Caricatures: Summer 2007 - ????

Beasting in the Park.

2010-08-14T01:12:00.000-07:00

After the wedding gig, I tried to beast a few of the customers the next day.

The End of Summer and a Wedding

2010-08-12T08:31:00.000-07:00

The summer is almost over and I have hardly posted anything. In the past, I posted every sketch that I did and I put up a lot of mediocre work that I wasn't necessarily proud of. So now, I am only going to post some of my favorite sketches and leave the mediocre ones for my hard drive.

For some reason this summer, I really embraced people that wanted to be fishing. Fishing was a huge part of recreational culture growing up in the midwest and I feel like I have to keep that part of me alive.

Storm from the X-men (I never drew Storm before, so I wasn't sure what her costume looked like, so I just put an X on her chest)

These sketches were from a gig that I did last week. They are a little crazy and loose, but that's the freedom that you get from drawing people that are having a good time.

I'll post some more next week.

Summer is finally here!

2010-06-26T10:20:00.000-07:00

So, the park is finally starting to fill up again and despite the fact that the waterpark is seeming to deter potential customers away, I am drawing more sketches than I was 6 months ago and loving it. I forgot my camera a few days ago and I regretted not being able take a picture of this couple that I drew, but I gave them my email address and told them to email me a photo of it. That never works. Either they follow through and end up taking a bad photo that I can't use or the just never follow through. So alas, this time I remembered to bring it the last two days and here are a few that I managed to snap.

I hope that Optimus doesn't see Bumblebee snoozin' on the job.

It was her birthday, so I made her look young and youthful. Her husband told me that he wanted her to look like Pamela Anderson.

This young lad stopped by to ask the price, so that his grandchildren could get drawn tomorrow. I never thought I would see him again, so I convinced him to sit down for a few minutes, so that I could draw him for free.

The King of KPT

2010-06-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't updated since last summer, but it isn't because I haven't been drawing caricatures. I've decided to upload some new sketches to kick off the summer. I am going to try to upload a few a week, so stay tuned.

Trophy Wife

High School Sweethearts

The King and Princess of Soccer

Scuba Boy

Smalls and Andrea

Slash

Ricky, Stephan, and Karl

Exaggerations

2009-08-17T12:35:00.000-07:00

When I came back from my weekend on Thursday, I was determined to take my sketches up a level. I was making a lot of sales in previous weeks, but I was starting to feel like the quality of my sketches was lacking. I was getting great likenesses, but for some reason, people weren't gravitating to me to get drawn. I had a few customers have my sketches re-drawn by other artists and felt like if I was going to have my sketches rejected, then they were going to be as a result of extreme exaggeration and not as a result of taste. On Sunday, I only drew 11 people, but I made all 11 count and all of them were masterpieces. I had two clients question the likeness based on taste, but only one of them walked off before I finished the drawing. My camera was out of batteries on Sunday, so I couldn't take any photos, but I told the best ones to email me a copy. Be sure to take a look at how much I pushed things compared to previous weeks. You won't be disappointed.

This was the first sketch that I drew to kick off my week. I don't particularly like Harry Potter, but I enjoyed the energy that this character allowed.

Nice Indian Couple from Northern California

This little girl was so full of energy, that I never thought I would get a decent likeness. She was running around the booth and carrying on, but I think that I was able to capture her.

These people watched me draw the previous two sketches and had to get drawn by me.

This lady was a really great sport. She wasn't really happy about how I made her look, but her husband loved it so much that he got drawn as well.

This kid brought it back at the end of the day and wanted more waves and clouds in the background. He wanted it to look like the gangster above, but I'm not really sure what he expected.

3/4 View

I asked if he wanted to get his kids drawn and he said, "No, just me." I couldn't believe it, so I hooked him up.

She said that she wanted to be drawn smiling, so I gave her a huge smile.

One of the best babies, I've ever drawn.

These two South African boys were very polite and talkative. I liked the robot on his hat.

Taylor and I split this family. He drew the kids and I drew the parents. I was feeling competitive so I tried to really exaggerate their features, especially the fu manchu.

Her husband made her get drawn, she looked at it and laughed and when I asked to take her picture, she walked off.

I love that she got drawn with a ukulele.

Christian Bale

From a picture of a previous customer.

Caricature Stamp Machine

2009-08-10T10:50:00.000-07:00

These days off are going to be so good for me. I think I've hit a brick wall in my park sketch. I can still do brilliant caricatures of adult and teenage couples and even the parents in a family sketch look great, but maybe it's because I draw 100 kids a week that they are all starting to look the same. On both Saturday and Sunday this week, I had a rejected sketch, because the parents didn't think that it looked like the child. They were wrong and just liked the style of the other artist that I was working with, but they were trying to be a polite as possible and ended up upsetting me anyway. I might flip through my Joe Bluhm book a few times over the next couple days and hopefully break out of my slump. Here are some sketches that I did this weekend. Some of them are pretty good, but some are just mediocre. Enjoy...

These kids were a lot of fun. I'm not really a HUGE fan of AC/DC, but I love drawing kids as Angus Young. Perhaps it feels a little rebellious to draw kids at a children's theme park as icons that have song titles like "Highway to Hell". Meanwhile the other kid wanted to play keyboards and I couldn't help, but draw him like Hall and Oates playing a Yamaha Keytar.

I love drawing couples and since I've been drawing an exorbitant amount of children, this drawing was super refreshing. They were really nice and full of energy. So I hooked them up. I even put the dragon coaster in the background.

I think that I can still draw beautiful asian girl caricatures. This one turned out exceptionally well, considering the amount of stress that I had that day. I didn't take a picture of the girl, but check out the sketch.

I was really bored when I first opened the booth and there wasn't a guest in sight, so I drew this t-shirt for my band.

They all wanted to be musicians. I love drawing musicians.

I love the suit, that I gave him. It is super loose and cartoony. He chose my caricature over a Joker facepaint, so that was a small victory.

GI Joe.

I've drawn a million jedi's over the last 4 years, but why is this one special? Because it proves that I can still get a good likeness.

It's not typical that I will draw more than one caricature of a child in a day, but what is even less typical for me is to draw one of the caricatures as a gender confused princess. The skeleton is really good in my opinion. It is cartoony yet proportional.

This was the last caricature that I did on Sunday. I only drew 9 people that day, which was heartbreaking considering I drew 35 people the day before. When I drew this sketch, I wanted to prove that I could still draw a great caricature with a good likeness of the person. I drew her really slow and really took my time, because I felt like it was the only way to compete with Taylor visually, because he draws half as fast as me.

Thanks for reading and checking out my blog.

J.Lo's Hubby Mark Anthony

2009-08-04T15:46:00.000-07:00

I drew this from this week's People Magazine and thought that he looked so much like a 60's psychedelic cartoon that I gave him appropriate colors.

August Rush

2009-08-03T17:49:00.000-07:00

I've really taken to drawing rock stars, so I drew the Kings of Leon. I'm thinking about drawing U2 and maybe the Dandy Warhols as well.

A pediatrician wanted a caricature for her office, so I drew her healing a child.

These next two caricatures were really fun. The guests were really generous with their time and loved joking around with each other. It's a pleasure and actually refreshing to draw grown ups that make fun of each other in a park where parents prefer to have their kids drawn instead.

I was always a fan of the Ghostbusters growing up and felt like I had to have a caricature of them up at my booth (See the previous posts.) This couple wanted to buy my sketch, but I like looking at it so much, that I just drew them as Ghostbusters instead.

We needed a pirate caricature for a sign out side of the "Pirate" caricature booth, so I drew myself.

Superbad?

The Beatles

2009-07-15T15:28:00.000-07:00

This is a Sgt. Peppers Caricature. I can do better, but this was a quick one.

Celebrity Caricatures

2009-07-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

The Ramones:
(I think that the names are wrong, but I got them from a different website.)

Kobe Bryant:

Lebron James:

Michael Jackson:

Ghostbusters:

Summer 2009 Volume 1

2009-07-07T11:25:00.000-07:00

So honestly, where did the last year go. I mean, I seriously should have kept up with this but it seemed like every time I was ready to upload some images, I would have something else happening on my day off. Not today folks! So this is a small summary of mostly the last 7 months. I have a few on here from 2008, but honestly most of the stuff is fairly recent. I am going to start working on more celebrity caricatures this summer. So, hopefully, I will keep this area a bit more stocked. I am also making updates to the cmcaricatures website, so check that every once in a while.

So where do I start. I am going to be honest and just talk a little bit about where and when the caricatures were done and not worry about the chronology of the whole thing like in previous posts...

This is probably one of the cutest caricatures that I've drawn at legoland, I believe that I was at the KPT booth and here is a pirate.

Castle Caricature Create You Own Super Hero

She didn't buy this one, but I thought that it was awesome. This was at the KPT.

Come on and get happy!

Do you love me? Do you surfer girl?

He just kept saying, "Check out that package!"

This is one of my good friends, Scott. He collects BMX bikes. I drew this one in my living room a few nights ago actually.

Grotesque Self Portrait

More Custom Heroes

Here are a few from a gig that I did on the beach.

This is one of my favorites from the spring.

And last but not least...The old "fit so many people on the page that it looks like one of the people is growing out of the other guys forehead" trick.

Thanks. More to come.

Welcome to 2008! April, May, & June

2008-06-14T22:37:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't posted on my blog in almost 9 months and I'm sure that all of my fans figured that I fell off the face of the earth. I didn't have my camera and sort of lost touch with the whole blog scene, but I'm back. This might be an over saturation of caricature greatness, but if you take it in small dosages, you'll make it through.

April 5:

April 24:

I did a gig at a casino out in the desert. There was virtually no one there, but the people that got drawn were really entertaining. This old man didn't talk much, but he seemed pretty cool.

April 24:

I drew this little girl and her brother and even though the drawings were free, their parents were giving me the evil eye like, "And you're trying to sell me this...this doesn't look like my kid...who are you trying to fool." It isn't a great likeness, but the fact that they were looking over my shoulder and scoffing at me, didn't loosen me up any.

This girl came around with a group of 3 or 4 others. She insisted that I include her "Flintstones" necklace. Her friends were laughing behind me and she really liked the way it turned out, even though, I didn't give her a neck.

I drew this woman and her husband, but her's looked way better. I sat there with her for 3 minutes and she maintained a frown, as if she didn't even know what a smile was. When I was done and I took her photo, she broke out into a huge smile as if, I was trying to compare how miserable she could look and how happy she could look.

This girl was totally ridiculous. She was so drunk, she was falling all over herself. She hated her drawing and ended up crumbling it up into a little ball and forgetting that I ever drew it. She uncrumbled it and then gave me a hug. I thought it was a good likeness, but I think that her bubbling personality saved the night for me.

These women were awesome. The woman on the right was a former exotic dancer turned hardcore cougar. If I wasn't working, I might have taken her up on her offer to buy me a drink, but under the circumstances I felt it was unprofessional. They both wanted me to make their boobs big. So, I did.

May 31:

This family loved their drawing. The kids loved the fact that the mom was "eating" her son's head.

I didn't get a chance to take a picture of these kids, but they were totally cool. The father was all about 80's metal and he wanted his son to be playing a guitar like Zakk Wyde. It's a good think that I've heard of Black Label Society and Ozzy or else this kid might have been playing a Fender Stratocaster.

These kids were a lot of fun to draw. When I drew this girl as Dora, I hadn't seen a picture of boots in close to a year. It might not be exactly alike, but it looks like a monkey.

This baby looks totally crazy. Almost too crazy to even include, but too crazy to not include. I can't believe that they actually bought it. People are so nice. I hope that the baby doesn't grow up with psychological issues, due to his ugliness in this caricature.

Father and baby, Batman and Batgirl...

Mom as Alice in Wonderland.

June 5:
I did a gig in Orange County and here are some of my sketches.

Back at Legoland
June 7:

June 14

I'll try to keep you guys posted more this summer than I have over the past year. I'll keep posting as long as you keep giving the love.

PEACE

August 24 & 25

2007-08-28T20:14:00.000-07:00

I decided to start carrying my sketchbook around with me and when I go out to bars or restaurants or the airport. My bro was in town last week and while I was waiting for his flight to come in I started to quick sketch the people picking up their baggage. They aren't terribly detailed or even accurate, but here is a same.

This is Grant. I drew him at Hennessey's.

This is Smalls. I drew this one at Hennessey's as well.

When I went in on Friday, it was the first time that I drew in the park in over a week and I was sure that I was going to be somewhat rusty. I was working with B. and as usual, I was pranking him about how much he is coming along in his sketches. I didn't expect to draw that many people, but I was hoping that it was going to be worth being there, considering my previous week was pretty stressful and all I wanted to do was lay on the couch and draw in my sketchbook.

She kept the same face the whole time I was drawing them and when I finished, she was upset that I drew her how she really looked. This is probably one of my favorite caricatures that I have drawn all year.

I know that the commentary was fairly limited on this post, but I wanted to get one up.

August 8 -15

2007-08-20T20:00:00.000-07:00

It was a long two weeks at MP and Legoland and I'm not sure how I made it through. I was starting to really get stressed out, because I wasn't drawing well and I didn't have time to balance my work and relaxation time. I didn't have my camera on Monday, so the week started off on Wednesday, the 8th.

August 8th

This girl and her little brother insisted on having their eyes bug out every time I looked at them, so that's how I drew them. Their family seemed to think that I drew the little boy super cute, but I jacked up his eyes a little.

August 9th

I've been drawing after J. a lot when I have been coming in after work and people insist on having their kids drawn by him until he completely exited the park. However, I was able to sneak this little boy past him. I feel like I really got his nose and grin and he was pretty happy with it as well.

These kids were pretty fun to draw. I think this might be the cutest baby that I've ever draw and I don't think that pacifier hurt the drawing any. I would've liked to have drawn the little boy as well as I drew his sister, but I figure if I can at least get one cute face out of the two, I didn't do too bad.

This kid just came from Hawaii, so I drew him on a desert island.

I love drawing families, but I still haven't really come up with a good way to get everyone to fit in there very well. The youngest child always looks good, but by the time I get to the father, there is almost no room to work with. I am almost tempted to start with the father and move from right to left...at least the baby won't have the biggest head...

These kids were pretty cool. I don't think they could decided right away what they wanted to be drawn as. I think at first the parents wanted to get the whole family drawn, but it was getting late and they just got the boys. I think that I might have suggested a rocket and I hooked them up with something that would've looked modern in the 1950's.

August 10th

This family dispersed before I could take their picture, but it was a decent likeness...they all seemed to like it.

Mario and Luigi. The kid on the right assumed that I had never drawn Mario in my life and that I had never even see a picture of him, because he felt the need to even tell me that Mario had an "M" on his hat and Luigi had an "L".

This one was pretty typical and unexciting, but I think that it looked cute and I captured her smile pretty well.

Father/Son, Mario/Luigi's have become my favorite caricatures to draw. It seems like it's been pretty recent that I've been getting these requests, but they seem to turn out well every time. I stayed an hour later to finish this one and I listened to them talk about staying in some luxury hotel and having a Lexus, a Jaguar, and a pimp SUV back in Texas, but they didn't even let me keep the 6 cents change.

August 11th

Saturdays at Castle...Boy, do I loath them. As mentioned in previous posts, the Castle stand just sends out bad vibes. Whether it's the fact that there is never any customers until after noon and you opened at before ten or the fact that the person coming in at noon is never there when they are supposed to be, the whole day just seems too long and I just want to leave as soon as I get done opening. As a result of my boredom, I drew this guitar and a few simple bodies on some scrap cardboard to pass the time. I didn't think that they looked too bad, so I took pictures of them.

The day started to pick up and I sort of zoned into my own little world once I started drawing people. This kid had his tongue out the whole time, so I drew it that way. He looks a few years older in the caricature than I would've liked, but he'll grow into it.

The likeness of this one was a stretch, but I liked my subtle execution of the pregnant bikini and the cute baby with a shovel and a pale. They ended up getting a matte and frame, so I didn't mind that it didn't look much like them.

I never know what they are going to think when they see how I draw their teeth, if the smile gets bigger, I did a good job.

This kid didn't speak English, so his mother translated to me that he wanted to be riding on a yellow dirt bike and have long hair blowing in the wind to show how fast he was going. His brother made fun of him and said that he looked like a girl, but I don't think he minded.

Father/Son, Mario/Luigi...Classic.

It was good likeness. She looks cute.

This guy was with his daughter and he really wanted her to get draw. She resisted for awhile and he said that he would get one if she got one. He wanted to be drawn as a Klingon and although I had only drawn Vulcan's before, I knew this would be a challenge. I am not a Trekkie. I haven't even seen all the motion pictures, but I did see Star Trek 6: The Undiscovered Country. That movie was filled with Klingon's and so I used that movie as my reference. I drew the uniform like in the movie and the guy's wife told me that I drew it wrong and I had to fix it...I got it figured out eventually and he loved it, but you've gotta cross your fingers when you are crossing someone with a sci fi character that you know nothing about...

This is his daughter. Good likeness...I like the dolphin as well.

I think that this was his son. He was super quiet.

By the time, I got to this drawing. I had enough of working at the Castle stand and my sketches felt like they were getting worse and worse. Luckily, T. showed up from his gig and I was able to bail out of there with little to no conflict.

August 13th

I got Sunday off and when I came back in on Monday, I was still exhausted. The red-head had a really goofy face and while I was drawing her, I wished that I had the skills of Joe Bluhm, so that I could really draw her ridiculous. I did my best and they were both happy.

This girl seemed frozen, so I tried to draw her that way.

I love drawing caricatures at a theme park in the summer because you get to hear interesting stories about people. Apparently, the guy on the left is the long lost brother of the guy on the right and they just met for the first time, earlier in the week. They seemed really different, but I think that makes for good caricatures. At the end, when I offered them a matte and a frame, their mother says, "I don't need a frame. I can frame pictures myself. I am a serious artist..." At first, I was sort of offended that she was judging my talent as an artist, by the way that I choose to make a living, but then I figure she had to be poor and unemployed or else I probably would've heard of her.

August 14th

Just another Jedi.

She turned out kinda cute, but I didn't think it was a good likeness.

I felt like a little exaggeration...it was one of my best over the past two weeks.

August 15th

This guy was pretty cool. He wanted to know where the cool people hung out in San Diego on Wednesday nights. I had no idea, I was working.

This kid approached the stand with 3 other kids and his mother. I was willing to give them a discount. If you get 3 kids drawn, then I'll throw in the 4th one for free. They only wanted two of the kids draw and felt like a fair counter offer was Buy one, get one free...it's not hamburgers, it's caricatures.

These fellas were cool...They had a hard time sitting still and the little one was a little cranky, but I think that I got a good likeness.

I think that her grandpa was Santa Claus.

It seemed like it took forever to finish this one, but I eventually got it done.

Fin.

August 4th

2007-08-06T22:43:00.000-07:00

I worked up at the castle caricature stand on Saturday and as soon as I got there, I just wasn't feeling it. There's just something about the atmosphere up there, that just brings me back to bad memories from past summers. I was working with M. (probably for the last time) and although working with her usually puts me in a good mood, I was rather cynical all day and part of it was because no one wanted to get drawn. At KPT or First Aid, I am a selling wizard, but at Castle, I am just a jester dancing for coins. I didn't draw many people or get very good sales, but among the sketches that I sold, I feel like I got a few good likenesses.

He wasn't the first person that I remember drawing that day, but it was definitely the drawing that I was most pleased with. This dude looked like he could kill me on any given day, but he was from the midwest (Detroit) and I knew that we shared a bond.

This kid was pretty fun to draw. I felt like I had already drawn him earlier in the year as Yoda, but I didn't give him the ears. This kid insisted that I give him big green ears...so I did.

After the kid that wanted to look like Yoda, this kid came up from behind and said, "Don't draw me with big ears or horns." He was pretty cool...He gave me a $3 tip.

I don't really remember what I did after drawing this young man, but after having a large part of my day being filled with relatively unsatisfying drawings, the thinning of the crowd and a failed prank, I had decided that I wasn't going to draw any more that day. It wasn't a terrible day as far as sales go, but it was the whole castle feel that was getting to me. I am scheduled to work there this coming Saturday as well, so hopefully I will break free of my castle curse and really kick some a$$.

The much anticipated post for the dates July 23-28

2007-08-01T23:08:00.000-07:00

Since I started drawing three days a week, I have less time to update the images on my blog. I know that I have an excess of fans that anxiously await my quips and incredulous statements, so I will try to update it more often.

July 23

I drew this kid's head really large. I decided that I was going to start with the eyes on a few sketches and see if I had more luck getting good exaggerations if I started from the inside of the face instead of the face shape.

This couple was pretty cool. They got their kids drawn earlier in the day and they decided that they were going to get one as well. I started with the guy and then drew the girl. They loved the nose that I drew on him and she loved how big that I made her teeth.

July 25

This kid was probably the coolest person that I ever drew. We talked about Disneyland and Universal Studios and he told me about how he races super cross dirt bikes across the country and that he is the Southwest Champion. He loved the caricature and as he walked away, he gave me a $3 tip. Mad Props.

T. hustled these people pretty well. He got them in the chair, drew their faces, and sold himself a frame...They came back a little later and watched me draw the snowboard girl and heard me say that I could draw bodies for $5 and wanted me to re-draw their sketches. I didn't really like the way it turned out, but I think that I had a decent likeness on the little girl.

I don't draw cars very often, but when I do, they never turn out the way that they are supposed to. I figure that I would be better off just drawing a wedge with wheels like a boy scout pinewood derby car or a dune-buggy like Ned Flanders at the Super Bowl.

July 28

I started drawing on this day with the intention of getting some absolutely killer likenesses...I'm not sure where I was going with these next two, but her grandmother loved them.

I thought this girl turned out looking really cute. I'm not that good at drawing babies, but I think that this one was alright.

I liked the drawing of the kid on the right a little more than the one on the left.

M. drew her daughter like a mother pushing around some monkeys in stroller and then she decided that she wanted to get a caricature as well. She was really nice and later in the day she gave me her business card and told me to call her if I ever make it up to SF... ;)

Scottish people are the best. There is just something about the accent that makes me think about the toughest, rowdiest, group of people that you'll ever meet. These girls sounded a bit more Americanized than their father (who happened to think that the caricatures was great.)

The parents stood behind me and had a discussion in Spanish the whole time I drew his face and just as I started to put on color, they leaned over to me and whispered, "He looks so sad." I looked over and the kid and saw him with a frown and I said "Uh huh." They said, "In the picture, he looks sad." I sort of looked at the kid and looked back at the parents and thought, "Well, I didn't make him sad, he was sad when he sat down."

Corn rows...will I ever be able to draw corn rows?

July 30

I just wasn't in the mood for drawing on Monday. I just sort of wanted to stand there and stare out into space. I started talking to B. about people that we've drawn over the weekend and demos. I ranted and raved about how he didn't have any of my demos up and that I needed to be able to tell the kiddies that I could draw well enough to have art on the wall of the stand. He said that he hated hockey players, so as a prank, I drew this bearded man as a hockey player.

Not that I don't love drawing people during the day, but the last people that roll up and double your sales, just hit the spot and make you glad that you came in for 3 hours on a Monday night, instead of laying on the couch. These kids were a riot. I thought it was funny about the hockey jersey, baseball cap, and soccer...I think that I rocked it...the family did too, they bought a matte and frame.

Peace out...

Week of July 16 - 21

2007-07-22T10:19:00.001-07:00

I worked 3 days during the week, in addition to Saturday, this week: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. The days sort of blurred together and when I looked through photos that I took, I wasn't sure that I captured all the sketches that I wanted. So although some of the drawings are really poor, I might have actually drawn some good ones on those nights and just don't have photos of them. Take my word for it, I drew pretty well for the most part.

This week, I had two rejects...More than half of the sketches that I did this week were God awful and I actually sold mattes and frames with some of them, but the one's that got reject, God! they weren't even that bad.

-Monday-Wednesday-Friday-

These are the first TMNT and Transformers that I've drawn since I was a kid, trying to draw Optimus Prime and Michaelangelo with wooden nunchucks. These kids were far from impressed with my attempts at mentally regressing through 15 or more years of not drawing these characters and throwing out what ever I could. The parents were impressed and paid for the drawings, so that's all I really cared about...for the most part.

I find it odd when drawing families as Mario Bros. It's hard to believe that Mario is almost as old as I am...maybe older and there are two generations of people in the world that have shared hours staring at Mario while hopping on mushrooms and turtles.

I drew this kid twice. He sat there not smiling for 5 minutes and I drew him not smiling. His mother wanted me to draw him smiling, so I told the kid to smile.

This was one of my rejects. It looked "too silly". I hate people that won't just let me draw...

This was the last one that I drew on Friday night. I drew some kids skiing and some Southern Belles that night and they were strong, but the pictures were lost.

Saturday...

At the time, I didn't really like it, but when I looked at the digital photo, it stood out...

I've seen too many Vietnam movies...I told the kid that in twenty years all of my "Army Man" caricatures will have desert fatigues, but I was raised on Vietnam...even though the miniature toys I played with were still from the WW2 molds.

I am awful at drawing little Asian girls. What am I going to do when I move to Hawaii??

Did I draw this one?

This one was the knife through my heart. I drew the faces. The people stood up and looked at the caricature. They sat behind me and told their translator to tell me what bodies to draw. They watched me draw the bodies. The looked at the caricature for a few minutes and before I colored it, they paid for it and said that they would come back later. They sent someone to pick up their drawing. 20 minutes later, just before I am about to leave, another person, who I didn't see previously, hands me the tube and tells me that "they" want a refund because they don't think it looks like them. I was baffled. My head almost spun until it exploded.

Best caricature of all time...

And on my way out...

That's right...Wayne Brady.

July 14, 2007

2007-07-14T19:54:00.001-07:00

I was back at KPT today and as usual I made over $600 in sales. It wasn't the best day for sketches as far as quality, but I had a few that were on. It was sunny for some of the day, but overall it was partly cloud...bright, but not hot.

Fin.

7-7-07

2007-07-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

Today started off a little cloudy, but the sun eventually came out and people started sitting down. There were 3 people at the booth, so I didn't draw as much as I would've liked, but I got a few really solid sketches done. Gabriel brought in the Joe Bluhm Rejects: The Book, and as I flipped through, I tried to get inspiration for my own caricatures. Although, I didn't really capture the "Joe Bluhm" style, I started to re-attempt to exaggerate the features of the people I was drawing.

These kids took off before I finished the sketch, so I wasn't able to get a photo.

This was just a demo, but she said that I made her look old. I felt, if anything I made her look too young. I eventually cleaned up the bottom of her hair, but she still didn't buy it.

The End.

July 4th, Independence Day

2007-07-05T18:08:00.000-07:00

The day started off a little overcast, but turned out to be rather sunny. There weren't too many huge crowds, but the caricatures that I did draw were fairly strong and I was satisfied with my work.

The family walked off before I was able take their pictures, but take my word for it, it was a good likeness to them.

June 30 & July 2

2007-07-03T00:49:00.002-07:00

Saturday was sunny and beautiful. I had a good night sleep and went in ready to draw. I drew a few families and a few color faces, but most of the day consisted of double and single color bodies. Gabriel is a great motivator and I always draw better when I'm working with him. As the highest seller of caricatures in the country (and my boss), he makes me want to sell more caricatures.

This first one wasn't drawn in B&W, I just had my ISO cranked up too high and forgot to bring it down until my 3rd sketch.

These two were hyper and ran off before I could get their picture, but it was a good likeness from what I can remember.

I would've taken a picture of his brother, but he ran away after I got his face down on paper.

He sat there with a "duh" expression on his face for the 10 minutes that it took to draw/color his caricature, but when I had him hold it up for his likeness, he smiled.

I decided that I get too bored on weekday nights after work and instead of watching re-runs of Scrubs, I could be drawing faces and keeping up with my so-called talent. I ended up making almost as much money as the other two guys, who had been at the booth all day, in only 3 hours. This next set of sketches was drawn between six and nine on a humid monday night. (July 2)

Billy drew her chin protruding too far in his 3/4 view, so she had me re-draw her looking like Pamela Anderson ("...with big boobs and a skinny waist."). They were both good sketches, but I guess, she liked mine better.

This was my last sketch of the night. Sold a matte and a frame. Score!

And I get a day off from drawing before Independence Day.

June 24

2007-06-24T11:49:00.000-07:00

Saturday was Star Wars Day at Legoland and much as anticipated, I drew a lot of Jedi's. There was an excess of people dressed in elaborate, authentic looking Star Wars costumes stationed close to the booth and were taking the attention away from my amazing drawin' skillz, but I managed to snag a few.

I drew this kid twice. Apparently they weren't satisfied with the one that I did earlier in the day. I didn't really like either one of them because the kid's head was really weird and small and I didn't know how to approach that.

Because I was looking to increase my sales, I decided that I would draw one more kid. It was like an hour after the park was closed and eventhough I should've told them no, I stayed and drew this last kid. I was very polite and talked to them for a long time about how I started drawing caricatures, etc. 20 minutes later, I finished...no matte, no frame, no tube, no tip...come on!!!

All in all, $600 in sales was pretty good considering I only draw once a week.

Peace.

June 9, 2007

2007-06-09T18:20:00.000-07:00

Last week, I was totally sick. I was drawing for Billy and I seriously didn't want to be there...I ended up making over $600 in sales (the most of anyone drawing in the park) and made some fine masterpieces along the way. I brought my camera with me, but as I sat in the car upon my arrival to the park, I decided that I was too sick to draw well and that none of my sketches would be worthy of taking a picture of...I was wrong and now I have no documentation of those excellent drawings...I came back this week to a beautiful sunny day at KPT and I brought my camera in hopes of capturing a whole slew of masterpieces...It was extremely slow as far as getting customers to sit down, so not only were my sales down, but my confidence was down to. This lack of confidence led to some pretty sad images, but I am posting them never the less...enjoy...

May 19th 2007

2007-05-20T17:32:00.001-07:00

After 11 hours of caricatures between drawing at the theme park and a high school prom in San Pedro, here are a few examples of my "greatness".

Although I drew caricatures for 7 hours and made $423 in draw, matte, and framesales, I only found two drawings that I felt worthy of displaying.

Later in the evening, I drew caricatures for the Walnut High School Prom. I took photos of all the couples and their caricatures, but the photos appeared too blurry to be worth displaying. The drawings were pretty hit or miss, but I was pretty happy with most of them...and the kids liked them too.

That's all for now.