Just a few of the Caricatures that I drew at a Bowling Alley Party. Delighted

I drew this whole Group of Children together in one Caricature. They have this pajama party every year. I feel like it helps solidify their Childhood Experience.

And then I drew them individually. Here are a few of them. So much fun:

Easy-going. Easy does it.

I work so hard. I never scrimp on Quality. So when I'm asked to draw more than one person in a picture during a Party, I've been feeling like I have to give the situation the intense focus that it needs to coordinate everyone's faces together. I feel it as an intense pressure. Intense physical pressure out to every cell of my body. Intense brain pressure focusing In onto this one project. And I have to hide it. To keep the Party Attitude. To look and act light and easy even though I'm feeling such Pressure.

So here I am in my Studio ~ just focusing on how to Simplify my approach. Only for those times when it's just not reasonable to give it so much intensity. These are Party Drawings. Supposed to be light and easy fun. For references, I used random photos taken from all over this blog.

My first attempt was to just draw simple basic Caricatures ~ one at a time ~ Not bothering to determine ahead of time how the Faces will fit together. In other words, giving up what makes me Special.

I ended up sticking in the faces whereever I could. It could work. I feel like people would be pleased with it. But I have to do better than that. I would Not cut back on my hard work if this is how the Group Caricature would turn out. I don't feel like it's enough Quality:

So then I imposed just a little bit of placement planning onto the Composition. I would usually figure out at this point how the individual shapes would all fit together, but I didn't do that this time. In order to Simplify my focus. I just predrew an Oval for each placement, and then I did my Simple Linework Basic Caricature. And I trusted that I would be able to coordinate it all together into one cohesive picture before it was all finished.

And I feel really pleased with it. Not as wildly Ze-Ahrt that I could do if everyone cooperated for as long as I want while I seriously FOcus, but still a happy fun cohesive picture of the people all together. And that's what they want at a Party. Light and easy and fun

And then I was getting tired. It's literally time to go to sleeep.

I figure this is a good time to see how quickly I can draw a 5 person Caricature.

Oh. This took me almost 25 minutes ~ even though I did it with No thinking, No predrawing, No shading. Not bad ~ it is more than 10 Faces per hour. But perhaps I can develop a way to do it even Faster. Some other time. hmmmmm

I recommend Estimating 10 Faces per Hour. But I try to accommodate my Clients when they ask me to draw Faster.

Obviously, I can't do what I can't do. But there are ways to get more people drawn (if they all sit for their Caricatures very quickly ~ I can't very well Rush the Guests). I can approach the Artwork very simply. I can just draw Lines without Shading. I can skip the Color. And I feel that the way to keep them Simple is to just draw what I see ~ with not much in the way of Artist's Interpretation.

Still, the Artwork takes on a Quality of its own. Not the Whole Symphony, but a Simple Beauty in its Simplicity. Kind of Classy.