Caricature Express

It feel so good to finish difficult projects successfully. To get the thumbs up from my client.
Good. Done.

Do you remember that Power Point client that I had last year?
Did some really neat illustrations for him.

He called again this year. To prepare for the Presentation he gives the employees.
So much intensity. Talking with him ~ all the business stuff he knows ~ so intense brainstorming with him ~ of figuring out what he wants me to draw.

He has really intense ideas. And thinks that everyone knows what he knows. Like, like, do you know what a Bee Swarm is? In business? I’m just a freelance Artist here ~ I sure didn’t know. As he’s throwing words like Pricing Controls, Valuation Troubles, Pricing Discrepencies to me fast. Fast fast fast. And he wants all sorts of this stuff Written onto his pictures. Writing? I thought we were Drawing here. But okay. I’ll include whatever he wants.

So first, he’s describing all sorts of stuff to me. Including things like turning 6 people into dogs in a backyard. Digging for bones. Tossing them around. A pile of bones with those words on it. One of them chasing a bone all the way to China where a person says something specific….

Then, after I send him my quote, he whoa, didn’t realize what it involves. Has a budget - What can we do? So I, after ruminating on the 6-person picture, had to redesign. stop. So he could switch to 2 dogs and 1 person. I drew the picture.

Then, Revisions. Take the ears off the dogs !?! ‘Naturalize’ the purple face. Bone that’s going to China needs A Lot of Words on it…. Practically overnight production. I don’t think he realizes what this all involves. We don’t just erase things and find the ‘lawn’ behind it.

Here I am - middle of the night. Again. And here’s the 2 pictures. The first one I designed with everything he said. And the 2nd one with the Revisions stuck on. Fun for me to do, but I don’t think revisions are good for the integrity of the picture.

And the 2nd picture. He wanted TWENTY-EIGHT NAMES WRITTEN on puzzle pieces that come together in the form of a bee. Another complicated picture with a beehive with more types of business expressions, etc….. When he wanted to bring down the price, he cooled his coals. Beehive no longer needed (but I did manage to surprise him with a hint of a beehive in that first doggie picture - just for fun.)

Anyway, it was real hard to tone myself down to just write the names legibly. I also have grandiose ideas of my own. Wanting to do more than I have to (like it wasn’t complicated enough?). Wanting to be more clever than I am. Then, I finally had to just GET IT DONE. and READABLE. Just USEFUL FOR MY CLIENT. Instead of trying to make Myself better than real. A little humility sure makes the job easier. would make Life easier.

Then, client received finished picture. And requested Revisions. Again. ???
Wanted me to write something on the bones. Not too much to change here.
But on my own, I had to go back into it and fix the wings. Having sent him the pictures On Time, having met my client’s really tight deadlines, I had to stop drawing when they were good enough, But since I got a little extra time that magically appeared when my client wanted revisions…..
Well…… Wings!

And his 3rd picture. I was supposed to come up with a tug-of-war. With a small woman winning against their Competitor who was to be represented as a gorilla I can draw a gorilla?

I created the picture. Figuring out poses for winning and losing tug-of-war. Figuring out how to describe what the client wants…(Note: there’s actually their logo written in the eureka-star. and their competitor’s logo written along the bottom of the sweater. I chose to change it here to ‘protect the innocent’. I have nothing against either company.

Sent it to client
and

Revisions! Again! Make the competitor’s logo larger - on the back of his sweater. Make the girl heftier (How was I to know? He only sent me a little head-shot. Didn’t even show the length of the girl’s hair which I had to guess). And turn the sky-star into a blue-ribbon. Oh. I was thinking ~ How is that going to affect the Colors I had chosen….. AND - the gorilla had to be wearing pants. That’s what my client said:

Oh. It’s so satisfying to finally send it off the the client. And to receive his note of appreciation:

Quote: Well done and Thank You!! UnQuote.

It was great when I printed out the first versions at the Office-Supply store so I could make Revisions. I can’t afford a Cintique. Or even a Wacum Tablet at these budget prices So I printed out the pictures and got to see a really good finished product. I like my style of Coloring in PhotoShop.

Good Night. I’m tired. The good kind of satisfied tired.

Did I say Good Night?

I wasn’t really saying anything.
I didn’t mean anything about the person.
But you can imagine that I didn’t show this picture to the unsuspecting man.

As usual, I arrived early for my recent event at Saks 5th Avenue.
I had arrived early, found a place nearby to hang out (bought a water ~ i call that paying rent), and decided to do some warm-ups before the event. To see how people would fit on the pre-drawn body that I had been hired to provide.

I just pick people at random ~ whoever is at an easy, inconspicuous view in the ‘restaurant’. I wanted to see how a front-view face
and how a side-view face would look on the predrawn body.
Actually, I like the way the man looks better.
I felt like the side-view looked a litl mean with the bold front-view walk:

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

Running around. But I felt like making new Fashion Sketch Samples.
This is what I came up with - using the limited supplies that I always
have with me.

It’s a good idea to keep paper and markers with you.
I keep the ones that aren’t ‘juicy’ enough for my gigs anymore.
They’re in my pocketbook, in my car, in every room of my house,
at my friend’s house….. Everywhere.

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

Some stuff from my sketchbook ~ Posted here to remind me to exaggerate maturely ~ Easiest done in a 3/4 view ~

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

I’ll frequently have people ask me - “Sooo, what you do is….
to take one feature and make it real big……”

“Yes, yes”, I mindlessly say ~ because I’m busy drawing and I can’t really interrupt my experience to start teaching and explaining ~ or else I wouldn’t be doing it anymore. I would be talking instead.

When I’m really in my game, when I’m really ‘in the zone’, I’m imitating the expression that I’m seeing with my own face. I’m feeling it. So I know what the different ‘parts’ are doing. I might be ‘dancing with the long curly hair’. Or scrunching up my nose. Or or puppy-dogging my eyes. Or nervously looking around (I don’t like when my subject does that ~ It doesn’t feel good for me to have to imitate it) ~ that sort of thing. And this is imposed upon the shapes that initially Wow me as the person approaches. My first impression of what the person looks like.

Here are some simple pictures that I drew at a child’s party. I’ll try to remember my main impression of what I saw:

It was the narrow triangle on the bottom of the face
which repeated the shape of the smiling mouth ~
……..
……………

Oooh ~ I felt scared to do this one ~
The girl’s mother told me how they’re both professional models
because she’s so pretty and all…….
………..
………..

Smooth sleek hair ~
‘Tut-tut-now’ lips
…………..
…………..

Aaaah ! that debonair glance ~ Those luscious lips …………..
…………

I wish I could touch that haircut
………….
………

wide-eyes, led around as a little girl ~
reminded me of myself when I was little and
didn’t have a clue as to what was going on
……………
………….

those teeeth.
not aware of that suggestive look in his young eyes.
Boys.
……………
…………..

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