I had a busy weekend, but doing gigs is always fun! On Friday I drew for an after-school "Fun Day" and afterwards for a 10 year-old's birthday party. In both instances most of the faces I drew were kids, but in that "tween" age group between 10 and 14. In my opinion that's the hardest age group (well other than infants!) because one slip of the pen and they look too old or too young. That's also an age when they are very critical and dramatic so it can be rough at times. I made it though okay though because they were all great kids, and I didn't draw too badly.
On Saturday I drew for a charity function at a local high school to raise money for Children's Hospital patients. All of the people drawn were high school students, and all were in a great mood. It went very well, and it was for a good cause. The organizer gave me some high praise afterwards as well which also made me feel great.
This weekend I will be doing another charity function at Capital University-- a Relay for Life event for the American Cancer Society. I did this event last year and it was very heartwarming to see college students work so hard to raise money to fight cancer. One of the traditions they have is to light luminaries dedicated to loved ones with cancer. It's a touching ceremony to see all the glowing candles lit and the students walking solemnly through the gauntlet representing the victims.
Other upcoming gigs include visiting a college campus for Spirit Week, an Easter Egg Hunt event for Jefferson Country Club, and my annual trek to draw for BGSU's Sibs and Kids weekend. April will be an exhausting month with taxes due, the start of baseball games once again at Huntington Park and a string of late night afterproms! But "bring 'em on" I say! Nothing gets one out of the winter blahs like drawing live caricatures almost daily!
Monday, March 18, 2013
Wednesday, March 6, 2013
Live and in color... Digital Caricatures!
One of the options I now offer to my clients is live digital caricatures. These are really fun to do! Using a laptop and my wacom tablet/pen, I can draw digitally in a live setting. The final result can be emailed and or made into a facebook photo or used elsewhere on the web. I also purchased a portable color printer that I use to print the drawings on the spot. I can also plug the laptop into a monitor or a flat screen TV so the drawing process can be watched from a distance. Here's what my digital set up looks like:
And here are some of the digital caricatures I've done:
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| drawing on laptop without monitor |
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| Using TV monitor provided by client |
And here are some of the digital caricatures I've done:
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!
Friday, March 1, 2013
A repost from my Facebook fan page...
Top Ten Reasons I'm Better Than A Photo Booth at Parties:
10. Claustrophobics aren't afraid of ME!
9. My pictures can be seen without bi-focals or a magnifying glass.
8. Ever see kids totally fascinated while gathered around a photo booth to watch someone getting their picture? Didn't think so....
7. My pictures get framed and hung on the wall. Theirs might get a week on the fridge before falling under it and spending the next 10 years with the dust bunnies!
6. The 60's are over... cramming people into a tiny booth is sooo old-fashioned! When I draw groups, no one gets hurt!
5. Everyone already HAS a camera on them these days. How many have an artist in their pocket or purse?
4. I can fix your hair and/or enhance your body. 'Nuf said!
3. I never flash at anyone. Promise!!!
2. Can a box with a camera in it tell you jokes or laugh at yours?
....and the number one reason to hire me and leave the photo booth at the arcade:
1. I COST LESS PER HOUR!!
Yup, photo booths start at a whopping $500-$750 per party *minimum* and go UP from there! With my new price list, I now start at $100/hour and still discount even more for charity or for longer events! Seriously, is this even a contest?
Top Ten Reasons I'm Better Than A Photo Booth at Parties:
10. Claustrophobics aren't afraid of ME!
9. My pictures can be seen without bi-focals or a magnifying glass.
8. Ever see kids totally fascinated while gathered around a photo booth to watch someone getting their picture? Didn't think so....
7. My pictures get framed and hung on the wall. Theirs might get a week on the fridge before falling under it and spending the next 10 years with the dust bunnies!
6. The 60's are over... cramming people into a tiny booth is sooo old-fashioned! When I draw groups, no one gets hurt!
5. Everyone already HAS a camera on them these days. How many have an artist in their pocket or purse?
4. I can fix your hair and/or enhance your body. 'Nuf said!
3. I never flash at anyone. Promise!!!
2. Can a box with a camera in it tell you jokes or laugh at yours?
....and the number one reason to hire me and leave the photo booth at the arcade:
1. I COST LESS PER HOUR!!
Yup, photo booths start at a whopping $500-$750 per party *minimum* and go UP from there! With my new price list, I now start at $100/hour and still discount even more for charity or for longer events! Seriously, is this even a contest?
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Back to bloggin'! (New websites for 2013!)
I stopped posting in my blog about a year and a half ago because I thought all I needed was my Facebook Fan Page to do my updating and posting of pictures. I was wrong. I need something more!
I plan to start blogging again because I realize that here I can write more, express myself a bit more and do more than post a few pictures. I'll still use the Facebook page to post things, but here I can write more than I can do there. I really don't have much time to write a lot, but I do feel the need to talk about my business and other things in life in a more expanded format. I don't know if people will even read this, but who knows... maybe someone will. Someday. Hope so.
So here goes...
I recently went through one of the toughest times in my career. Since about 2006, the US economy has been in a free fall, and one of the first expenditures to go for most companies and families is entertainment and art. Since that time, many of the long time customers I have had, especially corporate entities, stopped having company picnics and Christmas parties. I've also seen the retail sales at the few retail gigs I do per year drop off just as dramatically.
In years past, the month of December was one of my biggest of the year. I normally would have several gigs per week and often two or three per day on the weekends. Christmas gift orders started coming in mid-November and were only able to be taken until about the first week of December because I would not have enough time to do all the orders in time if I had continued to take them. Agents called me regularly and booked me for large parties with multiple artists. Those golden days are now gone.
Last December I hit the low point for Christmas gigs and gift orders and I only grossed 40% of what I did in Nov-Dec compared to the same months in 2006, and that thanks to having some non-Holiday related work. On top of that, I had a very VERY slow January in which I made less than what I would have made working 40/hr per week at minimum wage. Times are tough. Really tough! Almost didn't make the mortgage payment for Feb 1st tough!!
So I had to take a good look at what I needed to do to stay in business. In 2008 I opened a retail booth at Huntington Park to work during Columbus Clipper games. That has helped supplement my income, but it still hasn't made up for all of the income lost to the Great Recession. I've tried some advertising, a Facebook page and other ways to promote myself, but I'm disappointed with the results of those efforts. The phone just doesn't ring like it once did.
So I took a look at my competitors. I found that they were charging less than me. Now this is no surprise because of the top three competitors, all three have "day jobs" other than being caricaturists. They can afford to charge less, and I'm sure they use it as a selling point against hiring me. In the last couple of years, I've seen internet clients contact me for a quote and then go with one of the competitors regardless of quality, reputation, etc. just to save a couple of twenties. So in spite of working hard for over 20 years to get to thie prices I had, I've adjusted my prices to match theirs. No problem... I'll bite that bullet and hope to make it up on volume... after all, none of them can do daytime gigs.
But I haven't stopped there. I've updated the look of my website and have spruced it up with new samples and better cell/tablet compatibility. I have also divided my three businesses into three separate websites. Mail order caricatures and portraits will now be the primary focus of FunFaces.com, my live caricatures will now be exclusively handled through ColumbusCaricatures.com and cartoon logos can be ordered through CaricatureArtAndMore.com. I have also developed an alternate portrait site at Wix.com
But is the problem just prices and marketing? I promote myself with business cards, stamping my drawings with my website/phone, having a web presence and a yellow page listing. I'm admittedly not great at tooting my own horn, but I do toot it! However, it seems to me that the problem isn't that people aren't finding me, it's that people aren't even looking! If people don't hire any entertainers, even the best and most popular won't be doing well. I find that my competitors aren't doing well, either. The top end clients aren't having parties and the rest are having boring parties!
So now I have my mission. It's now my goal not to just promote myself, but to extol the virtues of live caricature entertainment. So many people say to me "oh, what a unique idea... I've never seen a caricature artist at a ___________ before!" It's true, we are a rare breed. There are only very few nationwide can do this for a living and even fewer that are busy. And even if I worked twice a weekend every week of the year, that would still be only 100 or so gigs out of the 10,000's of the proms, grad parties, charity and PTA fundraisers, picnics, reunions, birthdays, sweet sixteen parties, weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc that occur every year! No matter what, caricatures will be unique and fun for any party unless 100 other artists crawl out of the amusement parks to start doing gigs.
So if you've read all the way to this point, please do me a favor... tell someone about me. Suggest having me draw at your company party, school function or friend's birthday party. Let them know that they can get a custom caricature done from photos to give to a retiree or a portrait drawn from photos to give as a wedding present, even if you don't live in Ohio where I am. I promise you won't regret it!
In the meantime, I'm going to start to more aggressively market the idea that you can't have a pARTy without ART!! I hope you will join me in this effort as well.
I plan to start blogging again because I realize that here I can write more, express myself a bit more and do more than post a few pictures. I'll still use the Facebook page to post things, but here I can write more than I can do there. I really don't have much time to write a lot, but I do feel the need to talk about my business and other things in life in a more expanded format. I don't know if people will even read this, but who knows... maybe someone will. Someday. Hope so.
So here goes...
I recently went through one of the toughest times in my career. Since about 2006, the US economy has been in a free fall, and one of the first expenditures to go for most companies and families is entertainment and art. Since that time, many of the long time customers I have had, especially corporate entities, stopped having company picnics and Christmas parties. I've also seen the retail sales at the few retail gigs I do per year drop off just as dramatically.
 |
| Gift caricature from this Christmas-- ordered by my sister-in-law |
Last December I hit the low point for Christmas gigs and gift orders and I only grossed 40% of what I did in Nov-Dec compared to the same months in 2006, and that thanks to having some non-Holiday related work. On top of that, I had a very VERY slow January in which I made less than what I would have made working 40/hr per week at minimum wage. Times are tough. Really tough! Almost didn't make the mortgage payment for Feb 1st tough!!
So I had to take a good look at what I needed to do to stay in business. In 2008 I opened a retail booth at Huntington Park to work during Columbus Clipper games. That has helped supplement my income, but it still hasn't made up for all of the income lost to the Great Recession. I've tried some advertising, a Facebook page and other ways to promote myself, but I'm disappointed with the results of those efforts. The phone just doesn't ring like it once did.
So I took a look at my competitors. I found that they were charging less than me. Now this is no surprise because of the top three competitors, all three have "day jobs" other than being caricaturists. They can afford to charge less, and I'm sure they use it as a selling point against hiring me. In the last couple of years, I've seen internet clients contact me for a quote and then go with one of the competitors regardless of quality, reputation, etc. just to save a couple of twenties. So in spite of working hard for over 20 years to get to thie prices I had, I've adjusted my prices to match theirs. No problem... I'll bite that bullet and hope to make it up on volume... after all, none of them can do daytime gigs.
But I haven't stopped there. I've updated the look of my website and have spruced it up with new samples and better cell/tablet compatibility. I have also divided my three businesses into three separate websites. Mail order caricatures and portraits will now be the primary focus of FunFaces.com, my live caricatures will now be exclusively handled through ColumbusCaricatures.com and cartoon logos can be ordered through CaricatureArtAndMore.com. I have also developed an alternate portrait site at Wix.com
But is the problem just prices and marketing? I promote myself with business cards, stamping my drawings with my website/phone, having a web presence and a yellow page listing. I'm admittedly not great at tooting my own horn, but I do toot it! However, it seems to me that the problem isn't that people aren't finding me, it's that people aren't even looking! If people don't hire any entertainers, even the best and most popular won't be doing well. I find that my competitors aren't doing well, either. The top end clients aren't having parties and the rest are having boring parties!
So now I have my mission. It's now my goal not to just promote myself, but to extol the virtues of live caricature entertainment. So many people say to me "oh, what a unique idea... I've never seen a caricature artist at a ___________ before!" It's true, we are a rare breed. There are only very few nationwide can do this for a living and even fewer that are busy. And even if I worked twice a weekend every week of the year, that would still be only 100 or so gigs out of the 10,000's of the proms, grad parties, charity and PTA fundraisers, picnics, reunions, birthdays, sweet sixteen parties, weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, etc that occur every year! No matter what, caricatures will be unique and fun for any party unless 100 other artists crawl out of the amusement parks to start doing gigs.
So if you've read all the way to this point, please do me a favor... tell someone about me. Suggest having me draw at your company party, school function or friend's birthday party. Let them know that they can get a custom caricature done from photos to give to a retiree or a portrait drawn from photos to give as a wedding present, even if you don't live in Ohio where I am. I promise you won't regret it!
In the meantime, I'm going to start to more aggressively market the idea that you can't have a pARTy without ART!! I hope you will join me in this effort as well.
Friday, July 8, 2011
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?)
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?)Thursday, November 18, 2010
Digital caricatures
Here are a couple of digital caricatures I've done recently. I've been practicing with digital media to improve my technique. I'm feeling more confident now with the tools and am getting results more to my liking.
Here are the latest...
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Here are the latest...
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Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Phat Daddy's Car!
I posted some of the drawings I did for Phat Daddy's Pizza back in April, and here are some pictures of the drawings on their delivery car. Very cool! (thanks Roger!)
Note: I didn't do the tomato.
I will be drawing free caricatures at Phat Daddy's (15 First St, London, OH) on Monday 11/29 from 6-9 pm for their customers. I've done this for several years now. The drawings are posted on the walls and just about every nook and cranny of the place is covered with drawings I've done in previous years. It's great fun, and even more fun to see some of the kids that I've drawn numerous times through the years grow up before your eyes in time lapse caricatures.
I'll try to get photos of the walls to post here. I never remember to take my camera to that gig, but this year I'll try to do so.
.
Note: I didn't do the tomato.
I will be drawing free caricatures at Phat Daddy's (15 First St, London, OH) on Monday 11/29 from 6-9 pm for their customers. I've done this for several years now. The drawings are posted on the walls and just about every nook and cranny of the place is covered with drawings I've done in previous years. It's great fun, and even more fun to see some of the kids that I've drawn numerous times through the years grow up before your eyes in time lapse caricatures.
I'll try to get photos of the walls to post here. I never remember to take my camera to that gig, but this year I'll try to do so.
.
Friday, April 30, 2010
recent stuff
I drew this lovely gal who is originally from Moscow, Russia at an Ohio State Active Minds event. This gig came during a 10 gigs in 10 days streak in mid-April. That stretch was both exhausting and exhilarating because after a really slow winter, it was great to draw daily and resharpen my abilities.
Here are a couple of drawings I did for PhatDaddy's Pizza in London, Ohio-- a restaurant where I have drawn several times and the owners have scanned the drawings of customers and have framed and hung the drawings on the walls. These graphics will be made into decals to put on their delivery vehicles.
A portrait commission for an author in Quebec, Canada. He wanted a serious look and something that looked somewhat antique, so I used a vertical hatch technique that made it look a bit like a woodcut. I'm pretty happy with the result.
Also in April, I was booked for a gig in Louisville, Kentucky with two other artists, Tad and John. Afterwards we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for a late dinner, but the highlight was the visitor's bureau which had a Colonel Sanders shrine inside. The place was closed, but I took this shot of my friends posing next to the ghostly apparition of Col. Harlan.
.
Here are a couple of drawings I did for PhatDaddy's Pizza in London, Ohio-- a restaurant where I have drawn several times and the owners have scanned the drawings of customers and have framed and hung the drawings on the walls. These graphics will be made into decals to put on their delivery vehicles.
A portrait commission for an author in Quebec, Canada. He wanted a serious look and something that looked somewhat antique, so I used a vertical hatch technique that made it look a bit like a woodcut. I'm pretty happy with the result.
Also in April, I was booked for a gig in Louisville, Kentucky with two other artists, Tad and John. Afterwards we went to the Hard Rock Cafe for a late dinner, but the highlight was the visitor's bureau which had a Colonel Sanders shrine inside. The place was closed, but I took this shot of my friends posing next to the ghostly apparition of Col. Harlan.
.
Friday, April 16, 2010
Gigs from an April weekend 2010
Here are some sketches I did over the last weekend. The first few are from a EMS workers conference (a six and a half hour job!), and the last one is a sketch I did at the stand at Huntington Park.
I'm currently in a streak of 10 straight days of gigs (except Tuesday which I voluntarily didn't work) which ends this Saturday when I have two jobs. Pair that with having 10 portraits to draw this week in my studio, and you can understand why my hand is a bit sore right now! I'll have only one gig in the following week until I start another streak of gigs starting with the following Saturday in which I work a 15 hour day from 10 am to 3:30 am. I then work nine out of the next ten straight days!
I had drawn this young man last year at the ballpark, and he came back with his girlfriend to be drawn together. I don't usually draw knight/princess themes at the park, but this was at their request and a lot of fun for all.
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I'm currently in a streak of 10 straight days of gigs (except Tuesday which I voluntarily didn't work) which ends this Saturday when I have two jobs. Pair that with having 10 portraits to draw this week in my studio, and you can understand why my hand is a bit sore right now! I'll have only one gig in the following week until I start another streak of gigs starting with the following Saturday in which I work a 15 hour day from 10 am to 3:30 am. I then work nine out of the next ten straight days!
I had drawn this young man last year at the ballpark, and he came back with his girlfriend to be drawn together. I don't usually draw knight/princess themes at the park, but this was at their request and a lot of fun for all..
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