I recently drew an Engagement Caricature. A Proposal Caricature. Do you know what that is? It's when a man calls me to draw a Studio Caricature of him proposing. But instead of mailing it to him, I come to the city and pretend to be a street Artist. So the couple can come walking by, the unsuspecting woman to recognize that it's Them, and......

the rest is up to her!

The man who hired me this week hired a Photographer to come to the event too - Photographer Noelle Soroka. Her pictures are excellent. They really tell the Whole story:

The girl was shaking as she wrote the word "Yes" into her talk-bubble. Actually, they were Both shaking. In front of the Shake Shack (where he told me to set up for them). Her writing. His knees. I ended up adding litl 'shake-lines' near his knees while they lived their moment.

I watched them, thinking that they looked so lucky. Maybe it was just my insides looking at their outsides, but it really looked like they had it all. Love and money and friends and life. The beautiful people.

BTW, it was funny to watch how they both handled their Joy the same way. After the smiles and shakes and easy-quiet-talking, they both took out their cell-phones and started calling everyone they knew :-)

It feel so good to finish difficult projects successfully. To get the thumbs up from my client. Good. Done.

Do you remember that Power Point client that I had last year? Did some really neat illustrations for him.

UPDATE 2017: Egads ~ When I remember how crude it felt to use those old styluses on the IPads, I feel thrilled about our New Technology. These days I've switched to the White Pencil and the ProCreate App, and I would never consider working with the Supplies that I had when I made these CARICATURES.

He called again this year. To prepare for the Presentation he gives the employees. So much intensity. Talking with him ~ all the business stuff he knows ~ so intense brainstorming with him ~ of figuring out what he wants me to draw.

He has really intense ideas. And thinks that everyone knows what he knows. Like, like, do you know what a Bee Swarm is? In business? I'm just a freelance Artist here ~ I sure didn't know. As he's throwing words like Pricing Controls, Valuation Troubles, Pricing Discrepencies to me fast. Fast fast fast. And he wants all sorts of this stuff Written onto his pictures. Writing? I thought we were Drawing here. But okay. I'll include whatever he wants.

So first, he's describing all sorts of stuff to me. Including things like turning 6 people into dogs in a backyard. Digging for bones. Tossing them around. A pile of bones with those words on it. One of them chasing a bone all the way to China where a person says something specific....

Then, after I send him my quote, he whoa, didn't realize what it involves. Has a budget - What can we do? So I, after ruminating on the 6-person picture, had to redesign. stop. So he could switch to 2 dogs and 1 person. I drew the picture.

Then, Revisions. Take the ears off the dogs !?! 'Naturalize' the purple face. Bone that's going to China needs A Lot of Words on it.... Practically overnight production. I don't think he realizes what this all involves. We don't just erase things and find the 'lawn' behind it.

Here I am - middle of the night. Again. And here's the 2 pictures. The first one I designed with everything he said. And the 2nd one with the Revisions stuck on. Fun for me to do, but I don't think revisions are good for the integrity of the picture.

And the 2nd picture. He wanted TWENTY-EIGHT NAMES WRITTEN on puzzle pieces that come together in the form of a bee. Another complicated picture with a beehive with more types of business expressions, etc..... When he wanted to bring down the price, he cooled his coals. Beehive no longer needed (but I did manage to surprise him with a hint of a beehive in that first doggie picture - just for fun.)

Anyway, it was real hard to tone myself down to just write the names legibly. I also have grandiose ideas of my own. Wanting to do more than I have to (like it wasn't complicated enough?). Wanting to be more clever than I am. Then, I finally had to just GET IT DONE. and READABLE. Just USEFUL FOR MY CLIENT. Instead of trying to make Myself better than real. A little humility sure makes the job easier. would make Life easier.

Then, client received finished picture. And requested Revisions. Again. ??? Wanted me to write something on the bones. Not too much to change here. But on my own, I had to go back into it and fix the wings. Having sent him the pictures On Time, having met my client's really tight deadlines, I had to stop drawing when they were good enough, But since I got a little extra time that magically appeared when my client wanted revisions..... Well...... Wings!

And his 3rd picture. I was supposed to come up with a tug-of-war. With a small woman winning against their Competitor who was to be represented as a gorilla I can draw a gorilla?

I created the picture. Figuring out poses for winning and losing tug-of-war. Figuring out how to describe what the client wants...(Note: there's actually their logo written in the eureka-star. and their competitor's logo written along the bottom of the sweater. I chose to change it here to protect their privacy. I have nothing against either company.

Sent it to client and

Revisions! Again! Make the competitor's logo larger - on the back of his sweater. Make the girl heftier (How was I to know? He only sent me a little head-shot. Didn't even show the length of the girl's hair which I had to guess). And turn the sky-star into a blue-ribbon. Oh. I was thinking ~ How is that going to affect the Colors I had chosen..... AND - the gorilla had to be wearing pants. That's what my client said:

Oh. It's so satisfying to finally send it off the the client. And to receive his note of appreciation:

Quote: Well done and Thank You!! UnQuote.

It was great when I printed out the first versions at the Office-Supply store so I could make Revisions. I can't afford a Cintique. Or even a Wacum Tablet at these budget prices So I printed out the pictures and got to see a really good finished product. I like my style of Coloring in PhotoShop.

Good Night. I'm tired. The good kind of satisfied tired.

Did I say Good Night?

This client hired me to create two pictures from one Caricature. One was to show him with playing cards and money. The other was to show him with musical notes.

Lol - I laugh now as I remember how focused I felt while I decided that I had to take my time and shade with dots. Each little dot.

I like the pictures. You can click on pictures on this blog to see them larger.

2 a.m. - I'm emailing pictures to my Power-Point client. 9 a.m. - Ring, ring - me: Good Morning

client: "fantastic job. listen, because of snowdates, I have another day before the presentation. Can you do another picture?"

me, thinking that I have a 1:30 appointment at the spa, and a 3:30 appointment with my trainer, and I'm on to cook dinner for company tonight....: "Sure. What do you have in mind?"

client: "one face leaning forward on muscular arms......" My client is UP. Talking faaaast. Snap snap, so many ideas...... "Good Morning......"

We hang up, I go to wake up, morning routine..... Luckily I didn't start the picture yet, when,

Ring, ring - "Hi! What's up?"

client: "Could we make that a 2-person Caricature? The first guy leaning over a brick wall. He's in the U.S. - talking to our associate in the U.K - You'd have the Atlantic Ocean in there, and a phone in his hand ..................... ......................... ........................."

then later, middle of the night - I draw the picture first in pencil, then in marker. While erasing the pencil for this upbeat picture, I flip on a movie - Ahhhh "Escape From Alcatraz". Point, Counterpoint.

Crazy day, Wild night, and I'm just sitting here alone. It's a good life: