The Boss

Here's the Bruce Springsteen painting in 5 stages- painted in Acrylic. I was trying to use the red, white and blue motif in the color-scheme to show that he is America- not something separate on a flag, or purely political or nationalistic. When there is something wrong with this country, it should be criticized as he has done in the past.
Anyway, I thought I was making him too red in the face which could imply other meanings, so I toned it down a bit with more of an orange-red and some purples in the shadows as well...
This is at "Rumours"- 55th & 8th Ave. in Manhattan.

2 more...

Ezekiel 25:17

Here's another one of Samuel L. Jackson.

Amy

Here's one of Amy Winehouse in the more simplified style. Take a guess as to what the background is.

Even more still

Here's some more live caricatures from Central Park. The second and third ones are a father and son- can you see the resemblance?

TARANTINO

I was just re-watching parts of "Pulp Fiction" earlier today and started sketching Quentin as he was being interviewed by someone in the extras on the DVD. I did about 4 sketches of him before I got to this one, and by this time, I didn't need a reference anymore. It's an interesting way to work- to study someone enough through initial caricature sketches, so that the face is in your head- and you can translate it through your own interpretive mind and come up with something new and creative, but still carrying over the likeness. That's the aim, anyway. I think I had "Turcios" somewhere in the back of my mind when I did this one. Check out his stuff from my links- he's brilliant.
This was a small sketch with colored pencil on toned paper, with some added "Pulp Fiction Red" to the background thanks to photoshop.
I've been doing the more "realistic caricatures" for a while now (since 1990), and sometimes I get tired of it. It's much more common now than it was back then- I don't remember many people doing it until I saw Krueger's stuff. (Not that my stuff is up to his level of realism and exaggeration). Anyway, it was a little more fun for me to do this style, but I'm not sure if I can apply it to everybody or not. I'll have to work on it...

"Oh, they do those cartoons..."

I must look like more than one person to most people in the Park, cause I always get referred to as "they". Most live caricature artists know what I'm talking about-I'm not the only one who gets this. It's like we're part of a collective who learn how to draw one specific way and we always follow those guidelines when drawing caricatures with no deviation. We all can communicate telepathically as well and are actually from a different planet entirely. On the planet "Caricature", everybody has exaggerated features- it's normal there... that's why we draw that way- we miss home.

Anyway, enough of that...
With these latest photos, I made the images larger, and I think the quality is better; before my images got too digitized. Now they're cleaner. Can you tell the difference?

Variety

Here's some more nice people from around the world.
First we have a girl from India, a great couple from Great Britain, a woman from Mexico, a nice lass from Ireland, and a promising young lad from right here in the U.S.A.- this kid wants to be President some day... He'll have to wait until 2044.