Ok Here's One I'm Really Happy With

  I was drawin by Nate, Andy, and Katie on this particular day, and there was this huge group of people really enjoying a crazy Nate drawing. A couple out of the group decided they were ready to get drawn, and they had awesome faces, and they didn't tell me how to draw. So everything was set up just perfect for me, and I feel like I lived up to the situation. The likeness are good. The Animals are wacky. The girl's body isn't too dolled up. And I get bonus points for selling a sketch in which a female underbite is evident. Hip hip hooray!

  These were a couple of really good-natured gentlemen. The sketch turned out pretty fun, but a little left of center and the shaping's a little unintentionally wonky.

JOKES TO TELL YOUR BEST FRIENDS FOREVER

Q:  What's the best thing to wear on your feet when you're skydiving?

A:  A Pairashoes.

Q:  Why did the gardner wear red suspenders?

A:  To keep his plants up.

Are My Paragraphs all Jumbled Lookin?

I just received word from, my friend, Kevin Jackson that ever since I enlarged the type on my blog it's been all jumbled. I need to know if anybody else is seeing this and what I can do about it--aside from shrinking all the type back to fortune cookie size. Thanks, world.

Farewell to Jared

  Jared Lipscomb is no longer with us. He's workin for Fed-Ex, and there's a rumor circulating that he got a job up in LA. But I know what really happened. The government finally took him down for makin Square Badgez. To see other sketches I did of this buffalo head, you may click 

here  

here or

here for a photo

Derivative

I think there's like three ways to draw caricatures. One extreme is not allowing yourself to see any drawing done of a person and then, observing the guy or gal, draw the best caricature you can. This is the way it goes for in-park caricatures usually, just cuz these are usually complete strangers coming up to us. I'm not one of those guys who doesn't want to see the caricatures done of somebody to keep it "pure" or whatever. I don't mind seeing other drawings even really good ones, because I know that I can come up with something original and interesting in a different way and hopefully make some good discoveries.

Which is the second way. Being educated about what things have been done with a person's face and going from there. I like this way. I'm pretty sure this is how a lot of editorial illustrators work. Maybe not all of um, but certainly political cartoonists. You can't avoid seeing a caricature of George Bush no matter how shut off you may be.

The third way is kind of lame. It's how I drew this Nate, and that's copy all the decisions Joe Bluhm made and try to get a sweet likeness without actually looking at Nate. I messed up on the eyelids a little bit, but it turned out alright and was a good warm up for the day. If you wanna see other sketches of Nate I did in the past and the future, you may click

here

here

here

here

here
here
here

here

or here

This One Was Pretty Ambitious

  I managed to leave out a woman's eyes and still sell a frame. It might have been because they could tell I was trying really hard and taking too long. I wish I would have drawn his mouth a bit lower and made his head a little more narrow on top. 

Good Monday Working With Andy

  This is a real nice girl who came by with her friend. I also drew them together, playing poker. In this drawing I'm particularly happy with the atmosphere and her body. I kind of like her hands, but that one that's in the air didn't turn out quite like I wanted. It's spose to look like shes about to poink a key. It might be confusing though.

Rejects Whatever Part II and 1/2

  I nearly forgot the mother of all rejects: The Drawing Beside John Baldwin Triple Color Body Vanity Reject Smorgasbord

And this is John

I Did This One Today

She had a little poo on her shirt. Hyuck hyuck hyuck.

Just made up

Wacky Animals

Introducing Retardle!

I didn't get the girl so good

   I'm showing this one just because the dolphin came out kind of wierd and to show everybody that I draw tame sometimes, but I don't think it's a good idea.

Rejects Whatever Part II: Return to Reject Mountain

  There are a few different kinds of rejects. Here we see the hot girl with a big nose that you draw ugly just cuz. I use to tiptoe around girls like this, but not no more. The girl I drew was actually really cool and polite and nice, but she didn't want her drawing. She was shocked when she saw it, and then she was all, "You tricked me!" What? I never heard that one before. Maybe, since she's a woman, she can just tell when she looks into my eyes wether I find her attractive or not. Maybe, as I was drawing her, she felt that same sort of connection that guys and gals feel for each other, so she assumed the drawing would be really pretty, and when it wasn't she felt tricked? Something like that maybe. Anyway, I enjoyed drawing it, and it did look like her, and it was a smoothe reject so no big deal. I did hear laughter over my shoulder from her family though, so somebody got away with free entertainment. C'est la vie.

  Or how bout them inexplicable rejects. This was for a cute little girl, and it looked just like her, and it was cute also. There's no accidental added ugliness, but they stopped me and let me know they weren't so pleased. I said, "that's fine, so and so can draw her." That was the end of it. 

  Looking at the drawing now, I'm thinking, maybe it's the slightly asymmetrical head-shape. Lo Que Sea.

  And then there's the irate boyfriend who thinks his girlfriend is ugly, but doesn't want anything to remind him of it. This girl seemed really wonderful as I was drawing her. She has been drawing since she was very young; thinking of going to school for illustration; always wanted a caricature. So, I set out to be really honest in my drawing, because I know that's what artists like. 

  This drawing definitely had some resemblance, but it was far from perfect. As I look at it, her face and personality don't pop into my head, like with a really good caricature or portrait, but it's not super crazy either. I didn't even get to put in her moles, and she had a lot of um. Her boyfriend said, "I'm gonna stop you here." Then I said, "I'm not done." I don't recall exactly what he said after that, but it wasn't typical reject banter, it was a little sarcastic mixed with some disrespectful. He was trying to stand up for his girl or something, and tell me what's what and ask where the manager is. He really wanted to be the cool one in the situation, but he wasn't cool, because he thinks his wonderful artist girlfriend is ugly. What she needs to do is find a good man that'll treat her right and jack her face up. I can be that man! I love your brow ridge and your big tooth and your wide neck! Whatever.

  The moral of the story is the same here as it is in the book by the Founding Father. Rejects, very rarely, are your craziest drawings. So keep being honest, and keep jackin faces, or whatever.

Drawing of Dan Avery

  I finished up this crazy lookin one of Dan Avery today. He's always tryin to get everybody to draw him cuz Dan K, his foil, has a whole bunch of drawings of himself. I like this drawing of him alright, I guess. I did another one I'm pretty happy with, and Kevin Jackson took a video of it, and he's gonna put it up on Beastheads as soon as he gets his act together.

Andy and some awesome customers and their chiwawa

  This is a drawing I did of Andy when it was a little slow. He did a really great one of me, too. You can check that out on his blog: www.mrurzua.blogspot.com or The BeastHeads' Blog

in the left corner of this picture I drew a cloud, a tree, and a cloudtree. 

Another Katie?! You've gotta' be kiddin' me.

I made her pants look like they've been whipped severely.

Two More Katies

  This is a nice young lady I work with named Katie. She has a loud laugh. I drew her before, back in July. Click here for that if you want.

Today was the Big Day

  International Day of Jackin Faces started with no customers period. Real slow. Then, it kicked in with a bang when some disabled people were rolled in by their caretakers. These people know how to celebrate IDJF! I don't think I've ever had a bad experience with this kind of group. All the people in wheelchairs got drawn in their full gritty glory, and one of the caretakers too. Nate drew her. Here's the young lady that I drew in her pink socks and riding a dolphin.

  They all loved the drawings to bits and laughed uncontrollably the whole time. I've had similar situations before, and I've been thinking. I bet what happens is they're wheeling around these really funny looking people that they take care of, and they know they look funny, and their wondering, "I wonder what a caricature of a retarded person would look like. caricatures look bizarre already." It's usually middle-aged, not so attractive women pushing these people around. I bet they're just so curious if the caricature will look like the disabled person, and will it look scary and wierd? It's an intense curiosity that takes over . And when the crazy drawing happens it's like a hilarious cathartic moment for them, especially when they decide to come get drawn on the International Day of Jackin Faces

  After that I took my lunch break. When I returned it was slow for a while, so I did this fun drawing of Dan K. I'm pretty happy with it. Nate's done some very good ones of him, so it was hard to avoid some of the discoveries he made. 

 

  Then, I drew this baby. It was so sad the whole time, and everytime he noticed me, he started crying. He had a really great frowny mouth. This is probably the most extreme frown shape I've drawn in a park sketch. Check it out, Sam, and everyone else that reads my blog, by which I mean Kev.

  Last sketch of the day was this one.

  I thought it was gonna be a reject because it doesn't look so cute and cuz of the mouth all gaping, but it looked like her and the body situation turned out fairly dynamic. They bought it. Hooray.

Batman in Pijamas

Hope yall had a productive Beast it Day. I got a drawing here of Batman in Pijamas. John K's blog just did an article about wrinkles and a fella named Jack Kirby. They said he made superheros in saggy, lumpy underwear as oppose to "cartoon skin," which means you make the clothes skin tight to the body to help simplify animating issues. So I threw in a couple wrinkles to make it look like the kid's running about town at night in his pijamas, rather than glorifying a muscly ideal.

Turned out Somewhat Decent

  I feel real good about his face, and not so good about the shine in her hair. They wanted to be riding a shark, thirsting for the blood of a mid-day shadow.

International Day of Jackin Faces, August 26, 2008

  The big day's comin soon. I hope all you caricaturists and cartoonists got your markers and your brains ready. The above drawing is by Gerald Scarfe, if anybody wonders.

Caricature of Eddie Fitzgerald

This is a caricature of an artist by the name of Eddie Fitzgerald

Sea World San Diego Beast Heads Logo Idea

  Artists working for Kamans Art Shoppes in Sea World Sandiego are called Beastheads cuz we jack faces and or take pride in our skitches. You come to sea world and get drawn by somebody, even if you're a little nervous and twitchy, and you got all kinds of insecurities with yourself that you've got to share, you're gonna get drawn by a creative mind, and when you leave you'll know what your ugly mug looks like, or more-so. And, since we Beastheads are s' darn cool, we should have a logo. This is my idea. It looks kind of cool and fun like us. I think maybe the SD on the head should be bigger though. Maybe, the blackened eyes is too Gorillaz. It's just a little sketch anywaze. 

  So, check out the Sea World Sandiego Beastheads blog, and check out all the artist's links. Then, come to SeaWorld and get your face drid by me and everybody else and buy frames.

Nate and Melody in a shiny frame

stocky girl with tight pants

I'm happy that I made her body stocky like it was and also appealing

two drawings that give off different vibes

  This likeness was decent. The expression I drew on him was a bit more reposed than the one he's giving in the photo. 

Batray

Tall kid and his nanna. She had a real cool face, and was a little stocky, so I was a bit nervous about how she would react to me drawing what I was looking at, which was her face, but it turns out she's okay with her face, and so am I and so was her kid. So everything was okay, just the way it should be. I like it when everything is okay, and it was. She, in her moo-moo, he in his wife-beater.

This is just made up. I like the water and the kid's expression and the interaction between the two.

Drawing of Kevin Jackson

Kevin Jackson in his famous green pants