Scribble scrabble ... or one man's mess is another man's gold...

The NCN is about to have their annual Convention, and Im sorry not to be attending this year. With two kids in college the financial burden is just to great this time to justify it.... sigh.....
One of the things I will miss the most is throlling threw the garbage to get the discarded scribbles of fellow artists to get an idea of what they were thinking when developing a drawing.
A scribble can tell you a LOT abotu how an artist breaks down the features of a particular subject, and Im always fascinated by the various approaches. I dug these two gems out of the trash last year after the "speed competition" where we all are given permission to scribble out recognizable caricatures in seconds. I put "flesh " on these scribbles although I dotn know who they are supposed to be anyone know?

Its all about the hair.....

This dude here has some SERIOUS high hair action going. As I was sitting sketching him I wondered if he combed his hair with a rake or some other garden instrument. He also had this evil grin that was was kinda "1970's serial killer-esque" The characters you see in New Yawk City... like no other place in the world....

my apologies to Sean Gardner

I set out to draw one of my favorite caricature artists, Sean Gardner, and for some reason literally crashed and burned not only on the likeness, but on the coloring technique as well.

I started out KNOWING what I WANTED to do with this face, but as sometimes happens in caricatue drawing, I got so excited to draw the picture, exaggerate the likeness do the coloring perfect that I commited the sin of letting my Left Brain do TOO much thinking and I crashed and burned. In order to do GREAT drawing you have to take an almost zen line apprach to a face. Just draw the face... dont get excited, or unexcited about it. Just look , draw, see and let it happen... I KNOW this makes total sense to all you caricature artists out there.....One of my favorite books of all time is "Drawing on the right side of the brain" which goes into this right brain drawing concept brilliantly. If you havent read it, I highly recommend it to ANY caricature artist.

.......Okay, commercial break is over...

I thought about NOT posting it, but then re thought it again. Maybe it's important to not only show great caricature but also horrendous ones, like this. Its part of the whole process of being and artist, and no matter how good an artist I think I am, I always gotta remember that Im only as good as the last picture Ive drawn. Sean If you are looking at this, my apologies! I will do another one!

In my defense, I WAS rushing to draw this. My wife wanted me to take out the garbage or walk the dog, or something..... Just goes to show you that good art doesnt just "happen" and cant be rushed! it takes TIME!

Subway Caricature of man who looks like moby dick by subwaysurfer

Theres something in the construction of this guys face that was sort of "whale like". I nick named him "Moby Dick " as I drew him It helps to do that to sometimes get in the right comic mood. I also colored this on the train using a new method for laying down color that I recently learned from Chris Collins. The result looks more life like in my opinion.

But the color combination ...it does look kinda like....raw meat.

Blast from the past....

Found these old caricatures i did in 2006 on another site and decided to post em here. I think its great to see how much Ive progressed> I was just starting to do exaggeration here and did a lot of full body stuff too.The first one was a gift caricature of a businessman who was a little too busy. His co worker, who hired me, explained that he was the type of person who worked so much that he literally slept in his office(hence the pillow under his arm), that he survived on pots of coffee, and loved fine wine, and for recreation he played soccer. She also informed me that as busy as he was, he was somewhat disorganized, and always had papers in disarray and sometimes lost things like his briefcase. I love it when a client gives me a LOT of information so that i can formulate an effective gag for the gift caricature. I dont always get an opportunity to use each particular quirk, but this time It all fit. When doing gift caricature people rarely want something super duper exaggerated, but just enough to make it fun. Thats one of the reasons that i experiment with so many styles here from cartoony to semi photoraalistic exaggeration. Its great to have a big toolbox that you can go into to fit a particular project.
The man with the glass was someone I did at a labor day party in 2006. Everyone at the party was super rich super snoppy and trying to not have a good time! I drew this guy on the sneak.
The other two were drawn on public transportation. The Girl had HUGE round breasts that looked like they would literally pop as well as her round baloon like face! i thought the combo was hilarious. I just may draw her again in my hyper exaggerated style to see how much funnier I can make it.

