Machete!

Hey people, feels good to be writing a new post again. I've been wanting to do a Danny Trejo caricature for a while, so I'm glad I finally pulled myself out of the mini artist-block I've had for the past month and did it. It doesn't feel as adventurous colorwise as I might have liked but what a fun face to draw! I give you Machete!

Danny Trejo 

With my mind on my money and my money on my mind...

Finally got this Snoop caricature done! Can't lie, I'm pretty stoked about how this turned out [especially since the likeness feels pretty solid]. I'm still planning one with him doing the mean mug thing, but this satisfies nicely in the meantime.

If you guys have any comments/ suggestions or critiques, please send them my way. Later.

Big Snoop Dogg: Round 2 [Work in Progress]

You guys might remember I posted the line work for a Snoop caricature a little over a week ago. I was planning on posting the finished piece today, but somewhere along the way I  succeeded in losing the likeness. I feel like it's a good drawing and I'm happy with the rendering, but the primary directive as a caricature artist is likeness. I'll let you guys judge.

Anyway, I went back to the drawing board and came up with a different composition.  It lacks Snoop's trademark scowl, but all in all I just like it better. Hopefully I can get it done by tomorrow night. Wish me luck!

#snoopdoggcaricature2

Today was a good day...

It's February! Finally, I can put this up! I'm trying to spread out my posts a bit, but I'm kinda impatient by nature, so I struggle with that. Anyways, after doing the Tupac and Biggie caricatures a while back I started thinking of doing a series of all the rap/hip hop icons from my youth. I was toying with the idea a few days ago and started working on this as a warm up. Four hours later my co-worker Jay looked over my shoulder and said with a chuckle "Good thing that's only a warm up!"

Ice Cube [01/22/14]

I have to admit, I am pretty proud of this one. I'm glad my decision to play with the lighting worked out, and I'm really happy about my development as an artist,  especially when I compare it to the caricature below. I did That one in August of last year. Both were done from the same reference photo, and with the same tools. Just goes to show there is no substitute for practice...

Ice Cube 08/15/13

Big Snoop Dogg [Work in Progress]

In complete contradiction to my needs and wishes, it's ANOTHER slow day at the booth! And by slow, I mean no pulse,  period! Lately the only way to cheer myself up when this sort of thing happens is to start working on a project I've had on the back burner, so I decided to cross yet another rap icon off of my list. I'm toying with the idea of doing a golden-era-of-hiphop[A.K.A the 90s] series and this fits right in. Just finished the linework on this puppy,  will finish it off tomorrow. Maybe. Hopefully I'll be slammed with business and it'll be a week or two before I get around to it...

for the applause, applause applause...

I donated these pieces for auction at a charity benefit concert that was held last night at the Artifice. I couldn't go, so I'm not sure how well they did, but figured I'd share them with you guys.

This piece [named 'Green Eyes in the Grass'] is the only print of a painting I did a few years back. The original is acrylic on canvas, and is about 24x36 inches.

The Gaga piece I put together this week. Not ecstatic about it, probably because it feels more portrait-like than caricature-like to me, but I thought the likeness was solid. 

Before I sign off here, I'd like to let anyone reading these posts  to know that I would really like some feedback [good or bad] on the work I'm showing . I think part of improving as an artist means learning to take criticisim, and I would really welcome any and all suggestions. If you think I need to work on something, please let me know. Feel free to hit me up here or on Facebook. Till next time ya'll...

Another blog post, now with 100% more Mike!

In the almost two years since I got into caricature I have drawn my boy Mike here

 more times than I can count. When you are having a slow day at the booth it sometimes helps to draw a coworker [if you are lucky enough to have one around] to attract curious but suspicious onlookers. I honestly cringe when I see some of my earlier attempts, they were SO BAD!

  Cringe!!

Cringe again!!

Thankfully a little time and lots of practice will fix just about anything eventually. I'm happy to say I think I've improved a bit, if I say so myself.. The following are a few of my favorites so far, in chronological from mid April 2013 to yesterday, 01-20-2014.

Mike, thanks for being an awesome guinea pig, but more importantly a true friend.

If anyone is interested in the technical details, all of these were drawn live, in Chartpak Marker and Prismacolor Artstix, a premium brand of woodless colored pencil. Hitman Mike is the exception, in that it was drawn live but all the rendering [in marker mostly] happened later. There are a few places where I use white acrylic paint to place high lights and art markers to add intensity to certain areas.