caricature montage

almost forgot how much fun doing these caricature montages were. Decided to just do pen and ink and give pencil a break today. This was orginally drawn on tracing paper with a Pitt Brush pen, thrown into photoshop to give it those nice variations of gray.

The guy with the long nose really looked like hip hop dancer, "Mr. Wiggles" from the Electric Boogaloos. He DOES live in New York, and i even took one of his Dance classes once.I punked out of saying AHello though....

sketches from the upcomingsemi auto biographical comix of the surfer...

Ive been a fan of small press for years, particularly auto biographical ones, but never had the nerve to do one of my own. At the urging of fellow caricature artist, Mark Zman, (who I just did another gig with at Sardi's recently) Ive decided to jump in and make one, just for the fun of it. Mark, a comic creator himself, just returned from the San Francisco Comic Con, small press "thingie" and got me all excited about making some comics myself and at least have them ready to display if an opportunity presented itself. I figured that since i already had taken the step to print some books already, I might as well indulge myself further by doing this. The subject matter? what else but my adventures as the subwaysurfer and as a professional caricature entertainer. I have MORE than my share of wacky stories, so content should NOT be a problem.
I dont EXPECT to get rich off of this, but knowing me, I'll find SOME kind of way to make my new hobby pay. In the meantime, enjoy the sketches here, there will be more to come.

Caricatures of two dudes with glasses

I love drawing guys with glasses. Its soooo much fun to caricature the glasses going INTO the eyes. Before i had my lasik surgery i was glind as the proverbial bat and saw best when the glasses were practically IN my eyes! I always had this image in my head and knew that it had to be hilarious to other people who made me the butt of their jokes...(I aint bitter, heck it was funny, and if you cant laugh at yourself, you dont belong in this business!)
It amazes me how so many people fight baldness to the death trying desperately to give themselves a sense of style. The dude with the braided pony tail thought he looked soooo cool, but the peak at the top of his head made him look comical. The other guy looked like he walked right off the pages of an R Crumb Comic.

Union Square Street Vendor

Some faces you just GOTTA draw, and this vendor was one of them. While setting up one day I noticed this extremely tall very intense looking individual standing by some beautiful paintings and commented that i was a caricature artist and thought his intense look would be interesting to caricature and asked to snap a photo. He gladly posed much to my delight and this is the result of my study. The weathers gotten a bit colder so I dont get out as much , but as soon as i run into him again i will give him the picture. This guy has a great face for character design in that he can play both villan or hero. Theres this Dark edge about his face that makes him interesting to watch. This sketch is the result of observing him outdoors for a couple of days taking a couple of pics , all of swhich are not displayed here, and also doing many many drawings of him until i got one that I was satisfied with. Good caricature takes a LOT of time to do, and in the old days if i couldnt get a picture on the first or second try,I abandoned the whole project. These days I like to struggle with the process a little more and I am always satisfied with what comes out.

NEW BOOK UPDATE

First off, thanks to the folks so far who have supported my artistic efforts here in buying my subwaysurfing books. For those of you who havent purchased one yet, Im offering an incentive.
First off, Ive jam packed the latest book, SUBWAYSURFER with more pictures, including commentary on my drawing experiences on the train, buses, and ferrys in New York. There is a wide variety of styles here including pen and ink, colored pencil, and graphite.
For each person who buys a book I will personally send you hand drawn graphite caricature of yourself. Hope thats a prize you want... as i cant offer anything else!

Remix of an old one and a new one

I did a great graphite caricature of the dude with the Jay Z Lips at a summer gig and decided to redue it in a more exaggerated style Im really likin the results here.
The other is totally new just a face i remembered from a crowded train.

Couples only.....

A few caricatures of tourists Ive drawn at a local hotel in the city. Im being paid to make the people look NICE so I had to severly cut down on the heavy exaggeration so everyone's happy and no one sues anyone. It's a living!

Political toon for The Wave Newspaper

This is a toon I submitted to my local newspaper, The Wave, located in The Rockaways, where the surfer resides. It's fanatastic living three blocks from the beach... until winter hits... brrrrrrrrrr@
This toon makes fun of the current economic crisis were having in NYC on Wallstreet that's sending shockwaves throughout the US Economy. It's up to us caricature artists to bring a little humour into the situation! The paper gave me a half page featuring three of my Obama Mc Cain toons, I figured since Im on a roll I should keep it up.

Illustration Friday Balloons!

Really enjoyed doing the 2nd lady from the top. She looks like she swallowed two big water balloons!

Drawin Gurls...

