Crazy Looney Tunes Caricature

One of the great things and least understood things about caricature is tgat you not only can caricature facial features, but also personality , body language and mannerisms. These are the essential qualities that make personalities recognizable to us. Warner Brothers artists and writers in the fifties did a masterful job demonstrating this in this Bugs Bunny cartoon, co staring the hilarious "Pete Puma"character, who was based on the live action comic character, "Crazy Guggenheim" from the Jackie Gleason Show.

I can't take the credit for finding out this info, the thanks goes to Google! What a great technological age we live in that we can find out even the most obscure bits of information just by typing in a request!

I've said it once, and I'll say it again...when drawing caricature "forget"about drawing the likeness! Draw the PERSONALITY and you'll GET te likeness!

DAVY JONES CARICATURE by Subwaysurfer

"So,...did you do your tribute to Davy Jones?" blurted out an artist friend of mine over coffee,the other day, reminding me that Davy had recently passed away. As you might expect, that is, if you're as old as I am to even remember Davy Jones, our conversation turned to jokes about the sixties TV show, "The Moneys" starring Jones and tge rest of the band, as well as that famous episode where he made an appearance on the seventies sitcom, "The Brady Bunch", because Marsha Brady (Maureen Mc cormick)was his "number one fan!" Of course I was gonna do a caricature tribute to Davy Jones I responded enthusiastically, thoughts of drawing him with the body of a monkey, using a banana for a microphone dancing in my mad caricaturist brain.... I immediately went to work on the picture then realized that I had completely forgotten what Davy looked like. I kinda remembered the thick busy eyebrows, big teeth and "Prince Valiant-esque bowl the hair doo" he sported back in the day, but wanted to get an accurate picture of him rather than rely on memory.

Thank God for Google Images! How dud we artists ever survive without it?! Within seconds My iPad screen was full of wall to wall pictures of Jones.

Wow... He got old!...

I know aging is a part of life, I mused, stroking my salt and pepper goatee, but it's still amazing how we still expect our adolescent icons to remain exactly the way they were when we stopped watching their tV shows.

I found the sixties Davy Jones picture I'd been imagining. But then became more intrigued with the older, more contemporary pictures if Jones. While it was true that he had gotten older, he nevertheless had aged very well. He didn't look used up and drugged out like so many stars look like these days. His eyes still had that sparkle, he was a little heavier but not what I'd consider obese, and...darn it, he had all his hair! And styled in a way that framed his face beautifully.

I was so impressed by this distinguished look that I decided to honor Davy's memory by drawing mire of a caricature portrait, leaving out the humor altogether.

I chose to use my new toy, a red China Marker to do the job, and absolutely loved the result.

Drawing Davy'sportrait was mire fun than a barrel of moniker, and without the annoying smell!

WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW KAHLEEN GAGE

In a previous post, you heard me sing the phrases of author and social media consultant, Kahleen,"Pure Water"Gage, and if you weren't motivated enough to visit her blog at
http://www.kathleengage.com/Kathleengage.htm
Maybe this particular stat, taken from her blog, will make you thirsty enough to drink from her well:

Successfully sold over $7,000 in 48 hours of one eBook as a result of a very well planned and implemented Internet marketing strategy. Over the years that one product has produced well over $250,000 worth of direct and indirect revenue.

I'm not naive enough to "guarantee" that the exact same thing will happen to you, if you follow her advice, but I will say that I'd rather learn from an expert who has DONE IT, rather than a writer who is just "talking about " how to do it. I almost feel guilty about giving you access to her info! I originally wanted to selfishly keep it to myself, butt hats not being a nice cyberspace citizen, so I share....

Kathleen Gage an Oasis of Water in the Cyberspace Desert

“HOW TO SUCCEED IN SOCIAL MEDIA!!”
It seems everywhere you look online today, someone is preaching about how they can help YOU strike gold in the cyberspace hills of social media! Sadly, though after you’ve sold the farm and stalked your claim, you find out that you’re only stuck with fools gold in your hand, stranded in a desert wasteland. I know I was.

The truth is, a lot of these so called social media experts, are nothing more than cyber-con artists, whose advice and methods are not backed up by practical experience, and measurable results. The frustrating thing is that you KNOW the truth MUST be out there, but where do you go to find that water In the desert of Cyberspace? How to you keep from chasing after mirages?

Kathleen Gage is an oasis in the desert, who provides that water. In fact. “Pure Water,” is the LITERAL meaning of her first name! Her last name, “Gage” beautifully supports the first name. It’s meaning is “Oath, Promise, or Pledge” “The Promise of Pure Water” That’s what Kathleen Gage is all about, and if you are
thirsty for knowledge that refreshes, sustains and satisfies, you should drink routinely from her well.

In fact, if you need a drink now, just go here! http://www.kathleengage.com/Kathleengage.htm

I had an opportunity to drink from her well the other day as I listened to a broadcast of hers explaining how to effectively use the social media tool, Linkedin . Kathleen provided straight forward, idiot proof information on how to use linkedin and I immediately went to work to impliment what I had learned. I KNOW its going to get me results. My next step was to write Kathleen to thank her personally for giving me great information in the best way that I know how. By offering her something as valuable as she gave me. Her own personalized subwaysurfer style avatar/caricature. here is an excerpt from the letter that i wrote. Be sure to read the letter folks, as there is valuable information in it FOR YOU TOO.

Dear Kahleen, I listened with great interest to your broadcast on the Feb 2nd edition of the Author Helping Authors site. Your insights about marketing on linkedin gave me some very useful ideas,particularly on how to target a specific group in your local area. A couple things you said specifically caught my attention regarding setting up the profile.
"Make sure when you put up your profile, that it's a complete profile, and it's interesting" "you really want to add some character to it"
I couldn't agree more! Especially about the "character" part. In addition to being an e book author, I am also a professional artist who specializes in turning people into characters, literally, through the art of caricature. Ive found it to be a very effective way in personally branding yourself, and the caricature does double duty as an avatar, to be used in online correspondence, and also offline for periodicals and other promotional items. I  provide this service specifically to online marketers at a price that it affordable and within any budget, however modest.
Please accept this one I did of you as my gift. I dont like to get something for nothing, and just wanted to give YOU something to help enhance YOUR business. Thanks So Much!

Elgin Subwaysurfer Bolling
http://www.subwaysurfer.blogspot.com/
http://www.caricatures4u2.blogspot.com/

VIEW KATHLEEN GAGE VIDEO ON SYLVIA MASSARA'S THE LIT CHICK SHOW

http://www.litchickshow.com/2011/02/authors-helping-authors-kathleen-gage.html=

Rockaway Artists Alliance President Geoff Rawling Caricature

Mixed Media Artist, and President of The Rockaway Artists Alliance, Geoff Rawling has an irresistable face for caricature. I drew this picture of him while waiting my turn to come at a poetry reading at Ft Tilden in Breezy Point , Queens..

ANOTHER ipad Caricature of Canadian Rapper, DRAKE by Subwaysurfer

Those Heavey  Lidded Eyes, That Sad Mouth, The Large Box Head... Drake Is an Irresistable Character to Draw Alright! LOL So Glad that I was commissioned to draw this! LOL Heres another shot at him. Drake If you see this, I aint hatin' buddy, but since you are a celebrity, you should expect things like this.

This caricature recently caught the attention of the folks at lulu online look here

http://iluluonline.com/photos-hilarious-caricature-art-starring-drakes-face-nicki-minaj/

ipad caricature of Female Rapper Nikki Minaj

Im currently working on a project with a client who requested a caricature of Female Rapper Nikki Minaj. I normally dont listen to this genre of music too much so I didnt know who she was. When i got some  reference photos, I couldnt wait to draw the caricature. I dont know what the client has in store... actually I do, since weve worked before,LOL! it ought to be good. It was a challenge caricaturing Nikki, because like most attractive women theres its hard to eaggerate  facial features. However, Nikki has these superhuman, ah.. attributes that make her instantly recognizable.

These Pictures were created with a combination of tools including the Double sided Utretcht Design Markers, amd colored in the Art Studio App on the IPAD. I swear by ALL of these tools now for giving me the color quality and line effects I need to make my illustrations come to life!

GARY COLEMAN CARICATURE by Subwaysurfer Elgin Bolling

Poor Gary.... the Beloved child star reached cultural icon status early in his career and was never quite able to break free of his childhood sit com persona. Fans have a tendency to NOT let their child stars grow up, and Gary's case was intensified more than most, due to his diminutive size because of his medical condition. The bubbly, amiable ... Child star who delighted millions across cultural and racial lines, grew into a bitter older man. It's sad what Hollywood can do to you. You ask yourself , "IS FAME REALLY WORTH IT???" Even with tragic figures like Gary to tell us otherwise, people still reach for the stars made of tinsel that ultimately leave you grabbing at air.....

