Thursday, November 19, 2009

Two sisters, two wedding gifts!

Over the summer, both my sister Katie and sister Sara were married. (congrats girls!) I'm very happy for both of them and gave them each a practical gift ("The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands" by Dr. Laura Schlessinger) as well as an impractical gift-- an artistic interpretation of their engagement photo. Here are the results:

(click for larger version)
Ethan and Katie
watercolor

Tony and Sara
b/w watercolor



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Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Catching Up...

Long time, no blog...

It was a busy summer working at the ballpark and doing my fill of gigs and studio work. I have plenty of work to show off, but I'll do that a bit at a time to keep you all in suspense. haha

Here are a couple of pieces from the Summer of '09:

(click for a larger view)

A gift for an accountant. (Digital b/w)
A birthday gift for his wife. (Digital color)
A 50th Anniversary gift portrait. (Acrylic on canvas)



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Tuesday, June 30, 2009

The Stand at Huntington Park

Here are some photos of the caricature stand at Huntington Park. Business is much better in this location than the original location, so things are looking up! It's been a lot of hard work, but I've had a lot of fun and am starting to see some profit.

Last night was my best night yet at the park! I drew 39 people and was busy for almost the entire game, including a bit before the game when usually no one gets drawn because they are so focused on finding their seats.

(click on photos to see a larger version)




A couple of happy customers! Usually the drawings have a baseball theme, but the heads filled the page, so I just made it fun with a little "rabbit ears" action. Because I was so busy, I didn't take time to take client photos, but this should give you an idea at what I'm doing...



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Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Caricatures at Clippers Games!

After three months of trying, I now have a caricature booth at Columbus Clipper home games at Huntington Park! The booth started business on Saturday the 13th, and I am hoping to continue working at home games through the end of the season.

Thus far sales have not been great, but we may need to work out location and pricing to find the best combination. If you are in the Columbus area, come by the park and say "hi"!

I'll try to post pictures soon. Stay tuned!

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Thursday, June 4, 2009

Gig Photos from May

I had several gigs in May (which is why I didn't have much time to blog), and here are a few of my favorites from those gigs:


(click on any picture for a larger view)


Strongsville HS Afterprom, 5/1/09


Dublin Senior Center, 5/19/09



Ohio State, 5/30/09


... and then, right after this gig, I must have dropped my camera because the LED screen is now cracked and now I have to get a new screen or a new camera. I hate these stupid fragile digital cameras! That's the third time that this has happened. They are really weak and rendered completely useless by the most minor of dings. I'm thinking of switching to either a rubber camera or a cheapie without the luxury of a screen on the back. Ugh...



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Friday, May 15, 2009

Caricatures on two wheels!

Sometimes, by pure coincidence, I get different clients who will order similar things at the same time. Last week I had orders for a man on a motorcycle at the same time as an order for another man on his bicycle. One is for Father's Day, the other is a graduation gift. That they are going the same direction is coincidental because the direction is based on the angle of their faces in the photos they sent me.



(click to see larger version)


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Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Live Caricature Comparison


Sometimes I take photos of people holding their caricatures at gigs to have a record of the drawings I do, however, often the people hold the picture with a different look on their face than what I saw when I drew them. At a recent gig I drew Dave, and he posted his drawing on myspace and sent me a link. From his photos, you can see the expression that I tried to capture.

You can see that I exaggerated his long face shape and mouth. I think I also captured his far-away eyes! Considering that it was done in about three minutes, I think I did a decent job with this one.

Let me know what YOU think!


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Thursday, April 30, 2009

Latest gig photos!

Yesterday I worked an all-day, nine hour gig for Verizon Wireless. I worked from 10 am to 7 pm with only a five minute break to grab a snack. Yep, no bathroom breaks! No lunch break! Someone call the union! haha But I had a great time and really enjoyed some fun people and good drawing.

I've posted photos from that gig and other recent gigs on my facebook page here: My Facebook Fan Page Please check them out and if you haven't done so, become a "fan" to get updates and exclusive offers.

Here a couple of photos to get you started...



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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Wrestling Day

Last Saturday I worked at the annual Tournament of Champions wrestling tournament. It was an all-day affair where I was there selling caricatures for $10 a person from 9:30 am to 7:00 pm. I had three pre-made wrestling bodies to choose from (and one cheerleader body) and put the heads on the bodies. For five bucks more you could get a custom body (I did five of those), and for three dollars more, I'd add color (I did several with color).

I've done this tournament for over a dozen years now, and this was probably one of my weakest years ever, the worst in a decade and maybe even the worst ever. Part of it was the change in the format of the event, and the venue was quite different. I was set-up in a different location, and that may have contributed to the slow day as well. I really don't know. I'm wondering how much of it was the economy, how much of it was my location and what, if any of it, was the clientele.

It didn't seem that there were many people that complained about the price. There was one mother with two daughters who said "is it 20 for two?" and walked away when I said it was. At the point she asked that, I was willing to give her a discount just to get someone to draw, but she left so quickly that I didn't get the chance. But other than her, there didn't seem to be people balking at the price as much as there were just kids that wanted to watch and not get drawn and people who just weren't interested at all (not even looking as they went past). I did have several people upgrade to color, so the ones that did get drawn didn't seem to mind spending a little extra.

It's very disappointing because I put a lot of effort into new signage and turned down another job and put aside some personal things to do this event. Combined with last year's Arts Fest numbers being down, this has been a very rough year for me as far as retail is concerned. These are really the only two retail events I do, but they are usually big money-makers. Unfortunately at a time when I need it most, the money is just not there. :(

The good news is that I have recently booked a few all-day gigs that will pay me a "day rate" which is a maximum I charge for a day's work. The first of these comes tomorrow when I will work for nine hours for Verizon. This should make up for some of the "lost" income from the weekend.

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Friday, April 17, 2009

Please become a fan!!

Attention all friends, family and art fanatics! I'd love to add you to my facebook fan base which will allow you to receive updates on when I will be drawing live in a public setting, offering a sale or when I've added new artwork to view. If you have a facebook page, please go to the link below and click "become a fan" at the top of the page. If you don't have a facebook page, feel free to join up! It's free and a great way to network with others.

Click here:
Caricature Art & MORE! facebook page


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Thursday, April 16, 2009

Portrait time

This week I worked on a portrait to be given as a Mother's Day gift from a father to his wife. I really enjoy doing portraits, and wish I could do more!

(click for a larger view)

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Thursday, April 9, 2009

Little Joe

This week I did a couple of new bodies for an old head. Well, it's a very young head, actually, but I had drawn two year old Joe, the mascot for Virginia's Cheers Sports late last year, and will probably keep doing new bodies as the need arises. Below is the original drawing and the new situations.

Original:
Updated versions:



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Friday, April 3, 2009

This week's art-- web caricature and pencil portrait

This week I was commissioned to do a digital caricature for a fellow blogger. You can see the drawing as she used it in her blog here: http://lindaslongview.wordpress.com/about-the-long-view/

I also completed a pencil portrait of the daughter of a regular client of mine. She gets an updated portrait each year of her daughters. What a wonderful way to record your child's growth!




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Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Digital art without the color

This week I had two last minute commissions for digital artwork. One was for an invite cover and the other was for t-shirts. This first one was for an accountant who was having a retirement party.

This one came in at a time when I was doing my taxes, so I was in the right mental state for it... I had originally put a calendar with April 14th on it, a bottle of "Pepto" next to him and beads of sweat coming off of his head, but the client made me take those out. So much for trying to be funny... but I guess they wanted him to look like a "cool accountant". haha




This was for the t-shirt. I really didn't get the dancing card and dice thing, but that's what the client wanted, so that's what I did. I'll try to make anything work for a client!




Bonus art! I did this one of a certain R/B artist. It's a monochrome-- I scanned a pencil drawing and then converted the gray lines to a brown color digitally, and put in a background shape to give it depth, but also to accent the shape of her face which I see as being long and pointy.





all artwork ©2009 by Steve Campbell. Reproduction without permission is prohibited... and THEFT!
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Fun sketches

Some sketches from last week.

A couple of celeb drawings from my sketchbook (yes, I started actually drawing in a book instead of on loose leaf paper):



A few sketches from "artist's photos" found on the web:





all artwork ©2009 by Steve Campbell. Reproduction without permission is prohibited... and THEFT!

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Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Celeb sketching

I've been trying to draw daily since I've noticed that I've been spending so much time with marketing, paperwork, phone calls, etc. that work is no longer fun! As part of this daily sketching, I have been drawing updated samples for my sample sheets and displays. Here are a few celebs that I've drawn recently. I don't really like to draw celebs (since they aren't paying me!), but it's a necessary evil. Can you guess who they are? (gosh... I hope so!)

(click picture for larger view)


all artwork ©2009 by Steve Campbell. Reproduction without permission is prohibited... and THEFT!
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Last week's artwork

This watercolor caricature was done for a man who is retiring from General Electric. He's running over the names of the programs he had to deal with (and hated) at his job. On commissions such as this, the client gives me a list of things the subject enjoys (in this case golf and his motorcycle) and I incorporate the props into the theme (retirement).

Reference photo:


Pencil sketch:
Final watercolor artwork:


(click for larger view)
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Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Sketching artists

Since I've just recently started blogging, I've wanted to see what other artist blogs are out there and what other people write about. In the process, I have found some interesting faces to draw to warm up my pencil for my paying work. Since I don't keep a sketchbook as well as I should, this growing pile of practice sheets serve as my unbound sketchbook. I may digitally color a few of these "funsketches" if I have the time. I'm enjoying the practice and the freedom to exaggerate a little more than usual.

(eek!)

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Monday, March 9, 2009

More Radioheads

Three of the six radio personalities from RadioEagle.com. See these on their respective websites at:
http://www.radioeaglegaylord.com/
http://www.1003thepoint.com/
http://www.radioeaglemarquette.com/





Thursday, March 5, 2009

Sketches for fun

I was up late last night and had an "artistic itch" that I had to scratch before I could sleep, so I did a couple of quick pencil sketches based on some photos I found on the web.

(click for larger views)

With these "fun sketches" I tried to do them quickly (normal speed for gigs, etc) but with a bit more exaggeration than what I would normally do for clients. My main goal was to maintain likeness while still using exaggeration-- without going overboard and making an overly-distorted, unbelievable head. I did erase a few of the sketchy first lines, and did go over a few lines with a darker pencil but they were each done in about 10 minutes or so.

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Friday, February 27, 2009

Radioheads!

My latest project was for The Eagle radio station in Gaylord, Michigan. I did a series of their on-air personalities for their website and other promotional materials. There were a total of six guys and I did them digitally. Here are a few...




As usual, feel free to let me know what you think!

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