Mailbag
August 3rd, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How many of those caricature booth operations do you run? Do you own them yourself or are you acting as contract management with a park or mall (whatever) as the client? How much time do you spend overseeing the artists and/or operations for each setup? A: The retail caricature business is different depending on where you are set up. Malls have a more traditional retail business model base whereas theme parks work a little differently. Currently I have five retail caricature operations, three in seasonal theme parks and two year around in malls, although one is actually in a theme park INSIDE a mall.… READ MORE
July 27th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How do you handle artists that you hire/train or added to a multi-caricature artist private/corporate gig that try to steal your clients as they work for you? It’s an ugly part of the party caricature business. A: One thing I have never done in the “caricature business” is to be an agent for other artists, booking them to do events or “gigs” and then paying them a percentage of the fees collected. I have always preferred the retail approach to caricatures, where I have set locations and times and let my customers come to me rather than the other way around. Still, I have… READ MORE
July 20th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I’m currently an art student in my junior year (just getting in the thick of things) and I continue to see small improvements in my rendering and modeling of the human form but still feel as though I have miles to go. So my question is was there a definitive point in your art career where the cliche’ light bulb came on and you finally felt you understood how to handle form? A: I’m still waiting for that light bulb to go off… I consider my handling of the figure mediocre at best. Complete understanding of the human form is, I think, a lifelong… READ MORE
July 13th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I really like your work I see overlap, contrasting of simple geometry to give your drawing volume and bite.¬¨‚Ć I guess the question is this what are you thinking when keeping a sketchpad or, the simple question might be the what is the value of keeping a sketchpad? The impetus for this question is I have friends I see drawing in cafes and it’s like they are going through the motions. It’s like “Dude, what are you trying to achieve?” A: Your timing with this question is fortuitous as it coincides with a good friend of mine asking a similar question of me (and… READ MORE
July 6th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: You make cross-hatching look so easy. Mine always ends up looking like a messy patchwork quilt. What’s the secret to good cross hatching? A: Well, thanks for the compliment but I don’t consider myself much of an expert on crosshatching. With me it’s an exercise in controlled chaos. If you want to see a caricaturist who uses crosshatching to great effect, check out the work of Jan Op De Beeck or Vin Altamore. Here’s a basic crosshatched pattern one layer at a time: Some History- Crosshatching is a technique for adding values to a drawing by layering intersecting lines together to create the illusion… READ MORE
June 22nd, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: The pencil sketches you make before the final drawing are so detailed and clean, where are the lines of the very beginning rough roughs???ᬨ‚Ć I know there’s the non-reproducing blue pencil approach but I suspect it’s something to do with the automated drawing system you use. A: I confess I have no idea what you mean by “automated drawing system”. I hope you do not think I somehow use a computer program to do any actual drawing or manipulation of drawings. That is very far from the case. I draw everything I do traditionally with pencil on paper/bristol, and later erase the lines after… READ MORE
June 15th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I went full-time freelance several months ago and my wife and I just had our first kid (a boy) last Sunday. Obviously I’m taking some time off to get adjusted to have a new guy in the house but the work is starting to pile up. As I’m easing back into the work my question is how did you find that balance between work and family when working from home? A: I thought this would be a good question for today, being Father’s Day. First off, congratulations on your new arrival and happy First Father’s Day to you! This is my 18th. Since I… READ MORE
June 8th, 2008 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Who are the biggest influences on your artwork and what is it about their artwork that caused them to impact your work? A: I actually did a search for this very question on my blog and to my surprise it has not yet been asked and answered! Who knew?? It’s actually a tough question because my influences are a mix of both famous published artists and artists I know personally and have worked with doing live caricature work. Therefore some will be familiar to readers and some may not be. Also, many of the artists I cite as major influences on my work aren’t… READ MORE
