Spotlight on Steckley!

One of the greatest things about my job is that ot only do I have fun everytime I go to work, but that I get to see some of my favorite artists, like Ed Steckley, here, do their stuff. Ed and I worked the same gig recently at the M&M's headquarters on W 49th street and Broadway this week. At the end of the gig I managed to snap off a few shots of Steckley slamming his last victim of the day. Ed drew with such speed ad cofidence that I barely had time to catch everything on film without interrupting his flow. Ed draws with the rattiest looking pencil imaginable! LOL its literally wrapped up in rubberbands and tape which just goes to prove it aint the tool, its the ARTIST! As Ive mentioned in other places in this blog, Ed is instrumental, along with Kenly Dillard for getting me inspired to draw the great pencil sketches you've come to know and love here on the surfer blogsite.


Steckley can be found HERE;
http://www.edsteckley.com/

Brooklyn Party Gig!

While most people were inside thankful for air conditioning, I was sweating it out in the hundred degree heat drawing caricatures for the folks in Brooklyn at a corporate event. These three minutes sketches were wearing me out!!

I've noticed that although, "good" I'm NOT getting the level of exaggeration I want on these drawings. Perhaps its the time factor. I feel a need to get "everyone done" so I have a tendency to speed up my process and just get the essential details down when doing a party sketch.

When doing party sketches Its really important that the person being drawn LIKES your rendition of them .You're being paid (quite well, I might add) to make the guests HAPPY, so you really have to resist the urge to "go for it" like you normally would drawing on your own. (thank God for my subway sketches! its a way to let the exaggeration demon loose.) I've actually been at events where I've put up my exaggerated caricatures on a sign and had people smile ad walk by refusing to get done. Do this long enough and people wont be calling you to do their party....

Knowing me I will probably revisit some of these faces too.

Caricature in Bryant Park

I was walking to the subway after coming from a gig at Deb's Family Disco, when i saw this lady swinging two objects called POI, around her body and head. If you dont know what Poi is, just imagine a two large balls attached to a long elastic cord traveling hundreds of miles per hour as you sing them in figure eight patterns around your body and head. This lady was obviously an expert at it and i stopped to watch, mesmerized. After she was done, I asked her why she was doing this and where she was from. She was from England on holiday, and wanted to take advantage of the ice weather, and attract attention, which she did, since we were talking. I asked her if she wanted a souvenir that people paid hudreds for and she agreed.

This is a three minute sketch.