I couldn't believe it. A well meaning guest, yes. But please ~ Can you imagine what it's like for me to miraculously Do my job? To quickly get an amusing likeness of a person? I don't know what you look like until those few minutes that I get to see you. If you turn your head or cover your face, you might as well be in the other room. I cannot possibly know what you look like. I certainly don't need (or even like) for a guest to model like an immobile statue, but I do need to be able to see him/her as though we were having a conversation. A conversation without speech.

This time, a guest actually put this child in front of me like this. Completely face-painted. With a bottle covering his mouth and bottom of face. And a big cotton candy to cover the rest. A small child, with so much going on, that he couldn't possibly have any idea that his face was being looked at to get his Caricature drawn. He probably felt lost, and I had no way to break through.

Luckily, I am a Face Painter as well as a Caricaturist. At least I was able to impose my own 'Face-Painting' onto the picture. The one that had been painted on this child was sooo not my style.

Here's a series of photos that show the sort of subject that I was trying to look at to quickly draw his Caricature. It started as a little boy, new to Parties, who didn't know about Caricatures yet. That's not unusual. In which we start showing the children how to have healthy Fun while they are still young. But in this case, the concerned caregiver thought to hand him a bottle immediately. Now, what's that going to do for the Caricature Activity? How will I know what he looks like when he's not 'eating'?

And sure enough, the good boy drank his bottle:

But then, hard enough as that was ~ for me to know what the boy looked like under his face-painting and any possible glimpse of him behind that bottle, the well-meaning caregiver chose to surprise the boy with

Cotton Candy! A Big cloud of cotton candy. To put in front of the rest of the face-painted face and the bottle. How am I supposed to know what to draw? And even more confused than I was, the child, looking around while trying to drink his bottle and handle his cotton candy and make sense of it all, looking around and turning his head ~ I have no idea of a person's expression, of the size of his nose, etc, if I am looking at the back of his head. Stressful for me. And I imagine it's confusing for the Child too.

At least I love the Caricature. Amazed that it came out so good. It's a good thing that I Pray before each event ~ I Pray to create joyful pictures.

I just wish there was an Order to the events that we bring the children. I could see that this caretaker was conscientious about watching the child and helping him have a good time. But he seemed unaware of the affect that all this good stuff was having when it was piled on too fast.

We wouldn't bring a child to the bathroom the same time we give him/her Birthday Cake. And we wouldn't teach them to eat at the same time that the cake is seen and the Happy Birthday song is sung. It would make so much more sense to apply the same rationality to the Party Events. To have the Caricature drawn Before the Face-Painting. And if the child needs intermittent bottle-comforts during the drawing process, don't surprise him with other wonderful foods at the same time. He can learn to eat them like a conscious gourmet if the wonderful foods are given the same conscious focus as the Fun Art.

Let's Think. Let's take a moment to notice the experience we give the child. I know that I see the guest's experience. I just sit there observing everyone. That's the first step of my job as an Artist.

Oh this is a long ride coming back to NY from CA. Here I drew some line-art on my IPad. Based on a photo in a magazine, but I forgot to save the reference photo. I'm just glad I have my IPad with me. Even though this probably isn't going to help me handle IPad Party Caricatures

Well, spent a litl more time on this one. Still on the plane, but this time I included the Paintbrush tool. Takes longer to use that than the Pencil tool, so I hope I won't be tempted to use it at Parties if I'm working for a Client who wants as many products as possible.

Here's the magazine reference, the IPad outline, the IPad picture including Paintbrushing. Chagrinned because I wanted to focus on producing quickly, but, well, this is my time-off. In the last picture I even stuck an extra Layer of pink underneath it all. Not necessary, but, well, isn't Art for Fun? Not production. We're not like, handing out hotdogs at Parties. I like doing Artwork for real.

I recently spent a week in CAlifornia. Quickly drew these Caricatures on my IPad from a magazine on the plane.

Last year, I only used my IPad for Studio work, because I didn't feel that I was drawing on the IPad quickly enough for Party work. But I feel determined to do PARTY Caricatures Digitally on the IPad this year. I like what I drew on the plane. It was quick enough, so the next step is to look into printing and projecting the pictures at a Party.

I decided that IPad Caricatures don't have to look like Paper Caricatures any more than Paper Caricatures have to look like Oil Portraits. This poster-like style feels just right.