Another Year of working with the JCC

I was called from the Jewish Community Center

for another year to draw their person/people 

of the year.

Different from other years, 

this year they wanted it done in color.

The work was done in Adobe Illustrator.

More Fun with Adobe Illustrator

Received a job from the 

San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau

A gift caricature.

The work was done with Adobe Illustrator

final print size was 13"X 19"

A 18" X 24" was added some the

people could put their signatures on,

since it was printed out on photo paper.

Gift Caricature created in Adobe Illustrator

I was contacted last Friday when

I was set up at Market Square.

She needed the caricature by Friday 31.

Not being able to start anything until 

Monday, I was unsure if I should do it.

I went ahead and took the job.

Doing it in Adobe Illustrator I was

able to use elements like the computer

the chair, the body of the man (with some alterations)

and even the basic part of the book that I have

used in other drawings. Delivered it this morning.

The client was happy.

The Little Couple....EXPOSURE

Since the show aired where the Little Couple

visited San Antonio. Touring the Alamo,

the Riverwalk and Market Square.

Here they got a caricature from me.

 When I am set up at at the market, I have

had people come by who either saw the show

or looked at my photo of them holding 

their caricature. It has made me busier 

than normal. So I decided to do a couple

of studio pieces thanking them.

The above illustration his of them and 

their 2 dogs with the Alamo and Riverwalk

in the background.

The drawing below is basically what he wanted

from the get go. Where him and his dog

are both sticking out their tongues.

That was his idea not mine.

Both were done in Adobe Illustrator.

Illustrator Gift Caricature

San Antonio is a big military city, and there is always

some work in doing gift caricatures for personal leaving

to another assignment or retiring from the service.

This caricature I did completely in Adobe Illustrator

I was told he was a big golfer and they wanted

the uniform to be half military and half golf outfit.

What I did was have the lower part start to mutant from

his military uniform to a golfers attire.

Myself having been in the Air Force

I kept thinking he's out of uniform.

I had to keep thinking it's only a drawing.

More practice in Adobe Illustrator

Some more pieces that put in my portfolio.

This is only practice work that I am doing

in Adobe Illustrator. I experiment using

photos in some as well as try

to show some movement in some.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

President of France Nicolas Sarkozy

Professional wrestler John Cena

Henry Winkler and Adam Sandler

In the movie "Waterboy".

More practice in Adobe Illustrator

Here are some of the work I had in my portfolio

for this year at the ISCA convention.

All of this work was done in Adobe Illustrator.

I choose to work up some world leaders

that seem to make the news.

Of course some won't be in the news.

I doubt we will hear from this guy.

Have a Great Day

Some San Antonio Facts

Checking out Google and keying in San Antonio,

I found some interesting facts about

The seventh largest city in the U.S.

More than 26 million people visit San Antonio each year.

It is one of America's favorite cities to visit.

We have.....

• The Alamo

• The River Walk

• The Tower of the Americas'

• Two theme parks.

• Third largest zoo in the U.S.

found this on

http://www.visitsanantonio.com/visitors/plan/local-info/san-antonios-story/the-facts/index.aspx

I first came to San Antonio when I enlisted in the

Air Force, spent 4 years here and went back to

my home state of Nebraska for one year before

moving back to SA....

Hoping for Change

Been watching the GOP Presidential debates.

Working in Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop.

After the last Presidential Race when

we had HOPE and CHANGE!

The GOP could go with

HOPING FOR CHANGE!

Old Dogs can still learn.

1. After 3o years of drawing caricatures for a living,

and 47 years of earning a living in art.

2. Learning more on what the tools can do

that you have that can help you finish a job.

I was contacted by a new client from Houston

(200 miles away)

on Tuesday morning. They needed a poster to be printed,

for a conference, no later then Friday AM.

They wanted the final to be in Adobe Illustrator.

They said they looked at my website and told

me what they liked.

Now most caricatures artist out there know

usually people like the exaggeration on others,

but not themselves.

So here is how I did the faces in Illustrator.

WRONG!!!

Here is where lesson 1 kicked in.

They wanted it look more like my gig caricatures

that I do at parties only in color.

Here is where lesson 2 kicked in.

In the past when a client wanted a caricature for a

studio piece, I would draw the person on paper and

then scan it in to the computer. open up photoshop

and work up the caricature.

Because of the deadline, I drew the faces in color

using my iPad with the app Art Studio.

emailed them to myself and dropped them in the poster

to get approval.

Once approved on the faces, I did a black line outline

with a new layer in Art Studio and resent them to my computer

and made a live trace in Illustrator so they could be worked

up for printing.

Here are the final faces along with the bodies/professions they wanted

each to portray.

I was able to make the deadline and

my contact said they were happy with the final.

Lesson 1.

Not all people fear being exaggerated.

It does not hurt to listen better.

Lesson 2.

using my iPad

Art Studio

emailing capability

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Acrobat

I can get the work done quicker.

More Adobe Illustrator work

When I was in California visiting my daughter.

Her friend, Holly, came over for a visit.

I drew her and her dog Gizmo.

When I got home I decided to have some more

Adobe Illustrator practice.

Gizmo is very wise. look how he is looking at and admiring

the artwork. I know this because I asked him.

I took another photo of him so I could see the facial features.

Below is the final Illustration. Holly was telling a story

about in one week everything was going wrong.

She lost her wallet and a bird decided to relieve itself

as it was flying over her.. Hence the subject matter of

the gag caricature.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

I want to wish Y'all

A very

Merry Christmas!

Some more work of my work on the wall

The reason I like drawing the people at the convention

as I do at parties first, then photographing them holding

the drawing..

Uploading the photo to my computer

and then working it up in Illustrator.

Here is the final I did of Shinichi from Japan

Sometimes when I do a party type caricature...

I have no idea where are what I would do in an

studio type caricature. He was busy working on another drawing

so I drew him painting. I decided after I had the drawing

in Illustrator to drop in his photo and make it like

he was drawing a self portrait.

The final caricature and the party caricature of Russ

Is a good example why I like to work from a photo

of the person holding my quick concept of what

the person looks like.

There were features that I took from the caricature

as well as seeing features on Russ that I missed.

On him I liked the way his cap fit rather then the way

I drew it. I noticed I missed his extra chin (sorry Russ).

Yuri is from Japan. When I drew her and

after taking the photo I noticed I missed the

freckles and the thin long neck.

I did keep a lot from the drawing but

there were enough changes to make it worth doing.

So if you want to visit with attendees at the convention

take the time to draw them as you do when working a party.

Then if you want to work it up as a studio piece.

Plus you will get some great caricatures of yourself

many times from the people you have drawn.

I will post some of the drawings I got from some

of the people that drew me later...

Some more work of my work on the wall

Here are two more samples of what

I put on the wall plus what I drew to get to....

Rob and Jeanette were first time attendees to the convention.

Above is a a drawing I had on the wall.

below is the party type caricature I drew of him.

Here is Jeanette a first timer from San Fran...

she stated that she was unsure what to

expect.... I said have fun this week.

What I liked about the final that I hung on the wall of Jeanette,

my friend Al 'Big Al Lopez ' when I was working on

the drawing.... before I had Jeanette's name

on the final....

Al walked by and said ...

"That's Jeanette".....

"Big Al" I met in Houston at a convention years ago.

Who I consider a friend... Because he has also told me

when my work sucked.....

LIKENESS.....

I learned this from one of my caricature artist heros "Huf"

"If there is no likeness... There is no value!"

I have to go to work this weekend...

to help recover the cost of the time I

spent at the convention!

You will have to look at one more post of what I had

on my wall....

But in the last two examples...

I will tell you why I like doing

a party style caricature

taking a photo and then working up

a studio type caricature.

Some of my work at the convention

OK, since it is my blog, I am going to put some of my work on.

