NCN Caricature convention/ Life Drawing- Raleigh (NOV 2008)

Every year, the NCN (The National Caricature Network, which soon will change it's name to the ISCA) holds their annual caricature convention where 200+ caricature artists from all over the world get together to draw each other for 1 week. Some of the very best caricaturists attend. Everyone then puts their work on the walls and everyone votes for certain categories. This was my 1st year attending and I had an absolute blast! I got a chance to hang and finally meet so many artists that I've admired and chatted with online. Everyone was just as wonderful in person as their work was. I recommend anyone interested in caricature or just art in general to attend. this year was in Raleigh, North Carolina. Next year will be in Ohio, inside a giant indoor waterpark! I'll making it a point to attend every year.

As far as my artwork that I did was concerned, I had a really weak showing and was REALLY disappointed in myself. I just couldn't focus. I don't think I necessarily did bad work, just didn't do anything that was that inspiring or "wow!" overall. I had already been in an artistic funk for a couple months and added I had a really stressful few days leading up to the con with extremely long hours at work and then had to drive 9 hours to the convention immediately after. I know peers I greatly respected at the convention had also mentioned that they were disappointed in my work as well. Which I'm glad they said, as it reinforced what I felt and just makes me even more determined to figure out what I was doing wrong. right after the con, I had some time off and spent the next 2 weeks in deep focused mode taking more notes and drawing caricatures for about 10 hours a day. I figured out a lot of things, things that I used to do that I forgot about. Then I left for my month visit to draw caricatures at Busch Gardens, in Tampa, Florida to see if I could put what I figured out to the test. which is sometimes harder to do than it would seem. I'll post those caricatures soon. I have to get a new USB cable connector to upload my pics from my camera to the computer, I think I left it in Florida.

Anyhoo, I still had an amazing time, and it was a nice kick in the ass to get me on the right track again. At least I hope so, heh.

1. this was the 1st caricature I did and prolly my favorite one I did there. I think after this, I used up any remaining brain energy I had left, heh. It's of Tomo Tobata, who is one of my favorite caricaturist and his wife, who is also very talented. They both drew me and were both awesome.

2. he had an awesome face and seemed to be easy, but I'm not sure I quite captured his likeness as best I could.

3. This is of Jason Kolano and Jenika Watkins. two artists that became friends meeting at the convention. I like the ideas here, with Jason's teef becoming her pants and both sharing the same hat and stuff, but I whiffed on the likeness of Jason.

4.this is of uber caricaturist, Jan Opdebeeck and his wife, who also did some awesomely graphic work. actually, I was happy with this one too. yellow + blue = green, yay!

5. this is Brian Oakes. One of my favorite caricature artists. He's just oozing with crazy talent and keeps getting better and better. Easily one of the best out there. As I was sketching him, I suddenly got the idea that he looks just like Q*bert, an old video game character. Luckily, I got access to internet in the hotel we were in and looked up some reference. I based the drawing on the box art. I think it's a fun idea but overall, it could have been a better drawing. it's a bit stiff.

here's a funny picture of Brian with the drawing afterwards, heh.

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so I spent the majority of the time at the con in artists block, I was sketching all the time but nothing was really happening. about 5 hours before our deadline was up to put our artwork up, I decided to just try and get as many as I could done and not think too much which I tend to do. these next ones were all done in those remaining 5 hours.

6. Kira. She was drawing me and said I had "an awesome neck" heh.

7. Andy Urzua. Another one of my favorite caricature artists and all around good dude. I missed on likeness- too much teeth.

8. Kaylee. I thought this one turned out all right and was pleased enough with it.

9. Enrique. this one has some good elements and wackiness but I should have emphasized some other things more than others- likeness isn't as strong.

10. Nate Kapnicky. Another of my fav caricaturists, he does some of the coolest most exaggerated caricatures. this one is just pretty weak. I like the coloring effect on some areas, that's about it. I'm going to have to do a better one when I see him at Cripple con 2 later this month.

11. this is how my wall looked.


here's a video shot by fellow caricturist, Brian Vasilik,  to give you an idea of what the convention was like. I make an appearance at 3:44 into the video. enjoy my eating and squeaky voice, heh.


part 2.

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at the convention, there were some cool seminars. One I attended was Stephen Silver's (character designer for Kim Possible/ awesome cartoonist) life drawing seminar. at the end of the lecture we all had a chance to draw a live model. I hadn't done life drawing in a while and it brought back good memories and how much fun it was. I always enjoyed the quick timed ones. forcing you to get the pose as quick and efficient as possible.

these were all done with no pencilling, just going directly with a pen. the beginning ones are 1 minute'ers, then a few 3 and 4 minute'ers. the last 3 before the turn arounds were 3 minute memory sketches, meaning we stared at the model for 30 seconds, then she broke the pose and we had to remember what we saw and draw it in 3 minutes, that was the most challenging. but great practice to exercise the brain.

this was a funny story, so at the end of the con we hung around a bit, ate some lunch then started driving home, I drove with fellow artist and buddy, Matt Zitman. about 3 hours into it, we stopped at a rest stop. I got out of the car and saw in the corner of my eye at the car I parked next to, that there seemed to be a caricature in the backseat window, I thought that was an odd coincidence. Then I look up and it's Marlo Meekins and Emily Anthony running towards us, who went to the convention as well. They had accidentally locked their keys in their cars and were waiting for a locksmith dude. Marlo and Emily live in the same city as Matt and I live about an hour from Matt. We waited with them until the locksmith came. We had no idea when they left and it just happened that we ran into them. what are the chances of that?! I love funny coinckydinks!

Busch Gardens caricatures post coming soon!