Caricature Express

I gave myself a treat after last night’s gig.
I went to a bar to see the Arkham’s playing music.
They played some of my favorites: The Road to Arkham,
and Hell is Where the Good Records Are:

http://www.myspace.com/thearkhams

They also brought in a band from Kentucky - The Rumble Club.
I’m trying to make sense out of the picture I drew of the Rumble Club.
Rough or Clean - I can’t decide which is the better picture.

First, here’s the rough drawing that I drew standing in the very dark bar.
Not only were my subjects turning and bending and changing their expressions on the high stage,
but the biggest obstacle to really seeing them was
the apparatus in front of them - things like the curly
part of the upright base and the microphone:

So I came home and cleaned it up a bit. Outlines and colors:

But the real surprise to me was this 3rd picture.
More correct, but not nearly as good.
It’s clear that the Artist has to have the Feeling
of the genre. Gotta be out in the world.
Gotta experience. That’s much more important than
having the ‘right conditions’. The ‘right tools’.

I drew this 3rd person in the quiet of my Studio.
Having seen them in person,
I was able to make sense out of the photos
on their website. I made this cleaner, more ‘correct’
picture in the quiet of my well-lit studio. It got
no energy, no rhythm:

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

Artist Frank Zeigler recently told me that he did his curves as angular lines for a man. Gotta remember that, I thought. And I drew:

But I got wrapped up in wrapping the glasses around the head. I guess I forgot to focus on what I was studying.

So I drew this man again:

Then I drew another man. His face was so round. I thought that it was impossible to angular the lines for him. But I discovered that advice need be taken with a grain of salt. When I neeeeeded a curve, I drew a rounded line. But there were plenty of times that I had choice. And by applying the angular-lines-for-male principle, I happily maintained the guy’s maleness - which might have been a problem otherwise:

I like this! So I thought ‘angular!’ again. Drew another man. This is good stuff. My regular pictures with the addition of a new awareness about drawings. I used to prefer to draw women, but now I think I grew up.

I was recently out in California. Had the opportunity to draw the owner of Deep Space Records.
dspacer.com
Keni was definitely a chance to use my new hat skills with the Hats!

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

I while back, I was trying to list the
famous places I’ve drawn.
Mentioned things like Carnegie Hall,
Joey Adams’ last Birthday Party which included guests
Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump, and Ivanna Trump.
I drew at Ritchie Blackmore’s Party (Deep Purple), Sardi’s……
And I just remembered another one - Harry Winston.
I once worked a party for the people who work at
Harry Winston Diamond’s. I just wish I knew that
I’d want to separate out the pictures from those
parties (or even take pictures - in the early days
before we used cellphone-cameras, I usually didn’t bother to carry a camera.)

Okay. Yicchus.
People are people.
But it is exciting to get close to the Stars.

And here’s today’s picture.
I drew it while preparing for this weekend’s gigs.
Last night I drew at a 50-year-old’s Party
at Chateau Briand.
And tonight it’s a 1-year-old’s Party in Coney Island.

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

Art - a struggle? Why? It can be fun.

An artist from Rochester, Bippy Boyer, recently helped me to draw a complicated hat.
He simplified it into 3 strokes. Voila! I’m happy. When you know the answers, it’s no more struggle:

So tonight I tested it out. I drew the following hats that I found by surfing the web:

Success. Another skill under my belt. Thank You, Bippy.