Me with Scott Adsit ( NBC's "30 Rock") NYC con 2008/ con sketches

Here's some older comicbooky stuff that I just found again and never got around to posting on the blog. Before I really got immersed into caricature, I was into comic books and would go to comic conventions with friends of mine, setting up a booth and doing commissions and all that good stuff. Here's some pics and stuff from 2008's NY comic con. there were over 60,000 people that attended last year, I might be going to this year's one.

Here's me with Scott Adsit, actor on the TV show "30 Rock" on NBC, one of my favorite shows. that and "The Office" are the only 2 shows I watch religiously. I also go to church religiously. bada-bing! ok, lame joke....but secretly, you know it's awesome, right? eh? eh? :)


Here's the story of how we met Scott...so my buddy, Jong, and I were hanging at our table space at the convention talking about the show 30 Rock and how awesome that show is, this guy walks up to us, says to Jong, "hey, are you Jong?" and Jong goes, yeah...have we met before? you look familiar..." and he goes "I'm on this show called 30 Rock" ha! how awesome is that! turns out our other friend and studiomate, Jason, who was over at a different table a few rows away, knew Jong was a big fan of the show and told him to walk over to our table. seriously, WHO does that? awesome Scott Adsit, that's who! he was really down to earth and cool.

So for those that don't know how things work at a convention like this, you buy a table/booth space and you usually put your portfolio/comics/whatever you want to sell on your table, people come by look at your stuff and if they like it, commission you to draw stuff, usually comic book characters. So Scott starts flipping through my art and making little small talk. He's making some nice comments about my work, and I'm just thinking, he's just "being nice." We did the usual "wow, you're awesome, I love your show!" thang and once that's about up, I'm guessing, he's like, oh, I guess I should browse through some of their work. He WAS very down-to-earth and cool, very personable. Then to my surprise, Scott commissioned me to draw him a sketch of Hyde from League of Extraordinary Gentleman! I was psyched! You might remember Hyde from the movie of the same name that came out a few years ago with Sean Connery as the lead. It was originally a comic for those that don't know. That guy who wrote and created League, Alan Moore, also wrote the original graphic novels from which the upcoming Watchman and From Hell (with Johnny Depp) movies are adapted from.

here's a closer look at the sketch of Hyde I did for Scott. I wanted to color it and spend more time on it, but it was at the very end of the show on Sunday and I ran out of time. He seemed to really like it so that's cool. Meeting Scott and getting to draw something for him was definitely a big highlight of the show.

oh and on a sidenote, a woman comes up to me and asks me what the deal is with my Cripple con t-shirt I was wearing. she was in a wheelchair. I explained it to her and she still seemed a bit confused but seemed cool with it. of course, I'm the world's best explainer (not!) so maybe that's why. Cripple con 2 is less that 2 weeks, can't wait! woo!

here's a few of the other commissions I did at the con--


Daredevil



Hulk vs. Wolvie. The guy who commissioned me said I could do anything I wanted so I did this.

Busch Gardens caricatures coming up soon, I'm working on that post now!

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!

Caricature- Beach Wedding Commission (SEPT 2008)

Here's another wedding caricature commission I did a few months ago. I didn't go too crazy. I actually pretty much fully pencilled a prior version but realized that that was even tamer and decided to scrap it and start all over. This actually took me a decent amount of time, a lot longer than I thought it would. I had a hard time trying to figure out how to draw the girl, looking at it now with fresh eyes and more experience, it seems clear to me now. I didn't get a chance to work on it until about the night before it was due. I think I worked on this for about 20 hours straight. All-nighters are kinda fun sometimes, that constant intensity and focus feels good. and then when you get to finally sleep is good too, heh. This was a surprise gift to the groom, they both liked it.