Okay. So here's what happened at the Party.

The Guest of Honor didn't show up until I was there for over half an hour. And when she did, she wanted to go around to all the tables before getting in to the picture.

So I was taken by Surprise. Having planned on drawing her first, I instead had to try to leave room for her. This put a crinkle in my plans. Without the main person to relate to, I didn't know how to design the picture. Without meaning to do so, faces started to frame the center which I was trying to leave available for the Guest of Honor. It started to look like everyone was rotating out from the center of the picture - designed like a Ferris-Wheel or something. Lalala - it would look like I did it on purpose but I sure didn't. It is a design, but I would not have liked it. Dorky. Contrived. Controlled.

It was hard, but I forced a change in the picture. I started flipping the people around. Took a chance, and it worked! Whew!

But then, when the guest of honor arrived, the only way her particular look would fit into the space that was left was to put her sort of sideways. Luckily, there was still enough time to add other people around her, so it softened the situation.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm an Artist or a Magician.

The more experiences I have, the more I know how to deal with every contingency that comes up.

I fit at least 20 people on this one 22x28 paper. It sure looks like a big group of people when they all stood together. Wow

Tomorrow I'll be drawing at a 50th Birthday. I'm supposed to draw 20 (or more) people on a page. Haven't done that in a while, so I decided to practice from photos of people on the web.

It's a good thing that I do my homework. So I'll 'know my lines' before it's time to go on.

Because the first picture I made, started making, hmmmm, no way am I going to fit twenty people on this 22x28 paper:

So I started again, figuring that I would make the first person, the 'Guest of Honor' largest, and make the other people smaller. But I kept forgetting - kept making everyone the same size. Forced myself to get smaller, but it was too late. Forced myself to finish the picture with twenty people no matter what size/part I made them:

I like these pictures. I feel comfortable to approach tomorrow's project. No predraw.

I sincerely hope the set-up is good - hoping for a good spot at a good table. If I have to use my easel, the drawing board is too heavy and cumbersome to feel 'right'.

I love my jobs. No matter how much I study and plan, I can never control Everything about it. Yet I know what my approach will be. Well, at least I know what questions to ask myself.

Oh what to do - Everyone upright? Or flipping around on their heads? Wild predraws directing the faces? Or direct inking without predraws? Color? Or Black/white? And those are just general decisions about the Composition. The questions continue as I figure out how to draw each face!

Creating Artwork is a way to Exercise the ability to make Decisions.

Whew - I sure worked hard at this school. A Guidance Counselor asked me to give the students their choice - Did they want a tame Caricature or a Wild Caricature.

Drawing fast, one of the Fun things about Party Caricature is that we don't know how the Artist would be affected. It's very difficult to

Either Come Up With Something Funny on command,

Or to get a likeness while toning down what you see which is creating that likeness.

But there I was, asking the students which they wanted. And handling high-school-type paperwork - checking off lists, keeping counts..... Constantly interrupting my Zone, the Artist's Zone.....

But it was Okay. A-Okay, I'd say. A wonderful group of students. A wonderful exercise for me. Most of the students wanted real Artwork

• something diffferent, something wild. A frequent response was something like - 'Ah, heck. Just go for it.' I was On.

It's late at night now - I'm just going to post of few of them. More coming soon - I'm fascinated to see what I came up with:

I recently decided that I needed new Specialty Clothing.

First, I drew Caricatures on the front and back of a tshirt. That's useful at some Parties - especially the ones where I'm hired to draw on tshirts:

Then I had an old jacket that I had been keeping in my car just in case a client surprised me with an outdoor Party on a day that I considered too cold (I keep sunscreen for the other extreme). Anyway, I was unhappy when I had to wear it because it was an old thing that I could 'junk around' in my car instead of hanging up like we usually do with our clothes. But now that I painted on it, I am not only looking forward to wearing it for those 'emergencies'. Now I'm thinking it's too nice to crumple around in the back of my car.

Now, this is something real useful. Laying on the chair in front of the picture is an apron that I prepared for the times I'm asked to walk around a Party doing Caricatures. The little apron has two pockets for holding my drawing supplies:

BTW, I drew the Caricature above to test out the apron. Nothing like standing up and holding your supplies to encourage you to draw real fast!

and then ~ decorated this shirt to cover up a stain. It works. Turns it in to one of my Favorites again: