caricature of black musician with geometric Afro hairstyle

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.

Drawing lesson if you practice you WILL GET BETTER by subwaysurfer

Like all artists, I sometimes get in "one of those moods" where "nothing" is going right and i feel as if Im just standing sitll, not progressing, not getting any better. It's easy to feel that way if you DONT keep a visual record to chart your progress, lucky for me, I do.
I ran across a 2005 sketchbook the other day and turned the page to a drawing I had done of Gary, a very talented Painter/caricature artist from Puerto Rico that I drew at a past NCN COnvention. My First one, to be exact. I was actually amazing and a little horrified to re-discover that I actually drew ...er... that BAD and go paid for it!! LOL! I redrew the picture over again , just to see if I could do it better. The results were startling to say in the least. I was able to actually SEE how much I'd learned in just a few years. You truely CAN change if you're motivated enough, and work hard enough on your weaknesses. Maybe two years from now I'll pick up this recent drawing and say to myself, "THAT'S HORRIBLE!! HOW IN THE WORLD DID I HAVE THE NERVE TO POST THAT!!!???"

Man With DREADLOCKED MOHAWK by Elgin SubwaySurfer Bolling

The women weren't the only ones who had great hair at Okema Diiaz's party,for Party Art Productions. The MEN were equally bold with their hairstyles, like this young barber who had this dread locked Mohawk that he cut himself! AWESOME!

Party caricature of hair designer, MINISTA JAZZ by subwaysurfer

"Minister Jazz" was one of the fascinating guests I met/drew at a Party by my agent at Party Art Productions "Minister Jazz" had Fabulous hair and as she sat down I could not wait to draw her. When she turned to the side, Ito my amazement, it was partially bald, except for the word, "BOLD" that was shaved, on the side. I put down my drawing for a moment and quizzed her about the hair.  She explained to me that the word was NOT shaved but written into her scalp with a marker. She explained that everyday she gave her self "an intention:" or word of intent or affirmation which she wanted to embody that day, and also to communicate to others what she was feeling/intending. I found that to be fascinating  that a person would have that much commitment to their art using themselves as the ultimate art object.

Subway Pencil Caricature portraits by Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling

As much as I love to do gift caricatures digitally, I love the feel and look of a caricature done with my own hand in pencil. My approach to caricature drawing is not just for simple "party whimsy" but for fine art as well. This should come as no surprise, since caricature uses portraiture as a point of departure.

Let me create a beautiful pencil portrait caricature of you. Your love ones or for the someone who wants a unique personalized gift. Prices are affordable, and I am open, within reason to negotiation. Feel free to write me at
Cartoons4u2@aol.com
For more information.

E train Caricature of BIG eyed woman

There she was with the BIG eyes long wavey hair and poked out lipp, how could I resist? havent done one of these subway ones in a while and BOY did it feel good.

Taka Watanabe caricature by Subwaysurfer

Just finished this sketch of japanese caricature whiz, Taka Watanabe who posted his mug on the firing squad at the NCN forum and dared me to take a shot. I did and this is waht came out. BANG!!! Taka is a fantastic artist whose work you can see by clicking on this name on the right side of the ole blog here. Take a look at his stuff you'll be adding him to your faves list!

I drew this with a bic 0.7 mechanical pencil on tracing paper. I forgot how great tracing paper is to draw on. It takes to pencil beautifully, you can shade easily with it,correct mistakes immediately, and best of all work on the opposidte side and even out proportions.
I originally planned to draw it on cardstock like I usually do but after playing around with the image on tracing paper, I thought the sketch looked fine the way it was, and didnt want to ruin it by overworking it.

Caricature of big lips man

This is a party guest who REALLLLY wanted to get his picture doe. I noticed that one side of his mouth came up a couple of seconds before the other side did and captured that. He loved it. This guy had mega sized lips also. This is one of the things that make for a great caricature. When a person has a really outstanding facial feature it just makes drawing humorously a breeze

There are some African Americans who are very sensitive about a drawing like this. The tendency of some is to label such a depiction as "racist" and hint that it is reminiscent of how Black people were portrayed in film, comics, and animation years ago. While there exists certainly cartoon depictions that are in fact derogatory and demeaning, the question needs to be asked about the intent if the artist.

In the case of this pictures context, it is nothing more than an exaggerated amplification of a facial feature that is observable and measurable. My intent, always , is caricature. Pure and simple. Unlike political caricature, when I draw party caricature, I stay away from extreme exaggeration as it has a tendency to embarrass people, and make them the target of jokes by their fellow party guests! I never want to sacrifice Antibes self esteem, or ruin a party atmosphere, and I don't. BUT THERE ARE THOSE TIMES WHEN EXAGGERATION IS REQUESTED AND WELCOMED as in this case.

Overall, I've found that if people have issues with exaggeration it has a lot to do with their personal esteem body facial issues, and emotional associations. No artist can please everyone.

Caricature of Canarsie train female wit long forehead

drew this on the L train....
Been struggling lately with my party stylewhich is generic stiff ad formulatic, and my subwaystyle which is more exciting and loose.
Going to a prom today ad will try again. Id love my drawins to look more like THIS

NEW YORK CITY Street Caricatures!

These two dudes Happily posed for caricatures on the street and even let me take their photos which in NYC is rare! LOL! Gave em both the pencil treatment

Caricature of Bodybuilding DJ DAZE! Jusdaze@aol.com

One of the few Exaggerated caricatures that a person ASKED for! This is Bodybuilding DJ DAZE and MAN is he big!!

DAZE can be reached at 718-666-0414 or at Jusdaze@aol.com.... He's based in Queens(and will travel anywhere) and unlike most DJ's who have forgotten and neglected the art of freestylin on the mike, DAZE still does it and will put your eardrums in a trance!


I had great fun doing this!Daze has a lot of great angles on his face that caricature artists like me LOVE to exaggerate, and the fact that he's a bodybuilder makes for even more of a hilarious picture. I usually just do heads, but Couldnt resist drawing the body in too this time. If he doesnt like his picture, he'll squash me like a bug....

Back to the drawing board

This is an illustration that a prospective client refused to buy so I sold it to another one! This is the rough for it