UpScale Digital Caricatures

I came here tonight intending to draw People as though they were Dogs. Chose a random photo online ~ just the first one that came up ~ the man didn't particularly remind me of a Dog. I just imposed the idea onto him.

My first pass ~ egads ~ I would be the only one who knew what my intention was ~ Didn't look like a dog.

Tried it again ~ Getting more Animal-like ~ perhaps a Goat? I still missed the mark.

The third drawing finally got it. Looks like a Doggie and also looks like the Man in the photo. Success ~

I thought I had my Supplies all thought out ~ Many Years Ago. But tonight I noticed that I was uncomfortably not admitting to myself that something uncomfortable comes up when I try to Color a Large Area.

Clients love that I come with Heavy Paper. I have Thousands of sheets already prepared to start the upcoming year. But tonight's Drawing Exercise made me question whether or not that's really such a good choice. Because.... well.... this is what happened.

Tempted to pick up my Supplies even though I didn't have anything specific to draw, I decided to fully Shade a Ball. Basic stuff ~ but I decided to do it more fully than the quick indication that I usually use at Parties and Events.

Oh ick ~ that wasn't looking good. Using the Color Stick on its side ~ the way I usually do at Parties and Events. So I tried making another one using the tip of the Color Stick. That felt too fussy to use at a gig ~ and it didn't look much better anyway.

So I tried it again. And again. Contour lines. Straight lines. Overlapping in different directions. Nothing. Nothing felt good enough. I didn't have a Colorless Blender here (like I would have time to use That at a job!), so I tried to affect the texture by going over it with a white Candle. Ick Ew Ew Uuuugly. I don't like That.

So I decided that strong pressure is the way to go with these Color Sticks. Can't imagine having the Time or enough Supplies with me at gigs for this ~ but I had to try it. I'm on a path. It came out ~ eh. Not looking or feeling Professional.

So I switched to Plain Cheap Computer Paper (oooooh ~ I feel glad that I'm writing here. I just thought of perhaps buying a heaview Computer Paper), and I Shaded a Blue Cucumber (just to be reminded that there's no erasing with these supplies any more than there is smudging). But anyway, I felt aaaahhhh ~ the Blue Cucumber is Shading real nicely and smoothly. I might seriously be better off to ignore the Thousands of sheets of Paper that I already stocked up on to start this year ~ and use Plain Paper Instead.

Happy with the Blue Cucumber, I started shading a Cone-with-a-Hole. Still just basic stuff. And I felt surprised that I had trouble with this. Again, the Shading was not looking smooth. Something I hope I'll look into again later. Later. Some day. But meanwhile..... Look at the Great Shading on these Eyes! Simply done. On the Smooth Paper.

and btw ~ I was drawing on White Paper. As usual, my Fancy Camera-Phone picked up the Yellow Lighting in the Room. And made my pictures look dirty. Oh.

They ordered Fashion Sketches. I intended to take a quik warm-up before going in. So I looked online for a photo of people at a Bar Mitzvah.

The photo didn't really show much of the Fashion. I would be seeing much more of that in person. So I focused on placements ~ in case one of the requests turns out to be a group request.

I ended up spending a lot more time on this warm-up than I had planned. Even though the very first picture worked just fine. Nice arrangement. Nobody would complain with this correct picture. But I don't like the style. It's too (dipsy? beginner?) for me:

So I drew it again. This time, I tried to 'loosen up':

Okay, but I didn't loosen up Enough. So I drew it yet Again:

No no no. Let's go. Let's Exaggerate:

Good thing I took a photograph of that drawing before I started adding to it. Because the more I did, the less I liked the picture. Turns out that the contrast of line quality between the Hebrew Word and the 'people' got less clear when I added Color. Every time i added more complications, it took away from the clarity of ppl behind The Word. The simplest one is the most energetic. most clarity. and it took much less time which would have kept ppl from getting jumpy if I was in a real live party today:

and it got even worse when I also added darker lines to the 'people'. That is Not the way to go when doing a (word) Overlay:

Did you notice that I started drawing Faster with each rendition? Now I feel ready to jump right in.

I'm looking forward to actually seeing the Fashions at the Party. In person, I wouldn't be limited by a photographer's picture

UPDATE 2024 !!

I FINALLY HAD A CHANCE TO POST WHAT REALLY HAPPENS AT A PARTY WITH THIS ARTIST. THE FUN PICTURES SHE DRAWS.

Warm-up before today's party ~ I went in to my website to see Fashion Sketches at Bar Mitzvah. Picking up where I left off here, I drew the following Fashion Sketch. Of course, I couldn't find the same random reference photo. And this time, I took SIX people in one drawing.

Again, I felt like it was better as just bw lines:

But then I said a hey. Toooo tedious. To tight to be ARTwork. And finally, finally I drew it right:

Aaah