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:

When you stop and think about it, we see the wildest things! We all do. But we're just so accustomed to it that our eyes don't just pop out in disbelief. I mean like the drooling slobbering person who was sitting in front of me (ohnly a baby, but he is still a person). Or or when we watch a kid whine and have a tantrum. Or hide her face by squashing it in to her mother's body.

And it's not just children who do outrageous things. Lol - one day I was even talking to an immigrant (grown-up) who was working on the street with me. I knew he talked English just fine. But when I started talking about licenses, permits, taxes, etc, he literally bent down and hid his head in his balloons. Conversation over.

What a thought train this entry is turning into. The guy with the balloons - that reminded me of some pictures that my friends recently sent to me. Because they recognized my pictures on an immigrant's display on 42nd Street. (He's currently displaying old stuff that I drew years ago.) When they confronted him, he, lol, said that "if he displayed his own work, nobody would stop."

Here's a picture of him drawing beside samples that I had drawn for myself:

To Hire Alison Gelbman, the real Artist whose own pictures attract people's attention:
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Thank you Elgin. Thank you Kenly. I feel like my friends in NY know me and look out for me.

Hi Lorenzo! Hi Paola!

Art - brings the world together - Fun.

This photo was sent to me from Lorenzo and Paola in Milan, Italy. I didn't have a camera with me on the day that I drew them right here in NY. But they remembered and sent me the photo when they got back home to Milan. I think the picture captures how much fun we were having at that time.

I want to remember this little girl - not just because I enjoyed drawing a Beautiful Caricature for her, but also because of her self-control. Here's what happened:

The Girl's Mother asked me to create the drawing. I told her where to sit, and I started the Artwork. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary - If I'd've thought about it, though, I would have noticed how calm and easy it was to draw her. That's a pleasure, but not all that unusual for girls of this age.

But then, near the end of the experience, the Mother asked me if it would be all right if the Girl ate some of her ices.

"Sure," I said. "As long as I can see her face at the times when I look up from my drawing, it's no problem at all."

"Good," the Mother said. "Because I know she's dying to have some of her treat."

"Really?" I said. "You mean she's been sitting here all this time, just holding her treat, and not eating it because she thought it would interfere with the Artwork?"

Yes - that was what was happening. I had no idea that she hadn't been eating demurely whenever she wanted. This little girl, what, 6, maybe 7 years old? This little girl had the self-control to sit so beautifully and wait. Not only for her picture, but even for the sweets that she was holding right in her hand.

Wow - Her fine features, her fine hair, and she might have been one of the finest people I've ever met.