Jay Z at 7 yrs. old

Here's a drawing I did today for a possible job on an animated series I saw through Craigslist- thanks to Juliana, Laura, and Jesse for forwarding it to me.
They wanted a rough caricature-sketch of Jay Z as a 7 year old, so this is what I came up with. I might've made him look more like 8 than 7, but sometimes an 8 year old will look seven and vice versa...

Boss sketch

Here's the sketch of Bruce Springsteen- my latest commission for Rumours (55th & 8th Ave.) along with the photo reference. I showed it to one of the owners yesterday and he had no reaction. I'm still waiting to show it to the other and get a deposit, but if he doesn't like it....I don't know. I got a great reaction from one of the bartenders there and a few other people I've shown it to. The only thing the other guys might object to, is that they wanted more of the "Born in the USA" Springsteen look and have the American Flag somewhere on it. My problem with that is that it feels like too much of a cliche' and just way too obvious. It also makes Springsteen seem like a flag- waving Nationalist, which he isn't. He's protested the American government in his songs. His lyrics to Born in the USA are obviously ironic in tone, and have been misinterpretted by such idiots as Ronald Reagan. Sorry, I should say "former idiot".
Anyway, I'd rather show the American colors subtley in different tones in his face to show that he's an American rather than the flag. We'll see what Mike (one of the owners) has to say....

Latest published art

I have 2 things published right now: one is a small drawing on page 29 of the latest "Eye Candy from Strangers-2". Don't blink when you get to that page; the blue color of the pencil I used to draw this 10 minute sketch of Sheila had to be changed to black, and thus, lost some line integrity. (And it's small.) Next time I'll submit something a little bolder. Go to http://processjunkie.blogspot.com/ to check out some of the inside of the book. If you want a copy, e-mail me at cking1@earthlink.net and if we are friends, I'll get you the discounted $15 price. Otherwise, it's about $25.

The other published piece is in this month's "Paracinema" magazine: a B-movie review mag. mainly, but also has an article on Captain Quint from "Jaws" on page 20, which has my quick caricature of him. This was literally a 10 min. sketch, cause they don't pay, and I didn't want to spend any more time on it, but figured I'd do it for posterity. At least I got a free copy of the $7 magazine. I don't know why they can't afford to pay if they charge $7, but I guess their readership is limited...
Go to http://www.paracinema.net/ to see what they have in their mag. for free.

Faces and Names

Here's the drawing I did of and for Faces and Names (159 w. 54th St.)
It's graphite pencil and black colored pencil and it took much longer than expected. Sorry Faces! Better late than never, ay?

Steve Brodner's latest "Naked Campaign"

Another great one from the master- check it out.

The new boss standing up to the spot

Here's our new Governor - Patterson after telling a few jokes. He's much more at ease than most public officials and has a good sense of humor.
He came right out with his extra-marital affair, but to be fair, if you're legally blind is it really an affair? He just didn't know who he was with- he couldn't see her. Yeah.... that's what happened....
This one I did from a referrence.

Spitzer revealing himself (take a closer look!)

Ok, here's my inevitable Spitzer. I did this on the train from memory; his face is plastered everywhere and he has such a distinct look that it stuck in my head.

Steve Brodner's animation

Check out Steve Brodner's latest "Naked Campaign" at http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/nakedcampaign/tippingpoints

He brilliantly uses caricature to make statements about the campaign, our society and politics in general.

Steve used to (and still is- indirectly)be my teacher about 14 years ago when I took a class at SVA.

Some people have integrity

I just got an e-mail from Chris, the webmaster of sarahsilvermanonline.com, who said someone sent in this caricature I did of her and that Sarah saw it and liked it, but didn't know who did it. You always think about people stealing your images on the web, as has been done to other artists, but luckily, Chris did some research and found me and plans on giving me credit on the site: http://www.sarahsilvermanonline.com/gallery/displayimage.php?album=random&cat=23&pos=-4113

Thanks, Chris- for having integrity, and thanks, Sarah for checking it out.

3 Stooges

Here's an older painting; I never got a good photo of it until yesterday, so here it is. It's oil on wood and hanging at Faces and Names. It's at least 5 years old.

MY NEW SITE IS UP!

Check out my first official website at: www.danspringer.net

There are a couple things that need to be tweaked, but it looks good- thanks to my web-designer and friend, Tami Swartz.

Laurence Fishburne

Here's the Laurence Fishburne painting in 4 stages. I feel like I'm starting to get more of a handle on the acrylics than I have in the past; the key for me is to establish most of the colors ahead of time and keep them wet in tupperware containers- mixed with retarder and a polymer medium. That way, I can mix them on the surface before they dry and blend them if I need to.
This one is hanging at "Rumours"- 55th & 8th. Ave. in Manhattan.

And the winner is.....

Justin- for the most comments on my posts from all my blogs for 2007.
You win 1 free drawing- I'll get it to you whenever I see you next.

Gary Shandling

Here's an old one I did of Gary Shandling I found lying around my mess of a studio.
It's probably from the early 90's and it's ink-wash.

Illustrators beware

This was an illustration I did in Illustrator a while back for a design company advertising 3 new cell phones. I used a curved perspective, which has it's own curvelinear logic. However, whoever worked on it in post-production didn't seem to grasp this concept as they "corrected" my illustration by making the line on the corner of the building more straight than curved. The line of the pole should match the line of the building to make sense in space. Instead it looks amaturish.
Also, the lines of a Movie Marque should also follow this logic and the letters ideally should be on top of them, not in-between them. It's embarrasing to show the second one, even though this is the one that was published.
What can you do? As an illustrator, apparently nothing.

Laurence Fishburne sketches

These are two of four sketches of Laurence Fishburne for my new commissioned painting for "Rumours" located at 55th & 8th ave. Appatently he frequents the place a lot, so they wanted one of him to hang on the walls.

Sarah Silverman

Here's the final Sarah Silverman painting along with the origianl sketch. It's acrylic on wood with a little bit of colored pencil. Thanks to Fred Harper for letting me use his large-format scanner.
This painting will be hanging at "Faces and Names"- 159 w. 54th St. between 6th & 7th Ave. from now until the end of time.

Sketches for Centerpoint Design

These were done at Centerpoint Design; I had to show a few different versions of people enjoying life again thanks to some drug from Pfizer. Is it possible they'll choose an illustration over a photo? We'll see....

4 more Mets

Bar-Mitzvah project

Just finished a project requiring me to do 15 different sports figures from the Mets and the Duke basketball team for the centerpieces on the tables of a Bar-Mitzvah. This is one of Moises Alou- I drew them small and blew them up in the computer to about 15 inches high.

Back in the Park

Here's another Park caricature from a few weeks ago when the weather was still warm. It's brush pen and pastel and took about 10 minutes.

Another new blog

I have another new blog at http://dansfineart.blogspot.com/

It represents more of my fine art in a variety of mediums.

More NCN

Here's a few more photos from the NCN: Me and Emi with the caricatures we did of each other. She did an amazing caricature them park made out of foam-core with a ferris wheel that actually turned. I was part of the "Horror House"- thus my sharp teeth. There's also one of another Japanese fellow I forgot the name of. His stuff was great, though. Then there's the one I did of Jan from Holland- the last one I did before our time was up and the end of the week.
The last one is one I did of Elgin from memory- just to see if I could do it. It's pastel, and from now on, I'm using pastel paper. I just didn't have any during the trip, and couldn't afford to buy some.

National Caricaturist Network Convention

Here's some photos from my first NCN convention which was in Reno, Nevada for a week last week. I met a lot of people, got a lot of drawing done, and expanded my caricature mind...
There were guest speakers (Daniel Adel), contests, and workshops. In the speed competition, I drew 12 caricatures in 5 minutes- but that wasn't enough; the guy who won did 22!! It was a lot of fun regardless of awards.
Here's some samples of the ones I did there. It's always better to see the actual people to understand the interpretation, so I'll try to include the photos when I can.
Unfortunately, I had a string of bad luck when I first got there: I had $40 in my wallet which disappeared somehow (still not sure how), then I went to take more money out and my debit card expired and I couldn't take any more money out! Luckily, my friend, Elgin from NYC lent me some money, and then I sold some of my brush pens to to Lea from Dallas to make some more. She wanted them anyway, and she couldn't get them in Texas, so it was win-win. Then, at least, I could eat for the week- even if it was mostly 7-11 food. So I made it back okay and was able to do a good body of work. It really felt like I was back in art school- just being around a lot of good, creative people and working all day and night consistently. No computer, no TV, no phone- just focusing on our work. It's something I need to do now to get my commissions done- they (Faces and Names) want them (Sarah Silverman and Minnie Driver) done by the end of the month

More Park Caricatures

Another new blog

I just started another new blog: http://sketchbookscratch.blogspot.com/
It will have whatever I do in my sketchbooks and maybe some roughs for paintings I'm working on. I'm going to try to dedicate this blog to my caricature work primarily, at least until my website is up and running. Check it out.

More Central Park Caricatures