SUBWAY COMMUTER MULTI-TASKER CARTOON by subwaysurfer

As I'm sitting on the train vegging out one day, not even remotely interested in drawing, which is extremely rare for me,I happen to glance up, and regain my creative conciousess long enough to spot my muse.
If you've been on a New York City Subway lately, it's becoming increasingly hard to tell if your actually riding a commuter train, or sitting down inside BEST BUY, or the APPLE Store!
Electronic gadgets are EVERYWHERE! People are talking on cellphones, playing, video games on playstation devices,popping their fingers while listening to iPods, swaying to unheard beats with gigantic headphones! And that's only the beginning! You see women of all ages, with contorted faces of intense concentration, playing games on their cellphones, teenage girls typing at breakneck speeds, texting with their thumbs, and incredibly, people with DVD players if every size and shape,watching movies like they're in they're living rooms. If course, there are the ever present iPads, iBooks, and laptops.

Judging by what you see you never ever would have believed that at one time there were actual announcements to COMMUTERS to NOT display their electronic devices! Man!it's unbelievable How far we've come!

Which brings me to my muse...

In the middle if this intense scene of talking, texing,and video viewing, was thus businessman with this enormous laptop typing as casually as he might in his own office. With Wifi soon to be coming to the subways, followed by an increase in cellphone reception power, I see the subway itself becoming even MORE of a mobile office than it us now! In the future the need to "go to work in an office" will be totally obsolete. The subway car itself will BE your office! I thought ud illustrate my vision by drawing an executive hard at work,multitasking if corse, talking on the cell to a client,which simultaneously emailing over a contract, in operation to take a sip from his hot frothy latte (there will be latte vendors on trains in the future folks).

Singing Success JESSE NEMITZ new Caricature by Elgin Bolling

http://www.singingsuccess.com/products/daves-top-7-vocal-style-secrets

Just received my Christmas gift to myself today: a audio/DVD set from Singing success.com featuring two of my favorite singing success vocal coaches, Dave Brooks, (The master of Compression!) and my artistic muse, Jesse Nemitz.  The title of the DVD audio set is The Top7 Commercial Singing Secrets by Dave Brooks.  

Although I have no aspirations of taking my show on the road, I am an avid vocal musician and I do a lot of singing in my local church congregation, and when I perform spoken word poetry.(no one has booed yet, so I must be pretty decent)  This DVD is not for the beginner, of course, (singing success has other products geared towards that) it gives advanced and intermediate vocalists the tools they need to enable them to infuse their songs with personality and vocal styling. I didn't plan on doing a plug for the product, but it's just that good! From what I understand, the set is originally 29.00 , but they're having a holiday sale where you can get it for 19.00. The mail silvery is soooo fast that you'll be amazed.

JESSE'S CARICATURE

Speaking of amazed, I got another opportunity to work on Jesses amazing face.  Don't get it twisted, I don't have a "love jones" for Jesse! But as an artist who makes his living by drawing faces(maybe yours, HINT, HINT) there are some faces that jump out at you and make you say, I WANNA DRAW THAT! Jess, IMO.has one of those faces. 
I got an opportunity to draw his profile a lot this time, since it's the dominant angle he gave while talking with Dave(rhyme unintended). The response to my last sketch of Jess was so positive, I decided to draw a more cleaner sketch this time using a Tombo and Pitt artist brush pen, and digitally painting it in Photoshop.
 Sometimes a face can look less interesting in profile view that frontal view, and three quarter, but Jesse's face is even more interesting. There's still that edgy look that comes from the dark .large deep set eyes, and that five o clock razor stubble adds to that suble ferocious appearance. The hair angle is really fun to draw, and from the side is almost Anime like. Jesse could easily be drawn in an Anime cartoony style and still be recognizable. (I think I'll go for a full body shot next time to prove my theory). As I stated in my previous drawing he has this "bird of prey" visual quality about him. Intense, fiery, but under control. His mane of thick black hair is  reminiscent of feathers, visually.

Hope Jess and his fans and Singing Success and on his FACEBOOK site, like THIS take on him. Comments are welcome and appreciated, as well as inquiries how you can get your Ian caricature avatar drawn by me(it's more affordable than you think!)

Feel free to contact me via email at 

cartoons4u2@aol.com

Looking forward to hearing from you! 

Elgin

P.S. DAVE BROOKS AND BRETT MANNING ALSO HAVE INTERESTING FACES!!...heh, heh...

CARICATURE OF BABY WITH BIG BEAUTIFUL EYES

Folks when I say this baby had large eyes, I mean they were like tennis balls! This kid was a newborn who a mother wanted to have drawn at a recent party at The State Building on 125th street. The baby was sleeping initially, and I asked his mom to take off his winter hat and scarf and just hold him up so I could see him better. I could see that even though a newborn he already had an impressive head of ink black shiney curly hair that would have made any woman jealous. Then....he suddenly opened his eyes, and I'm not kidding, I nearly yelled in surprise when he fixed those peepers on me. They were unusually large for a child his size, they were expressive, intense, and almost seemed like automobile headlights! The whites of his eyes in contrast to his chocolate complextion made his eyes appear luminous. I immediately drew a memory sketch of the kid which you're looking at niw. I don't know what he will be when he grows up, but if he's an attorney, you're going find it hard to lie to him!

Heroic ADAM CLAYTON POWELL JR. statue at the state building

I recently did a gig that was held at The State Building om West 125th street, spitting g distance from the world famous Apollo theatre in Harlem NY. At te entrance of the building s this magnificent, jaw dropping statue of Adam Cayton Powell JR. For those of you shoring know who he was,Adam Clayton Powell Jr. was best known in his role as chairman of the House Committee on Education and Labor. He was a leading figure in passage of the backbone of the much of the social legislation of the Kennedy and Johnson presidencies.

He helped steer the passage of the minimum wage bill, the Manpower Development and Training Act, the antipoverty bill, and bills providing federal money for student loans and for public libraries.

The above quote was taken from this site:http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/28/remembering-adam-clayton-powell-jr/

What I love about the statue is that it's depicts Powell the way I AKWAYS read him. Powerful, persistent, insistent. And progressive. He was the proverbial "man in motion" an articulate, informed, furry spokesman for Afrjcan American people during one of histories most tumultuous racial periods. The staue as I mentioned earlier is absolutely heroic. Powell appears to be able to walk off the podium into heaven itself, jus trench coat blowing behind him in a way that reminiscent of Supermans cape in flight.

Caricature Avatars for two satisfied clients.

REALLY had fun on the last face! As soon as my client showed me a profile of his face, my mind went immediately to the character, King Leonitus, in that scene from the movie 300. Who could forget that famous line that he screams at tge Persian messenger before kicking him into a bottomless pit;"THIS...IS...SPARTAHHH!!!!!!" of course, I did a little play on words, THIS IS SOCCER!!!

Both guys are best buds, bar owners I believe, hence the beer mugs they're holding onto.

The dude on top gave me a photo reference of him in a checkered shirt and I could help but think of hay, barns and scare dancing. Of course, I had to give him the Lil' Abner Boots!

Character Designs for Bankable Script.com

https://www.facebook.com/BankableScript

It's always a joy when you have a client who respects your creative talent enough to be able to let you "do your thing" without micro managing everything. Vince, the brains behind Baabe Script is tgatkind of client.Vince commissioned me to create characters based on him and a cat who would be the mascot, and our relationship has been smooth sailing. If you are serious about doing screenwriting, and getting paid, this is the place to put up or shut up. There's no guarantee that you will win the competition, but you'll be a definite loser f you don't try.
Follow the link to the FACEBOOK page, which will give you more information on hw to enter.

Congressman Meeks "Racecard"Defense

Even though so much has been already written on this issue of Congressman Gregry Meeks calling my Editorial depiction of him "racist" , I can't help but speculate on how he must have felt once the "awful truth" was revealed. That the artist, was a Back man like him! I think Neeks figured he could gain some sympathy by referring to The Wave newspaper as a racist propaganda rag, and the cartoon drawn by a white Artist. Again, I can only imagine his surprise....good thing that I'm an artist who can actually draw what he imagines!