes aside, there's are some things about me you may not know, which may prove useful to some of you, so read on.

I will be updating this periodically, so check back for relevant links and updates.

FUN FACTS ABOUT SUBWAYSURFER
1 SUBWAYSURFER IS AN EXPERT
since 2006 I have been answering questions for aspiring artists online at ALL EXPERTS.COM where I answer art related questions on tools, caricature, cartooning, animation, and good old fashion motivational advice.

2 SUBWAYSURFER HAS BEEN A PROFESSIONAL ARTIST SINCE 8YEARS OLD
I illustrated the cover of a book, MOTHER, THESE ARE MY FRIENDS for author Mary Anne Gross. Ms. Gross approached me because I was an outstanding primary school artist who had racked up a bunch of awards, won contests, and had work displayed in the NYC school system. My cover consisted of a picture of me and my family. As soon as it was completed, I held out my eight year old hand, and asked for twenty five dollars. I got that, plus royalties on the book for a year.

3 SUBWAYSURFER WAS A CHILD SCHOLARSHIP STUDENT AT PRATT INSTITUTE

Guess I was a prodigy. This was a weekend scholarship. Fully paid, real art instruction, sitting in class with adults, strange. Oh yeah, I was around eight years old.

4 SUBWAYSURFER IS A MOTIVATIONAL SPEAKER

I've done public speaking since I was 11 years old. I've spoken to hundreds and thousands. I have no fear of crowds, never get stage fright, and can speak to a group as easily as I can on a cellphone. I've spoken on art, religion, martial arts, entrepreneurship,parenting, and other stuff I can't remember...

5 SUBWAYSURFER IS A SPOKEN WORD POET

Spoken word poet is a weird term... Most poems ARE spoken after all....I like to refer to myself as a SPOKEN WORD PERFORMER. I've always been an avid writer and storyteller, and have written thousands of stories, poems and prose over the years. I've recently, in the past two years decided to put these together in more concrete form, and share them. My poetry has always been more personal to me than my visual art, so I had been reluctant to put it on display. I've performed in public, have a blog devoted to the subject, and a few books I'm putting together.

6 SUBWAYSURFER IS AN AUDIO PODCASTER

To date I have well over 100 audio podcasts put together on the subjects of cartooning and caricature, poetry, social media, and social commentator.
Consider Podcasting "audio art" , and for me, a person who loves to talk, the perfect platform. I am endlessly fascinated by events, people, art, etc. And am inquisitive by nature, and love to share. Maybe you've heard me speak on the blog in the caricature quick tip series, that's a small part of the Podcasting bubble.

7 SUBWAYSURFER CAN DANCE

this is NOT just because "I'm Black!" LOL! I've always been in love with movement, and explores modern dance at an early age, eventually falling in love with the so called FUNK STYLES of the 70 s and 80's, robot, popping, ticking stringing, locking, electric boogaloo and whatnot. I'm in love with this dance form called LIQUID, a d for two years did a discipline called five rhythms.

8 SUBWAYSURFER CAN SING

I'm a tenor.I've sung since high school, but really got serious about two years ago. I don't want to do anything with my voice other than use it for worship in church. Where I solo.I inspired my daughter and especially my son to sing, both of whom have toured. My son especially sings " opera like" sacred music in English and Italian. He's also dine musical theatre.

9 SUBWAYSURFER IS FAT

I'm working on losing....it's a long road....especially when wifey cooks so good..

10 SUBWAYSURFER CAN KICK YOUR BUTT

I've studied martial arts since I was eleven years old, starting with Hung Gar Gung Fu. Ive also studied Tai chi, JKD, Goju Ryu, Muay Thai, Savate and Pikiti Tirsha Arnis.
Am I master? I'll never tell. Let's just say I'm not beginner, my love of the martial arts is because of my father, who set me on the road, and caused me to win a free iPad! Find out how, here.
(link is coming)
CHECK OUT WHAT THE SUBWAYSURFER IS DOING NOW!