I was drawing with the real Subway Surfer today. It's so much better than drawing on the Long Island Railroad. On the Subway, people are on and off within minutes (and I'm inspried to get it down quickly and confidently when I'm drawing with SubwaySurfer605) But on the LIRR, I can only see the same one or two people for AN HOUR! Here are some of the people that I saw quickly on the Subway today:

Busy day. I handled TWO last-minute requests today. The first one was a regular Studio Caricature: 11x14 in 16x20 mat in color:

When I went to the office-supply store to photocopy it to fit onto my scanner, I had to wait my turn. And I was intrigued by the back of a customer's head:

Got such a good response to that picture, that I gave more care to drawing the back of his mother's head and the back of the clerk's head:

AND I drew a last-minute request for a woman who wanted me to email her a black/white drawing to use on an invitaion that she was going to have printed up. Good thing that I had done that stuff with drawing a fish in my spare time, because
sure enough, the photo-reference for today's job

was of a man with his Big Catch. Bipbipbup. Done:

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

So much fun. I just love the other artists. Today I was inspired by some pictures that Al Rodriguez posted at
http://homepage.mac.com/bigalcaricature/.Pictures/live/

He got such emotion into his Animal Caricatures that I was inspired to copy them. Not exactly, just having fun and playing with what I saw. Here's what I came up with:

People, animals, houses (I'm currently painting a house portrait. Unfinished, but here's what I'm up to) logos, advertisements, calligraphy, portraits, and of course Caricatures and Face-Painting - When artists grow up, we still play with each other. Yay!:

So much going on. Particularly busy season. This past month, I've have 4-5 gigs per week plus a few Studio Commissions here. So I haven't had a chance to write much. But I want to mention what I did today - because it was a little different than what I usually do.

I checked out my friend's balloon workshop. Geared towards children, but I sure enjoyed learning how to twist those things too. Carol is a Clown - Mismatch! She and Yoohoo like to share how they make the world happy - by doing workshops like the one I observed today.

And, as can be expected, while observing the workshop, I drew a Caricature of Carol (she wasn't dressed as a clown today):

I can now twist a dog, a mouse, a giraffe, a flower, a flying mouse, and a hat - took practically no effort to learn them. The teaching was so excellent.

And I'm the proud recipient of this Certificate which was given out at the end of the class. One more little trick up my sleeve:

12/18/05

I handled a particularly wild 1-year-old's party today. Stayed calm and drew well through the squirming chaos.

Early gig, I went to the gym when the party was over. What an exhiliarating surprise I had! I planned on doing the same proscribed acceptible routine that lots of people do at this gym (exercise bike with headphones), but

I passed by the large empty room that's used for classes. I've been a member here for many years, but I never before used the room on my own. Seemed that the only people who did that were 'involved' people, doing stuff like performance-routines or real advanced muscle-focus. Today I stepped inside. To do my own thing.

It was great. The room was empty. It's open even though the door closed behind me. People upstairs could look down on the room from a balcony. The ceiling, which I'd looked at thousands of times in classes, is almost 3 stories high. Seemed vast when I was alone. There I was. Alone in the center of the room. With two walls of mirrors and an easy to read clock on another wall.

First, I practiced some dance moves. The 6-step looked okay. I practiced a coordination side-step thing. Tried an Optical Illusion from the old Charleston, and it still worked. Could not remember the C-C. And I soon stopped the break-dancing for

Yoga healing. In that vast room. Me. Doing my thing in a Public Place. I did:
tapping,
shaking,

breathing/focus,
toe-tapping
intestine exercise,
breathing/focus,
and then I was amazed.

As I sat up, I glanced in the mirror. I never saw myself looking like that before. RADIATING ABSOLUTE BEAUTY. I was glowing. People try to put on makeup to look like I looked after thIS Yoga session.

My eyes were glowing. My lips were darker. There was a calmness about me reminiscent of my cat's death a few years ago. My hair, a little wild, but still looking right - Like a magazine Breck advertisement. I was transported.

Beauty is not something to manipulate. To fake. To make it happen with clothes and makeup and beautiful THINGS. That's just showing that those other things are beautiful. Real human beauty happens when a person...

I was so surprised. Never saw anything like that on ME before.

And while I'm writing here, I guess I'll upload a new drawing. It's just an extra kid-picture that I drew while waiting for dinner. I was remembering a cute little girl from today's party who wore pink glasses. And in this picture that I did on my own time, I put her into a cute dress/pose that I saw on a different girl at today's party. Those little kids were so cute.

Worked at a Corporate gig tonight. Prudential.
But before I got there, I studied my Caricatures.

Here is a picture of a man I drew on the train.
Then, I traced it - to fix my line quality.

Amazing how the sureness of the lines makes such a better picture. Gotta worry and try Less!