Wave Newspaper Editorial Cartoon.... again

It's beach season again here in the Rockaways, and if nothing else, in my part of town, we're known citywide for our gorgeous beach, and expecially the fishing. People just wanna hang out alllll night on the beach and the boardwalk in fact, and for the local police, that's a definite "no, no". Cops have imposed a nine o clock curfew for the Beach itself, and a ten o clock curfew for the boardwalk. This curfew, much to the dismay of visitors and locals alike, has not been well recieved. I was asked by my editor, to come up with an editorial that called attention to this fact. This is what I came up with.

Artist Spotlight David Carridine Dead at 72

I turned on Aol yesterday and was saddened to hear that one of my favorite actors, David Carridine had passed away at age 72. According to the info available now, hw was found nude and hanging,an apparent suicide, in his hotel suite in Thailand.
When Time permits I will do a caricature in his honor.

Carridine, known to this generation as Bill, the enimatic leader of a gang of assassins in Quentin Tarrentino's movie's Kill Bill and Kill Bill 2, but to many fans my age, he will always be known as Kwai Chang Cain, AKA Grasshopper, from the 1970's smash hit series "Kung Fu". Every Thursday night, I'd sit mesmerized in front of my TV set as Kwai Chang dropped pearls of Chinese wisdom on us, and severed up some of the most satisfying kung fu butt kicking that had been ever seen done by a westerner up until that point. Carridine's portrayal of the character, was done with honesty, and humility, and even though he didnt look any where near Chinese, (The original creator of the series, BRUCE LEE, had himself been rejected for the very role he created!!)Carridine made you BELIEVE that he was. He played a non violent, soft spoken character who was not a wuss.
Unknown to many, Carridne was also an ARTIST, which is why he is alson being featured on this blog. To find out more about his art, read about it in his own words by going to his website at

http://www.david-carradine.com/artbio.html

In the days to come That site is going to get a lot of hits. Make sure you're one of the people who checks it out. It's worth the trip.

size really DOES Matter!!

Lately while subwaysurfing Ive been feeling a little self concious, which has really gotten in the way of my drawing. I normally draw on pads ranging from 9X12-11X14. Its a royal pain to take out these big pads and also draws a lot of unwanted attention. I recently purchased a 5.5X8.5 pad that has worked like a charm. It's light and compact and forced me to leave out a lot of unneccesary detail. I did a LOT of sketching today on several trains, including the A, E,5 and L trains. Here are some of the best ones.

Clark Gable.... again.

Decided to take another stab at Gable. I like this one better.

Gramps is still and olddddddd skool playa

This was a fun gesture drawing of a senior citizen that I did that turned into a wonderful cartoon.... "wonderful???" Im using words like "WONDERFUL???" sheesh, Im gonna get my "man card" revoked if I aint careful.....I love gesture drawing as it always causes me to free associate and come up with wonderful ideas.... DARN!!! There's that word again!!!

this little piggy...on the Q53

Couldnt quite put my finger on what animal this guy resembled while I was sketching him on the Q53 bus, then all of a sudden I started smelling bacon and thinking of BLT sandwiches....\\In an odd way he sorta resembles another one of my favorite caricature artists, Matt Zittman.

Rainy day is movie day!

While channel surfing today I came across two films, Planet of the Apes, starring Mark Walberg, and "The Dancing Girl" starring Clak Gable. While watching the Gable film, I couldnt help but draw a caricature of him. One of the thinks I love about those old movies is that they give you LOTS of great extended closeups, and the fact that they're in black and white makes the face less distracting to draw. This was one of Clark Gable's earlier movies, and he is thinner and leaner. There was a scene where he was in the gym workign out with a medicine ball, and the guy was definitely "buff"
While watching Planet Of the Apes, I was reminded of one particular monkeyman I started drawing on the 33 Queens Bus. I took out the rough sketch, inspired by all the apes on TV and finished it with satisfying results. I dont believe in Evolution, but this guy sure looked like a Monkey's Uncle to me!
I also actually Liked The Planet of the Apes remake. I laughed out loud at the reversal of Charlton Heston's Line in the original movie. "Get your Stinking hands off me, you damn dirty Human!!!"

manly gurl revisted

I just could not help it. The more I thought about her the more I felt the need to jack up her face a littttle more.

why the Looooooooooooooooooong face?

his head was really unusually long.

manly gurrrrrlz

we all have heard of gurlie men, but in today's post, I'd like to pay homage to two manly gurlz I caught today on the A and the L train.i guy I was sitting next to on the L almost ruined the whole picture as he couldnt help but crack up out loud as he saw the picture on the bottom develope.

Nikk

This one's for Nikk. That's it.

couples.....

I really should display more of my couples work.It never fails. Im at a party and a couple will ask, "can you do couples?" I reply "yes" , to which they reply, "can you do us BOTH on the SAME PAGE???" They say this, as if it's some type of momumental olympic feat! i manage everytime to stammer out another "yes", and continue on with, "let me start with YOU, pointing to either the guy or the girl,to which the other partner replies, BUT WE WANT TO BE TOGETHER!!!!!!!! to which i reply, "yes, I KNOW I WILL draw you BOTH on the SAME PAGE , but I can ONLY draw you ONE AT A TIME!, First, I will draw HIM, then I will draw YOU!!!! to which they reply OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Ask any caricature artist. This type of conversation is so frequent, it almost seems scripted!

Enjoy.

MTA Transit worker.... er... who's driving the train?

this was the day to draw crazy flyaway hair.For some strange reason, this woman's hair looked like it wanted to excape from her forehead, and the MTA workers hair was fighting to escape from underneath his hat. The MTA worker slept the whole time I was drawing his caricature, and at some point, felt he was being watched. His eyes snapped open, he looked over his sunglasses just in time to see me point the finishing touches on his caricature.

He was pissed.

He looked pretty pissed that he was being drawn, but his face was too intense to pass up.

party pics

lGreat party I did over the weekend. I took a chance on this extreme exaggeration and this guy loved it!!!

Draw me like a Southern Belle...

She asked me to draw her like a Southern Belle, and I replied that i didnt know what that looked like but could draw her as a liberty belle. We spent the next couple of minutes talking about who she was, where she came from and how she came to be at the party. It turns out that she used to live in NYC and moved down south for a couple of years. This lady was in her seventies and looked years younger.Her secret, was Oil of Olay. She told me that she started using Oil of Olay as a pre teen, when it was sold exclusively overseas. She was a walking advertizement fro the product. I drew her beautiful of course.

Bruce lee & Mick Jagger's "Love Child" on the L Train

Looked at this dude on a Brooklyn Bound L train on the way home from my gig, and noticed that he was sporting a 1970's Bruce Lee Hair Doo, complete with the bangs and sideburns. He even had the thick eyebrows like Bruce. The two things that killed the look was the spectacles and those lips. He reminded me of a Mick Jagger Bruce Lee Hybrid.

She's got her Mother's eyes, and her Father's Mustache..

At a recent party relatives started disputing over whether the child looked more like the mother or the father... after a few minutes of intense debate, I decided to settle the matter by drawing this picture here in hopes of satisfying both parties.

My good intentions were not well recieved by anyone, and at this writing, a posse is still hunting me with orders to shoot to kill. Just goes to show what happens when you try to please everyone.

Im kidding of course, but it makes a funny story no? My buddy Alsion and I had just finished a gig where the last person was a baby that I drew. As always, we stopped to eat at a diner to recap and do some more drawings. This is a collaboration we both came up with. It was a lotta fun.

FOR ALL YOU AGENTS AND WOULD BE CLIENTS OUT THERE.... I WILL NOT DRAW YOUR BABY LIKE THIS!!!

clifton

drew this sketch of my friend, Clifton. He thinks I made him look like a thug. He usually has this wolfish expression when looking at a woman... which is often.

Gee, I wish Id done THAT!

there are times at gigs where I do an absolute fantastic job drawing a caricatue, take a snapshot, only to see it and wish that I'd done it better. In the case of this pic here, I definitely saw things in the face i could have drawn differently and tried my hand at redewing it.

The original party pic is at the top there, drawn in three minutes with prismacolor art stixx and a crayola marker. I noticed looking at the subject later that he had a loooong chin comparitively speaking, but I ran out of verticle space to express it properly, so had to extend it horizontally. It was still a good likeness and he loved it, but i felt frustrated that i couldnt get a KILLER likeness that was more exaggerated. I try as much as possible to redraw faces immediately following a party to test my memory skills and also to practice extreme exaggeration. I sometime drop the likeness completely, as is evidenced by the final drawing I did, but that's all part of the whole learning process.