Wrapping up 2013

   Here are commissioned pieces from the last quarter of 2013. As you can see, I was pretty busy! It was one of my busiest Christmas seasons in the last few years, which is hopefully a sign that the Great Recession is coming to an end. I also have had several commissions already in 2014 as well which I will post at a later date.

(Click on any photo to see a larger version)

   This is the CEO of Chiquita (you know, the banana shippers) He was on the TV show Undercover Boss, and is pretty famous around the Cincinnati area. That is his wife in the background and he is also a part-owner of the Cincinnati Reds.  He was speaking at a conference and the organizers wanted to honor him with a caricature gift.  Below is a group picture of the organizers of the conference, a gift for their work of service to organize the conference.  Below that is another gift caricature for the organization president featuring his family, engaging in one of their favorite past-times, skiing in Park City, Utah.

   I had a couple of different commissions featuring boats. The color one is a digital caricature given to a retiree featuring a certain type of boat that the man made from scratch. The other is a black and white watercolor given as an anniversary gift. 

   Below are some drawing featuring more elaborate backgrounds. I often get commissions for caricatures featuring an activity, but lately I've had several featuring a certain place. It's fun to play Bob Ross and paint landscapes, even if it is with pixels and not oil paints. Even so, I still whisper to myself about highlights on happy little trees and rocks while I do it... I just don't use a palette knife or slap my digital brush back and forth on the base of my monitor.

   This drawing was a present from a group of workers to their boss for Christmas. They call themselves Jerry's Angels and wanted to be doing certain things but still look like the famous logo from the TV show. It was hard to make holding grapes and eating oatmeal look like holding guns and doing karate, but I think I pulled it off.

   This caricature commission required me to draw a family feast. He didn't want them eating it, just a family portrait caricature around the table. It was done in black and white ink. Below is another family caricature of sorts... a wedding caricature! This couple ordered a black and white plus one color watercolor caricature. It was for their wedding gift table display and as a gift to each other to commemorate the special occasion.

   These are digital portraits done in digital b/w watercolor of two sides of one couple's family-- her side on the left and his side on the right. They printed out at 16x20" and were given as Christmas presents to all of the family members. (As you can see, one couple appears in both pieces)  I also learned that the drawing on the left was even more special because the lady at the bottom had died within the year of cancer. I was touched to learn her story in a blog post by a friend of a friend which can be read here:

 http://parksrecreation.wordpress.com/2013/02/26/she-crawled/

    A black and white digital drawing done for the cover of a family album. It's always fun to draw old folks and old cars!

   This was a drawing done as a series of portraits for a philosophy textbook. On right is the photo reference I was given. I had to bring an ancient sculpture to life, including adding pupils and giving him a "nose job". This is the second commission I've done for this publisher. My third was just completed this month and I will post some drawings from that group of illustrations soon. As usual, let me know what you think!

Retiring folks

Studio business has been slow lately, but I've busy with a lot of live caricature gigs and would not have had much time to do large projects anyway.  Things are getting back to normal in September, however. I've been getting some order inquiries for some larger jobs, so I'm looking forward to hitting the drawing board (and digital tablet) here in the studio again soon.

Here are my three most recent commissions. All are for retirees, one in Oregon, and the other two in Ohio. The Oregonian is for a retiree from a company that comes to me for gift caricatures on a regular basis throughout the year. His hobbies are woodworking, gardening, grandkids and... glassblowing! I think that's a first for me...

(click to enlarge)

This second one was for an 80th birthday. This one was for a returning customer for whom I had done a drawing of this man's wife about 8-10 years ago. This one was done in watercolor, which is becoming more and more rare with each passing year. Seems most of my work is digital, so I enjoyed working in a tangible media once again!  I just wish that my scanner could truly capture the subtlety of watercolors better because these scans never look as good as the real thing. (for instance, the blues in the sky always get washed out)

(click to enlarge)

This one was for someone leaving Proctor & Gamble (that's their headquarters in the lower left).  He had designed the sleeping bunny on the Pampers packaging and the ZzzQuil bottles. The client designed this concept for me, so I just had to supply the drawing skills. 

(click to enlarge)

Independence Day weekend gigs!

Independence Day weekend has become a busy one for me over the last few years.  Since I've had my booth at Huntington Park, I've drawn annually at the Boom At The Park event on July 3rd. In the first year (2009) the sales were great, but each year since has not lived up to that initial year's totals.... until this year!  My partner John and I almost tied the sales mark set that first year, falling short by just 12 dollars. Compared to last year, sales were up 63%!  Overall I worked six hours and, as a bonus, enjoyed watching Red White and Boom from a good location and got to hear one of my favorite bands, McGuffey Lane, play some golden oldies from my youth.