Some people are ALREADY caricatures!!!

At some point Im going to draw this guy, but MAN!!! he's already a caricature all by himself.This guy stopped to look at a fellow ventors table next to me at Union Square, and i held my breath as I was taking this picture, hopinghe didnt move. Glad he didnt.
This joker reminds me of a New Age hari Krishna Whitebread Rastafarian Urban Hippie.

Alien Homies

Ever wonder what it would be like if Aliens only access to American Culture was Hip Hop? These are two of the main Characters from a work in progress that explores that theme.

THIS is why I do this BLOG!

I's like to start off by thanking ALL of you people who tune into this blog for your daily dose of my scribble scrabble and ramblings.
I got a chance to experience firsthand the POWER of this blogsite yesterday afternoon while doing some street caricature near Central park. While drawing and sweating in the 90 degree heat, I got a call from Teenie Patterson, who, judging from the number, was from Miami, Florida. Teenie was in NYC on Vacation and was d;ying to get her caricature done but didnt know where to go. She called her sister, a frequent visitor to my blog, and asked her where she could find an artist. Without hesitation her sister suggested me, and since my number was on the blog suggested she call me and find me right away. She DID!!! WIthin an hour of calling, there she was in front of me being drawn.
Ive never felt so honored in doing a caricature before. It felt great that someone had actually searched me out to be drawn by me. That's Kenly Dillard, in the background.... We were both drawing at Central Park this day.

new street stuff

Im FINALLY loving the way im applying color on the street. here are two copies of pics i made recently.

er... forgot who this one is for.......

I mind just blanked out! I did this "Payback" caricature for this brotherman caricature artist who slammed me, and i forgot his name!!!!!! Hope he tunes in regularly and recognizes it. i did this on the street at a verrrrry slow time between customers.It was HOTTER than James Brown Eating Hot wings in Hell out there, so the caricatures face is melting..........

Doug Sterner (aka Doogle)

Doug is another fellow caricature artist who has that CHIN that you just wanna attack. Ive always wanted to do this gag at a live caricatue party but dont know how the person would react....

Pete Emslie

Just "discovered" this awesome cartoonist animator, Pete Emslie,
http://www.cartooncave.blogspot.com/
whose art and personality is reallly making a stir on the NCN forum. Thinis is my take on his face.

New Promo pages

I normally post these on my "hire me" site, but Im so excited about my new promo jpegs that I send to clients that I wanted to post them here too. I originally made these pages in Powerpoint, and was going to save the document as a PDF file to send to clients. I found out that Powerpoint had a save as a jpeg option so i was able to make each individual page as its own Jpeg. I believe the overall visual impact will be a lot stronger if clients see they specific type of caricature services Im offering on one page, rather than having to comb through a blog. I especially like that im demonstrating versatility with the art form as well. Caricature as Fine Art, Caricature as Entertainment art, Caricature as cartoony art. I hope the response will be positive.

I want to thank Fellow caricature artist, Alison Gelbman(she's the blong at starbucks in the live party caricature picture) for encouraging me to update my promo materials, a habit she does religiously.You never stop selling. As fun as drawing is, this IS a business, as well.

Gotta love drawing Jon 'Devereaux' Laing

This is an old drawing i did of Jon 'Devereaux' Laing, of the NCN forum. Jon's face should be a prereq for learning how to exaggerate a face. man, if you cant draw Jon, then you should hang it up as a caricature artist! I see now that I actuall7y missed some things that i realllllly could have exploited, so I will be re visiting this face.

Buxom Beauty and China Doll line drawings on the subway

Had fun with these two. At the risk of sounding cliched,"sometimes you just need to know where to draw the line" LITERALLY, in my case! Reaching into my Hirschfeld roots, I went for pure line quality, using Pitt artist brush pens and Tombo brush pens, on the China Doll, and using a crayola marker for the Buxom Beauty with the curly locks,and big Betty Davis Eyes. I wanted these to have a lively, spontaneous quality, so I drew these two ladies as fast as I could. No pre draw, no net. In the subway folks move so fast, you have to be very decisive regarding where your line is going to be. This can sometimes be a terrifying experience for artists who like to be perfectionists.

I find that simple line drawing caricatures like this are perfect to use as social media avatars, or logos. They are elegant, and classy. Please contact me so that I can ake one fr you. Prices are very reasonable.

Email me at
Cartoons4u2@aol.com

Another satisfied customer

I did this first communion gig in Sheephead Bay Brooklyn that went extremely wello, caricature wise. Every picture was perfect, the people loved them, and I will never forget this subtle, satisfied "good job" look that the host gave me. Putting together a party is such a stressful event and i think we sometimes forget that as caricature aritsts, and when we do a really good job, we make them feel good about hiring us. This is why they recommend us and hire us again.

Takin care of old skool bizness....

I found this caricature hiding between the page3s of an old pad and it brought back all the old feelings i had when i drew it I caught this old skool bizness man going to the job on wall street, carrying hisbriefcase, his wall street journal, and wearing his blue "power suit" he looked haggard and worn,amd a little overweitht, not at all like the slick, athletic, cell phone carrying 20-30 something Yuppie go getters you see all the time in the city. Seeing this old guy made me wonder if guys like him even "exist " anymore4 in corporate America. You never really get to see these old guys anymore in the office, at least Ive never seen them in all of the corporate gigs Ive worked in recent years.

Good Grief! "Peanut Catures!"

One of the things I love about caricature is that there are SO many ways you can approach a subject, so there are endless possiblilites to have fun. These two caricatures are of two NCN (National Caricaturists Network) members, Jan Baptist, and Paul Moyse. I was in a "peanuts " mood and wanted to see if I could depict them both as Peanuts characters. Jan's mass of white hair made him a shoe in for Schroder. instead of a toy piano, I have him drawing on a small toy french easel. Paul Moyse's gald head and baffled expression makes him an instant Charlie Brown. I even put the letter "M" on the trademark zig zag on the shirt.

Odé Manderson Poet, screen writer, caricature victim....

I metOdé Manderson recently at a gig I did in New Rochelle, NY recently, and was so intrigued by his face, that I took a snapshopt of him so that I could do more than the quick party sketch that he received at the party. Im not totally satisfied with tyhe result, but it came closest to the idea of his face that I had. Hope he likes it.
Theres a lot of strength in that face, it has great angles and in person, he just has this prescence that's undefinable but undeniable. Whatever Charisma "is" he's definitely got it. Theres a little bit of a young Mike Tyson in his face also. The little hand touching his goatee, is his beautiful little daughter. They both originally had their caricatures drawn together.

Steve Jobs

Did this pic of Steve Jobs of Apple Computer as part of a drawing contest/exercise Started by Jan Obdebeek at the NCN Forum. It took a lot of trying just to do this very simplified drawing.
I did a pencil memory sketch in between customers while drawing on the street. One admirer liked the picture, and when I asked him if he knew who it was, he recognized it immediately as Steve Jobs. that felt good.

feeling blue again....

Blue and Red

Ive been doing some more experiments with different colored paper on my subway caricatures and really liking the results. It makes the characters pop. I may even uyse this for my live gigs. I am also trying to go a little more "cartoon network " on some of these sketches, as well paying more attention to accessories like hats, earrings ipods and teeshirts.

BROTHER JOSCEPHUS of the LOVE REVIVAL REVOLUTION ORCHESTRA

Brother Jo is a client of mine who wanted a character design/caricature of himself to use in his promo advertizing of him and his group. I did the prelim sketches of him in Starbucks on Spring Street, and took the roughs home to clean up . Drawing Brother Jo was a treat, as his stage persona is already a caricature waiting to be drawn. He reminded me of a Parliament Funkadelic character from the 70's called, "Sir Nose Devoidafunk".