Nikk

This one's for Nikk. That's it.

couples.....

I really should display more of my couples work.It never fails. Im at a party and a couple will ask, "can you do couples?" I reply "yes" , to which they reply, "can you do us BOTH on the SAME PAGE???" They say this, as if it's some type of momumental olympic feat! i manage everytime to stammer out another "yes", and continue on with, "let me start with YOU, pointing to either the guy or the girl,to which the other partner replies, BUT WE WANT TO BE TOGETHER!!!!!!!! to which i reply, "yes, I KNOW I WILL draw you BOTH on the SAME PAGE , but I can ONLY draw you ONE AT A TIME!, First, I will draw HIM, then I will draw YOU!!!! to which they reply OHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Ask any caricature artist. This type of conversation is so frequent, it almost seems scripted!

Enjoy.

MTA Transit worker.... er... who's driving the train?

this was the day to draw crazy flyaway hair.For some strange reason, this woman's hair looked like it wanted to excape from her forehead, and the MTA workers hair was fighting to escape from underneath his hat. The MTA worker slept the whole time I was drawing his caricature, and at some point, felt he was being watched. His eyes snapped open, he looked over his sunglasses just in time to see me point the finishing touches on his caricature.

He was pissed.

He looked pretty pissed that he was being drawn, but his face was too intense to pass up.

party pics

lGreat party I did over the weekend. I took a chance on this extreme exaggeration and this guy loved it!!!

Draw me like a Southern Belle...

She asked me to draw her like a Southern Belle, and I replied that i didnt know what that looked like but could draw her as a liberty belle. We spent the next couple of minutes talking about who she was, where she came from and how she came to be at the party. It turns out that she used to live in NYC and moved down south for a couple of years. This lady was in her seventies and looked years younger.Her secret, was Oil of Olay. She told me that she started using Oil of Olay as a pre teen, when it was sold exclusively overseas. She was a walking advertizement fro the product. I drew her beautiful of course.

Bruce lee & Mick Jagger's "Love Child" on the L Train

Looked at this dude on a Brooklyn Bound L train on the way home from my gig, and noticed that he was sporting a 1970's Bruce Lee Hair Doo, complete with the bangs and sideburns. He even had the thick eyebrows like Bruce. The two things that killed the look was the spectacles and those lips. He reminded me of a Mick Jagger Bruce Lee Hybrid.

She's got her Mother's eyes, and her Father's Mustache..

At a recent party relatives started disputing over whether the child looked more like the mother or the father... after a few minutes of intense debate, I decided to settle the matter by drawing this picture here in hopes of satisfying both parties.

My good intentions were not well recieved by anyone, and at this writing, a posse is still hunting me with orders to shoot to kill. Just goes to show what happens when you try to please everyone.

Im kidding of course, but it makes a funny story no? My buddy Alsion and I had just finished a gig where the last person was a baby that I drew. As always, we stopped to eat at a diner to recap and do some more drawings. This is a collaboration we both came up with. It was a lotta fun.

FOR ALL YOU AGENTS AND WOULD BE CLIENTS OUT THERE.... I WILL NOT DRAW YOUR BABY LIKE THIS!!!

clifton

drew this sketch of my friend, Clifton. He thinks I made him look like a thug. He usually has this wolfish expression when looking at a woman... which is often.

Gee, I wish Id done THAT!

there are times at gigs where I do an absolute fantastic job drawing a caricatue, take a snapshot, only to see it and wish that I'd done it better. In the case of this pic here, I definitely saw things in the face i could have drawn differently and tried my hand at redewing it.

The original party pic is at the top there, drawn in three minutes with prismacolor art stixx and a crayola marker. I noticed looking at the subject later that he had a loooong chin comparitively speaking, but I ran out of verticle space to express it properly, so had to extend it horizontally. It was still a good likeness and he loved it, but i felt frustrated that i couldnt get a KILLER likeness that was more exaggerated. I try as much as possible to redraw faces immediately following a party to test my memory skills and also to practice extreme exaggeration. I sometime drop the likeness completely, as is evidenced by the final drawing I did, but that's all part of the whole learning process.

Grimm Reaper Cartoon for The Wave Newspaper Far Rockaway

Sadly, The Grimm Reaper is making yet ANOTHER appearance in an editorial cartoon. No one's ever done a poll that I know of, but I would guess that The Reaper has starred in more cartoons than any other icon on the planet.

This editorial was done in response to the tragic death of a woman and her dog who were both struck by a reckless out of control, high speeding driver who plowed into them while they were walking on the sidewalk. What's more tragic is that this isnt an isolated occurance. In The Rockaways, their is a seven mile stretch of highway on Crossbay Blvd/Broad Channel leading into Howard beach where drivers ride their cars at breakneck speeds sometimes even on the sidewalk and the bikepaths. There are numberous flowers ribbons, crosses and other memorials that mark the passing of loved ones who have gone to meet their maker as a result of walking on that strip. Citizens are currently involved in petitioning the powers that be for much needed and long overdue guard rails and increased police presence in the area to deter speeding. At first I thought this pic would be rejected by the paper, but they felt it told the story perfectly. I consider it one of my best cartoons thus far.

Swine Flu Cartoon

Recently drew this editorial toon for The Friday, May 15 edition of The Wave Newspaper, just to comment on the whole Swine Flu scare that's sweeping the country. I'm not sure if anyone thought of THIS particular angle on the whole situation, by it's such an obvious joke I had no trouble coming up with it this week.

The Big Bad Wolf seems like he's huffing and puffing to get outta dodge to avoid being touched by piggy wiggy here!

Human Weasel... must be a BOSS.

Forgive me If i uploaded this before, I really dont remember, and I may sincerely be having a senior moment.... wierd thing about "senior moments" is that the senior in question doesnt KNOW they're having one....
moving right along.
I was posting images on another blog when i came across this image locked in the basement of my computers hard drive and was intrigued with the expression. I dont recall the model.... uh oh, not ANOTHER senior moment!.....but from the cunning, weasel look of him, he MUST have been a Boss, crewchief , or supervisor of some sort. He has that, " I cant wait to write you up" look about him....

he KNEW he looked Kool....

"Kool" is something so undefinable that you cant really describe it, you can only point at it and exlaim , "there it is!" when you see it. Kool is that unexplainable "IT" that makes you just LOOK at a person in awe and wonder. Bruce Lee had IT... James Dean, and Elvis had IT... and so did THIS guy I caught on the Brooklyn bound L train this afternoon. He wasnt doing anything special, just sitting there with his shades and that hair, but he had this prescence that was unmistakable. My frist quick sketch of him made his look a little older and weaker, but there was still something I liked about it, so I decided to develope it more. My 2nd attempt at his was the most satisfying, and even had a touch of cold, cool menace and attitude behind it. I regret overworking the backgrounds on both pictures, which I feel distracts too much and takes away from the visual punch. It just goes to show you how an otherwise excellent picture can get ruined because the artist doesnt know when to stop!

hotel lobby caricature

I was in the hotel lobby waiting for my gig to start when this guy came up to the front desk and then sat down in the waiting area to work on his laptop. I could resist drawing a face with such great angles and did a full blown color job and was so proud of it i handed it to him on the spot. He didnt speak english and the look of shock on his face was worth any price i could name as I gave him his unexpected gift. I did, however photograph it... poorly though. I will revisit this again also.

Erica's pretty picture

I couldnt resist drawing her pretty! She had me under her spell. I admit it.Eric, had that quick disarming type of wit that put you at ease and made you feel she was laughing with you and not at you. She was very poised, funny, and charming. I simply couldnt draw a busted looking picture... but That doesnt mean Im gonna fall under EVERYONE'S spell.

The child was stark ravin nuts I tell ya...

There are SOME kids where nothing less than a detailed fully colored sketch will DO!! this little girl had wayyyyyy too much cotton candy..... and need more!

More Party Pics

Done a Lot of parties in the last coupla weeks. My body actually started to "rebel" against drawing so quickly at first. Ive been doing so much studio work where I take my time, do a lot of practice sketches, look at photo references, and then carefully model and shade in the caricature, that I "forgot" that i have to crank out these things in 23 minutes. I could take five whole minutes but for me it defeats the whole purpose of a party where the host wants you to move fast so the maximum amount of people get drawn. At parties you quality of line is king.

cutie party girlie

Did a gig a few weeks ago and couldnt get this cutie outta my mind. I didnt exaggerate her to THIS extent, but i didd a little bit, much to her delight. This is a memory drawing. Looking at this now, I'm a little dissapointed. I was really thinking I was exaggerating it a LOT when It appears to b only a little bit, looking at it objectively. It's really HARD to exaggerate! Someimes you feel like you're doing a LOT on the "inside" of you only to see that it looks kinda tame objectively. Apparently a good rule to follow is this: When you feel that you've eaggerated all you could , EXAGGERATE MORE.

Horse on the A train

As soon as I saw her face I was looking for a saddle. I think this horsie ditched her jockey and decided to ride the rails instead. In all honestly this woman wasnt as bad lookin as I drew her here, and as soon as I finished, I KNEW i'd gone too far! LOL! Good thing she didnt see it. At this point Im really trying to stretch my exaggerations a litttttttle more.