Well.... not really..... although I do try to exercise that..... sometimes. Like I'll try to put away stuff without turning on the lights in a dark room, or I'll try to read without flooding the page with easy-light. I don't do it often, because I don't like to. But I feel like it's a good idea to exercise vision the same way we exercise other muscles. By adding a little difficulty to it.

What I'm writing about here is handling all types of Party situations. Usually the light is okay, but sometimes Party Lighting is.... less than optimal for the Caricature Artist. Like this Party. Where I was drawing in a room with Changing Colored Lights.

Didn't stress me out this time. I finally came with enough lights ~ that I set up most advantageously ~ to be able to draw comfortably. To be able to see the people and to be able to see my drawing board and kinda able to see my color sticks.

I felt amazingly comfortable ~ I finally brought along enough Lights. But the photos, of course, came out fully affected by the colored lights.

A good time was had by All ~ Including the Artist!

Getting ready for drawing Caricatures at tomorrow's Party. It will be a Big Wedding. For practice, I used a reference photo from a previous Event where I was drawing Caricatures. Not that there was anything wrong with the one I had drawn That day, but I have to get into it again before each Event.

My first pass was so stiff ~ I feel like studying makes us like students. aka beginners. So I went back to my regular approach ~ and i feel like my recent studies will just make me feeeeeel more comfortable when im doing hair and eyes and stuff.

It's hard to find time to practice. I've been getting more and more serious with my practice, and tonight I felt like it's time to change focus. I felt like it's time to work on my Party Caricature Speed. So even though I felt like my first few practices were too big (when I make Portraits, if I make them larger than my open hand, they look grotesque), I didn't pause to figure out some approach that would make these Caricatures smaller. And before I was done, I got to feeling like these Giant Faces would be fine at an Event afterall. The Bold approach and the Bold Size make an Impact.

What I did was to take several Reference Photos from my website ~ Pictures of People that I already drew at Parties. I averted my eyes so I wouldn't see the Caricatures that I had drawn at the Parties. I just needed some Reference Photos for tonight's practice.

The more details I study, the more predrawing I want to do. But that slows me down at Parties. So I handled tonight's practice with No predraws.

The first few looked/felt amateur to me, but by not stopping to control the sizing, not stopping to get even more controlling, I managed to loosen up and get some decent Caricatures.

Alone in my Studio ~ grabbed a photo from a Party Post here on my website ~ just to have a reference to draw from.

I wanted to draw the same one person ~ both Tame and Exaggerated. Solidifying in my mind the two completely different approaches.

Then I decided to use the same reference photo to get ready for one of tomorrow's (that will be today already) events. It's for Digital Caricatures. I like to make sure that all my Digital Equipment is fresh and working just before any Digital Event: