he looked pissed...

He got on and looked pissed for no particular reason... i guess you dont need one in this city....

Two pre sketches on the train

Sometimes you just dont have time to do a full blown sketch and you have to do quick gester drawings to capture your prey. I plan on coming back to these two in a later post, but for now, here they are.

Subway sketch... she tried to hide

I was happily drawing when suddenly she spotted me and literally tried to HIDE! Too late! She begain to frantically turn her head, put her hands over her face and even put her head down into her arms. The passenger next to me enjoyed the entire thing and highfived me on the way out of the train.

ANOTHER self Portrait

Just thought of a NEW way to insult myself...

Spot light on Chris Chua

http://chrischuaartturtle.blogspot.com/

See that website link? go to it immediately and you'll be blown away by a brilliant caricature artist, named Chris Chua.
Chris is a member of The NCN, The National Caricaturists Network, which recently has expanded and is NOW known as the ISCA, The International Society of Caricatue Artists.

But that's another story. More about Chris....
Chris is a true visionary, and draws caricatures literally like no one else Ive ever seen. While most caricatures artists see faces through the lens of a "funhouse mirror", Chris sees them through a CRACKED Funhouse mirror put bnack together with crazy glue and scotch tape.

He is a sort of "caricature Expressionist" who drawins are geometric sometimes, liquified othertimes Its really hard to describe, but always a pleasure to watch. Which is what i encourage you to do a lot of!

I often tell people that there are as many styles of caricature as there are personalities on planet earth. The beauty of this artform lies in the fact that it gets filtered through the personality of each individual artist and comes out in surprising ways. It is for this reason that you should never focus SO MUCH on another artist's work that you throw up your hands and say, " I could never do that!" the truth is you CANT, and most of all SHOULDNT. I recall Chris getting some criticism for drawing in his style by some members but he stuck to his creative vision, and is now doing stuff that no one can imitate. It's one of the reasons I admire him as an artist in an industry where there are so many imitators.

Feelin blue...

Got some really bad news today and feeling literally kinda blue so this pic fits my mood. The MTA has a program that they've had for years where they commission city artists to have their work immortalized in the subway. They literally use a process where it's tiled into the wall. It so happens that Three stations in the rockaways where I live needed art and i figured being a residnt and having my ongoing subwaysurfer project going that i would be a shoe in for the commission. Naturally I submitted my best work taken form what ive been doing here for the past few years, consisting of caricature montages color sketches as well as black and white. When the smoke cleared, I received a nice little letter thanking me for my participation but informing me that over 60 people submitted work and mine was not going to be chosen. Ints very hard being a professional artist at times. You want money sure, but you also want recognition. im no different, and sometimes get very sad about how some of my artistic efforts dont seem to pan out and yet people tell me Im "good",,,,,, It;s like the ugly girl who can always be the "best friend" but doesnt get invited to the prom....

At Sardis....again

For the 2nd time this month,Um here entertaining the theatre crowd at the NYC "caricature artists mecca," Sardis Restaurant. I had some pretty aweful lighting conditions this time out so I was able to snap few pictures but did manage to get off a few.

caricature montage

almost forgot how much fun doing these caricature montages were. Decided to just do pen and ink and give pencil a break today. This was orginally drawn on tracing paper with a Pitt Brush pen, thrown into photoshop to give it those nice variations of gray.

The guy with the long nose really looked like hip hop dancer, "Mr. Wiggles" from the Electric Boogaloos. He DOES live in New York, and i even took one of his Dance classes once.I punked out of saying AHello though....

sketches from the upcomingsemi auto biographical comix of the surfer...

Ive been a fan of small press for years, particularly auto biographical ones, but never had the nerve to do one of my own. At the urging of fellow caricature artist, Mark Zman, (who I just did another gig with at Sardi's recently) Ive decided to jump in and make one, just for the fun of it. Mark, a comic creator himself, just returned from the San Francisco Comic Con, small press "thingie" and got me all excited about making some comics myself and at least have them ready to display if an opportunity presented itself. I figured that since i already had taken the step to print some books already, I might as well indulge myself further by doing this. The subject matter? what else but my adventures as the subwaysurfer and as a professional caricature entertainer. I have MORE than my share of wacky stories, so content should NOT be a problem.
I dont EXPECT to get rich off of this, but knowing me, I'll find SOME kind of way to make my new hobby pay. In the meantime, enjoy the sketches here, there will be more to come.

Caricatures of two dudes with glasses

I love drawing guys with glasses. Its soooo much fun to caricature the glasses going INTO the eyes. Before i had my lasik surgery i was glind as the proverbial bat and saw best when the glasses were practically IN my eyes! I always had this image in my head and knew that it had to be hilarious to other people who made me the butt of their jokes...(I aint bitter, heck it was funny, and if you cant laugh at yourself, you dont belong in this business!)
It amazes me how so many people fight baldness to the death trying desperately to give themselves a sense of style. The dude with the braided pony tail thought he looked soooo cool, but the peak at the top of his head made him look comical. The other guy looked like he walked right off the pages of an R Crumb Comic.

Union Square Street Vendor

Some faces you just GOTTA draw, and this vendor was one of them. While setting up one day I noticed this extremely tall very intense looking individual standing by some beautiful paintings and commented that i was a caricature artist and thought his intense look would be interesting to caricature and asked to snap a photo. He gladly posed much to my delight and this is the result of my study. The weathers gotten a bit colder so I dont get out as much , but as soon as i run into him again i will give him the picture. This guy has a great face for character design in that he can play both villan or hero. Theres this Dark edge about his face that makes him interesting to watch. This sketch is the result of observing him outdoors for a couple of days taking a couple of pics , all of swhich are not displayed here, and also doing many many drawings of him until i got one that I was satisfied with. Good caricature takes a LOT of time to do, and in the old days if i couldnt get a picture on the first or second try,I abandoned the whole project. These days I like to struggle with the process a little more and I am always satisfied with what comes out.

NEW BOOK UPDATE

First off, thanks to the folks so far who have supported my artistic efforts here in buying my subwaysurfing books. For those of you who havent purchased one yet, Im offering an incentive.
First off, Ive jam packed the latest book, SUBWAYSURFER with more pictures, including commentary on my drawing experiences on the train, buses, and ferrys in New York. There is a wide variety of styles here including pen and ink, colored pencil, and graphite.
For each person who buys a book I will personally send you hand drawn graphite caricature of yourself. Hope thats a prize you want... as i cant offer anything else!

Remix of an old one and a new one

I did a great graphite caricature of the dude with the Jay Z Lips at a summer gig and decided to redue it in a more exaggerated style Im really likin the results here.
The other is totally new just a face i remembered from a crowded train.

Couples only.....

A few caricatures of tourists Ive drawn at a local hotel in the city. Im being paid to make the people look NICE so I had to severly cut down on the heavy exaggeration so everyone's happy and no one sues anyone. It's a living!

Political toon for The Wave Newspaper

This is a toon I submitted to my local newspaper, The Wave, located in The Rockaways, where the surfer resides. It's fanatastic living three blocks from the beach... until winter hits... brrrrrrrrrr@
This toon makes fun of the current economic crisis were having in NYC on Wallstreet that's sending shockwaves throughout the US Economy. It's up to us caricature artists to bring a little humour into the situation! The paper gave me a half page featuring three of my Obama Mc Cain toons, I figured since Im on a roll I should keep it up.

Illustration Friday Balloons!

Really enjoyed doing the 2nd lady from the top. She looks like she swallowed two big water balloons!

Drawin Gurls...

The gurl in the army hat was talking up such a storm that I feared her mouth would catch on fire. All I could sww was hat hair and Teeth.... The 2nd young lady ACTUALLY REQUESTED a caricature...yes, folks it DOES happen. After observing me draw a couple of passengers for a while she finally commented on how well i drew an Asian gentlemen sitting across from me...who was a little uncomfortable... and a couple of tourists who boarded the train at the Howard Beach Stop. "How would you draw ME?" she asked. "are you sure you want THIS??" I replied, as it was unusual for anyone to request a picture, and she nodded yes. I did a rough sketch of the caricature on display here, and she was shocked to say in the least. To soften the blow, I did a more toned down "party style" caricature for her in full color, that she adored. She took down my contact information, and hopefully will be buying ONE OF THESE GREAT BOOKS I AM SELLING HER.... HINT...... As i was getting off the train, another woman who was watching the show, asked for information. You gotta love this subwaysurfin!

mOR SELF PORTRAITS

Been going through some stuff the last couple of days... always good to do a couple of self portraits when youre soul searching... hope these make you laugh. There part of my upcoming book, thirty days. Thirty days is more of a book for me than any thing else. its turning the pencil on myself as i struggle with self acceptance, appearance and all that good stuff.....
It also teaches me how to do caricature better and sure is funny.

New Subwaysurfin Books are HERE!!

I've been talking about this for a while now, and who knows maybe there's still some issues to work out, but if you love my work here, and according to my numbers, 17,000 plus of you do, than do yourself, and me a favor and buy my Subwaysurfin books. They're compact, inexpensive, and ..contain some of my best work from 2005, till now. Vol one has some of my pen and ink drawings from my early subwaysurfin days, and vol 2 contains the great pencil work you've come to know and love. I hope that you will do your part to keep me out of the starving artists club and also give me some feedback on how you like this.

Ordering is easy enough. Just click on any of the images on the side bar to the right and you will be taken directly to an order page which gives you the price, and will take down your info. Isnt technology wonderful? It sure beats using construction paper and a stapler in your basement, or your companie's copier after hours......

Is it a crime to have TOO MUCH fun???

If having fun was a felony, Id have one heck of a long rap sheet. I realllllly tried to go out on a limb to stretch myself with these two and thing i may have succeeding in falling off that limb. I didnt hurt myself, but boy... if people could SEE what Im doing to THEM they'd sure want to hurt ME!!! The "wall streettype" On the bottom looks expecially greedy and scandalous.... At first I debated putting the cartoony eyes on the bald dude with the wifebeater tee shirt, but it kinda works with the exaggeration.

What i love about both pictures is that their head shapes are funny! This is a lesson I learned from that great Exaggerator, Jan Op Da Beeck at a seminar he gave at an NCN convention in Las Vegas a few years back. Jan's work can be viewed on this blog by clicking on the link on the right side of the page.