Minister Mike Pilivachi of Souled Out by subwaysurfer

I was channel surfing this afternoon and got stuck on the GOD TV Channel. I was intrigued by the appearance of this particular speaker, minister Mike Pilivachi ,who was South African I think. He was a white minister who wore a very colorful electric blue and brown African dashiki, had pale skin and a thick curly mane of black hair that framed his face. He was speaking to a group of young people about doing random acts of kindness, and i enjoyed his sermon as much as drawing his great face.

Subwaysurfer on BET 106 & PARK with WOLVERINE! Hugh Jackman...well, kinda sorta....

While I wasnt PHYSICALLY on BET's 106 & Park Music video show, my work sure was, and to my delight got MAJOR air time!!!!
As you know, today is opening day for the Wolverine Origins movie, and Hugh Jackman, made an appearance on the show to promote. In my favorite segment of the show, the host brought Jackman, I mean Wolverine over to the monitor to ask how he would handle some of the HIP HOP X Men characters....

The monitor flashed Puffy's Character , known as SHOWTIME, followed by Ciara's character, Super C, and then followed by Kanye West's character, VO CAL.

I was going banannas, waiting for them to show my favorite character, Grillz, aka Lil' Wanye, since he was the first and best character I created!

to my dismay, that character was never shown!

SOB, SOB , SOB....

Oh well, that's show biz though! I'm thankful to have been asked to do the project, was very proud of what was shown, got major air time, and got a piece of this whole X man Extravaganza! What more could a freelancer ask for!
I cant wait to see the movie, and hopefully, I 'll be getting some calls for th work ive done... at least that's the dream!

Being a caricature artist really came in handy for this particular job. I had to draw this QUICKLY, or risk them going with a "in house" artist and losing any opportunity for future work. As a party artist, "quickly" is my middle name. instead of going to reference photos like I normally would I turned to youtube instead. Doing this gave me the opportunity to view their faces from several angles and to get to see what their faces "did" so to speak. On Ciara, I checked out her music video to see how she moves and although I exaggerated the pose a LOT, trust me, she is REALLLLLLY flexible and a great dancer. Fror Puffy, and Kanye, instead of checking out music vids I looked at vids of them being interviewed which gave me a lot of close ups and frontal shots, and in Kanye's case, helped me to see what he looked like with his mouth wide open, as opposed to smiling at the camera in a photo shoot. I would recommend any caricature artist to do this as its just more "lifelike" then a dull still photo. The comic posing was relatively simple as Ive been a comic fan all my life, being fans of Jack Kirby,and Gil Kane especially. Since my assignment was to draw it "comic book style" I knew I hat to "spot blacks" use exaggerated dynamic anatomy and flat color. Again, it wa a LOT of fun, and Im really thankful at the folks at BET for choosing me once again to work with.
still....
I wish they would have used Lil' Wayne's character!!!

But... true to their word, at the end of the broadcast when the credits were rolling, my name, Elgin SUBWAYSURFER Bolling, came up first as the illustrator while Soljah Boy's performed his new song in the background. not bad for exposure.
Check the clip by going to google and typing in 106 & Park | “Wolverine” goes up against hip-hop celebs
or ,click this link here
http://www.bet.com/video/282277

Susan Boyle Britains Got Talent

A couple of weeks ago, Susan Boyle was a 40 something spinster who nobody knew, and who would have passed on the street without giving her a second thought, and from her appearance, a few laughs.
After her stunning knock em dead performance on the show, "Britain's Got Talent" San Boyle, has optained superstar status, and the "chance" she never got.
Susan's voice is not just "good" or even "great" it's positively captivating. I can honestly say that I have never seen that look of astonishment, wonder and pure joy os Simon's face as he heard her sing, "I Dreamed a Dream" from the play, "Les Mesrables".
As a Caricature artist who makes fun of faces for a living, I cant help but to pass up a face as interesting as Susan's, but IN caricaturing her face Im also convincted, like so many others who saw her that night prior to HEARING her, of judging by appearances. The Scriputes tell us that Man judges by the outer appearance, but God judges the heart. This is SOOOOO true. When Boyle took the stage nobody I couls see was expecting much more than a lackluster, maybe even comical performance from her. She is not an attractive woman in the conventional sense, behing tall , big boned, overweight, and possessing a mane of curly hair and eyebrows so bushy that they look like they need a gardener to get them under control. Her appearance, however has NOTHING to do with her beautiful voice, and even LESS to do with her personality, shich judging from hearing her speech, was lively, animated and full of a quiet confidence.
Susan taught us all that you can NEVER judge a book by its cover. I hope in the future we are all a little wiser about quick judging the "books" we read before cracking open the cover.