A lot of the members seem to complain that the work is becoming

more studio work and less party and live caricaturing and less

one on one with who they are working up a caricature of.

I have to say I don't agree.

It's what you make of it.

I will spend time drawing the people pretty much like

I do at a party.... because that's my back ground.

I then take a photo of them holding the drawing.

Up load it to my computer and then work on it in

Adobe Illustrator...

This way I get to visit with the model and if they had

a party caricature category like they had in the past.

I have some samples to put up.

Then when I work up the drawing in Illustrator.

I can try and improve my skills on studio work.

So I figure I get to

1. visit with some attendees....

2. free hand draw.....

3. work on studio work

Here is my friend from Japan...Etsuko

with my drawing of her and below it the

piece I worked up in Adobe Illustrator.

Below is a new friend Ken with his drawing

Here is my work on the computer of Ken.

Carmen is the wife of Bruce Outridge from Canada.

This was Bruce's second convention and Carmen's

first convention.

I did not have a chance of a free drawing of her

so I just used the photo 0nly of her as a reference.

I will have a few days of my work and then back to

some more of the art displayed on the wall

The fun of doing studio work.

I have posted some past illustrations

that I have done for the local JCC.

I enjoy doing them dealing with the

lady I work with. Of course,

every year it has to go to her boss and

I am sure there is a committee

that has to make changes.

This year, there were fewer changes then other years.

Enough changes thou to show...

From what I understand.

The idea was that the gentleman who is on top

was the big push on getting a theater in the JCC

passed away years back.

His brother and sister-in-law

are big backers of the theater and

they are the ones on the stage.

He owns and operates an iron and metal company.

His wife (first baby born in 1918) is still

a yoga instructor.

The gentleman on the bottom is

the play director

1

The number one was my idea make

it more like a Shakespeare theme..

Having the man who was the big push

holding on the stage and looking at

where it has gone.

They liked the man looking over the scene

and the yoga pose but did

not understand the smoke and

Hamlet idea.

2

So they asked if the man could look like

he was helping construct a set on the

stage. Plus, the brother on top

always wore a ten gallon cowboy hat...

other than the photo they showed me.

Could we also add some theater seats?

3

The man looked like he was pushing a broom

so could we make it like he is carrying

the material for the set?

4

Could the gentleman on top have a

bola instead of a tie unlike the photo

we gave you where he is wearing a tie and

a hat like you had on the first drawing.

Let's take out a row of seats and

add these logos to the back of the seats.

The theater (known as the black box )

really does not have curtains so get rid of them

take the set between the man out and

add train tracks on poles in the back ground.

It ties in with their business logo

as well as they had a play based on "Chicago".

The final take the logos out and put the

first names on the back of each chair.

With a commercial art background I know

that you have to please the client.

I know it is a process of getting to what

the customer wants.

Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy

I always liked Paul Newman in the roles he played.

A career of over 60 movies from 1954 til 2006

Here is my illustrator drawing of

Paul and Robert Redford in

"Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid"

Other movies I was able to see

that I remember seeing Newman in...

The Hustler

Hud

Cool Hand Luke

Hombre

Pocket Money

The Sting

The Towering Inferno

The Color of Money

In 2006 he was the voice for the character

"Doc Hudson" in Disney/Pixar's

animated feature CARS.

Two TV Icons

"Leave it to Beaver" and "Happy Days"

were both widely watched when they were aired.

Barbara Billingsley was Beaver Cleaver's mom

on the television show "leave it to Beaver".

It was aired in the 50's when there was only

black and white televisions for the masses.

Tom Bosley played the dad

on the show "Happy Days".

It was based on growing up in the 50's.

Always a good laugh

Jonathan Winters and Robin Williams two funny guys

that I alway enjoy seeing when they are on talk shows.

You never know where they will take

the conversation, or what they will do.

Here is a drawing I did years ago

of Jonathan Winters.

A drawing I did of Robin Williams in Adobe Illustrator.