Of course, I felt special when the woman in the restaurant recognized me. "You were the one from the Communion...." "Such Talent..." all that sort of stuff. This time the woman's name was Elaine. And she was an absolute doll:

But I had noticed Elaine before she spoke to me. I thought she was a stranger as I had passed Elaine as I walked up a ramp to get in to the diner. She had been helping a man in a wheelchair (with a breathing tank). While I ate my dinner, Elaine barely had a bite. She was busy relating to the man she was with. Encouraging him, reading the newspaper to him....Just being delightful.

Since I had made a comment about being famous when Elaine recognized me, watching her made me think about all the Unsung Heroes in this world. The people who uplift others, who tell a stranger how special she is, who kindly help people who are in their lives. People who seem to exist just to admire and appreciate others. I'm so impressed with the Elaines of this world.

BTW, here's a picture of another boy I had drawn in the diner that day. A stranger. I liked his confident attitude. He too might have been one of the strengths of this world. Who knows? I just love people:

I stretched my boundaries for this one. Usually working on Cardstock, this commission requested Foam-core board. Larger. And aghk! A rush job. Had to be done overnight, and I find out that prismacolor sticks are not going to work on the foam-core board!

I was told that this would be displayed at a wedding - and they wanted an Oriental theme - and the color scheme-red. Okay. I'll do something. Ummmmm. This is what real Artwork is about. Each picture that's another Challenge brings the Artist up a notch. I bought red foam-core-board and drew the picture with a Silver Sharpie. Oh ~ It was so difficult to keep that Sharpie working on the Foam Core Board. If my client had given me more time to do the job, I wouldn't have had to make the impossible work:

Uh-oh. What if that wouldn't be appropriate to display?

I decided to make it a surprise just for the insiders. And I drew the following picture on the other side of the same Foamcore board. It was white. I used the few colored Chartpaks that I had here. Stores were not open, and there's no time to order supplies on-line for an Overnight Rush Job:

Whew. I met the deadline. BTW, here's the reference photo I was working from:

I was teaching Acrylic Painting today. I got to work early, so I drew a Caricature from a magazine that I had in the car.

The picture came out fantastic! It was based on a photo of a very angry man. The first thing I drew was the Nose, and I noticed how very narrow it was at the top. And his eyebrows were pointing in toward the nose and:

I ended up drawing a Star! Right between the eyes.

Gotta clear away some of the papers from here. Hmmmm, what's this recently finished sketchbook here.

I used to keep the litle green thing (4x4?) in my pocketbook. I remember the day I drew this. I was out with family, and this woman was in the restaurant. A normal woman. She came already 'exaggerated'. Nothing like being a Caricature Artist to Know that people really do look wild. Normal people. And Nobody, nobody really looks like Mr. In-Between. Or else we wouldn't be able to tell who's who.