I feel so interested to see all the different people. So many people.

I felt tickled pink by my visual reaction to this boy. I felt like his hair was separated from his head, like it went up to the clouds. That's what makes it so much fun to be an Artist:

This one looked like a doll:

And I felt so pleased to draw this girl. My favorite type of picture is the 'short story'. That's what I call it. Just drawing what needs to be drawn to tell the story. Without a lot of extra stuff:

I feel so blessed that so many people stop in front of me. So I get the opportunity to really see them.

It's been a long journey, but I feel like I finally settled on my New Style of Caricatures. I drew these in my time off ~ with some old dried out Chartpak that I had here. And a few Color Sticks.

I think of this style as 3D. I refer to my old style as Cartoony. One is not better than the other. They are just Different.

My new 3D style isn't as difficult for me to do. It uses the same interpretive skills as my Cartoony style. and I can draw my vision directly, without extra steps. And I feel like more customers would be more impressed with the 3D style. So why not relax and really Enjoy doing my work ~ I hope it feels this easy when I'm drawing in person at an event.

BTW, I surfed the web to find pictures of faces for my reference photos. The first picture here was one of those Wow experiences for me. Because i felt like it was the very face that had super-intrigued me when I was a child ~ on the cover of a National Geographic Magazine. I had kept that magazine around for years because of those haunting eyes. And then, here, out of the blue, it was looking right at me again. Never read the article, though. I just looked at the cover of the magazine for many years.

Nothing wrong with the previous post. Those Caricatures are great! But nothing much to do this afternoon at home. So just fiddling around with that new idea of making more consistent poses/pictures, I drew new Caricatures from some of the previous post's photos. It feels like 'wasting time', but I know it's what keeps me comfortable and fresh when I got to my next Paid Event.

Here's what I came up with. Once again, I can see that sometimes the pictures look smoother with the new style, but other times the pictures look more vibrant with the style I had been using for years. So one way is not better than the other. We just do whatever we do, spend our time however we spend our time.

It feels good to be versatile. Good to have more than one approach. There's no one answer that works for every picture.

We can't even pin down a one-answer-for-all-pictures about line quality. Sometimes heavy lines make the picture look more glamorous. But sometimes heavy lines make the picture look too chunky. By practicing, I get a good handle on that, but you can still never be sure until you do it. Each of my pictures are as unique as each of the people.

Here I was ~ arrived early to Set Up, but the Space that the client put aside for me was almost non-existent. And one of her guests asked if I could draw from a phone-photo because one girl couldn't come to the Party.

"Okay. Of course," I said. "But it's not very Entertaining for me to be drawing from a photo while people are waiting to get into the seat. Would you like me to do it Before I actually start the Party (during the time you are paying for Entertainment), or would you like to me just see if there is perhaps maybe any downtime during which I might be able to fit it in?" I felt like the client understood once the Drawing started. Understood about being with the people who are There. Because she wisely sent one of the guests To Sit in the Chair while I drew her sister from the photo. Not my favorite thing to do, but at least I didn't have an anxiously waiting guest while I tried to pay attention to someone who wasn't there.

This brings me to another point. Some clients are surprised that I didn't plan on sitting quietly in a dark corner (or even another room ~ not in the Party). They're surprised that I try to position myself in such a way that the guests can See the drawing evolve. Surprised that it actually turns into Entertainment at the Party.

I say, you wouldn't go to a Movie or a Broadway Show without giving the Actors plenty of room to do their jobs. You wouldn't be happy to put on Roller Skates if there wasn't a large Roller Rink to use them. You wouldn't expect a dj to dance quietly in the corner (or in another room - lol). So why hire a Party Artist and not want to give her room to Entertain? Maybe even more Space than the Party Decorations and Centerpieces. And Seating Cards. And the Coat Room. Watching the Show is one of the things that the people can do to Enjoy Your Party.