The World's Hardest Working Cartoonist (or at least the tri-cities')

For the few of you out there who try to stay regularly updated with my blog, I apologize for the lapses between entries. I like to have a good body of news built up before I throw one of these gab sessions together, and sometimes that takes a few weeks or longer to accumulate. This time around, I figure I have a few things I can share. Nothing too groundbreaking, just a few nuggets of interest to pick through for you cartooning geologists out there.

The latest issue of Interlude that I provided illustrations for (see last blog entry) came out on July 1st. I suppose I should have posted a shout-out that day to tell everyone, but I figure if you live in the tri-cities then you'll stumble across it at one of the locations I've mentioned before (I find Bay City to have the most locations). And if you're not in the tri-cities, you have as much of a chance of finding an issue as you would a copy of Donkey Bondange Weekly in Pat Robertson's bathroom. At any rate, the illustrations looked good, and I'm hoping for further work with the magazine.

I also completed a caricature for a retiree of Dow Chemical (see last entry) which was commissioned by his secretaries. It was a bit of a challenge. Usually when handed an assignment like this, the client will give me a choice of several ideas to incorperate into the drawing (interests, job, etc.) and I'll choose one. But in this case, the clients gave me several ideas and wanted them all in there. Admittedly, the ideas were all disconnected. But I like creative challenges, so I did my best to unify the concepts into a complete drawing. I've posted the completed drawing here so you can see what I was up against. To verbally explain, the guy was a chemist for Dow who invented a new type of Styrofoam, once owned a Corvette and liked to turkey hunt. The biggest challenge for me was the Corvette. Most people know of my difficulty in drawing cars. But as I said, I dig challenges. So by using a visual reference, I was able to satisfy myself by creating what was at best a caricature of a Corvette. Hey, it worked for me. And it worked for the client, too. They liked the caricature and suggested that they may hire me to draw caricatures for their staff picnic sometime this summer.

Last night I had a gig where I drew caricatures for a home builders show/banquet at the casino in Mt. Pleasant. For the most part it was a good time, partially because I got paid when I first got there rather than having to hunt my check down at the end of the night, which I hate. I brought Laura with me, and for the bulk of the time we just sat and people-watched, since from my experience, home builders are not generally caricature fans. Gradually people came up and got drawn, and a lot of them were nice. But one couple that I met got on my bad side. And I mean big time.

At the beginning of the show, this couple comes up to me to see if I'm "giving stickers" which a lot of representative businesses were giving out at the function. Getting all the business stickers qualified you for a raffle with a $1,000 prize. I told them I didn't have anything to do with that, but offered them a caricature instead, to which they rudely declined.
So three hours later, the same couple, now presumably less than sober, come back to my table expecting my services. They're all giggles, and the girl says, "We want you to draw us, but we have a really funny idea!", and eventually composes herself enough to suggest I draw them engaging in "doggie style." Now, I've allowed certain "adult" suggestions into my caricatures in the past, but admittedly, they weren't always appropriate for the crowd (I narrowly avoided a talking-to from an administrator for agreeing to write "Tits" above a football jock's caricature at his prom). So I'd learned my lesson from the past and told the girl that it wouldn't be appropriate for me to draw that. She swore she wouldn't show the drawing to anybody. I told her it didn't matter, that the peoiple who hired me wouldn't approve. She said she'd go ask them herself. I said fine, if she came back with written authorization from the company head who hired me that I would draw this for her, no problem. Obviously I called her bluff, since she gave up after that. But then she proceeded to "threaten" me.

Her: "We'll just go over to that OTHER caricaturist! I'll bet he'll do it!"
Me: "I'm sure he will. That's why he only gets two gigs per year (and few repeat customers)."
Her: "Well, if you won't do it, then we don't even want a caricature from you!"
Me: "No problem."

Of course, Laura's sitting next to me, seething and wanting to deck this chick, whose boyfriend or husband or whatever seems to want a caricature regardless of my refusal towards his lady's suggestion. Then the merchant to our right leans over and says to the couple, "You know, this guy's really good (meaning me)." To which the girl responds:

Her: "Must not be!"

