Can you understand ?? This picture is okay, not the greatest, but I'm all excited with it. It's a very important piece. It marks a turning point in my development as a Caricaturist, as a real Artist who doesn't just copy the world.

It's a picture of Klaas OpDeBeek, an Artist from Belgium. The first photo shows him holding the picture that I drew. It's okay:

Then the picture was hanging around on my floor before mailing it to him. And one day, not trying, no effort, an Idea (Eureka!) came to me. Those narrow cheeks with that big noticeable mouth -- I COULD TUCK THE CHEEKS INTO A BOWL OF THE MOUTH ! I was thinking outside of the box. Hadn't seen that done anywhere else (That's the picture that I posted here on 11/15/08):

Picture 2 (above) was the big turning point. But here's another rendition where I tried a different way to portray my idea. Now I'm just fiddling around with it:

Eureka! I'm a Real Artist, a CREATOR !

I Like to take my time I mean that when I want to do a thing I like to take my time and Do it right. Lyrics by Mr. Rogers

More than ever, I'm believing in that. I can crank out picture after picture at a Party, but I can also hit that 10 per hour request when I take a litl more time to really look. (I'd like to take All the time I'd want, Really get into each picture to peruse through pleasurable CreA-tivity, but I've never seen a party handled that way...... I'm thinking now - would anyone like me to study and observe - sustaaaaayned look - at the Guest of Honor - following the Guest of Honor around all through the Party - instead of person pop person pop person?)

Anyway, here are some of the pictures I drew at Parties recently:

I think I've already grown again!

Dan, Elgin, and I met up with some other Artists who were traveling through New York - including Paul from England, Yuko, Kimmi, Kuni, and Taka from Japan, and Andy from CA !

Here are 2 Pictures that I calmly drew on my train-ride home - with No Predraw! Seeing the exaggeration and then representing it simply.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's gig. And I'm excited about the plans I have for more growth of all kinds in the coming year.

Growth and Energy and Excitement - are all connected with each other!

Such Happy Times - Such Special People. We had so much Fun - even with the language barrier. Kimmi, for instance, spoke No English! Yet we connected, laughed, shared, skipped, and experienced stuff together. Wherever I've gone, whoever I've met, the People of the World can live together peacefully - if we treat each other normally. Respectfully.

Finally going through a pile of papers here that have been on my floor since I went to St Louis and California. (That was months ago!) I like what I was into then - gotta get back to it. Instead of focusing on Quickness - how fast can I get something that works - I was focusing on 3-dimensionality and exaggeration.

Here's a man that I saw in the airport. I drew him one time - it's good. Then I exaggerated more. More:

I also found a set of 4 pictures. The first one - the plainest, most 'realistic' one (as though a picture could be 'real' - It's just a real picture. The person is the real person!). Anyway, here it is:

Then I took a simple step at exaggerating her more:

Made the mouth area bigger, but to make it look even bigger, I decided to smallen-up the eyes/cheeks. You know, comparison. Something only looks big if it's next to something that's small:

I didn't like that one. Losing something in the likeness of the woman. I even remember her now.

It's because I made her too angular. So I had drawn her a 4th time. And this one was goooood:

At least in my opinion. In my opinion, I think that that 4th picture is the best of this group. But it depends on what you're looking for. It's been my experience that some people like to see the big exaggerations because they want to have fun. But other people prefer the first one (which is easiest for me to do) - because they want to look 'normal'. Plain. Like everybody else - where nobody has anything different (as though that was possible - how would we recognize each other??). Or they prefer the first one because that's all they're up to in their Artwork. They remember trying real hard to make a picture look realistic. And not having pursued that goal, they don't know how easy it is to simply apply the techniques - things like shading and basic face proportions.

But to people who know how to do that already, to us, it's so easy it's almost academic. So we are more interested in seeing the artist's interpretations. Sometimes deep statements, sometimes just fun because we don't honestly know the people that we're drawing.

So just for fun, I'm also posting this other picture that was in the pile: