THE MAKING OF AN AVATAR Creating "Captain Actuary" Part two

In My previous post I explained how I crashed and burned on an assignment because I made the mistake of putting "more of myself" into the project than was neccessary. In This Next attempt, I restudied the picture, and decided to draw it with "more estrogen" in mind than Testosterone.

STEP ONE ROUGH SKETCHING
Like in the previous example, I still sketched very rough and very fast in order to ride that wave of emotion neccesary to get the life into the drawing. THIS time, I was thinking on a more whimsical level. As a result, my line quality is less sharper, more rounded.

STEP TWO TIGHTENING UP THE ROUGH
Here is where I really start finding the forms. I concentrated a lot more on making things more proportionate, although there is still a level of exaggeration. The Abbacus has more of a prominent role, and Ali, The Allosaurus, has a more "Dino Essque" feeling about him. The facial proportions are a lot more "human" looking, the dreadful Hood on the cape thing is gone, and I've also payed a lot more attention to the "CA " Insignia on his chest. Remembering that he is a runner, with very well developed leg muscles, I wanted to emphasize that, so I put him in running shorts and shoes, showing off the bare legs. To add more comic relief i reasoned that if I was riding a dinosaur he would feel pretty rough, Hence, the addition of the pillow.

FINALLY COLOR!
It goes without saying that Coloring is the best part of the whole thing! Once satisfied, I immediately mailed it off to the client who went absolutely nuts over it!

If theres any lesson to be learned here, its that you should always please the customer first when doing freelance work. Dont be afraid to be critical of your work, take a step back and observe it, you may surprise yourself.

It goes without saying that If you want your own Cartoon Avatoar where i make you into a superhero you, or just plain cartoon you, dont hesitate to drop me a line!

cartoons4u2@aol.com

THE MAKING OF AN AVATAR Part One Creating "Captain Actuary" By Subwaysurfer

"...I WANT YOU TO MAKE AN AVATAR OF MY BOYFRIEND, HE'S AN ACTUARY!..."
I recieved this email from an enthusiastic female client, who wanted to surprise her Actuary Boyfriend with a unique Valentines Day Gift in the form of an Avatar. I was glad that she couldnt see me scratch my head as i wondered just what an Actuary was, and did. I found out that  an Actuary is a financial professional who specializes in risk analysis. They use statistics and other mathematical formulas to calculate the risk of financial instruments. Which means her Boyfriend is a pretty smart guy.

As always, I asked her to email me some great pictures of him that showed front side and three quarter view, and to include a character description of his personality, work habits traits, etc. So that i could use my genuis imagination to construct a humorous caricature/avatar/  I then had to put my genuis on hold as she gave me one of the greatest things that any client can give a caricature artist. A BACKSTORY!!!!  It seems that her pet name for her beau, was "Captain Actuary". She explained that he solved problems with his "ABBACUS OF TRUTH", and being an amatuer paleontologist, he rode. as his Noble Steed, "ALI" the ALLOSAURUS! Continuing on, she explained also how her boyfriend was an avid runner, and as a result, had very large leg muscles. In the course of our conversation, she had provided me with more than enough "visual hooks" for me to  sink my caricature invested  brain into !
We had almost too much fun on the phonecalls devising ways i could have fun breathing life into "Captain Actuary" and I said my goodbyes, and enthusiastically went to work.

STEP ONE:  ROUGH IT OUT FAST!

Whenever I create a character I ride the first wave of emotion that comes to me and immediately rough out the look and postion of the character. At this stage my emotional connection to the drawing is the most important aspect. I like my pictures to have the feel of the character either "getting ready" to move or "in the midst of moving" and drawing quick enables me to do that.  I draw very quickly using the other side of the Tombo Brush pen, which has a nice fine tip marker that is excellent for making rough sketches. As far as the face goes I look for really strong geometric shapes that I can exploit. I do my initial drawing s on tracing paper  knowing that i will go over the rough sketch in the second stage.

STEP TWO: B:OCK IN THE MAIN FEATURES;

Once satisfied with the initial quick sketch i slow things down a bit and really start looking for the main shapes that are going to define the drawing. I start paying attention  How all the propls that make up the caricature will be presented. The face is very important6 at this stage so i really take my time to get that right.  I also start esperiementing more on how individual proportions relate to each other. Even though one pictue is shown here I due about two or three progressions before proceeding to the final stage.

STEP THREE: PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER!

Once Successful In the two previous stages, Im not ready to go full out and ink it before taking it to the coloring stage. Once i get to the final inking stage i get very meticulous about my linework and never rush. It's important to love every stroke you do, and not to '"veg out" on your drawing. I want to have as much an emoritonal connection at this stage as i did in the beginning. Since I am now adding very definite expression to the drawing, in the case of the Allosaurus  especially i want to be sure to get that right. At this stage ive also added additional elements like a kind of collar to the cape, the "Captain Actuary" "CA" Insignia to his chest, as well as refinitng the look of his Abbacus of Truth.  Once this final Inking stage is done, I do one of the hardest things that i have to do as an artist. I divorce myself emotionally from the piece, and take a hard objective look at it.  Within minutes, i can see that I need to do this over, because Ive gotten it

ALL WRONG!

There was nothing wrong with the physical likeness, perse, but one look at the picture made me realize that instead of drawing for the client, I had "drawn for myself."   My client was a female. This was a gift for the man she loves, and while she allowed for a certain "comic license " on my part, Im sure she didnt want me to "drive off the road" Trying to look at this from a womens point of view, I asked myself would I like this? Probably not. The Allosaurus was too ferocious looking, and the foot was obstructing  the view its head besides. The "BIG FACE" little body angle wasnt really working, here and ended up making her boyfriend look kinda goofy in this pic. Im sure she wouldnt appreciate that. The Abbacus of Truth, seemed like it should have a more prominent role in terms of size, and the "CA" Captain Actuary Insignia, was just downright Lazy! Oh yeah, and what was up with the collar on the cape thing? Overall, I had done an exaggerated wacky portrait that I WOULD HAVE LIKED, but when we are drawing for others we must think in terms of them. As an artist, you must be willing to swallow your ego and start at the drawing board again...... which is exactly what  I did..... See part TWO of

HE MAKING OF AN AVATAR Creating "Captain Actuary" By Subwaysurfer

Gift Caricature , logo , Avatar of AJ the Bartender

Best Gift caricature Ive done this year. I got an email from AJ a Bartender in the city who loved my style and wanted to be caricatured subwaystyle. LOVED how this turned out and did it in two styles. The first one is done in my style, with a focus on character design.Who knows I may even use AJ's Character for some other stuff! LOL the second one is drawn in a "Peter Bagg"slash Andy Urzua Style. I was just Goofin on this one after being in such a good mood of nailing the initial likeness.

Elgin Bolling Featured on The Erik Dillard Vocal Clinic.

What's up Surfer fans! Good things happen to those who give! Ya know, Even though I draw for a living, sometimes it pays just to GIVE PERIOD for the sake of GIVING. Case in point is my recent caricature of Erik Dillard, of the hit online show, THE VOCAL CLINIC. To make a long story short, I loved his show, his vocal exercises helped my voice, and I wanted to show my appreciation in a tangible way, so I drew his picture. He then, did ME a favor by giving me a major shout out on his show!! and man, does he have a VAST audience!!! This is Something he DID NOT HAVE to do, but it goes to show you that true giving is like a virus!!! it has a tendency to spread once you come in contact with it. As far as social media is concerned, its not about sell sell sell, you, you, you, all the time. YOU MUST DO STUFF FOR OTHER PEOPLE. It always comes back to you. I know that Erik and I will be doing a lot of business in the future. Yu can guarantee that.

AGAIN, if you people out there are aspiring musicians, PLEASE check out his site!!! You WONT be sorry and your voice will love you for it!

