Caricature Express

This is a Pencil-Portrait of my brother -
I created it many years ago -
before getting involved with Caricatures.

I used to do Portraits - primarily in Pastels,
but they would be a big deal to scan.
This Pencil Portrait fits on my scanner.

I used to do oil-paintings - first as layered transparencies,
but then I started having the real painting fun by working
‘limited pallette’.

I have been thinking for a long time about
bringing my serious painting skills into my Caricature work,
but I haven’t gotten up to it.
And once again, I’m thinking about it as I choose to
go to sleep.
I am taking the Action of posting this here tonight
to make my thoughts a litl more solid.
2009 - will be the year that I actually take out my paint-brushes again!

Portraits. Show that Your Special People are Important.
BTW, this portrait was created from a photo that Keni took of himself.
See dspacer.com

To Hire this Artist:
(516) 579-4706
optidust@gmail.com

Here’s a quote, something I wrote on this blog. From September 27th.

“Makes me feel like I should be going in to something else -
like cartoons. But we can get so scattered.
I’m happily busy round the clock doing
Caricatures, Face-Painting, and Balloons.
Sometimes other work when it just lands at my doorstep.”

I just came across this entry. And I realized that I just had one of those
times. One of those times when I ended up ‘doing something else’.

A producer from CNN recently asked me to make a small black/white ‘Caricature’
of him and his boss. He described the story of his boss telling him a story about using graphics in the olden days. Not the writer, I just suggested ideas for him.

Boss: Listen, I’m really a cartoon.

Those are some starting ideas.
I’d love to keep playing with it,
but we just got to make a decision

Here’s his response:
“The event we were at was CNN Heroes: 2008.
Maybe we could make that the title of the piece or incorporate it in the sketch.
I loved your ideas.
Let’s go with:
Boss – In Providence we used cartoons for graphics.
Me – Funny, I just use them to kiss up.” Here’s the picture I came up with based on his photos.
The woman in the magazine was standing next to my client in his photo.

This was a little outside my box.
Outside of the things I usually do.
As I wrote: “other work when it just lands at my doorstep.”

To Hire this Artist:
(516) 579-4706
optidust@gmail.com

In addition to all the parties I’ve been working, I’ve been doing a lot of Studio Caricatures too. Including the Political Scene - it’s so expected that it’s a Caricaturist’s place ~

Here’s one where I tried not to sway the voters’ opinions. A company that makes yummy Smoothies wanted to get people to vote for their favorite Smoothie - and it wasn’t clear whether people would be voting for Drinks or Political Candidates. At first I thought I was making a banner for them:

But then I was told that it was for postcards. And the client had all sorts of changes requested. I preferred my own color choices, but of course I delivered what the client wanted. Both my original design and this new design - they both have something different that’s good about them:

I was very fortunate when I was doing the Robeks job.
Because my web-designer was around,
and he taught me some neat things with PhotoShop -
such as how to use ‘Color Burn’ with the ‘Brush Tool’
(He actually did the Color on the post-card-sized Obamas).
So now my PhotoShop skills go way beyond ‘Paint Bucket’.
And someday, maybe someday, a Waakum Tablet
(I hear the Cintiqs are fun.)

And here are 2 recent gifts created from the information that
my client gave me about 2 men who were Retiring:

To Hire this Artist:
(516) 579-4706
optidust@gmail.com

Custom-Made - That’s the word!

I was recently asked to describe
my Studio-Work. I do so many
different things there. So whatever
it is, it’s Custom-Made. People
have so many different ideas - and
I design something tangible from their
esoteric Words.

I stretched my boundaries for this one.
Usually working on Cardstock, this commission requested Foam-core board.
Larger. And aghk! A rush job. Had to be done overnight, and I find out that
prismacolor sticks are not going to work on the foam-core board!

I was told that this would be displayed at a wedding - and they wanted
an Oriental theme - and the color scheme-red. Okay. I’ll do something. Ummmmm.
This is what real Artwork is about. Each picture that’s another Challenge
brings the Artist up a notch. I bought red foam-core-board and drew the
picture with a Silver Sharpie:

Uh-oh. What if that wouldn’t be appropriate to display?

I decided to make it a surprise just for the insiders.
And I drew the following picture on the other side of the
same Foamcore board. It was white. I used the few colored
Chartpaks that I had here. Stores were not open, and there’s
no time to order supplies on-line for an Overnight Rush Job:

Whew. I met the deadline.
BTW, here’s the reference photo I was working from:

To Hire this Artist:
(516) 579-4706
optidust@gmail.com