Caricature- [2nd Yr anniv.] Ninja/Samurai, Dook U, Super wheelchair (SEPT 2008)

drawn during the month of SEPTEMBER 2008 at Dorney Park, PA.

This month also marks the 2nd anniversary of me drawing live caricatures and also the month that started my drawing funk...

1. this is one of my favorite connect line situations I've done-- that big swirl hair to hair connect line. I guess cause it's pretty aggressive/pretty obvious. It's my 1st time drawing a ninja. and a samurai too. I was really happy with the connect line, and the layout is decent but their faces themselves aren't really that unique or crazy. So I hit on a great connect line that I like but missed on a lot of other elements that could have elevated the sketch. I really dislike doing double bodies, as usually it restricts me from experimenting with the faces more/gives me less room to play with but this one came out all right. I felt more comfortable drawing a ninja and samurai, I guess.

2. nothing earthshattering, just tried going really cute.

3. when I showed them the sketch, the dad goes, "wait, where am I?....no, seriously, where am I?" He couldn't figure out where he was in the sketch, heh. The mom goes, you're the skinny one and he goes, is my face really that skinny?! I like that I went for it more with his face, everything else is pretty tame. could and should have pushed everything more.

4. I lost the likeness on the girl-eyes too big. I like the silly crabs though.

5.

6. decent exaggeration but too piece meal, feels awkward, needs more cohesion. my favorite part of this sketch is the gag I drew on his shirt, hee hee. I'm still waiting for someone to wear a CAL university shirt for me to draw...

7. accidentally made him look a tadpole mean with the eyebrows. I always think it's fun to throw in any stuff animal or whatever people are holding. in this case, it looks kinda weird and creepy cause that's how they were holding them but I only hinted at it and it looks kinda weird like that because I didn't draw their arms holding them, looks like they're floating. should have made her face squatter and wider. her mouth line implies to his nose.

8. just a tame cute one. they were really happy with it though, so that's nice. should have made her face longer and more chin.

9. I was really trying to push this one and didn't turn out that crazy. made her eyes too big too.

So this month marks the 2nd anniversary of me drawing live caricatures. I think I've learned and evolved a lot. with this past summer especially. but I still have lots I want to tackle, I still haven't really put too much effort in my bodies and want to explore and experiment with crazy ideas. but I still feel I have lots I want to explore with just the faces and don't feel I'm quite "there" yet- still trying to find my style. I know that might sound weird as my stuff is already pretty stylized, but I'm VERY analytical and am constantly self evaluating my own work with a fine toothed comb and don't feel I'm hitting it fully. I think I'm getting closer all the time and that there's aspects to what I'm looking for in some of my sketches, I just gotta put it all together, to find the right order and priorities. My sketches are still all over the place and I think once in a while, I'll get it right more, but even I don't know exactly why or what that is...not sure that makes sense to anyone. A big part of it is knowing what you want in your sketch and coming into it having a clear game plan and since I like so many things it's always been kinda hard to pinpoint things and that's why I'm not as consistent with any of my sketches, which I guess can also keep it fresh. but it's also pretty frustrating. and it hit me more during this month and therefore I was drawing a majority of my sketches not having a clear idea and it showed. everything was just kinda there and not a definite statement.

Granted, during the fall, it's slower and we're only open during the weekends so maybe the lack of drawing had some effect... but still, I do feel it was mostly more than that and that I began seeing things differently and needed to reevaluate what I was doing and my process. these sketches above are ones that I thought were decent/ "happy enough" with but don't really feel any of these represent anything that is taking it to the next level or were as good as the ones I did in the summer months which at this point, looking at them with current eyes, I don't feel represent what I want either. maybe I'm just getting bored with my process and don't feel I'm challenging myself as much. It's that never-ending battle in that it's great to figure it out but then if you figure it all out it becomes boring and using the same solutions to solve problems becomes boring. There's certain aspects of sketches that I really like but it's usually one or two elements that I feel are successful and not the whole package of what I am looking for ...don't know if this is making any sense...I'm very much about seeing how far I can take things and to push the medium. I'm SO fascinated with the art form because of the fact that you are dealing with likeness and that puts a certain amount of restriction to how far you can push it but then that's the whole fun and challenge of it cause you want to see how far you can push it with those rules. when I look at all the stuff I've done so far since I started 2 years ago, I do feel that my best stuff has been the ones I've done this past busy summer months but even still, I think I can do much better... it's a combination of trying to improve on everything. I think prolly it's mainly to try to improve on consistency-- to try to have more of my sketches hit more of the things that I like-- better likeness, better exaggeration, better style, better crazy. ok, I guess I'm done rambling for now, heh.