Rating 5 Stars out of 5

Verified Review

Maria A. • September 25, 2024

Wonderful ! Alison was so great! All the drawings turned out amazing. I even got to do one for my husband and I. All the guests were extremely happy and actually would love to have this at their kids parties one day. Would love to hire her again and recommend her 100% ! The kids were able to take their pictures home as a favor which was so cute

Practicing for an upcoming Party where I would be drawing Fashion Sketches.

I recently decided that a direct approach for Exaggeration is the way to go for quality Caricatures. I got smooth with it, and I feel happy with the responses from people at Parties.

But here I am again, questioning the way to go. Again. Time off, drawing Party-Style Caricatures from random photos. The first of each pair uses my quick Exaggerated style. The 2nd of each pair uses more of a fill-in-the-blanks sort of style that people do seem to like also. I especially notice that they like it when I am putting myself out there with exaggerations while I am working along-side an artist who is calmly 'doing it right'? Is that what the public thinks when they eyes, nose, mouth repeat 'basic proportions' that we learn as students? In the first pair of pictures, I felt like the exaggerated Caricature was the only one I liked. I feel like the plainer style, which would also go over well at a party, is dinky. That's the way I expected to feel about the 2 different styles. But in the 2nd pair of pictures, drawn very quickly ~ I'm feeling tired here in my own studio, I felt surprised to like the 2nd style, the plainer, just 'correct' picture better. It really does just look more Correct........Granted they both Look very similar (did I mention that my mind is flitting out of this time-off activity today), but I felt like I was using the different approaches for them. First one = exaggerated approach. 2nd one = studied placements.

Wondering if I would ever just Settle. But then I realized that There is No Need to Settle On Only One Approach. I can do whichever approach works for the specific face that is in front of me.

Client asked me to draw Caricature in studio. From this photo.

Jumping in to it. I'm rarely in the Zone as soon as I start. So I drew what I saw. Made mistakes on the first 2 attempts. The 3rd one was good, so I colored it in.

By then, I Knew a lot about this face. So I easily, yay, made the 4th Caricature. New Style! This is what draws a crowd at Events. It's easy to do..... but only when I Can do it.

and just for exercise, for comparison, I forced myself to draw it plainly. Like a fill-in-the-blanks sort of hack. It's so frusrating when it turns out that this is what a fearful person wants. Uninteresting. Dull.

Oh. oh. alright. Then I just drew her as a basic 'pretty girl' face. Safe. loved by self-conscious people who have no confidence. This keeps a Party as dull as the picture is 'safe'. But I do Not like to buy into the trappings of social stigmas. Who ever decided that they only like smiling girls with dainty mouths and barely a hint of a nose? If you honestly Love a person, you would prefer her idiocyncracies. And if you came to the Party to have Fun, you would feel delighted to Play with those idiocyncracies. Exaggerating the uniqueness of the specific girl