New York City's 42nd Street, also known as Times Square is the "Mecca" for Caricature Artists. Tourists from around the country flock by the thousands to this historic location in search of bargins, broadway shows and, of course, great Caricature Art. The competition for sapce out here on the street is fierce, but if you are one of the lucky ones to get a coveted spot here, you will make a small fortune as tourists literally run to your chair as if commanded by some unseen force. Yep, you can make a LOT of money here, alright...
Funny thing is, you dont even have to KNOW how to draw caricatures really well to do it.
Take for example this "artist" here, he's a regular on 42nd street, and there are many like him... Chinese, I mean. In order to make a living on 42nd street it seems you "must" be Chinese or at least Asian. for some odd reason the police seem to take delight in harassing anyone else who tries to set up here BUT Asians, and even if you are lucky enough to get past the cops,you have to deal with the Asian mafia who will LITERALLY threten you with bodily harm if you dare set up in thier designated spots...... yep, been there, done that.. but thats another story, let get back to this "artist" here...
If you look at his blk and wht drawing in the 2nd level , you might notice that his picture, although "ok" (im being generous here) doesnt seem to match the highly exaggerated samples he's dislaying on his stand in the background... not that this matters to tourists who jump in his chair without even questioning why their picture doesnt match the sample whown, which incidently prompted them to stop at his stand in the first place. Its a crime.... and the one thing about crime is that sometimes it hits close to home...
One day, fellow caricatue artist, Kenly Dillard, looked at his stqand and noticed something familiar.... if you look at the third set of photos (the one with "Mr. Bean's head) You should see a variety of female sketches that dont quite fit his drawing style or that of the Mr. Bean caricature.
THOSE picture sketches were lifted directly from the site of my other "partner in caricature crime" Alison Gelman. Alsion's work can be seen by clickin on one o9f the links i have on my blog on the right side. Whats outrageous about this direct steal is that it was lifted from her website. These arent even her BEST sketches, according to Alison, and I even remember some of theim in particular. Again, this is a crime.
So the next time you see this artist, maybe it would help to yell out FAKER! whenever you see him try to draw someone.
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Found these two hiding out in the ole book. I remember the girl in particular. She actually said to me "people pay ME to draw ME"(and refused to pose for a caricature) I clowned her anyway just for my own personal enjoyment. She was a very pretty girl and i proved th her that "good looks " dont mean squat to a great caricature artist with "evil intentions" That dude on the subway, I nicknamed "jeb" . He has this strong redneck vibe.
Sorry that this is so rough, but if I cleaned up the sketch it would really lose a lot of the raw energy I was able to get into it. I saw this Koooooool Asian dude lookin' totally "gangsta on the subway the other day. He had the cold , "i'll kick a bone out ya butt" thousand mile , Bruce Lee stare thang down pat, and just oozed koolness and menace. I did this quickly in pencil, tried to clean it up , but figured it was fine the way it was. I can remember on several ocassions how Asina people have complimente me on the way I depict them. "you draw us like individutalss" and NOT like the stereotype, I've heard them say. Little do they know that i was ONE of those artists who DID draw them like a stereotype! I learned to actually SEE them thanks to instruction from, Kenly Dillard ....once again...
This hilarious concept was thought up by Sean of Rocketshark Ringtones. Sean commissioned me to do a toon of a "superfight with a Conckroach vs a Streetwise sew2er ratt. This was crazy fun to do as sean wanted the "ring " to be a turned over box the ringposts some ciagrettes, and the ropes scotch tape. I got great art direction on this piece and it was a breeze to do. if only all art directors could be so innovative and helpful. Some art directors Ive worked with seem to want me to magically pull the idea from thier heads without ANY direction that only leads to a lot of drawing and frustration.
This was part one of an illustration I did for Rocketshrk Ringtones company. the company has gone in another direction so this illustration never saw the light of day, but caricature wise I thought it was pretty funny.
I did this illustration to accompany an article I wrote for Exaggerated features magazine on gig "do's and dont's " The pic didnt get published (the article did) but i thought it was pretty funny, and yes, its another caricatue of me!
You can feel it in the air.... it's getting a little cooler out, the trees are just starting to turn color....the faces of children are growing sadder as the faces of parents are growing happier..... yep... Sumer's at it's end.... and its been a great one. Learned a LOT this year about this art of exaggeration that has become my magnificent obsession...Today was a good day to draw and I wante4d to take my time once again with these pencil sketches that took about 30 minutes each to do, but the results was well worth the effort. The first guy has a lower lip that reminded me of a diving board. When I spotted him on a downtown A train i thought he was pouting for some reason, then realized after a few minutes that his lower lip really DID stick out like that..... and then there's the gentleman i call "mr. Head... or Headquaters...... I sweat this guy had the most mis shapen head ive ever seen... it reminded me of a sweet potaeto.. I stuck up a conversation with him and realized that he had some sort of mental disability with this slight physical distortion.... oh well, it was STILL a great caricature! Finally there's the lady with the headlights for eyes... You gotta wear sunglasses just to look at her!!
Definitely a good "hunting day" today. I bagged a coupla live one on the 35 bus today, in route to a gig. I was in the mood for pencil today and took my time. Glad I did, because the exaggeration is perfect. I did rough thumbnails first and copied those and looked up every now and then to see how I was progressing.
