Old stuff

Here's some older paintings I never posted; The Beatles and Pete Townshend were done in 2001 for my friend in London, and I only had transparencies of them until a few days ago. The Lou Reed and the Roseanne Barr were done waaaaaay back in school in 1991. The Roseanne Barr was done in reaction to her singing of the National Anthem where she grabbed her crotch afterwards to mimic what some ball-players do. I don't think it was disrespecting the country- just a failed joke, so I was just showing the general perception in the country of what she did and how it was misinterpreted. I probably could've worked more on the body of this one, but I didn't have a reference... so I probably just got lazy at the end.

The Lou Reed painting was donated to The Riverside Church Weekday School's Auction for its Annual Spring Benefit to assist in bringing children a strong educational start.
It's going to do more good there than in some corner of my apartment collecting dust.

Anyway, I want to move onto some new work.

Faith

And the last of the Power Women.

Next is a new painting of Bruce Springsteen... but a copy of the one I already did.
Otherwise, I've just been busy with Gigs and other minor projects.

Lesley

Another of the Power Women.

More Power Women

They have the POWER!!!

A couple of these I might go back into... I'm just a little pressed for time.
Anyway, check out their website at http://womensvoicesforchange.org/
They do important work.

A couple of couples in the Park

I drew these 2 couple today in Central Park.

Power Women

Here's 3 of 9 Women I'm caricaturing for their group's (Women's Voices for Change) website. There's more to come.

Julianna

This is a quick one I did of my friend, Julianna for her Birthday.

Horton Foote

This is the latest profile caricature for the "Profile Theatre" in Portland, Oregon. It's of Horton Foote, best known for his screenplay for "To Kill A Mockingbird" in 1962, but also known for his many plays and other film scripts.
I think this is the 9th one I've done for them since 2000. Unfortunately, Horton died a couple of months ago, but he had a long, productive life.

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.