The gurl in the army hat was talking up such a storm that I feared her mouth would catch on fire. All I could sww was hat hair and Teeth.... The 2nd young lady ACTUALLY REQUESTED a caricature...yes, folks it DOES happen. After observing me draw a couple of passengers for a while she finally commented on how well i drew an Asian gentlemen sitting across from me...who was a little uncomfortable... and a couple of tourists who boarded the train at the Howard Beach Stop. "How would you draw ME?" she asked. "are you sure you want THIS??" I replied, as it was unusual for anyone to request a picture, and she nodded yes. I did a rough sketch of the caricature on display here, and she was shocked to say in the least. To soften the blow, I did a more toned down "party style" caricature for her in full color, that she adored. She took down my contact information, and hopefully will be buying ONE OF THESE GREAT BOOKS I AM SELLING HER.... HINT...... As i was getting off the train, another woman who was watching the show, asked for information. You gotta love this subwaysurfin!

mOR SELF PORTRAITS

Been going through some stuff the last couple of days... always good to do a couple of self portraits when youre soul searching... hope these make you laugh. There part of my upcoming book, thirty days. Thirty days is more of a book for me than any thing else. its turning the pencil on myself as i struggle with self acceptance, appearance and all that good stuff.....
It also teaches me how to do caricature better and sure is funny.

New Subwaysurfin Books are HERE!!

I've been talking about this for a while now, and who knows maybe there's still some issues to work out, but if you love my work here, and according to my numbers, 17,000 plus of you do, than do yourself, and me a favor and buy my Subwaysurfin books. They're compact, inexpensive, and ..contain some of my best work from 2005, till now. Vol one has some of my pen and ink drawings from my early subwaysurfin days, and vol 2 contains the great pencil work you've come to know and love. I hope that you will do your part to keep me out of the starving artists club and also give me some feedback on how you like this.

Ordering is easy enough. Just click on any of the images on the side bar to the right and you will be taken directly to an order page which gives you the price, and will take down your info. Isnt technology wonderful? It sure beats using construction paper and a stapler in your basement, or your companie's copier after hours......

Is it a crime to have TOO MUCH fun???

If having fun was a felony, Id have one heck of a long rap sheet. I realllllly tried to go out on a limb to stretch myself with these two and thing i may have succeeding in falling off that limb. I didnt hurt myself, but boy... if people could SEE what Im doing to THEM they'd sure want to hurt ME!!! The "wall streettype" On the bottom looks expecially greedy and scandalous.... At first I debated putting the cartoony eyes on the bald dude with the wifebeater tee shirt, but it kinda works with the exaggeration.

What i love about both pictures is that their head shapes are funny! This is a lesson I learned from that great Exaggerator, Jan Op Da Beeck at a seminar he gave at an NCN convention in Las Vegas a few years back. Jan's work can be viewed on this blog by clicking on the link on the right side of the page.

Klaas Op De Beéck

Fellow caricature artist, Klass Op De Beeck, has one of "Those" faces that makes you want to draw it so bad that if you didnt have a pencil on you, you'd pin pick your index finger and draw with the blood. This is my first attempt at him.
Klass' has the great fortune to be the nephew of the great Jan Op De Beéck whose work has inspired hordes of caricature artists the world over. Some kids have all the luck!

Another lovely couple.

In this caricature coupling here, im playing around with Duckman's face and also drew the face of a buddy that he had with him. Love the contrast.

a duck, Pokemon, and a Missle on the subway?

It helps when you're caricaturing to visualize your subjects like animals or objects just to give your imagination something to visualize and morph. The first guy reminded me of a duck, the 2nd kid had eyes like two giant hardboiled eggs, and also looked to me, like the character, Ash, on Pokemon. The other kid had a head just like a missle that was about to be launched!

There's no one to draw???!!! YYYYYAAAAA!!!!

Most of you think that whenever I go subwaysurfing, I just sit down and caricature whoever is in front of me... NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! That is definitely NOT the case. I am like a lion in the jungle. I dont just randomly choose a zebra just because it has stripes and happens to be near me.... Each victim is carefully scouted and has that particular "something" that says Draw me!!! In the course of a train ride i can usually find several. Except yesterday.... i couldnt find ANYONE! i couldnt believe that no one was interesting enough to draw! i knew I had to upload SOMETHING or risk having my loyal fans click onto another blog and forever abandon mine. So I drew ANOTHER self portrait of myself madd as hell that i couldnt find someone to draw. i always wondered how I'd look with a nose and tongue ring, so i threw those in there too...

"Beauty" and "the Beast" on the IRT

I love the way you can see the subtle differences in personality and mood in people if you just sit back and watch them on the train. This is one of the reasons why I really try my best to draw my victims without their noticing me. The baldheaded man thought a lot of himself he was confident smiling laughing he had an easy type of grace about him. You can see it in his relaxed ecpression. The woman on the other had was tense. Very tight and suspicious looking. She gave off this vibe like she was ughlee and KNEW it, but couldnt do anything about it. She reminded me of a person who went to sleep with their fists balled up. Good thing she didnt see me.

Live long and caricature

i was watching old skool star trek at midnite on Saturday, aimlessly doodling Mr. Spock.... I looked down and had drawn THIS. I've never drawn Spock before and was really proud of this.

couples only...

I decided to put a random pair of subwaysketches together to see how they might look as couples. I like the results It made for great composition and gave me some ideas on how to put couples on a page together. Enjoy. Mechanical pencil on cardstock as always...