astract Caricatures

As any experienced party artist will tell you, each particular caricature gig has it's own special challenges.For me, My pet peeve is LIGHT being an old timer who never had the best sight anyway, Being able to see REAL good at a gig is a necessity. I always always ALWAYS emphasize to potential clients the dire need i have for them to put me in a setting where their is ADEQUATE LIGHT. Now you'd think that this shouldn't have to be SAID at all. I mean, an artist is DRAWING a picture of a live human, which means he must be able to do two things, one, SEE the person he is drawing clearly, and two, to SEE the paper he is drawing the person on.
And yet.... Ive been at gigs that have the most elaborate table designs, the biggest balloons, miles of gourmet cuisine, and a a Primo DJ, and yet when I walk in the door I hear the words.... HMMMMMM..... so.... where should we sit YOU???? Usually it's next to the DJ. Artists and DJs go together like Peanut Butter and Prime Rib . DJ's THRIVE on DARKNESS and low lights Like vampire bats, and dont care one wit if the artist is comfortable...

But Ive gotten ahead of myself..

On with the story.
At this party the agent tells me point blank, at least he was honest... "I aint gonna lie to ya, the lighting is Piss Poor in here!" "but there's an outlet under the table so you can plug in yours.
He was right. The light was Poor. It was lit enough so that you could find your way to the bar, and even look a little like Brat Pitt in the Dim Light but for what I needed to do, I might as well have brought a seeing eye dog with me. My light cast ugly awkward shadows on peoples faces that made me unable to draw in my usual beautifully flowing semi realistic style... Within Three drawings, which were poor, I KNEW if I didnt do like the BORG and adapt, this party was gonna be a disaster.

I adapted.
Remembering how Hirschfeld one of my earlier influences worked with pure line quality got the essence of the face and had FUN. If I was gonna have a good drawing night I had to LET GO and abandon myself.

I did.

It was magical

I felt carried along, able to quickly and confidently pull the "quirks" and personality out of those faces faster than I normally would with my conventional style. I KNEW I was on a roll when I KEPT hearing behind me, HOW in the world does he capture them with SO FEW LINES??

Sure is good to have a coupla "emergency styles" in your artistic toolbox which is why I ALWAYS keep LEARNING and RELEARNING this art that i love so much.