Allright. Jump into the water and start to swim!

It's been many years since I'd done Live Figure Drawing, but I was intrigued to go to a Draw-A-Thon last night. See
michaelalanart.com/drawathon.html

Special friends were going to be there AND it was setup into:

7pm - 8 pm - Drumming Animation
8 - 9 - Graffiti
9 - 10 Elasticity
10-11- Van Gogh
11 - 12 Tango Gesture

12:30 - 1 am - Resurrection
1 - 2 Funeral for our Fears
2 - 3 - Compassion

I thought the Drawings were to look different. For example, I thought our drawings were going to be 'Graffiti Styled' from 8-9 pm - perhaps lumpy round forms or angular 3-D Gumbies. And I thought Van Gogh meant that our pictures were going to be wildly colorful. Wanted to see 'the regulars' doing this.

But, dullsville, the people organizing it had different ideas. The artists all came in with their own styles and did their same things for all the different sections. It was the Models that did stuff a LITTLE differently. For example, at Graffiti time, the models held cans of spray paint. And at Van Gogh time, a naked model stood in front of a model who was set up to look like Van Gogh - clothes, mask, easel, paints.

So, disappointed that it wasn't wow bells ringing with the greatest artists, it was still fun. I hadn't done Live Figure Drawing in many years. Had to figure out my approach. Here are 2 pictures that I came up with:

Then, Happy Day Happy Day. Happy Caricatures.

The serious approach to Figure Drawing was fun of a different type than I was looking for. To do that, to really look at the shapes formed by the light, I had to get into being Outwardly focused. Really slow down and focus Out There.

But in my own personal development, I'm trying to speed up Out There
and slow down when I'm INWARDLY focused.
To know myself (inward focus)
and be light and easy in the world (outward focus).
So it felt like old hat - Why am I revisiting attitudes of my younger days? When I was "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" and looking for accuracy with negative shapes - hoping things would line up in the imaginary grid of my world?

But then. Then THE WORD popped up. CARICATURE !! As soon as I decided to CARICATURE the poses that were actually held long enough for me to look at them, my pictures woke up. Got a little action in them. Became interesting to look at. Energy. And I didn't feel like I had to put mySELF into a sleeping/studying state of consciousness to create them. Staying awake while creating!

Here are some of the pictures that I drew later that evening. It's THE BETTER approach! Not necessarily better than more accurate/modeled pictures, but better Because of what the artist is DOING. IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE FUN TO DRAW.

Staying up late drawing as usual. I just got into big exaggerations again. Here is a picture that I liked.

I didn't get the big exaggeration in my first pass.
It's a Caricature of the first Caricature that I did:

As usual, I show myself that the more I can let loose,
the bigger the bigs
and the smaller the smalls,
the better the Caricature.

Pleasing people. Having that as a modis operendi for Art is dangerous for the Artist. Most people like my cuttng edge fun exaggerations. But I also get people who are concerned that 'their daughter must look
'pretty'', whatever THAT means.
So I tried to control the pictures to be 'pretty' during one of my gigs this weekend. (I was drawing for 4 hours on a Bat Mitzvah party boat. They asked for black/white face only.) Of course, I couldn't fully control all pictures,but I tried to aim for 'pretty'. The guests were happy. But I was uncomfortable. As though I wasn't being honest.

Here are some of the practice pictures I did to describe 'pretty':

Slowly, without a focused study on it, I've been increasing my skills with Computer Art. As you know, if you've been reading this blog, I have been using the Computer to color some of the pictures that I scan here. But today I did cutting edge Photoshop work - cutting edge for me, that is.

Here is a picture of a man who liked his Caricature. It was originally on a plain white background. The man thanked me for it, and said that he was glad to see that I got the bags under his eyes from his years of sleep deprivation. So I decided to put it onto a cloudy nightsky background. I've only been magicwanding for a few weeks now, and I was much more comfortable using it this time. Also, this was the very first time I ever made a new layer on my own - Then flattened image so I could save it.

I drew Street Caricatures at Union Square in NYC today. The weather was perfect. The people on the street were fun. And my pictures were good enough.

Here are some of the pictures. Not as carefully done as I usually draw, but just fun.

I would particularly like to remember the guy I drew as a sideview. He had a great personality - worked as a standup Comedian, and he really enjoyed my banter. "This is like a brain-massage," he smiled.

To Hire this Artist:
(516)579-4706
visualdust@gmail.com

Artwork - You never know what's going to come out of you. In my free time today, drawing on the train and in the diner, I came up with some unique pieces. The first one I'm posting here was of the man who ran the Empire Diner in Hicksville. Clean picture - He looked just like that - This isn't even much of an exaggeration:

And this next one came out in the same crisp style. I was trying to come up with a Power Pose:

This one, too. I like the clean simple lines. This time I simply used the gray marker to quickly indicate the girl's darker skintone. It worked. I'm always looking for new ways to draw Party Caricatures quickly. I hope to remember that this is one option:

Still drawing my regular stuff too. I'd never give up that!