Oh - I wish all my clients gave me enough time to do really good Artwork. So often, they're interested in 'draw as many faces as you can in as little time as possible so I won't have to pay for another hour'. Oh.

I usually refuse to copy other Artist's ideas, but in this case, I was intrigued - because the client was looking for a 'Sixties'-type picture. And that is so my natural style. The way I naturally like to draw. Pop Art.....Peter Max....Psychodelic......Me! Alison Gelbman.

He asked for his whole Party to be drawn on one big paper - and he wanted the picture to "look like the cover from the Sargent Pepper Album (Beatles). Ummm, okay. Limiting (see my other wild Group Caricatures), but still interesting to me.

I arrived ready for Fun. Exaggerations. Style. But my client asked that I draw real fast - that he's hoping to get 33 people plus one dog drawn with the whole Sgt Pepper Composition (lettering, some bodies, placements). And he also wanted me to draw "Couples" next to each other. That didn't leave any time to let his guests 'do the party-saunter'. I needed each one immediately and with his partner. And since I tell people to Estimate ten faces per hour, I was forced to just get something representing each face onto the paper - No time for unique exaggerations. No time for banter. No time for the Outrageous Composition I wanted to do. This is Work.

The picture came out good. The people had a good time. The Party was successful. But oh, my client had no idea of what I Could have done.

Art is for Fun. Party Whoop-de-doo Fun.

Caricatures are not like looking into a mirror. Not like tracing a photograph and modeling the forms based on highlight/shadow the way we do for a Portrait. Not the same pretty face for everyone with different hair. A Real Caricature Artist will be making a statement on what she sees. And it has to be quick. First impression, no editing. Because we draw one person after the next. "How many faces can you draw per hour?" is frequently asked by my clients. (BTW, I recommend estimating ten faces per hour.)

A Real Caricature is an Exaggeration. Here are some Samples from a 12-year-old girl's Party:

So get drawn. Have fun. Laugh. See yourself as a Cartoon.

Oh - the synchronicity of..... How do you spell that? Even though I tried to check at http://thesaurus.com/ (another word to s p e l l ), I still have no idea. Does spelling count?

Anyway, I was impressed with it today. Serendipity. Because I had randomly opened a folder to find some of my Samples to post here, and I came up with these pictures from a Corporate Event where I had been asked to draw Black and White pictures. I usually work in Color, but I was also hired to draw Black and White Caricatures at a University tonight. This very night. It's good for me to see them - as a Warm-Up for tonight's event (which will be the Sam Gennaro Event - a yearly Celebration about Italians).

This is what I like to call Black and White Caricatures. Still uses a bit of Color. But in this case, the Color makes the pictures get finished faster - which is what these Clients were looking for - to get more faces drawn during the hours that we had arranged: