Caricature Express

It’s been said that the Artist is always drawing herself
no matter what the subject matter of the painting is.
That’s true. The Artist’s Personality comes through in everything
she does.

Here are two line drawings that I scribbled out quickly -
no predraw, no agony. I’m glad I’m the person that I am.
I like these much better than the 3rd drawing -
where I tried to redraw the girl in a way that I’ve seen
students trying to control a picture to be perfect.
(I’ve even seen some people take out rulers!)

Do you see that the pictures show as much about Me
as about the person I was drawing?

This is a truth that comes through in everything that we do -
not just our Artwork. It’s not what happens
out there
that determines what we’re going to do.
It’s our own Essence that determines what we see,
what we choose, and how we act.

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

Doodling - drawing freely, mindlessly. Sometimes I discover really neat things when I do that. This time, I was surprised by the first picture I’m posting here. It was a mess of stuff that I was drawing with a humongous marker while waiting waiting waiting my turn at the store. What to draw? I drew the mess of stuff that they had next to the cash-register. No predraw. No style choice. Just pen moving. No idea for an illustration. Just doodling.

Doesn’t this look like a bold, useable illustration?

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

It’s in the activity.
It’s the action.
It’s the doing it
that make it worthwhile to do Art.
I am So there. So in the moment. In the Zone.

I’m really figuring out these oil-painted Caricatures.
Here’s my latest one - shown step-by-step so I’ll
remember how I did it.

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

I was just daydreaming over my recent pictures -
that’s what I do. Decided to focus on line-quality.
Redrew one of the pictures that I just posted on
February 16th. Not that there was anything wrong
with the original. Just - what if - Just trying something
Different:

That was interesting. So I decided to try it again.
But this time I got side-tracked. Ended up redoing
one of those February 16th Caricatures - which distracted
me from studying Line Quality:

Makes me wonder - Do we ever really change?

The Answer is Yes! But it’s not an overnight thing -
not usually something like - “Now I’m going to draw
like This.” No. It’s a gradual thing. As we try new
things, as we think new ideas, as we practice.
We don’t see immediate Change
any more than we can see a baby grow from one day to the next.
But one day, we recognize that that baby is a lady.
And one day we recognize that our Artwork is Really Good!

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

Maybe I don’t have enough deadlines or something.
But I just spent my time dreaming about a word that
I wrote on one of the Caricatures that I posted yesterday.

First, I was thinking that it would have been better
if I predrew the letters bfore inking. It’s always a
toss of the coin during party-work -
to predraw or not to predraw.
So here I tried it again:

Eh. A hodgepodge. Would it be better if I decided
ahead of time whether twould be AnglesAnglesAngles
or gloppy curves?

That took too much thinking to be done in a Party
situation. Oh well, Party Art is immediate. Fast and
in the moment. The Artist has to let people really
see her - unedited and raw.

But there are other options. Curly writing, of course,
but that isn’t usually wanted on Boy’s Pictures.
Calligraphy. I think that one of the first considerations
should be Spacing. The Graffiti stuff I just posted above
is tight. Perhaps I could use expanded simple letters sometimes:

Or not playing with Spacing at all. Not squashed together, and
not expanded out. How about Speed and Bravado:

It’s all good.
Then I got to designing something that Looks like the meaning of
the word? With Line-Quality:

That doesn’t look like the meaning of the word.
But I feel finished - Don’t feel like working on it any more. Just now.