Hmmm ~ Decisions. I give it my full attention. I really jump in. Get into the Zone. What to do ~ A Close-Up of 'Ring' with a hint of faces? A Full-Body Pose of the Traditional Proposal Pose? A Larger Scene showing the Setting where the Proposal took place?

In this case, I was reinventing the wheel while I designed a Proposal Caricature to include references to the Park where the Proposal was to take place. But then I honed in on just the Traditional Proposal Caricature afterall. Following my Client's instructions.

Here are pictures of the Park where my Client chose to Propose to his Lady:

Here are the scribbled LayOuts that I designed to set the Proposal in this particular Park:

Here is the final Picture in which I got rid of the 'World', and just focused in on the People:

There have been many Loves before Ours. Everyone who is Married has Proposed this idea to his/her Date. Yet Our Experience is what we experience. Our experience is Our Life. As the song says "I Hope You Dance"

Here is the Proposal that I designed for these two Glowing People. It didn't need anything mundane to distract from the Heart that I sensed from the man who contacted me about his dreams. I will enjoy making his dreams Tangible. See~able.

Here's what I drew ~ Based on these Reference Photos which he sent me ahead of time:

When a client gives me a lot of instructions, it's sort of like working out a puzzle. This client, for instance, gave me some unusual instructions for his Marriage Proposal. I could feel that he was definitely excited, happy, full of Love for his Lady. But the things he wanted were not trite fill-in-the-blanks for Romance. I wanted to see his excitement from His point of view. Not tell him what he Should be wanting.

Before he flew in from England, he ordered his Proposal Caricature ~ planning on proposing at the Falconer Statue in Central Park. He gave me the following instructions for his Picture:

It's be be Fun. Romantic. Stand-out-ish. To resemble Them And NYC. Across the bottom, it's to say: their names New York City 27th December 2014 He's to be wearing Velvet Slippers (very important). No Socks. White Shirt. Bright Pink or Purple Sweater tied over his shoulders as in the reference photo. He wants them wearing what they normally wear. That would be sexy clothes for his Lady. Note her Eyebrows. AND AND he wants me to Include The Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building AND AND King Kong!

Whew ~ No short order. How to do this? How to do this? Should I show them in a Bubble? Clear and protected, with a dark smashing scary city around them? No. That's not the City he would be experiencing. They're flying in from England, and staying at a quite upscale hotel. Expecting a sparkling good time. Here's what I came up with:

based on these Reference Pictures:

But then, Oh. Change in plans. They will not be here for the Proposal afterall. Client asked if I could email him the picture. So he would get it printed up in UK in time to propose on NYE.

Took me a bit to figure out what he was talking about. UK ~ that's United Kingdom. And NYE ~ that's umm, maybe I'll look it up later. I photographed the Caricature, sent it to myself in an email, downloaded it onto my Desktop, and Imported it into PhotoShop from the Desktop. So I could crop the background of my Studio off the photo.....

But then, when I opened his email to 'Reply' with the picture, I realized Oh. NYE. That's New Year's Eve! Uhoh ~ I'd better contact him. Because he had had me write December 27 in Ink.

We decided that I could just make the change on the emailed version. By doing it in PhotoShop.

On my New Computer. I had been given a much needed new Computer for my Birthday. It's a sleek new Mac. Much different than the PC I had been using. At the time that I had to handle this client's change in plans, I wasn't yet completely comfortable with my MAC. At the bare hint of a touch, pictures became transparent and the windows combined with each other. I had to do my own 'on the job training', so to say.

I flipped around the options, and I found a place where I could change stuff. Hmmm, I'll change this, I'll change that, I'll set it up this way best...... Success ~ I can now keep the pictures in separate windows in PhotoShop on my Mac.

But now what. My activities must have affected the Computer's ability to import pictures from my Printer into PhotoShop. I had written 31 on a separate piece of paper, planning on Moving it into place on the Caricature, and just covering up the New York City part. But it did not pop up in PhotoShop when I 'Import Picture from Device'. And it didn't show up in Documents, Downloads, or Desktop either.

I spent Hours trying to figure out how to Import Pictures from my Printer (Scanner). My client expects the picture to be emailed right away. It was finished on time. All I had to do was email it to him. What to do ~ What to do for my heart-filled Client ~

Aha! I hadn't yet done much with PhotoShop on my new Mac yet. But I quickly figured out how to add Text and affect it. Here's what I finally came up with:

It has a different 'flavour', but it was extra work that I was doing. Not part of our official Agreement. I figured out how to Import the Pictures later ~ on my own time. For now, this represents the experience. And isn't that what Art is supposed to do anyway?

Done. But then I had no job for December 27, 2014. A very busy time of year, but I had previously turned down a Couple of requests because I was committed to the arrangements I had made to handle this Studio Caricature in person. So, kinda time off. I ended up sitting in Starbucks with my IPad and my Client's reference pictures. I decided to Surprise him with a free Bonus picture. To help him deal with his feelings about his Girlfriend's changed plans. And to perfect' my Party Style Digital Caricatures at the same time.

I worked in Layers. First Layer was an Underdrawing:

On top of that, I did the Linework:

Here it is when I deleted the Layer with the Underdrawing:

Then I put in the home-colors:

I liked that. It's my style. I might even prefer it at this point ~ before the shading and the highlights and the extra playing. Easy on the eyes. Peaceful. But the following picture does make more of a Statement about the situation. So I felt happy to send it to my Client. An Engagement Gift from his Artist in NY.

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 :-)