More Park Caricatures

Here's some more Park caricatures taken with my cell phone camera (not the best way to do it). These take about 5-10 min. to do. It's funny how the peoples expressions rarely match up from when I take their photos to when I draw them.

"The Caricature King" is a business name!!!!

Just had to say again for the millionth time that I use the name" Caricature King" as a business name only, and I don't think I'm the "King of the Caricaturists" or anything of the sort. The idea is ridiculous and I don't have a huge ego like that.
I say this again because I heard from a friend that they were told that another caricaturist was talking about me like I DID think that and I had a lot of gall for thinking that. Obviously, it was someone who doesn't really know me, but THEY had the gall to think that they know what's going on inside MY head. Thanks for thinking the worst of me- fellow caricaturist- whoever you are. Feel your hate flow.... Embrace the Dark Side.

Every artist has their struggles to go through, and it's tough just to survive and make a living. I was working in the Fashion industry on and off for the past 17 years- delaying my progress as an artist in my opinion, because I needed to make money and survive. I've only recently been getting consistent work doing caricature gigs- so whatever I need to do to help me pay my rent and buy food, I'm going to do - within the law of course...
That's also why "The Caricature King" is in quotes.

Do you remember this guy?

Yes, you're right. It's Ross Perot- the Independent who ran for President back in 1992. That's when I did this drawing; I know, it's old, but I never posted it before and did it at a time when I didn't have a computer, blog, etc. Most people didn't at that time.
Anyway, if I would change anything on it today, it would be to make his eyes farther apart. The way I did this drawing back then was to draw "blind" at first to get at the person's psychology and to be able to see more. When you work this way, you're using your "inner eye" and it's more highly concentrated. More of the details tend to emerge and you get a better likeness. After the contour is drawn, you can then look back and forth to re-asses things and put the shading in.
I was also trying to work with the idea of the duality of people. Most people will have a difference from one side of their face to another, and it's important to see the differences if they're there. If you cover up one side of his face and then the other, you should be able to see two different aspects of his personality.

I just altered the original in photoshop to separate the eyes a bit- here it is.

Heath

Here's a quick Heath Ledger caricature done for the ISCA forum- Birthday section. It was his Birthday back on April 4th. R.I.P.

Ballerina

I did this for my cousin's 40th Birthday- she's a dancer.
It's pastel.

DeJa Vu

This is a drawing of Elvis I finished recently for a client who saw the same drawing I did 17 years ago and wanted one. I normally wouldn't do this, but they really wanted it, and I never got a really good copy of the first one anyway, so I did it.
It was very time-consuming because I build up the tone gradually and use a wide range of pencils- from 6H to 7B and a black colored pencil for the darker darks. In the hair, I used a black oil-bar, which is a bit darker than the black colored pencil and sticks out from the background. You can't really see that effect from this copy; you need to see the original.

Marina-2

Ok- here's the redo of Marina, and she got back to me right away and said she loves it.
So that's a relief... Eventually it will be on her show with the history of the word, "Caricature". Look for it at www.hotforwords.com

Some more Park Caricatures

Here's some caricatures I did in the Park yesterday- captured with my cell phone (not the best way to take a picture).

Spike

On the forum of the International Society of Caricature Artists, there is a Forum where members post artwork, and Jan OpDebeek started a daily caricature of whoever's Birthday of a famous person it was, and Spike Lee was one of them.
So here it is.

More Park Caricatures

We get all kinds in Central Park, NYC; An Aunt/ Niece from Spain, 3 friends in good spirits from India, 2 girls from Texas, and my third couple who got engaged through caricature. She said yes, so it hasn't failed yet(I can't imagine if it did...)
Keep in mind some of these people change their pose a bit or put on a hat, etc. when I photographed them through my cell phone with their drawing- so it's not always an accurate comparison.

Marina

Here's a caricature I did of Marina the philologist, who saw the drawing I did of Jill Hanner and wanted one herself. She's going to put it on her show: www.hotforwords.com and research the origin of the word "caricature". I have a couple books which go into this, but I'm curious to see what she will find.
I have one other caricature of her which isn't finished, but which I felt captured her face better than this one. I'll post that eventually...

More Live Caricature

Here's some more live caricature- 2 from the park and 2 from "Faces and Names" (159 W. 54th St.) where I've been doing caricatures since they opened 11 years ago. I've been trying to go in once a week again, if they let me, and I just work for tips.

In the Park

This is the first year since Iˆstarted to go out to Central Park where I've gone out all year round. Anything over 34 degrees was fair game; I just learned how to dress warmer. Most of the time, I didn't bring my camera, thus the lack of entries to my blog as of late. However, I took this one with my cell phone- a nice couple from The Caribbean. They were not used to our cold weather here in NYC, but they were smiling all the same...

Brother-In-Law-In-Law

I think that's what you call your Sister-In-Law's Bother...and if not, that's what it should be. Anyway, that's who this is; he commissioned me to do his caricature for his website and after a couple of tries- this one being the last one, he decided to go with a photograph- just like a lot of magazines do. I offered to just give him the artwork, but he didn't want it.
At least he paid me some money...

Live party painting

This is a painting I did at a Bar/Bat-Mitzvah during the party in about 5 hours. It was my trial painting for the company- "Untouchable Events" and I'm going to do some more in the future. The challenge was to try to get some recognizable people in the painting even as they were moving. The light source was all over the place- constantly moving and changing color, so that was a challenge as well.
For the next one, I'm going to get photos ahead of time for the main people at the party and incorporate them in the scene.
This is acrylic on masonite.

Their hate has grown strong

Do I really need to say anything?

The answer is blowin' in the wind

This will be the last dog drawing I post here- the rest will be on my pet-blog at www.danspetproject.blogspot.com

I liked this photo of my old neighbor's dogs because they show absolute bliss in the simplest of things- the wind. We should all be so grateful.

The drawing is colored pencil and pastel pencil.

Another Kato

Here's my friend, Justin's dog, Kato again- this time more caricatured. This is his prize for the most comments on the blog in 2008. I'm also going to use the image along with the other dog ones (and one cat) to get more pet-work.
I already got one gig from the flyers I put up already, so I guess it's starting to work. It's a dog-grooming party in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Gobobean

Here's a caricature I did of my new friend, Jill Hanner- aka: Gobobean. She's on Youtube with her own channel, as well as a multitude of other online outlets. I still haven't seen all the video's she's done. YOu can see her on Youtube here: http://www.youtube.com/user/xgobobeanx From there you can get to her other sites.
I met up with her last week and gave her this drawing and she was really cool.
A couple days later she gave me an extra digital camera she had, cause I mentioned how I'd like to start shooting some videos... How cool is that?
I already shot some video of the James Jean show, and will try to get it up on Youtube as soon as I have time and figure out how to do it.

And the winner is....

Justin again- for the most blog comments of 2008. You win one drawing. I'll give it to you next time I see you.