On the fourth it was rainy, so one of my gigs was cancelled and the other (booth at the Dublin fireworks/concert) was dampened but went okay. If things had gone as planned, however, I would have worked seven hours that day.  I did get to hear Chicago play golden oldies from my youth...

On the fifth I had a wedding reception which was really fun. Everyone was very cool and very complimentary of my work.  At most events people say nice things, but this group was especially appreciative, and that always makes me enjoy entertaining even more. They had set up little clotheslines to display the caricatures, so as the event went on, I had a growing art gallery on the wall to my right. After three hours I had drawn about every single person at the party. There was no live band playing songs from my youth.

Here are some of those drawings:

Recent Artwork: June 2013

My most recent caricature pieces.... both are digital paintings.

For a high school grad (I guess his nickname is "Kloppy"...)

For a retiree from Dow Research and Development.

The cool thing about these pieces is that the second was a referral from the first... and the first was a referral from another!  Word of mouth is not dead!  I'm always appreciative of clients who recommend me and pass my name on to others.

I also did a couple of nice gigs at the end of June. One was for the candle makers for Bath and Body Works (fun group!), and the other was for ARC Industries-- an employer of the mentally handicapped. The latter is a gig I've done for the last four years, and it always brings me to smile several times as I draw some very special people.  Some are severely handicapped, some are only mildly affected. All are very appreciative and polite. Here is a picture of a couple that were drawn together. 

Kids vs. Caricaturist

Being a caricaturist, I encounter lots of personalities.  Most people love what I do, a few don't.  Usually the ones who don't get it are the women who still want to be young and thin but no longer are, or the teenage girls who want to be the same person the older women want to be, but for different reasons! But kids are usually not a problem for me.  However, for some reason, I've had a recent run of "kids say the darnedest things" moments!

Last night I drew a caricature of three kids, the youngest, Jack, is six. He looked at the picture after I was done and said "I don't want to look like that!" I felt he was being hard on my drawing skills, so I said, "Sorry, I thought that was how you looked." He said "No, I wanted to look like THIS!" and he screwed up his face to show me a goofy expression. ....guess I didn't draw funny enough for his taste!  Even if Jack wasn't 100% satisfied, I'm happy to say that his mother was. His two sisters also thought I did a great job as well.

I had another complaint over the weekend as well. This time from an eight year old boy. I was at a wedding reception, and my set up was next to the "kids table". I eventually drew all eight of the kids seated there during the course of the evening,  All of them were teenagers, and they all had a good laugh at their own and cousins' caricatures. The only one who didn't "get it" was the youngest one at the table. This kid was just your regular 8 year old blond haired blue-eyed kid with nothing really outstanding to caricature. No bucked teeth or cowlick... just your average kid and the resulting drawing was pretty "normal" by most standards, but for some reason he reacted to it by saying "it's horrible!" and then wouldn't show it to anyone.  No one could understand why he didn't like it, but for some reason he didn't. But it was okay, in the end the hostess showered me with compliments and tipped me well, and most importantly, the bride and groom loved the drawing I did of them. Even the older women and teenage girls loved me. Go figure...


The most common question that kids ask me is "are YOU an ARTIST?" They say it with a bit of awe as if they were asking a really tall person if he is a basketball player or a guy with a hose if he is a fireman. I usually say "yes, isn't that COOL?", but sometimes I mess with them and say "no, I'm a plumber" just to entertain myself with the confused expression I get. But then I confess that yes, I am an artist. They always seem to react with an "I knew it!" expression on their faces, as if the seven-foot guy in the high-tops just HAD to be a basketball player, and the guy with the easel and the fancy pens just HAS to be a real life artist!

The other night at the ballpark a kid came up to me and asked me for my autograph. He even had a Sharpie pen on him. Never mind that I have 50 pens to his one... but he offered me the Sharpie and asked for my autograph. However, he didn't have anything to sign!  I said "where do you want my autograph? On your shirt?" He offered me his chest, but I grabbed one of my own pens and signed the back of my business card and gave that to him instead. Maybe he will have his parents hire me for a birthday party someday... we'll see.  I don't know if he was just goofing around or not, but he seemed serious. You never know these days... kids after a certain age seem to have no qualms about tweaking adults.

