Last night I was feeling like I would Enjoy doing all the Linework, and then going Back into each Caricature with the Shading. So that's what I did tonight. I went back into last night's Linework with a Black Colorstick.

I'm purposely very Heavy Handed with the Colorsticks. I feel like that's the only way to get the full range of Color and versatility from them. So oh. Just these few pictures and my hand was being abused. So I changed my mind. I now plan on handling the Caricatures with the regular approach of finishing one picture (including shading) before going on to the next. It doesn't hurt my hand if I alternate Marker with Color Stick. I can physically draw Caricatures at Events 6 hours at a time, 8 hours at a time, probably even more. It's not my hands that tire.

And in writing this, I just realized that I could have switched to Black and Gray Markers for the Shading if the Color Stick was feeling too hard to continue. Perhaps I'll get a chance to try That before the #Event too. (It's at least 3 and 4 gigs from now.) And most of all, I just realized that SOME OF THEM COULD BE LEFT AS JUST THE LOVELY LINEWORK!! (Light haired people only)

I feel like the most important understanding I got from tonight's study is that less is more. If you use the Black Color Stick too much, it makes the picture look dirty. Maybe I'll use a Dark Blue Color Stick sometimes instead.

The first one, the man with the black beard and the flat hair ~ that one came out fine. Good shading. But it really takes a lot of effort to make the Color Stick so Black for the Black Hair and Beard.

The 2nd one ~ the girl with one ear and long nose ~ that one also looks fine with my Shading. No problem.

So I got to wondering ~ What if I Only used the Color Stick for the 'all important' Blacks. Like, people who have Black Hair don't want to see just an outline leaving it white. And people who wear black shirts under black jackets ~ that says something about them. Can't give'm a white shirt.

So I held back on the 3rd picture I drew. The man with the long black hair and the white lips. It was fine that I skipped the 3-d shading for the nose etc. (It was even fine that I didn't press Super hard when drawing the man's Black Hair ~ because the grayness of the Color Stick is kinda accepted already. But I don't like it. I can't imagine leaving the Black hair this light if I this wasn't just a 'rehearsal'. And I Really wanted to go into more shading. But could I hold myself back at a gig? To produce quantity like the Client expects? I hope so. I try to limit how often I would give in to myself when I'm performing at Parties.

So the first 3 attempts tonight were fine.

But the 4th one. Oh no egads what happened?

This is what happened. I happily started the shading with the Black Color Stick as I was doing. But Oh. When I shaded the area between the eyes and the bridge of the nose, I decided to do it very Dark. I felt like that would make the eye Balls look really recessed. Oh it looked awful. It ruined the Caricature because that Dark shading made the eyes look extremely close together. Can't erase Color sticks, but I sure tried. With 2 different types of erasers. It did lighten it, but not nearly enough. Then I covered over it with a White Color stick. It helped, but I was now feeling unhappy with the Caricature. I felt like just abandoning this one.

But that's only a very last possible choice. Because I didn't feel like I could Quickly draw the Linework so well again. And when you're working....... this guy would need his Caricature.

I pushed myself to continue on. With the Black Color Stick. Not too good an idea on the cheeks.....

When I got to the sweater, I wanted to give it some Color. Because of the impact his brightly colored sweater had in the reference photo. I frequently do that ~ add just a touch of Color when it's Needed even if I'm drawing 'Black/White' Caricatures.

I tend to get carried away with Color. I rely on it a lot. So after the sweater, ummmm.... he's got such great Blue Eyes. And maybe I can perk up those ridiculous Black Cheeks with a pink Color Stick which might have helped, but the shading on this Caricature just ruined it. and on and on.

Eureka Tonight's Lesson. Do Less Shading than I think of.

Pulled myself out of that one, and on to the next. The big impact of the Red Lipstick in the reference photo ~ I added a little Color there. Would have been better if I skipped the Red Color Stick though. Because I had already colored the top lip with the Black Marker last night. BTW ~ It took me too long to shade the Hair because I just Have To press hard enough.

6th Caricature, the one with the exclamation point ~ that one was fine again. And easy. Because I did not shade Everything that I could I just did a little bit of it.

I did Not feel like going back into last night's first picture. I did Not want to look at that one again. But I did. I wonder if I would have shaded the eyes better if I had done it last night immediately after the Linework). Disappointed that I lost something there. Now I Really can't look at the thing. Very Powerful. I guess that's what makes it Real art? Really affects me as a viewer.

And I'll post a really Funny thing that happend to me when I shaded the 8th Caricature from last night. In a few minutes. Gotta get up for a few minutes.