I was hired to draw at 2 Events for this upcoming Saturday. My Client for the 2nd Event, a Man's Surprise 40th Birthday Party, my Client mentioned 'You might want to know that we have a Super Hero theme. We're all going to be wearing Super Hero tshirts. Well.... wearing Super Hero tshirts ~ that's no problem for me. I chose my Super Girl tshirt! But the Caricatures..... um.... I was only hired to draw Caricatures. And that usually means 'Face Only' unless something else was previously agreed to on the Agreement. But I would like to do something special for my Client. If I can. I like to support my Clients' parties.

But I get Paid to work at Events. And we have a gray area here about Copyright law. I guess. I don't know much about it, and I don't want to have to find out. I feel like it makes sense that I wouldn't be allowed to sell pictures in which I Copied someone else's Artwork. So I wouldn't usually be willing to draw Superman, The Hulk, Spiderman, etc on My Caricatures. But in this case,if they are Wearing those designs on their tshirts, and it's my job to draw what I see..... Perhaps it could be allowed. But I don't want to have to find out. So hmmmm..... perhaps I can dream up my own Super Hero designs.

My background was mostly traditional Oil Painting, Alla Prima Landscapes, and Portraits. So I tried to channel Comic Books for this upcoming Party. We all know basically what they're like. With those high-contrast action poses. Tonight I wanted to troubleshoot what would come out of me. So I'll be ready for the Event.

The first thing I did was a Lot of predraw. A lot of thinking out how a pose would be. Then I imagined a 40-year old man might be wearing a suit/vest, so I colored in as though it was a Super Hero in a vest. I guess I forgot that my Client did say that they would all be wearing Super Hero T-shirts. Anyway, I do feel like I learned something from this first attempt. I learned to move the Neck toward to front of the face so there would be room to punch the arm Upward after drawing the face. And I also learned that I wouldn't want to just color in big areas of 'home-color'.

Tried again. Much better shading the 2nd time. Drastic Black and Whites. Looking statuey. But I didn't fit the whole body on the page as I originally imagined.

So then my 3rd attempt. Great pose. This one is looking good. Now I want to try using it with a Face. So I'd be ready for the Party, I used some random Photos of 40 year old men that I found online.

Welllll..... Ummmmm..... 4th Caricature ~ looking stiff. Mistakenly mangled the hand. And I spent way too much time on the Predraw. That would not work at Parties. Got to simplify the pose and not try to reinvent the wheel with every picture that I draw at the Party.

So I did Caricature #5. That one's good. Good, and I feel like my Audience would like it, but it's not good enough for Me. I wouldn't feel proud of myself for drawing like That at a Party.

The 6th Caricature. Finally. I did a Simple Face Exaggeration with a Simple Power Body. I would feel happy with this at an Event.

Tried it agan, the 7th picture here, and yikes egads not good enough. He looked just like that, but I don't feel like the exaggeration is good enough. And the quick pose ~ which was trying too hard for me ~ doesn't work it's icky. And since I ink the face Before the body at an Event, no time to rethink the wheel when Clients expect a lot of people to be drawn in the allotted time, I ended up with no room for his Hand.

Aaah. Now I have my approach all ironed out. For the 8th picture here, I easily Exaggerated the face with just a little predraw indicators, and then I used a very simple post that I could have fun with. This could be ready enough for this 2nd Party that I'll be handling on Saturday. But oh no! Now what about the special circumstances for the 1st Event!

Never a dull moment.............

I'm feeling better now, but I was in a funk all day. Rough day emotionally.

Didn't have anything in mind when I picked up an old Crayola Marker to draw some lines when I had a Waiting time (I don't remember why/what). But it turned into a Caricature of how I was feeling:

I felt like making a Post to see my Caricatures from several different Parties all together. Just starting now with these:

Well.... not really..... although I do try to exercise that..... sometimes. Like I'll try to put away stuff without turning on the lights in a dark room, or I'll try to read without flooding the page with easy-light. I don't do it often, because I don't like to. But I feel like it's a good idea to exercise vision the same way we exercise other muscles. By adding a little difficulty to it.

What I'm writing about here is handling all types of Party situations. Usually the light is okay, but sometimes Party Lighting is.... less than optimal for the Caricature Artist. Like this Party. Where I was drawing in a room with Changing Colored Lights.

Didn't stress me out this time. I finally came with enough lights ~ that I set up most advantageously ~ to be able to draw comfortably. To be able to see the people and to be able to see my drawing board and kinda able to see my color sticks.

I felt amazingly comfortable ~ I finally brought along enough Lights. But the photos, of course, came out fully affected by the colored lights.

A good time was had by All ~ Including the Artist!