CNN

December 7th, 2008

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.

Client: Where’s my eraser?

Well, that wouldn’t be an appreciated gift, but you get the idea.
Come up with a different answer bubble.

Perhaps: Ka-Pow!

Yeow, again, your response sounds nasty.
Can you think of something else?

Perhaps: Yes! This is my chance for a new world.

Or: And you look like Dick Tracy.

Getting better. Perhaps you’d like one of those,
or you can tweak it to what works for you.

Or or here’s another idea:

Boss: We don’t need technology.
Cartoons are fine.

Client: How many years ago was that?

or Client: How old are you?

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

Political Candidates

October 13th, 2008

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

August 4th, 2008

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.

Wedding Caricatures

July 18th, 2008

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

Coloring Books

July 5th, 2008

I just wanted to mention that I recently put up a new page on this website called COLORING PAGES. It’s something new I’ve been doing:

I put the Clown’s contact information on the bottom. And they give them out with crayons at their parties.

And I’ve also started making personalized Coloring Books for Everybody! Can be seen on the same website page:

http://caricatureexpress.com/coloring-pages/

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