Lynne from Orange County, NY ~ Hi Lynne! I finally had a chance to post the beautiful thank-you Review you wrote at the site where I advertise my work.

.......Since she did post it on-line, I felt like it would be all right to copy it here onto my blog ~ to show new clients the sort of Reviews I have been so blessed to receive. Oh, this is my chance to say Thank You to Lynne as well as to Everyone who has made me feel appreciated:

Here's what Lynne wrote ~ after listing me as "Just Incredible". Wow ~ I'm floored if I take a moment to take it all in:

"Allison is a perfect entertainer. She was punctual, professional, friendly and TALENTED! She provided our family caricatures for Christmas gifts and while the experience was FUN, the caricatures were amazing! I just ket her do her thing, since she was the artist and the work was superb! She managed to catch the true essence of each of my kids somehow in their portraits and the final caricatures were funny, realistic, colorful works of art! They are hanging on my wall and will adorn the walls of my family this year. She truly is fantastic!"

Whew ~ That was Fun. On Your Mark, Get Set, Go !

A woman called last Saturday morning, asking me to draw at a School Event on Monday. But the event is for a limited amount of time. And the PTA wants a Lot of kids drawn.

"Well, I could do what I call 'Line-Only' ", I told her. "And the pictures would go faster if we're not doing 'couples'......"

The woman saw this website. Asked if I could send her some samples of the 'Line Only'.

"Wellllll, okay", I said, as I thought about getting out of here for tonight's gig.

Then I took out my supplies, setting up my work area which has papers and bills all over the place. I opened to a recent post here, I set my timer for 20 minutes, and I started drawing. Amazed that I felt calm as soon as I started drawing. In my Very Quick-Cac Style that I use when a party needs it. Here's what I came up with. Looks good -

I did notice that when I started drawing, I did still need a slight pre-draw, but once I started Going, many did not need a predraw. And if I had 'lines' on the paper from the predraw, I did have to put in a little shading - to make the picture look right. And I could have skipped some of the darkers outlines - things like that. But I did want the pictures to look good - even though I was 'in a race'. I was hitting 30 per hour alone at home. But I would still only estimate 20 - 30 Quick Cacs per hour at an Event. (My regular Caricatures usually run about 10 per hour.)

Fun experience. But it doesn't use all the more-advanced Caricature abilities I've developed. Glad to do Quick-Cacs when needed, but I wouldn't want to do Only these. I wouldn't want to forget how to do what I worked so hard to develop. So we could say that I do the real detailed Studio Caricatures, then the moderately detailed Party Caricatures, and Then the Quick-Cacs - like these.

Aw, I can understand why some people might want their Caricatures to be tamed. But it is hard to come up with decent Art when you're constrained by some preconceived image that people like to present.

The groom in last night's picture - he didn't like it. Even though his new wife and his friends were tickled by it. She loves him the way he is - She's attracted to that powerful face. But he......

Well, I understand. We wouldn't want to leave him unhappy about his own Wedding invitations. So the wife hired me to redraw his face. Concentrated real hard to come up with one that Both he and I would like. It's okay. I'm glad I could do it for him. But the first one is really It - the first one is more what Caricature is about.

I really enjoyed making this Caricature. Actually, just commissioned to draw it as black/white line art (to be reproduced as part of their Wedding Invitations), I made a copy, colored it, matted it, made extra copies onto differently colored papers thinking about the invitations she would be designing on her own..... I just liked working for this woman. The picture just flowed, the client was easy, trusting, not rushing me.....So I really got into it.

Here's the extra one that I colored and matted, along with the reference photos:

And the wedding dress, tiara, and hairstyle that the bride planned to wear on her special day:

But lol, just as I was finishing, when my desk looked like this, the client asked if I could......Include the kitty! Oh my!

So I told her that I'd send her the original picture, and a copy in which I added in the kitty. So she could choose which one to use. Never a dull moment: