Self Caricature Rough

This is a rough sketch I scanned for a website I am building.  I guess it's typical to have an "artist at the drawing desk" caricature - so here is mine.

Caricatures Artist's Caricature

Here are a few quick sketches I did of four prominent ISCA caricature artists, Robert Bauer, Glenn Ferguson, Court Jones and Paul Moyse, .

Caricature of Me

Here is another caricature of me by Janjo Baron

James Carville

James Carville is a politcal commentator usually seen on CNN.

Jay Leno

With Jay Leno getting his Tonight Show back all is right with the world.  Jay has been caricatured many times, with his big chin his most obvious feature, I thought I would add his portrait to my collection.

Kristie Alley "Fat Actress"

I recently tuned into the "Marriage Ref" to see if I liked the show and saw Kristie Alley.  So I thought it would be fun to do Kristie.  With her bigger profile, it makes for a funnier caricature. 

Caricature of Me

Recently, I had the opportunity to visit Orlando's Universal Studios, while on a business trip, and I stopped by Glenn Ferguson's Caricature Booth.  Glenn produced this amazing caricature of me!  I wasn't timing him, but he probably did this in less than 15 minutes.  Amazing work and so fast!  Glenn won the 2009 Golden Nosey award from the International Society of Caricature Artists.   

Thumbnail Sketch of the Week

I like to do thumbnail sketches as a way of loosening up....

Most Obnoxous Person of the Week

My most obnoxous person of the week goes to Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota.  This guy is the grandson of the founder of Toyota.  His grandfather is probably rolling over in his grave with the way Toyota has fallen from grace.  His dad also ran the company back in the 1990's.  Wonder what he's thinking??

Group Wedding Caricature

This is a group caricature I did for my nephews wedding.  Over 30 people are in here!

Marion van de Wiel

Caricature of Marion van de Wiel, a fellow ISCA caricature artist.  See her blog at http://marionvandewiel.blogspot.com/

Pete Emslie

Pete Emslie is a fellow ISCA member and caricature artist.  Here is my caricature of him.  You can also visit his blog at http://cartooncave.blogspot.com/2010/02/half-century-of-me.html 

Air Force Lt Col Norm

One of my first caricatures I did back in the day.  This was done for my Boss back in my Air Force days.  The Colonel is hammering on about things we should get busy doing.  I did this as a going away gift for him in 1984.  He always had a stack of books and papers on his desk and a model rocket.  P.S. this is before the days when personal computers were prevalent on everyone's desk.  They actually had to do things besides stare into computers in those days.

Lucy Liu

This is my latest caricature of Lucy Liu - Star of Charlie's Angels and Kill Bill.  I submitted this to the monthly caricature contest in Wittygraphy.  Follow the link to Wittygraphy to check it out.

Henry was created by Carl Anderson in 1932. John Liney was Carl Anderson's assistant on the 'Henry' newspaper strip from 1936. After Anderson's death in 1948, Liney continued the daily strip on his own until 1979. When I was 10 John Liney visited our elementary school, Country Club Elementary School in Willingboro, NJ and held an art contest. I was with my Dad and they had two categories for the art contest, adults and children.  My Dad mistakenly put his entry into the children's pile and won first prize, while my entry won 2nd prize.  When his entry was announced as the children's category first prize and called to the front to receive a drawing from John Liney, my Dad stood up and walked up proudly, oblivious to the laughter of everyone who could see the mistake.  John Liney commented he looked a little big to be a fifth grader.  At that point my Dad realized the mistake and my entry was promoted to first prize and I received this original drawing of Henry.

When John Liney was drawing the Henry comic strip he would appear at schools and clubs across the country giving away original drawings of Henry. He gave away a lot of this same drawing which shows Henry off to fish.  You can also find these on Ebay.  But with mine - he personally gave it to me.  John Liney died in 1982.  I feel lucky to have received this and I have proudly owned it ever since.

Salvador Dali

Trying to go for a different look here that captures the spirit of Dali.  So this is my surrealist version of a caricature.

Sketchbook

Some random sketches from my sketchbook.  These were done from pictures I took with my camera phone.   The first one is an older man leaving Walmart and heading to his car.  Some may find this boring, but I see interesting things to draw with every day people.

This next one is a group of people wating in line for popcorn at the movie theatre.

This was a man reading at Barnes and Noble.  Just sketches of everyday people.

Keith Richards

Here is my version of Legendary Guitarist Keith Richards. By the way - I just downloaded three songs from the new release Get Yer YaYas Out (40th Annivcrsary Edition). I would recommend Prodigal Son and Under My Thumb. Two songs which weren't on the original release.

Retirement Caricature

Retirement Caricature
Originally uploaded by GiftCaricature4U
This is a caricature I recently did for a co-worker who recently retired. Her name is Janice and she has just completed 30 years and is ready to give up the blue cube life.

Dan Smith

Fellow caricature artist Dan Smith.

Ten Most Interesting Faces of 2009

It's That Time Again

Every year I create a Christmas card with a cartoon of mine. This year I have captured myself, my wife, daughter, cats, and 1 fish doing some last minute Christmas shopping. I enjoy doing this and I hope my relatives enjoy it. But my wife and daughter always seem to complain that I have drawn them "too fat" or "the hair isn't right", or "I would never dress that way". Oh well I can't help it.

Photoshop Tips

Since I've started using Photoshop as a tool, I've collected my own set of tips which work for me. I thought I'd post them to see if they are useful to the incredibly small number of people who happen to stumble on my blog. The following are on scanning in line art and coloring in.

Scanning in B&W Ink Line Art

1. Scan in Gray @ 300 dpi

2. Duplicate Background

3. Erase Background to all white (Control + A to select and then delete)

4. Name duplicate background “line art”

5. On line art layer, apply Gaussian blur at 1 pixel

6. On line art layer, increase contrast to taste

7. On background layer, set to invisible

8. Set line art layer blending options to “multiply”

9. Within blending options, (blend if gray, this layer) set to less 255 until all white disappears.

Scanning in pencil line art

1. Scan in Gray @ 300 dpi

2. Duplicate Background

3. Erase Background to all white (Control + A to select and then delete)

4. Name duplicate background “line art”

5. On background layer, set to invisible

6. Set line art layer blending options to “multiply”

7. Within blending options, (blend if gray, this layer) set to less 255 until all white disappears.

8. Duplicate line art layer (this will make the line art darker if needed)

Color in line art

1. After scanning in either pencil or ink line art

2. Duplicate line art layer if this hasn’t been done

3. Merge both line art layers together (not sure why you need to do this but it works)

4. On layers window, within line art layer, select the checkerboard icon next to lock.

5. Now only visible pixels can be colored

Scan in alternate technique

1. Scan line art as grayscale image
2. Create a new blank layer, rename it “Line Art”
3. Go to the “Channels” palette, there is only one channel called “Gray”
4. At the bottom of the channels palette, click the “dashed circle” icon entitled “Load Channel as Selection”
5. In “Select” drop down menu, select “Inverse”
6. Go to your “Line Art” layer
7. Press “D” on your keyboard to reset swathes so full black in active color
8. Press “Alt” + “”Delete” to fill selection with black
9. On background layer, press “Control” + “A” to select and then “Delete” to delete line art on that layer
10. Convert to RGB or CMYK
11. This method I found from Tom Richmond’s Blog http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/2008/06/06/new-photoshop-line-art-trick/ it has the advantage where with the previous technique has a problem that the white areas on the multiply mode are not gone, they are merely inert when in Multiply mode. This means that once you take that final step and “flatten” the image all the white areas combine with the lower color layers and inherent that color.

Color in alternate technique

1. Go to the “Channels” palette, there is only one channel called “Gray”
2. At the bottom of the channels palette, click the “dashed circle” icon entitled “Load Channel as Selection”
3. In “Select” drop down menu, select “Inverse”
4. Create new layer above Line Art layer
5. Color in lines with wide brush – it will only color in the line art.

Jason Seiler DVD

I also received Jason Seiler's DVD "Sketching with Jason Seiler" It's a well produced DVD with a special features section including Jason's Sketchbook, Painting Gallery, Sketch Gallery, and information on "Schoolism". There are also several lessons included which cover Form and Shape, the importance of Thumbnails, Crosshatching Techniques, and Digital Paint Sketching. I like the video because I find it interesting to see how other artist approach their work and what they are thinking as they work out problems or come up with creative solutions. Jason does a good job of explaining how he approaches his work and his personal philosophies. After watching this video, I went out and bought a sketchbook and am going to start sketching every day.

Tom Richmond

Just got a copy, yesterday, of BO Confidential from Mad Artist Tom Richmond. He signed it with an original pencil sketch of Alfred E Neuman. It looks like I got one of the last ones because he posted on his "Mad" blog that he is sold out the same day I received it.