August 4th

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

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

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.