I made $19.32 today

This is how babies are. This is sadly not from life, but from my brain.

This sketch goes out to Grigor, who's fat spiderman sketch I just saw. Rather than take on Doc Oc this spiderman is attacking a hot dog vedor who's license has expired. Also I gave Doc Oc eight arms. I had to explain to the kid afterward that that's Extreem Doctor Octupus.

This gentleman is just starting to learn caricatures. He's on the forum, and he's trying to get hold of marketts and stuff. I exzaggerated the bulk of his face to much and didn't push his eyes close enough together. Also he had an unusual mouth thing going on. I should have pushed that but instead I just made him bulky.

Drawing With Nate Kapnitty

Look ma, I'm driddin' funny. If you can't tell, this kid is surfing on a floppy dog.

There's something very unfunny about this caricature.

Caricature of Mez

This is hopefully my first of many caricatures of the amazing Mez.

Slow Saturday

I was rushed on a very cool couple with very awesome faces. Each face was about 7 and a half minutes. They had to get to the dolphin show.

I got a reject. Customer stupidity was not the only reason, as I see it. The face that you see here was correctly exzaggerated, for the most part, but there's no element of fun to the face. This is what a caricature looks like when someone who hasn't been pushing it enough tries to push it. It was going to be a double color face, but the girlfriend wasn't having it.

The Last Couple of Days

This took me ten minutes or so. That's quick enough, but it's not the quality that I want. It's a watered down version of what others do much better. There's no depth in the face. I'm a little bit happy with this because it also happened pretty quickly, and I drew the expression that I saw even though the mom was saying, smile honey!
I'm about as satisfied with this sketch as I have ever been with a 30-45 minute sketch. It was slow in the park so I drew the ever cheerful Jared.
A very nosely gentleman kept passing by my stand with his friends, looking interested, and I kept pestering him, saying things like, "I can't wait to draw you." Finally, when I was about to draw a triple color face (the father had to take the little girl off to the bathroom first) this guy comes by, finally ready to get drid. Not very good timing. I had to do this in, like, 5 to 7 mintutes.
These two guys took about twenty minutes all together.

I always get more enjoyment out of working on a caricature with unlimited time, working from sketches and many photographs. I like solving the mysteries of the individuals face, but I think park sketching is just as much a legitamate form of art. Being able to draw fast is part of it and there needs also to be some unique form of excitement and quality to it. This is what I'm struggling with right now, because I would rather take a half hour or forty minutes on a color face, if given the chance, but this type of art has virtually no audience, except for us, the caricature artists. This collection of photos shows a range of these approaches.

Drawing

This is a drawing of a talented San Diego caricature artist. I did it at home after sketching him at a coffee shop. This took a couple hours.

My Website is Down for Some Reason

My website is down for some reason. I just went to go look for it, but when I go to www.aaronphilby.com, I just get a blank screen. I'm gonna fix this, but right now I am sad. I hope I don't have to put everything up there all over again. I just updated it to.

Jonathan Philby

Ladies, this is my brother Jonathan. He's really a great guy, and as you can see, he's also attractive

The Day Before Thanksgiving

This family was really cool though unusual. The mom laughed hysterically at everything, not so much the pictues, but mostly at our prices. First the boy was drawn by himself, then his sister wanted the two of them like you see. While I was drawing the double, the mom mentioned to me that the boy didn't want his eyes like I did in the individual one. I was like, "well, that's the way they are, what am I suppose to do. At this she laughed hysterically. I liked them. I tried to get the kids to pose with the picture but they didn't want to.

Real happy with thisn'. This couple decided to do the "best sketch of the day, no-mat combo."

Are those dolphins? I was looking at the demo on the wall that they got the idea for the body situation from. Are those dolphins?! It looks like a Yoshi face. Now let's talk about the lack of bathing suits. I wanted them to be wearing wet clothes. I thought it would be funny. I didn't really pull that off too well. I need to go look at some soggy clothes reference. I should have drawn there hair wet too. Honestly though, I'd rather not draw lumpy little girl bodies.

Don't know why his opponents lips are barely colored in. Looks kinda wierd. What I'm happy with mostly in this is the kid' body. No picture of his face. Sorry

Just found another

This was actually done on my first day at the San Diego Zoo. Sorry it's cut the way it is. I had to take the picture fast. I know what you're thinking. "That giraffe looks really intelegent!"

Dear Old Mumsy

Here's another I did in the process, trying to go cartoony.

The Mom Experiment

I sketched my mother's face a bunch of times, rather quickly, trying to push it further and further. In the last couple steps I found it very natural to abstract and simplify. I see the best likenesses as being the 2nd and third. On the inked one I wish I would have dealt with the mouth differently because I think the viewer is uncertain as to what is upper and bottom lip and chin. I didn't include the teeth.

I've thought, in the past, about simplification verses exzaggeration and I've come to the conclusion that abstraction and simplification are most easily applied after the natural, physical structure of the face has been pushed a great deal. I wonder what would happen if I were to simplify and then exzaggerate. I'll try that tonight.

Halfways Decent from SeaWorld and the Zoo

Sorry I haven't got pictures of the kids. You'll just have to trust me.

One more from Cedar Point

This is the best drawing I've ever done in Bitter cold

The following picture, drawn at Cedar Point in Ohio, is on my website already. It's all I got for photos of park sketches right now, so I'm just getting this party started, as they say.

My First Lil' Post

I recently arrived in San Diego. This is a photograph of water.