ISCA Convention!

Drawing at corporate family event.

   Greetings all! I keep saying that I am going to post more often, and I wish to, but life happens. So I'll just say I HOPE to post more often!

   I've been pretty busy over the summer, working at the Georgia Aquarium and several gigs. Because of this I can finally be pretty sure that I am going to the ISCA convention this year. Most if not all of you know about the ISCA, but for those of you who do not, it is the International Society of Caricature Artists.  "Its purpose is to promote the art of caricature, educate the public and the media about the art of caricature and to provide its members with helpful information about caricture as an as artform as well as a profession." (As quoted from the website at  http://www.caricature.org/.) I have not been to one in several years because of financail issues. I have such a great time there and greatly miss the comradery, the competition and the great workshops. I must say, though, that it is still not 100% certain. But I have paid the registration, reserved the hotel and hopefully will soon purchase the plane ticket. The wonderful thing is that my daughter is offering to pay for my travel and hotel with her student grant refund money! She insists because she knows how much I have wanted to go but have not been able to. God has surely blessed me with wonderful daughters! For those of you who care to, please pray that all goes smooth.

     Anyway, here are a few recent drawings. More on the convention later. Peace to you all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

                                       



   

 

 

Ways to improve

Greetings all! To those who have asked me to teach, while I am developing a plan, here are a few things you can pay attention to to improve. I do not claim to have mastered these perfectly. No matter how much experience you have, if you are not pushing to improve, you may even decline in skill!

Anatomy
    It is always beneficial to study and master anatomy, even as a caricaturist. It gives your drawings a better sense of structure. When drawing quick life drawings at events, the structure will not always be perfect, but it will still have a more life-like quality.

Line quality
    Seek to improve the quality of your line work. Whether you have a more smooth flowing line style, or a rough sketchy one, make it consistent and well defined.

Angles
    Learn to draw the face from a variety of angles. Attack that three quarter view!

I will give more tips soon.

Never Quit!

Greeting all! Here I am again, still trying to grow and improve. Life can be tough, as I'm sure you know. There are so many challenges in all parts of life; relationships, business, personal, etc.. One has to learn to keep pushing, have patience with yourself as well as others, and never quit. Hebrews 13:5 tells me that Christ will never leave me or forsake me. When times are tough, His Spirit reminds me of that promise.
     I have had a lot to deal with lately, struggling to pay the bills. But my Father always provides. I do realize, though, that I need to be doing more. Sometimes God provides for us, but we are to blind, distracted or lazy to take advantage of the provision. I realize that God has given me great potential, and my desire is to reach it fully. Please pray for me as I move forward. And for those of you who do not know Christ as Saviour, my prayer is that He moves and works in your life so as to bring you to a saving knowledge of Himself through faith in Him!
    I still want to teach, and those of you who have asked me to, I have not forgotten. Here are some recent caricature pieces, mostly from the GA Aquarium. Grace to you all!



 



Growing the Biz!

Greetings all, and Grace to you! I am back to post a few more photos of live work. But I am really focusing on learning as much as I can about marketing and various ways to grow my  art business overall. I've mentioned this before, but I am trying to be more active and put more hours into it. Growing a business takes a lot of effort and tenasity, and up to now I have not put nearly enough energy into it as I should have. I have been waiting for opportunities to fall into my lap. The Lord does provide, most definately. He provided mana for Israel every morning when they were in the wilderness, but they had to get up, go out of their tents and gather it. I need to go out and make good use of my time and resourses, trusting in His guidance and provision. Anyway, here are some more photos.

Late Night Post

Just posting a few pics, but more to come.

Looking into Teaching!

    I have actually desired to teach caricature for quite a while. Even though I am still growing and improving and expanding my own skills, I love the thought of passing on to others any knowledge I have gained. I love art, people, and the idea of teaching, and would do it for free! But as a single dad, I need to use my skills to support my family; you know, pay the bills! Of course I still am trying to learn how to build my live event gig business so that is more consistant, and I would like to break into illustrative caricature for magazines and publications. I also wouldn't mind selling fine art caricature like the great Sebastian Kruger one day! But alas, I need immediate income!
    Well, I have been contacted by an artist in South Africa who is willing to pay me to teach her. There are a couple of others who have also expressed interest. So it is time for me to get going with this. I am researching and working on the best way for me to teach online or through email. I also need a good price point for my services that is affordable, but also worth my efforts. You will hear more as this developes.
   In the mean time, here are a few more photos from my work at the GA Aquarium. C&Cs welcome! By the way, even though I have a decent camera, many of my photos are a bit washed out which diminishes the vibrancy of the color. I'm still working on the ideal setting for my camera.  Grace to you all!

Still striving.

Greetings out there. Here I am after being away for a while again.  As much as I want to post on a regular basis, it it tough because I have much to deal with in my everyday life. You know how it is. Any way, I am posting some more recent pieces done at the GA Aquarium. Summer was great for me because I was able to work alot of hours there, but now business has slowed down and I am not getting nearly as many hours. I really need to find ways to make my business grow not just doing party caricatures, but illustrative work as well. I know that this is the issue for many caricaturists, but I also realize that there are those who do very well, so I know it can be done. I have tried to ask a couple of the ones doing well what they do to bring in consistant business, but I was told little to nothing. I think that there are artists out there who believe that if they help someone else, that it will hurt them. They keep what they do secret. They seem to see other artists as the "enemy". I whole heartedly believe that even in this down economy, there is business enough for all of us and when you help someone else you also wind up helping yourself. I hope that I can become as successful as I wish to be, because it would be my pleasure to help other artists trying to grow. We all had to start somewhere.

Anyway, here is some recent work. Comments and cits welcome!