Peter Fonda Caricature Happy belated birthday

Feb 23 was the OFFICIAL day for drawing actor Peter Fonda on the NCN Forum site. Jan informed me that even though I missed the date I could still post, and Im glad, cause Peter has one of "those " faces caricature artists like to draw. That slicked back hair, aviator sunglasses, razor stubble and wolfish grin reminds me of Jack Nicholson... maybe they're seperated from birth.... who knows.

Dog days Comix by Subwaysurfer

As a freelancer, I spent literal days in my studio with no human contact at all, except for my trusty hound Butchie. This post is dedicated to him.

Humpty dumpdee aint the only one who had a great fall...

I recently fell down two flights of stairs in my house while wearing my slippers, and since they CAUSED the fall, now I TRUELY know why thy're called "SLIPPERS!" LOL! Im bravely laughing through my pain here, and as I was home healing I came up with a bunch of comic strips featring me and my constant companion, my dog Butchie here. Enjoy. I may feature some more of these from time to time....

Pat McMicheal Check this guy out

GRAPHITE ARTIST, no, it's not a misspelling of "GRAPHIC" I DO mean, GRAPHITE ARTIST, Pat McMicheal, is one of my guilty pleasures.

If you are a followers of my blog, you know how much I love to caricature in pencil, saving my MOST exaggerated work for that particular medium. Pat makes me look like Im in the 1st grade rubbing the paper with my fingers in comparison. Pat's work is so gorgeous, you just look at his pictures and stare and stare... wishing you could do something CLOSE to that. He's one of the links on my blog, PLEASE check out his work and be amazed. Here's a sneek peek at what he can do.

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

Happy Birthday Matt Dillon!

Continuing with Jan's "Happy Birthday" series, today's target is actor, MAtt Dillon. Ive never drawn Matt before, and he's got such a great face that I will definitely be revisiting it to inflict futher damage on it. I remember him being a teen idol of sorts back in the day, but recent pictures of his suggest that he's been sparring a coupla rounds with ole father time....

Happy Birthday, Ruth Rendell!

One of my caricature artist icons, Jan Obdebeek started a fun "Happy Birthday" Caricature drawing series on the NCN forum recently, much to the delight of myself and other members. Each day, Jan posts the name of one famous person whose birthday it is, and challenges us to draw them before the day is over. Not only do we get an opportunity to see Jan's inspiring pencil work, but also in drawing the person of the day, build up a body of work that we can present to the world. Here is my take on Ruth Rendell

He should really work on his legs more

Im blessed that despite the economy people are still willing to contract me for work. A recent fan tuned in and wanted to surpise his bodybuilding friend with a caricature of himself making fun of his bodybuilding endevors. Being a former bodybuilding enthusiast myself.... er although you would NEVER guess that now looking at me...... I knew exactly what to draw. I suspected like most people who go into budybuilding there was a lot of emphasis put on developing the upper bod but not the lower.... one reason is because it takes a LOOOOOOOOOOOTTTTT of energy to do lowe body work and since we use our legs all the time you have to do major squatting to make them grow.

Here is the picture that his friend was both delighted and embarassed by!


THANKS JASON!!! YOUR CARICATURE IS COMING!!!

Dark and Ugly...

This "aging hipster" actually POSED for this caricature after watching me draw for a while. He was slowly losing his hair and was trying to be as "Punk" with his remaining hair folices as he could. Combine that with some Retro Glasses, a razor stubbled Jay Leno-ish chin, and black tee shirt and it makes for a pretty dynamic looking persona. Most people couldnt have pulled off this "look" but I had to admit, it seemed to work for him.
I took my time and did this with graphite, prismacolors and markers.

ANOTHER Wave Editorial cartoon!

This is another in an ongoing series of Bi weekly Editorial cartoons that I'm doing for The Wave Newspaper, that services the Rockaways, Broad Channel,& Howard Beach sections of Queens. For those of you who dont know what this is about, local politicians, are locked in a race for a coveted city council seat, in an upcoming election that will take place this month. In order to earn a place on the ballot, each candidate was required to accumulate a total of one thousand signatures from registered voters living within the district,before a predetermined deadline date. According to one candidate, Geraldine Chapey,(with the BIG hair) her political rivals, Mike Ricatto,(wearing glasses)Glenn DiResto, Frank Gulluscio.(with the great hair) and Eric Ulrich,(in the black suit) signatures are not valid, and they should be eliminated from the race.
I'm not taking any sides on this issue other than caricaturing the heck out of everyones face! This group of people were really fun to draw and I cant think of the last time I've truly enjoyed an illustration assignment more. The journalist who wrote the article as well as Howard, the editor of The Wave, loved the illo so much that it made the front page of the paper, something, to my knowledge at least , that has never been done before in the paper's history. Even if I'm wrong about this, it's still an honor for an artist to get this.

Brooklyn Jewish in da House! ...

I caught this tough guy staring into space and knew by that LOOK that if anyone stepped to him they'd be missing some teeth. I used to live in Crown Heights where a lot of the Hasidic Jews live, or "THE BROOKLYN JEWISH" as I called them, and believe me, these guys aint no wimps! They're just as tough as any street punk. I guess they HAVE to be since they're style of dress makes them easy targets for a lot of jerks.

Midnight Train to Manhattan

I cant get enough of reworking this sketch I did here a few posts back of the solitary woman with the big boots on the train. My heart went out to her I guess because she's like so many women here in the city who have to travel the trains alone at night and risk encountering undesireable people. She definitely had her game face on, as I recall, and those BOOTS! Let's just say you wouldnt want them to connect with a certain part of your anatomy...

Chua on THIS!

Just left Crazy Chris Chua's blog and found this pic he did. Chris' already outrageously exaggerated caricature style is continuing to evolve as his pictures get deliciously darker and more exaggerated like this one here, of fellow caricature artist, Nate, who is himself another abstract caricature Jedi Master. Do yourself a favor and follow the link I have on Chris to his blog. But make sure you're sober when you look at his pictures. You just might puke on your monitor!

Best Caricature that Money CANT buy.

It was a slllllllow retail day at the Hotel that afternoon,and I was not making a dime. Frustrated, tired, and bored, I was ready to pack up and call it a day.

Then I spotted HIM looking at my caricature stand.

This kid was a caricature artist's dream. He had those chubby hamster like cheeks that looked like mini water baloons attached to his face, huge pointed ears that stuck out like open car doors, each one at a slight 45 degree angle, but that wasn't all! He had these great bushy eyebrows, and to top it off a literal crown of thick black curly hair that sat majestically on the top of his head like a miniature rectangular skyscraper! I was in carciature heaven!!! He came over with his sister and brother and asked how much the pictures were. When I quoted the price for color is heart sank a little bit, but determined to get a picture from me sat down and decided to get a cheaper black and white job.
I didnt really care. It had been a slow day and not only was I finally going to make a little money, but I was going to draw a picture of this kid who was a caricature artist's dream! I drew his picture immediately and he was almost beside himself with laughter and delight. It's not often that people actually LIKE highly exaggerated caricatures of them. I drew his brother next, and saved his older sister for last. As is my habit when drawing, I began to make small talk asking her questions about various things and asked her how she had come to stay in the hotel that i was drawing her in. She said quietly that her family's home had burnt down the previous night and they were staying there until they could find a place to live.
My heart sank, as she reached in her pocket to pay for the caricatures. I told her to forget about payment, and proceeded to change her black and white caricature to a full color one. Her face brightened a bit, and she broke into a smile not expecting this. I did the same to her two brothers' pictures, all the while making casual conversation while fighting back tears and emotion. I thanked them for stopping by my stand, and as they left to go back to their rooms I heard the youngest one say, "He's a good man, right?"
It's times like this that you realize that you really can make a small difference in somebody's life just by this simple act of drawing. Money cannot buy the respect of a child, and that kid didnt realize that the gift he gave me was worth more than anything I could've made.

This is a memory sketch of that kid who blessed me that day.

All THIS an POINTED EARS TOO??

His wife was cracking up as I drew this. At one point, she blurted out, "would you believe that he has pointed ears under all that hair?" I took another look at his face and replied, "no need to draw that, I think Ive messed him up enough!" He loved the picture, by the way.

They're creepy and they're spooky... my Family. Again

Just wanted to see how this looked if I applied some black prismacolor to it. Here's the result. From the Bottom, my daughter, My son , and my wife. She doesnt look like this anymore, becuase he changed her hairstyle............again.

Change Day

A Change Is Gonna Come
(Sam Cooke)
As Performed Sam Cooke (1964)

I was born by the river in a little tent
And just like the river, I've been running ever since
It's been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

It's been too hard living, but I'm afraid to die
I don't know what's up there beyond the sky
It's been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

I go to the movie, and I go downtown
Somebody keep telling me "Don't hang around"
It's been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

Then I go to my brother and I say, "Brother, help me please"
But he winds up knocking me back down on my knees

There've been times that I've thought I couldn't last for long
But now I think I'm able to carry on
It's been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come

Happy BIrthday Martin Luther King

Pieces of a Dream coming together today. It's a proud day to be an African American in America. For me, it's always been a proud day thanks to the dedication, and sacrifices that were made by others.\I did this drawing for the "Editorial Comment" Section of my local paper, "The Wave".

Caricaturing da Kids again...

me makin fun of my kids again. They should be used to it. Ive been doing it since they were born. These are the individual colored versions of both of them taken from the "Family Christmas card " caricature I did on em weeks ago.

Wife Swap's Casting Associate Producer, Amanda Gershkowitz

This is a caricature of the lovely, Amanda Gershkowitz, who is the Casting Associate Producer for ABC families hit reality show 'Wife Swap.'

Amanda contacted the Surfer the other day because The people at the Wife Swap show
were casting for their fifth season, and were looking for CARICATURE ARTISTS/ COMIC BOOK ARTISTS!. I unfortunately did not meet all the criteria requirements for the show, but once she finds an artist with the right 'fit" then it's sure to be a spectable that must be seen. If you are unfamiliar with the show, It's a reality show where the wives are taken out of their home environment and transported into another with ...interesting results, as the family members attempt to adjust.


In appreciation for being asked to do the show I offered to draw Amanda's Picture here. Im relieved she liked it because I went far on the exaggeration.

As of this posting she hasnt found anyone YET to my knowledge, so All you caricature comic artists with spouses and kids living at home, if this is something that seems right for you, give her a call!...or rather give ME one. There is a "bounty" for finding the artist /family with the right "fit" and being the capatalist/opportunist that I am, I aint ashamed to say that I WANT IT!