To which I reply:

Me: "So you're saying you want me to draw you ugly."
Her: "Hey, I don't care. I can just throw it away when you're done."
Me: "That's what I tell people. I'm getting paid either way."

At some point, I guess her man says something to her along the lines of "Just shut up and let him do his job", and from that point on, she shut up just enough. But she could have shut up more for my satisfaction. Hell, for my satisfaction she could have
spontaneously combusted. And I sat there with a fake smile, boiling with fury. But I'm a pro, and I finished the non-sexual caricature with a much scripted "Thanks for stopping by!" I kept an eye on her until she was out of sight, so see if she'd go through with throwing the drawing away...

So that's one of the joys of the caricature game. Unless it's a kid's party (and sometimes, sadly, even when it is), alcohol is usually involved, making the people you draw turn into real jerks. But as I told Laura, I refuse to accept alcohol as an excuse for that lady's behavior. I just chalk it up to her being a bitch.

So anyway, that's what's been going on, with little other news to report. I have a gig lined up in mid-August where I'll be drawing caricatures for a hospital company picnic in Clare. I've done this gig twice before, and the people are nice and the money is good. I've also been talking to some people who want family portraits, and I have a gig lined up with my parks boss' class reunion for some caricature work there.
So there's still stuff coming in, but there's always room for more.

The Cartooning Gig Pipes Come Unclogged...

The pessimist within will surely hate me for saying this, but honestly, things are going pretty well right now, artistically speaking. As mentioned in my last post, Interlude Magazine gave me my third assignment, this time illustrating a humorous column about the evolution of technology. I did three cartoons for it, including another cartoon for the Granholm/DeVos story that I was assigned to prior to THIS assignment. All this new work can be seen in Interlude Magazine on July 1st when it hits newsstands. Incidentally, I've discovered that most coffee houses in the tri-cities carry Interlude as well, so if you are a regular at your local javatorium, you may just come across my stuff. Here's a sample of my work for the upcoming issue. It aludes to a bit in the column that forcasts celebrity ice fishing as the next big reality show.

I've also been getting caricature work from unforseen sources lately. I was visiting my birth-mom (as opposed to my adoptive mom) a week or so back, and a client of hers who knew of my work commissioned me to draw a caricature of her parents for their 50th anniversary, with them flanked by their six grandchildren. Long story short, it paid great and turned out very well. Check it out for yourself:


Then late last night I received an e-mail from an employee of Dow Chemical, saying she was looking for a local caricaturist to draw a retirement caricature of someone, and asked me to quote her a price. So I did. By this morning I received another e-mail from her, saying she'd seen my website, really liked my work and was considering having me draw TWO caricatures now. The deal will be closed by this monday and I'm excited to see what I'll be producing.

So that's about it for now. Keep checking back to see what's happening next in the world of the Foz. Seriously, come back frequently. My website needs the traffic and it's gettin' lonely around here.

A Bit Of News and A Couple Caricatures To Boot...

As I'd mentioned in my last post (which had to have been at least two weeks ago), based off the strength of my previous work for Interlude Magazine, the editor in chief recently gave me a new assignment, which was a lot of fun and somewhat challenging: drawing caricatures of Michigan Governor candidates Jennifer Granholm and Dick DeVos. After much research and trial and error, I felt that I created the best political caricatures of my career. I walked the razor's edge between accuracy and cruelty and ultimately came up with drawings that I felt were worthy of "big time" magazines (I'm still waiting for your call, Rolling Stone). And though the focus of my assignment was to remain entertaining yet unbiased in my representation of the candidates and their platforms, I couldn't help letting a little bias drip into the caricature of whom I considered the opposition. All I'll say here is that Granholm has a couple tiny moles, but DeVos looks like the illegitimate love child of Jimmy Durante and Bert. I've included the dominant caricature so you can judge for yourself. The issue featuring my art should be available to purchase in late July/early August.