My last "kid story" is from a picnic I did for a Head Start program in one of the more poor parts of town. I only mention that it's a poor part of town because it seems that in such areas, the moms really try hard to make their children stand out and be unique, so they start their kids off in life with a unique name. This one woman had five kids and each kid had a name more strange than the last. I wish I had taken photos of all the caricatures I did for that family, but this one stood out the most. Now I usually ask the spelling of just about every name, even the easy ones... but this one really threw me! Poor kid... Meet Malachi. Well, that's how you pronounce his name, but check the "Scrabble Rack Special" spelling:

As usual, comments welcome!

Thank you USY!

   I've had a regular client that has ordered a caricature from me annually for over a decade. Sadly she is moving, and I don't know if the youth group she directed will continue to place orders to honor their seniors. Maybe... but no guarantees. Either way, it's been a good run!  Thanks Shani!  You will be missed!

Here she is holding the final senior class of her USY group (which they call BuckUSY, short for Buckeye USY).

This year's drawing shows the three grads on the red carpet, stars in their own right, and draped with the names of the universities they will be attending in the fall.  Medium is watercolor, on 11"x14" bristol board.

I drew the king!

I struggle at times to come up with something interesting to say about artwork that I do, but this time I have an actual back-story to a client worth writing about!  Earlier this year I received a call to do a caricatures at a Cub Scout troop meeting to honor boys who were "crossing over" to become Boy Scouts. The party was being held at this family's home. (they later had all the individual caricatures of the troop made into a group caricature, which is HERE)

After the event, I got to talking to the  den leader/homeowner/host. He told me that he had wished he had been in scouts in the town where he grew up-- Granville, Ohio. I said "what? I'm from Granville!  When did you graduate?" He had graduated the year before me. Turned out that he knew many of the same people I knew and that we probably passed each other in the halls many times, but I still had no recollection of his name. I went home and looked him up in the yearbook. Well, it turns out he was the prom king at my junior prom!  haha I guess I wasn't paying attention. He'd changed a bit-- no longer had the bushy curly locks of hair, and was probably taller than I remember. But yep, small world...

Last week his wife hired me to do a digital caricature for a birthday card/sign-in board for his 50th birthday (reggae) party, and here it is:

May commissions (so far)

Some of the recent stuff... been getting some black and white orders lately, but I have more color digital drawings on order that I'll be doing starting today.

I just completed a family caricature for a Mother's Day gift.

I had another project that I worked on which I posted, but was notified by the corporation that any interaction we have is confidential and that I had to immediately remove the pictures and reference to their company from this blog. I'm not sure why some drawings of their company officers would be a secret or somehow compromise their company's brand.  The drawings didn't even have their logo or product in it! They just showed some of their officers doing carnival related activities to promote their upcoming company picnic. I don't get what the big deal is, but so be it. But I am just impressed that someone actually looked at my blog!! (I think they were one of two... I, myself, being the other)



Oh well, back to work...

A few gigs, a new drawing... now the real fun begins!

This year's Tournament of Champions (wrestling tournament, Apr 19-20) was the most productive in many years. Maybe people are getting used to the recession?  I don't know. But I was busy for most of the 8 hours I was there and many people were paying the color upgrade fee.  In the past few years the retail side of my business has well below previous years' amounts, so maybe this is a good sign!

This gives me hope for... the Arts Fest!  After sitting out last year, I was given word that I will be back to draw at the Columbus Arts Fest 2013 on June 7-9th. I also received very positive feedback from the director of the Arts Fest on my samples as well.  This director has had experience with caricature and portrait artists and seemed to be quite interested in having quality street artists at the festival.

I also drew at a bar mitzvah, a senior center and a high school prom over the last week.  But after having today off, I will be drawing every day for two weeks solid starting tomorrow with a two day trade show, several Clippers home games, two parties, a picnic and a prom and and afterprom rounding out the schedule. But I want to encourage anyone in the Columbus area to come out to a special charity gig I'll be doing on May 10th at Olentangy Liberty High School-- Relay for Life. It's a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, and I will be drawing from 6:30 to 9:30 that Friday evening.

Last week I did another digital caricature commission for a lovely family in Midland, Michigan.  The joke in the family is that Grandpa tells the grandkids that the "Whippy Dip is closed", so this joke was incorporated into the drawing.

(click to enlarge)

April showers bring Mo' money!

Well, opening day for the Clippers was rained out... then the next night it was cold and there was hardly anyone there... then the next day was even colder so I didn't even bother going. But then we had two days of good weather before the game got rained out again!  That's the retail game for ya... but it was good to get the booth set up and ready for what I hope to be a great season.

While the team is out of town for a bit I've been trying to catch up on studio work. I get to be a homebody for awhile, which is nice, however, that will be short lived. This weekend is Wrestling Day (the Ohio Tournament of Champions) where I will work Friday night and almost all day Saturday doing retail for a youth wrestling tournament. Then Saturday night I am drawing at a bar mitzvah. That's 16 hours of work in the space of   28 hours. Ouch. The Clippers come back for a couple of days and then I have another week without nightly games to do studio work before I start a stretch where I'm working almost every day for two weeks straight and 15 out of 17 days!  That stretch culminates in a tripleheader day where I work 10-1 pm, 7:00-10:30 and 11:30-3:00 am! Whew! April 26-May 11th will be a real workout for my poor lil' ol' drawing hand!

Here are some of the drawings I've done in the last couple of weeks. More to come soon as I have orders in for groups of 6, 8 and 6 + a dog! (that's 21 if you're keeping score!)

For a bar mitzvah sign-in board 

(packaged with gig this weekend)

 

Watercolor for the United Way

 Digital drawing for website

 Digital painting for retiree.

Digital painting for retiree. 

(same company as above)

Here Come the Clippers!

The 2013 home opener for the Clippers is this coming Thursday... I can't wait!   I will be posting new samples reflecting the new players currently on the team. Below is one of the new signees- Daisuke Matsuzaka. (aka Dice-K) 

The first month of the season is always a bit rough with the weather cooling off quickly after sunset or sometimes not getting above 50 degrees, but it's always great to be at Huntington Park even if I'm just watching the game from the left field corner with my space heater between my legs!

In it's fifth year of operation, I'll be making some changes at the booth. Because I end up drawing the same baseball bodies repeatedly, I'll be offering some preprinted bodies for the first time. This should hopefully lead to faster turnover and more volume. I also hope to have better signage and lighting to increase visibility.

Since I'm now established at the park, I have to look at ways to make keep the booth fresh and different for those who come regularly.  I'm also always surprised to find people who have been to games and haven't seen my booth!  Just about everyone who enters the stadium has to walk by my location (unless they have cheap seats in the bleachers or high class seats in the executive suites) but yet somehow there are people I've talked to who said they didn't see me. I can't be too conspicuous of course but I can't just fade into the scenery and expect to make money!

If you are in Central Ohio, I hope you'll come by and say "hi" to me at the ballpark! Even if I'm drawing someone, I pay attention to everything around me (including the game) so don't worry about "interrupting" anything.  Just say hi and I will be happy to see you.

New Websites, New Art!

After a really slow first few weeks of the year, things picked up nicely in late February and into March. It was hard to have almost no work for a few weeks, but I didn't sit idly by...  I spent the slow time reworking my main caricatures from photos website (FunFaces.com), creating a cartoon logo website and adding a new website for portraits. Please click these links and let me know what you think!

I also did some cleaning of my hard drive and office. I still have lots of clutter on both fronts, but I did delete/throw out stuff that has been piling up for years since I rarely have time to do deep cleaning beyond picking up my loose papers or putting my pencils away. I wish I had time to do more, but I'd rather draw and paint!

Now the dust has cleared and I've had several orders come in and several gigs, so I'm back to playing catch-up, including with this blog! Here are some of the most recent pieces I've completed for clients:

Color digital painting for retiree who painted his own Model A Ford. 

Digital color painting for a co-worker who was leaving the company and had several interests.

Watercolor painting for Ohio State Medical Association's out-going president. 

 As usual, questions and comments are more than welcome!

Cub Scout Caricatures

My most recent commissioned piece... done for a Cub Scout pack that was about to transition to Boy Scouts. I had drawn everyone live at a party, then took copies of the drawings home to scan and create this digital piece, placing all the heads I'd drawn live onto bodies done in my studio. I sent this digital piece by email to the den leader and he made printed copies to give to each boy. They were surprised and thrilled!

My job is fun! Here are some recent live (retail) drawings I've done.

Tournament of Champions wrestling tournament

Two stars of "Diary of a Wimpy Kid", Grayson Russell and Zachary Gordon. They were signing autographs for the kids.

You can always find interesting hairdos at wrestling tournaments!

Columbus Arts Fest:



Clipper's games at Huntington Park:

(is this the next Lindsey Lohan?)