Easy-going. Easy does it.

I work so hard. I never scrimp on Quality. So when I'm asked to draw more than one person in a picture during a Party, I've been feeling like I have to give the situation the intense focus that it needs to coordinate everyone's faces together. I feel it as an intense pressure. Intense physical pressure out to every cell of my body. Intense brain pressure focusing In onto this one project. And I have to hide it. To keep the Party Attitude. To look and act light and easy even though I'm feeling such Pressure.

So here I am in my Studio ~ just focusing on how to Simplify my approach. Only for those times when it's just not reasonable to give it so much intensity. These are Party Drawings. Supposed to be light and easy fun. For references, I used random photos taken from all over this blog.

My first attempt was to just draw simple basic Caricatures ~ one at a time ~ Not bothering to determine ahead of time how the Faces will fit together. In other words, giving up what makes me Special.

I ended up sticking in the faces whereever I could. It could work. I feel like people would be pleased with it. But I have to do better than that. I would Not cut back on my hard work if this is how the Group Caricature would turn out. I don't feel like it's enough Quality:

So then I imposed just a little bit of placement planning onto the Composition. I would usually figure out at this point how the individual shapes would all fit together, but I didn't do that this time. In order to Simplify my focus. I just predrew an Oval for each placement, and then I did my Simple Linework Basic Caricature. And I trusted that I would be able to coordinate it all together into one cohesive picture before it was all finished.

And I feel really pleased with it. Not as wildly Ze-Ahrt that I could do if everyone cooperated for as long as I want while I seriously FOcus, but still a happy fun cohesive picture of the people all together. And that's what they want at a Party. Light and easy and fun

And then I was getting tired. It's literally time to go to sleeep.

I figure this is a good time to see how quickly I can draw a 5 person Caricature.

Oh. This took me almost 25 minutes ~ even though I did it with No thinking, No predrawing, No shading. Not bad ~ it is more than 10 Faces per hour. But perhaps I can develop a way to do it even Faster. Some other time. hmmmmm

When I look through the Thousands of Photos that I haven't had time to post here yet, I can still remember the Parties where I drew them. Even though I go to several Parties every week. Even though I may have only been with these people for 5 or 10 minutes. Our interactions still affect me.

I'll post one of them now. I drew this Caricature several Years ago. At a House Party. I was drawing in the Living Room. Practically everybody in this Family was Blonde and So Beautiful ~ and I felt very comfortable with them. I figure that if I can remember the Party when I see the Caricatures, for sure Party Guests remember the Event when they see (or display) the Caricatures. Good times:

I'm not a machine. I can't just switch between this type of Art and that type of Art. I can't just say, "Now I'm going to draw an Exaggerated Caricature. And then I'm going to draw a Simplified Caricature." This is a feeling, an Art ~ not a Craft with rules to follow.

I really loved my Exaggerated Caricatures. It was so much Fun ~ for me as well as for the Cool Guests at the Parties. I admire Artists who draw in an Exaggerated Style. I don't like dinky Caricatures, but I do also admire Artists who draw in a Simplified Style. So I felt compelled to figure out that Simplified Style earlier this week. I did very well with that.

But my Client for tonight's Party surprised me. She's making a Party for 12-year-old Girls, and she actually said to me: "I don't know how to say this, but you know sometimes they draw well you know, but I want happy pictures with Color yes with Color that you know like Fun Pictures Not Boring."

"You found the right Artist", I happily said like yeah ~ This is what I like to hear! ...... I felt totally surprised because this isn't what I usually experience at 12-year-old Girl's Events..........

So I took a moment to get back in to my Exaggerated approach for drawing Caricatures, and I felt oh surprised. It's just been a few days now that I've been using my new Simplified Style, and I couldn't jump right back into my previous Exaggerated Style.

The First Picture posted here was my first attempt at drawing a 12-year-old Girl from a random photo that I found online. With my Exaggerated Style. Oh that's awful. That's not it. I've got to loosen up.......

So I drew a 2nd Caricature ~ ~ that one looked the most like the girl. But it was more in the Simplified Style that I had just developed earlier this week......

I was working from a Side-View Photo. Then I remembered that I had been Turning Front View Pictures in my mind to draw them 3/4 view ~ so I decided to do that with this Side-View Photo ~ this is Not easy to do. So the 3rd Caricature that I'm posting here was turned in my mind to be a 3/4 view. But it still wasn't Exaggerated enough. I'm still doing the Same Thing. The Simplified Style I switched to earlier this week. ......

About to post the pictures here, when I said 'I can do this. Just go for it. And I drew the 4th picture. It is more Exaggerated, but not enough. I know what to do. I know what to do. Let me do it again......

But I have to wake up in 2 hours for my first Event of the day.

I'm glad I'll have several Hours after my Early Morning Event before drawing at the Exaggerated 12-year-old Girl's Party.

I know just what to do. But I'll feel better if I do it right Before I get to the Party

Follow Up: I did it! No time to Color it ~ I got to get out to this Party. But I'm back. Back into Exaggerations. Perfect!

I don't see why a Special Needs Prom would be any different than anybody else's Prom. But that's how my upcoming job was described to me: to draw Caricatures at a Special Needs Prom.

People are people. And all I'm doing is drawing them. But in choosing what to draw for my Pre-Gig focus, I Googled "Special Needs Prom".

Obviously, the Feather has nothing to do with Special Needs ~ but that's where my experience took me. I noticed that I spent way too much time on the 'Feather'.

So I gave attention to the 'Feather' situation here ~ I had approached it with a Quick hint at what I used to draw for Ornamental Calligraphy. So now I learned how to Simplify ~ Cartoonify a Feather. Drew a better Party Caricature approach for Feathers.

Then I decided to Simplify the Caricatures altogether. To up my Speed: