A caricaturist named Mark, the “Cartoon Guy,” was set up under his white tent, waiting for customers.
I did a blog post about Mark three years ago. He had a new sign out that said “Please don’t text while you’re posing.”
I hung out with him until he got his first customer of the day, a girl who had never been drawn before. During a lull Mark and I drew each others’ portrait.
Previously: "The Cartoon Guy"
I love that you sketch people and places everywhere you go, you've carved out a visual journal of your life and travels,and it's incredibly inspirational. Is there any chance you'll ever attend the Illuxcon show in Altoona? I know a lot of your peers show up there and it would be incredible to see some of these sketches (or your Dinotopia paintings of course) in person!
ReplyDeleteThanks, CandlePhoenix. I've heard great things about Illuxcon and I'd love to go, but November always ends up being the busiest time for me. One of these days!
ReplyDeleteI will be making other appearances in the east coast, midwest, and California this fall, and those places will appear in "Upcoming Appearances" on the left column of the blog when they're confirmed. I usually bring a sketchbook to booksignings.
What sketch book do you fancy these days, James? I remember you mentioning a 5x7 Molskine a while back, but this one looks different - and its orientation is "portrait", which I tend to prefer. Maybe a little larger, too?
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea: sketching the sketcher. I, of course, like your draw/painting better ... never been one for cartoon portraits, but then that's just me ... silly cartoon me, likely.
ReplyDeletehaha "please don't text while posing"! I know exactly how that feels. I was at a portrait painting evening course last year, and it was horrible. The lighting wasn't controlled at all, and they let the model listen to music in ear buds and read her homework while we were painting! You know, she wasn't gonna do anything else while posing, why not get something done at the same time? Ugh.
ReplyDeleteTom, I have two sketchbooks going right now. For watercolors, I have the Moleskine 8x6 inch watercolor book. I used that for the calf sketch in the next post.
ReplyDeleteThe other one, which I used for the Cartoon Guy sketch, is a Winsor & Newton Heavyweight A5 sketchbook, about the same size, 14.8 x 21 cm. It’s smooth, heavy weight white paper that takes washes well. The only thing I don’t like are the perforated pages, which I’m afraid will eventually come loose.
i do caricatures at the San Diego Zoo and its always fun to draw other artists. It really pisses me off when I ask someone if they want a sketch and they say," I'm an artist too, i'll just draw my own." i guess that means they only appreciate their own art?? lol people are confusing
ReplyDeleteI had a street artist do drawings of my twins when we were in New York city a few months ago. The first drawing was so unlike the subject (not even in a cartoon sense) that I cut my loss and politely told him to stop at the first drawing. When I got home, I started researching the internet on tips on sketching. Thanks to generous artists and sites like this and many books/hours of practice, I found a new passion. While my drawings are still infantile, it's also better than the NYC street drawing. So I commiserate with people that decline sketches done by others, esp. if they can draw themselves.
ReplyDeleteBTW I'm not knocking on all street artists; just that they come with varying talents. Anyway, I'm glad I came across the mediocre artist who inspired me to learn to draw.