"WHAT'S COOKIN' IN DA SKILLIT?" AVATAR OF The multi talented Erik Dillard

For those of you who may not know, in additon to animation, illustration, storyboarding, editorial cartooning, and of course, live caricature, your boye, The Surfer is also "into singing"

No, I aint interested in cutting no album, going on American Idol or singin in your shower, but singing, just like art, has always been a passion of mine,and In the past few months Ive been blessed enough to be led to a vocal coach and friend who has really done wonders for my voice, and reignited my passion.

Inquisitive soul that I am, whenever I'm interested in something, I ALWAYS do my homework on it to get better. Ive been going online lately and discovered a couple of excellent online vocal coaches whose vocal exercises I've been practicing and enjoying. This is the first in a series of their pictures and stories.

The first one is ERIK DILLARD, the host of the show, "ERIK DILLARD'S VOCAL CLINIC" which can be seen on youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/user/lloyd614
His WEBSITE
http://www.erik-dillard.com/

The first thing that attracted me to ERIK was that he's a funny guy. Being an artist and a joker myself, it made me instantly connect with him. He also has a very engaging online persona that really gets you involved, and makes you feel like he's really talking to YOU personally in each lesson. Many people on line attempt this, and only end up looking and sounding forced and contrived. Erik makes you feel each lesson was tailor made for YOU personally. Another interesting thing about Erik is that he is an African American who speaks fluent Japanese and is teaching music in Japan. I found this especially interesting having never encountered this, which added to his appeal.

I can also honestly say that by following his exercises, I can HEAR and FEEL a marked change in my voice! I cant wait to see my vocal teacher to show off! LOL!

Do yourself a favoe, if you have a passion for singing and check out Erik's Channel on youtube.

You wont be dissapointed and will definitely learn something!



Oh, I almost forgot to tell ya, The line,'''


"WHAT'S COOKIN' IN DA SKILLIT?"

Is Erik's Tag Line!

Nothing like a great tag line if you're in business!

Geraldine Chapey, Lew Simon, Glenn Di Resto, Mike Ricatto, Michael Ulrich Political toon for The Wave

Its a long title but I couldnt leave anyone out. This is my Biweekly cartoon doen for The Wave on the upcoming special election. My first reaction was to have them all fighting it out slinging mudd at each other while they urged voters, but decided instead to make it more dignifired. It's time to take the dirty out of politics.... at least for this post.

You GOTTA LOVE YOUTUBE! This time out, I searched youtube to see if I could find any film on any of the candidates just so i could do a more accurate picture. It turns out that someone had uploaded a recent debate they had in Howard Beach which offered excellent footage from a variety of angles. How did freelancers EVER survive without youtube?!! what a great resource!Ed

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".

snnneaaaak peak character design.....

heres a sneak peek at some characters Im doing for an upcoming cartoon shordo done in conjunction with the folks at snidetv.com

This character is a comedy club manager . Wehen I developed him, I channeled Comedian, Ben Stiller, of the show, "The King of Queens"> Siller plays the character, Arthur Sponner hilariously. I also thought about Danny Devito. This character is appearing in a skit with President George Bush. More later when it launches. If you havent seen the first cartoon check it out on www.snidetv.com

Pulp Fiction the animated series by subwaysurfer

Let's not forget Samuel L Jackson's character, "Jules" from the same movie. My task now is to combine the two characters into one picture. i will probably take the suit off of Sam and put him in his skivvies, like John.

here are two earlier versions of Vincent that i thought I'd go with, but i think the first one of him getting hosed down is the strongest.

Larry Youngstein HAVIN' A PARTY

I recently had the pleasure of doing a character design logo for my very first Agent, Larry Youngstein Of Havin' A Party in Canarsie Brooklyn, Larry took a chance on me 10 years ago when I walked into his shop on Ave L to audition for the nonexisting job of a caricature artist. I'll always be grateful for him for giving me a shot, treating me with respect, and teaching me the business of live entertainment. Even though he cant afford me now, LOL! I still to this day, use many of the things he taught me about how to run my own business, and he never steered me wrong.