It's time to get myself in gear. I will have to draw Fast at tomorrow's Event. Huge place with thousands of people. I can't be trying to redevelop myself. I won't have time to reinvent the wheel.

So it's back to the way I have been successfully drawing at Events already. And we'll see if my recent Cartoony studies might affect some of them.

To warm up, I redrew a few of the Caricatures that I previously drew at Events. And I even looked up The Dark Knight online ~ Not that I would ever use a different artist's character at an event ~ but I felt like I should familiarize myself with him. Because of some of the things that I had been told about tomorrow's event.

Note: as always, if I draw more than one face in a Caricature, it doesn't necessarily mean that the people know each other. I pick them at random.

The Artist should be drawing for herself. Or else she's just a hack. She here I am again. Drawing and drawing and drawing and drawing in my Time Off. Even though my previous style already works just fine at Events.

But here I am still learning my new style. I arbitrarily chose a photo of a woman that I previously drew just fine at a Party. I felt Blocked against using my new style tonight, but I made it through to Success.

I lost the first picture I drew ~ trying the new style. Came out crummy anyway. Maybe it's just not my Zone for this moment. Another part of Artwork besides trying new things ~ is to Not Force It. Comes out best if I do what's working. So i put myself onto Uninspired Automatic. Feh.

Nope. So I went back to my original reason for drawing on my time-off. Nope ~ this isn't what I'm looking for. The next one was really getting away from me. Then an ugly picture. That's not right. Then perky, but wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Am I really just drawing the same Incorrect choices over and over? Stop. Look again. Come up with something different. I started the circle thing. Got it right the 2nd time. Pretty good Caricature, but I sure hope I would never draw anything like that at a Party. It would get a good laugh, but that's not who I am. It's not what I want to do.

I want to help people accept themselves with all their idiocyncracies, and feel thrilled with themselves ~ just the way they really are. I like clean, energetic drawings. My final drawing here: Success

I finally love my Party Caricature style. I drew some Caricatures here based on photos of people that I previously drew fine at Parties. All sorts of different approaches I had used at those different Parties. But now I finally found The Right Answer. The Best approach while Entertaining at Parties. The Best style for the Guests to display in their homes. Any home.

The first picture posted here is the way to go. Fast. Entertaining. Party Spirit!

Then I drew it with more detail ~ I also like the Picture, even though it looks a Little stiffer than the first Happy picture. But it took so much more time, and I felt a litl struggle to keep my mind from wandering. Party Guests like the Entertainment to keep Moving. And Clients like the Party Artist to draw as many people as possible. So the first Quick drawing is the way to go:

Oh yes. Like really niiiice. I'm on a roll.

Drew another Caricature. Good, but too tame for Real Art:

Redone. No predraw. And I'm back. Way to go. Energetic:

Happier.

Warming up for the weekend's events. Because I started feeling awkward with the Tame Caricatures that I had been getting into a couple of months ago.

First I drew this Caricature...... Well..... I Started drawing this Caricature based on a photo from a previous event. But I just jumped ship. Boring:

So I drew it again. This time, none of that predraw stuff. None of that analyzing stuff. I just decided where to place the faces, and I jumped right in. Yes! This works so much better. It's the way to make art:

Just to check it out, to make sure of my easy exaggerated approach, I figured I should try it on another photo from a But since the easy exaggerated approach already worked so well tonight, I took it a step further. I used my wild exaggerated approach instead. For tonight the wilder approach was ugh. Did Not work. Stupid.

Once again, I have to say that great Artwork cannot be controlled. Cannot be forced to happen. Sometimes one approach is working great. Sometimes another. That's good to know, so I can trust myself.

But when Clients request one style or another, and I try to accommodate them, it might not really be in their best interests. Real Artwork is not a Craft. It is an Art.

So for tonight, I happily went back to my easy exaggerated approach. It's most enjoyable to do what's working in that particular moment:

Came back to these studies 2 days later. To apply the technique I felt happy with 2 days ago. Based on photos of people I previously drew at Parties.

First I drew these 2 ladies. Good. Simple. Direct. It worked:

Then I started drawing these 3 gentlemen. Aghk. Oook. I had predrawn approximate spaces for the 3 face shapes, and I oh ~ What could I have been thinking??

So I drew them again. Now that I'm posting the experience here, I sure am wishing I could remember what I did. Did I predraw the 3 face shapes and just do better at the face interpretations this time? Or did I place and draw only the center face and then fit the placements for the other faces around that? I Think that's what I did. Just drew the first face first, but I don't know. I don't remember. Oh

Then I drew the following face. Hair shape. Worked like a charm:

Tried to apply it to this next face ~ but oh something I should work on ~ the photo was taken from a wonky angle. Made it difficult. Made Artist-me feel uncomfortable.

So I felt Very Happy with the couple that I drew in the next picture. I handled this one (just 2 people) by predrawing the basic shape for Both of them before starting to ink the answers:

Feeling confident with this approach, I then tried to apply it to the following Caricature. I took an unusual photo which included hands on the face. Aghk. I'll have to revisit my Hand studies. I've done that many times ~ it's simple when you know what you're doing. When you remember what you're doing:

But not tonight. I want to do something else besides drawing.

Feels like it never ends.