Quick switch this week from all that Caricature stuff I had been doing. Now I'm getting ready for tomorrow's Fashion Sketch Event. I'm not sure if it's going to be a Las Vegas Style Party or a Pool Party or a 1-year-old Girl's Birthday Party or a 3-year-old Boy's Birthday Party, but I'm ready.(It's so cute when Clients get all excited with more and more ideas. But then I don't know 'what to wear')

Egads. No sooner than I develop that Nose idea, than I feel intrigued to try something else. Completely different. Has nothing to do with the last thing I had been studying.

This time I felt intrigued by some simple shape ideas. I like the clean happy fun answers of what to draw. I decided ot try it based on random photos that I found online.

My very first attempt came out great. This is what I was looking for.

Tried it again, Came out good. But this time ~ as is usually tempting for me ~ I went into to much details.

So I decided to Simplify the next face:

So easy. Could I do this at Parties and Events? Dare I? And once again, what about the 'pretty' one?

It's always something ~

Finally. After all these yearsyearsyearsy of drawing at Events, I finally figured out how to let the picture Evolve without a predraw. Inadvertently.

I previously did marker Before colorsticks ~ struggling to avoid (or at least limit) any predraw. But today I did the colorsticks Before the marker.

Since I use leftover supplies for my time-off drawings, my markers ran out of ink today. I was so intent on my drawing, that I had continued without the marker. I just relied on my colorsticks.

But I feel like my drawings should have Outlines at Parties and Events.

So I went back into today's pictures. I changed the Order of Operations ~ adding the marker to the 'finished' drawings. It worked. Seeing Caricatures side by side ~ both before and after markering, I feel pleased. Presence. In an easy and fun way.

By using the color sticks Before the marker, the predraw was easily inherent in the initial drawing. It wasn't an Extra step.

By using the marker After the colorsticks, I was able to focus more cleanly on my line quality than ever before.

Oh I was having fun drawing today. Based on some nebulous idea about ummmmm..... showing both frontview and sideview in the same drawing at the same time ~ but not the Picasso way of cutting the face down the middle and just drawing a sideview nose on a frontview face. The idea also included moving the features around ~ no need to always draw one eye on each side of the nose, or eyes above mouth sort of thing.

I googled some reference photos on the internet ~ usually looking for people with big noses ~ to see what would happen with this idea.

In my first foray into this idea, the nose took up the space where I would have drawn the mouth:

I tried it again ~ being sure to leave room for the mouth:

Nice, but I felt like the nose-on-the-side idea got lost in the design. So I tried it again:

Good. But can I make it better?

But what about flattering people at Parties and Events ~ I don't usually cater to those self-hating ideas that are imposed by the media, but what if the Guest really is 'pretty' ~ I looked for a reference photo of a pretty girl who had a big nose. Did it. Nice:

I want to do more of this. I found a reference photo of a man with a big nose. Worked great. I actually drew Both eyes on the Same side of the nose, and it doesn't even look out of place:

Much Fun! I found another reference photo of a man with a big nose. Came out great!

I like this. I want to do more of it. I found another reference photo of a man with a big nose. I like a lot about my drawing ~ especially the solidity of the nose, but I messed up a bit. Could not get hte eyes right. Is that because I kept 3/4-view mouth to match the nose, so it didn't work with the frontview eyes? Or is it because I just messed up on capturing his eyes, so they came out stiff and blah:

This next one is good. Nose on side and glasses combined into frontview. Yes. I can do this:

How about 2 on a page? I know I can expect to be asked to draw more than one on a page at a Party or Event. Would I be able to use my current 'thing' if I'm confronted with 2 faces in one drawing? In this one, I decided to move the lips up higher than the eyes and nose. It's okay, but not the best. I'll have to play with this idea some more before I use it at Parties and Events. Moving the mouth up. But it did work in this drawing (which took too much time for a gig ~ because I didn't have my game-plan worked out with this yet:

I tried another Couple. Nice!

I can't seem to stop drawing. I have other things to do! But I can't stop drawing!

This one's okay. Side nose. But I feel like this idea would have worked better with frontview mouth. And the big/little eyes look too wonky:

I did it again. Still drawing. but this time I felt like a more traditional feature placement was required:

Hahahahaha! I did the side-nose thing again ~ looks just like the person in the reference photo ~ but I forgot to try that frontview eye thing that I originally set out to do. So it ended up looking like the nose was coming out of the eye. Like she couldn't see passed her big nose.

And as I was drawing the errant strand of hair, I noticed that I could have brought the inner line of it over ~ to look like the head-hair was coming out of her nose. But I chose not to do that. I felt like it Might be too much. Sometimes if I try Too much in one drawing, it loses credibility.

I wonder if it would have worked. But we can only see the choice that we Did make:

One more. Just one more, and then I really have to get to my other activities. I want to work in the garden before the sun goes down. I love to pull weeds:

Or maybe I'll go bicycle riding. Must get to thing Before That Sun Goes Down!

bts, that final picture that I drew here today ~ It worked Great! Looks like her. Looks like her attitude. I did the 2 yes on same side of nose thing that I had set out to do today, and I feel very happy.

Makes me feel like one more ~ one more ~ but I have to be able to set limits.