I would also like to take this time to pay tribute to one of my creative partners and best friends of the past six years, Pat Dooley. Pat is heading out to Florida (or, as Homer puts it, "America's wang") at the end of June in pursuit of a career at Disney World. He takes with him half of the magic that brought to life my homegrown movie epic, "Son of Scurvy," and more than half of the fun and humor that our rapidly shrinking gang of friends has possessed all these years. Pat and I have shared many adventures and been a part of many ridiculous creative endeavors, and my imagination is going to be a little lost without him. Hell, I'LL be a little lost without him. So here's to the best of experiences waiting for him at the Magic Kingdom, and to the hopes that he returns home from time to time to help conjur a little of that old magic that we all were once a part of.

And lastly, I've recently been awoken to the obvious notion that actress Julia Stiles is hot and more than caricature-worthy. I found her appealling back when she did "Ten Things I Hate About You," but then lost touch with my infatuation when other sources of drooling overtook my senses (Salma, Halle, you know what I'm talking about). But with her role in the remake of "The Omen" and her face popping up everywhere, I was once again made aware of her "hottitude". With her caricature, I chose to focus on 1. her smile: It's almost like a frown, but with the corners of her mouth just slightly upturned. And her teeth are like big white stalagtites (or is it stalagmites?) that jut out of her mouth, yet somehow manage to look more attractive than awkward. And 2. Her eyes: Julia has natural "puffs" (the less considerate term is "bags") under her eyes, and when she smiles, her eyes form the same shape as her mouth. So all this, coupled with proper hairstyle and such, is what my caricature is comprised of. It should be noted that this finished piece was actually a second draft, the first being much more exaggerated and, dare I say, unnecessarily harsh. She does have a very strong jaw which COULD have been taken further than I took it, and I could have really gone nuts with those teeth. But that just didn't work for me, so I gave it another shot and was far happier with the results. I guess abbrasive exaggeration just isn't my style. I tend to go with more subtle representations I think, at least with women. I take the features that stand out, but I don't overdo them any more than necessary, resulting in a cariture that looks like the subject but is still plenty flattering (I hope). I've drawn the ire of some national (and international) caricaturists because my style tends to heavily deviate from the accepted style that so many others use, but I think what I'm doing is good. I'm more confident and content with my caricatiring than EVER before, and I'm too far along to accept unsolicited criticism from those who opt for cliche over creativity. So at any rate, hope YOU enjoy this caricature of Stiles, at least.

Drawin' Muh Blog: An Experiment in Expression

Click on the image for my first CARTOON blog entry (then click on it AGAIN for an even clearer view)!

Good News Deflated and other such hot air

Well kids, I said I'd let you know what the good news from my previous entries was, whether it happened or not. So here it is:

"Yenny" creator Dave Alvarez offered me the chance to illustrate an ongoing comic strip that he would write which would be published in Puerto Rico.

Basically he'd e-mail me the scripts, I'd draw the cartoons and e-mail the work back to him. It sounded like a sweet gig. When Dave asked me how much I'd need to be making to be a part of this project, I consulted my friend Greg Evans (creator of the comic strip "Luann") to see what the standard rate for such work would be. Once I had those figures, I sent them to Dave and waited for his response, which I just got ten minutes ago.

Unfortunately, Dave said he wouldn't be making enough off the comic to realistically meet the amount I required to be a part of it. He was very cool about it, and suggested that maybe we could collaborate again sometime down the road.

So that was that. I love the guy, he's been very good to me, a fellow cartoonist whom he's never actually met. I'd just be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed. Once again I allowed myself delusions of an actual steady, good-paying career in cartooning, just to see it come to nothing. It's very, very frustrating. But there you have it, good news gone bad.

On another topic, I hope you guys have gotten the chance to check out my illustrations in the recent issue of Interlude Magazine. For a list of places in the tri-cities where you can find it, cut and paste this link:

http://www.interludemag.com/index.php?page=Circulation

And on yet another note, my friend and co-worker Betsy who hired me to draw caricatures at Merrill High's prom this past Saturday has provided me with a couple pictures from the event which I'm posting here for you to see. The lovely lady with me is my beloved fiancee, Laura, for those who don't already know. It was a very nice event, and I appreciate Betsy allowing me to be a part of it, and for giving me the great photos to remember it by.