Getting ready for one of this week's Events. I was hired to draw some Fun Colorful Caricatures. That's my thing. That's what I like. But since I've been toning down a little lately, I figured I should warm up before this upcoming Event. I felt like it was going to be easy.

I chose a photo at random from my website ~ I don't look for the best one for the job because I can't choose which people will sit in front of me at Parties either. I just have to make it happen regardless of what the person looks like.

Turned into a bigger study project than I expected.

First, I got my basic idea for the Caricature to have a wide mouth, and I figured I would do a quick Predraw ~ just for the placements. First pass (peach colored) didn't squash the face enough, so I redid it in pink ~ still didn't squash it down enough.

Started a 2nd drawing. Too high with the pink predraw, so I moved it down with a blue predraw. Hey ~ I didn't leave enough room for the big hair ~ which was so obvious to me (That's what my focus was at the Party where I originally drew this woman.

Start again. 3rd page. Nope. I did the Same Thing. No room for the Hair.

Still not enough room for the hair on the 4th paper.

Better on the 5th paper where I finally did only a little bit of a predraw. But I wanted to turn the face to be more of a 3/4 view, and I didn't quite Do it. I did like the Eyedea to make the eyes more Star-like. It's the right idea for this upcoming Event.

So on to the 6th paper. Front view? 3/4 view? I can't even tell What I was doing here. And the exaggerations are done, but not very strongly. It's like I didn't have the confidence to really Do it. And increasing my Idea about the Stars for Eyes? Didn't work afterall. Hard to look at. btw, you probably can't tell from this photo of my Caricature, but I tried to fix up the eyes by using White Sharpie Paint Marker. Looked plenty white when I applied it, but then it dried to practically nothing (except mushing up the black). It would probably feel better if I shook the marker more, but I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to use that.

By the 7th paper, I finally really skipped all that Predrawing drawing. I Have to know what to draw by now. I just put in 3 guidelines for the 3/4 view face. But I forgot to 3d it.

8th paper ~ Maybe better re 3/4 3d, but i messed up the nose. I meant to keep the center of the nose thin and straight, just widening the bottom of the nose to stretch along with the mouth.

9th paper ~ Yay! I finally got something that I like. Did I stick with the likeness that I was originally focusing on? I don't even know anymore. I just felt so caught up in my picture's development.

Why oh why oh why oh why oh why is it that as soon as I touch on one thing, I get a reason to switch to something else. I guess that's why they call it art Work.

I really wanted to continue with the Digital Caricatures tonight, but I also have to get ready for this week's other jobs. The one I focused on tonight is actually very exciting. It's for Cirque. I was hired to draw Fun Colorful Caricatures.

So the first thing I did was to put together a palette of Bright Colored Markers. I just knew that that was the direction to go in for this Event. I got my striped hat and socks, and my bright markers, and..... Yes! This is what is Fun!

But I didn't use my Colored Markers. Because the first reference photo that caught my eye at my website ~ it did Not lend itself to that idea. So what to do with it? I stay with it because I can't control who will sit for a Caricature at the Event. It's good practice to deal with it.

Got it. Not with the Bright Colors, but still quite Cirque-like. Balancing and Quirky.

I felt like the Caricature was finished, but I could do more with the Artwork. I decided to add a Dark Line aroud the edge of the forms. As soon as I messed up the Dark Line, I figured ~ Ahah! When it's done, it's done, and Stop. Good learning experience.

But now that I'm looking at it, hmmmmm...... maybe I do like the heavier black line afterall. Oh judgements. I just do whatever I do. And this is what I did tonight. Aaaahhhhh

I drew this Caricature on my time off Alone in the Studio. Just the linework. I felt like it tells the answers just fine.

Yay! I'm getting somewhere. I painted a picture of my hand in my new fresco app. It finally felt more natural, more organic to use the painterly qualities of the app.

Not exactly the same as oil painting with a brush ~ I really had to get a new feel for it. and i had to incorporate other techie aspects of digitaling to draw this. But I was flipping around and making things happen confidently.

Still not feeling like I would be switching to this app for drawing Caricatures at Parties and Events. And still not feeling like this is completely like the alla-prima Oil Painting that I love. But this new app still feels like my dream come to fruition.

The Future cannot just redo the past. It will be different, even if we are looking for the things we used to love. Oil Painting on the IPad is different than Oil Painting with tubes of paint, just like fresh delicious organic foods that make me feel good are not the same as the foods that I enjoyed back when I was a child.

It's sad how often I hear "Make me Pretty" when I'm drawing Caricatures at Parties. Heck, even if I knew what You thought looks pretty.... or even if You even knew Why you wanted to look That way.... wasn't I supposed to make it look like You? So if you think you look pretty, then my Caricature makes you look pretty. But if you don't.....

I feel like what works in those instances, when a Guest requests that I 'make her look pretty', is to draw pretty Lines. So that's what I did tonight. Based on random photos (not necessarily pretty or not ~ they all had these deadpan expressions ugh), I intended to draw pretty lines. This is what I came up with.

Hmmmm.... Inspecting them, I'm wondering if exaggerations (like the big eye in the 3rd picture) do Not work with this line-approach? Or is it fine since I made pretty lines? What do you think?