I have to draw what I see. I have to keep the Party moving, so I can't wait for the expression that looks like the guest is gorgeous and confident.

Here, for instance, this handsome young man kept looking around and biting his lower lip while I drew him. So there was no way for me to know what his lower lip looked like. I tried chatting with him, smiling at him, something to make him relax. This is what I could draw:

Here I am again. Doing body/hobby at my client's request. Made me feel "like I was pulling teeth", as my father the dentist would have said:

But, ooooh ~ Now that I look at them, I feel pretty good about them afterall. Whew ~

I forgot to mention one more Complication. It's when people ask me to predraw scenes. Most people are happy with slim or cute or muscular Bodies, so I only have to draw one per gender and age. But still, the predrawn scene should take into account the age of the guest ~ 5-year-old girls don't have bodies like 15-year-old girls. And 15-year-old girls don't dress like 50-year-old women. And there are just as many variations for boys. A cute little 5-year-old boy doesn't look right with the body of a 15-year-old boy.

But if my client gives me a chance to point this out, it's still complicated. Because I might get hired to print up ten papers each for several different scenes. This means I will be spending time interrupting the drawing-Entertainment to look through for the right paper......

Oh.

What works best for most Parties is Direct Caricatures. Face-Only. Black and White Or Color ~ Artist's Choice in the Moment based on what she sees, what she draws, and what would best Entertain the guests who are there. It's great on individual papers, and it's Super if those Beautiful Mats are included.

People don't realize what they're asking me to do. I'm always willing to draw body/hobby if my client requests it, but that means that each person takes a longer turn while others are waiting at the party, less people get seen per hour, and the face is limited because I have to keep the party moving. Of course it's going to take longer to draw Face, Body And Hobby than to just draw Face.

I'm always willing to preprint a logo onto each paper ~ so the guests will remember where/why they got the picture, so the guests will remember the event. But if I show up with creatively prepared logos, the writing and the symbols get mixed up into the pictures that I am to subsequently draw. UPDATE JUNE 8, 2012: MORE EXPERIENCES, AND I'VE ACTUALLY GOTTEN BETTER AT MY JOB. AFTER MORE THAN 15 YEARS OF DOING THIS! BY BLOGGING ABOUT MY DISAPPOINTMENTS WITH THE LOGOS, I REMEMBERED ABOUT IT WHILE PREPARING FOR NEXT WEEK'S (LOGO REQUESTED) PARTY! I WILL DESIGN THE LOGO INTO THE FRAME-LINE OF THE PAGE. KEEPING IT NEAT. YES!

I'm always willing to predraw a scene if my client requests it, but that means that I can't be as creative with the composition ~ particularly affecting the picture when the guest requests more than one person to be included in the same picture. See the Samples below.

That also brings to mind that I'm always willing to draw more than one person in a picture, but that means that each person would have to be with me for a longer time. Because I have to compare back and forth between each person, and I have to coordinate them all together at the end of the drawing. And of course (and this is something that always amazes me ~ Some people actually think it would be faster if I draw more than one person on a page), it takes more than twice as long to draw two people on the same page (and more than three times as long to draw three people on the same page, etc). Because I still have to draw each face, the same as if I was drawing it on separate papers, And I also have to design the page to accommodate the way those particular faces fit together. This is Real Art.

I understand why people want these things, but especially with body/hobby, I think they're imagining large compositions in which I interview the whole life of a person and design it All into the picture, good likeness, funny twist, and more all in five minutes before I go on to the next. This is not realistic for a Party where I'm usually asked to draw as many people as possible.

I've drawn at Thousands of Parties. Countless Communions. Yearly Graduations. Endless Bar Mitzvahs...... I have a pretty good handle on what works best. On how to draw at a Party.

But I understand why people choose otherwise. The following pictures, for example, were ordered for the express purpose of furthering Marc Jacobs clothing. For bringing people into the store. For encouraging them to buy one of his latest dress designs. So I was hired to come with a ready-made body. Okay. But then, the store customers, seeing that they could get free Caricatures, wanted pictures of themselves with their friends and families. To remember the fun outing when they shopped together. For example, one of these pictures is of a bride's-maid-to-be who was taking her bride out shopping before the wedding. Of course they'd want to be in the picture together.

But they had no way to know that my client (who was paying for these pictures), had hired me to use that ready-made scene for each Caricature. It was a scene of One woman walking down the runway. Smack in the center of the picture. So how am I to design two or more people onto that page?

Here are some Samples that I drew at the recent Marc Jacobs event. Decide for yourself. Which 'specials' do you think were a good idea here. Which 'specials' were not a good idea.

I work for the client. I work for the guests. I wish they would trust me to do what I think feels best.

Note: When full Party is ordered All on One Giant Page, each guest comes individually, just like when I'm drawing one-person on a page. And I don't need them All together until the End of the Picture when I coordinate it all together. The Artwork is approached differently than when I'm asked to draw a small group on the regular-sized papers.