From the last few weeks at my stand in Peddler's Village

one from Dr. Sketchy, Philadelphia

This was drawn at Dr. Sketchy, Philly, last month. The theme of the sketchgroup was "Heroes and Villains", and the models dressed in awesome costumes. So much fun! This was the final pose of the evening, and they looked like bankrobbers to me, so I titled it "Badgirl and Robbin' " :)

This one was done of a poor young guy whose girlfriend broke up with him due to an unfortunate incident in which he evidently got drunk, fell out of her car, didnt answer her calls, broke his cell phone, wandered the streets for hours, and then made her miss the Toby Keith concert which was the whole point of the evening! WOW what a night! Anyway, he gave her this caricature as part of his apology. Came back the next week to tell me - she accepted! LOL they are back together... and I helped ! Kewl, huh? :)

A Few from the Village...

A few sketches from Peddler's Village in Lahaska PA

This first one is of a guy who I knew when he was FIVE YEARS OLD! I NEVER forget a face, and I knew he looked familiar... but his mother looked even more familiar! I used to date his older cousin, back when I was fifteen years old! Unbelievable. Dan, if you're reading this, it was a pleasure to draw you and see you again. Your girlfriend was a treasure - hold on to her!

I'm Baaaaaacccccckkkkkk!!!

Haven't had much time to post things on here, what with the constant drama in my life and all. But here I am, finally posting some stuff I've done over the last six months. These are from my trip to Vegas in February...

Bar Owners

these folks have a bar in their basement and wanted something to complement it...

Dr. Sketchy, Motor City

Heres a few sketches from Dr. Sketchy last night. The swag faerie even awarded me with a goodie bag for one of my drawings... I will work on it a ittle more and post it later. For now, enjoy!

A fair is a veritable smorgasborg...

A couple of drawings I did at the fair this week:



This was one of a ladyfriend of a fella I was working with at the fair. He wanted both the lady AND the horse... I think it turned out pretty good!




This guy was a CHARACTER. Look at his teeth! John, if you are looking at this, THANK YOU for letting me draw you! You are not only brave, but a lot of fun!!!




Here's part two of the couple that I couldnt download. I tried to caricature her entire body

Dr. Sketchy! At Long Last!!!

I found out about Dr. Sketchy thru my friend, Sam, who attends it in Toronto. The full title of this sketchgroup is: "Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art school". Yup, that About sums it up.

This is a sketchgourp I have longed to attend for some months but haven't been able to up until now. They have life drawing with various models wearing interesting clothing or having distinguishing features - some are belly dancers and contortionists, burlesque dancers and strippers, little people, fairies, clowns, and other assorted strange and wonderful people.

The couple I drew tonight was AMAZING! First of all, I think they really WERE a couple. Secondly, they arrived in matching costumes from Cabaret! They changed costumes FOUR TIMES. THey were FABULOUS!!! For my first life drawing in over ten years, I did pretty good. I was really happy. Oh, and my buddy Frances from the zoo was there. Everyone was raving about his sketchbook - as usual! He deserves it. Anyway, here they are:


5 minute pose

10 min pose (wish we'd had more time on this one!)




20 min pose


20 min pose

a couple?

I think this was their second date... maybe their first. I gave them the originals, something I learned from my friend Sam (samgorrie.blogspot.com). They really liked them!



For some reason, photobucket is giving me probs downloading the girl, whcih I liked most of all! I will post it when I can figure it all out

A cutie

Scarycatures

A few of my coworkers on my last day at the zoo. Let the looker beware!







Just so's you know... caricaturists thrive on making each other as UGLY as possible. I DO NOT, EVER, Under ANY circumstances, make my customers look like this! LOL and BTW, the girls LOVED them :)

A few coffe shoppe sketches...

I didnt get much done tonight... I met a couple of guys who talked me into doing some sketches of them though! It was while I was drawing this poor guy...



I also ate at BD's and got a nice sketch out of it. Thanks again Frances... his drawings definitely have been an influence!

Recent park work

From the Detroit zoo:


This kid was a real monkey!






I let him have it! But he was pleased. Actually, this is pretty tame, but its the best I can do...


The dad in a very fun family.


Here's da man himself. I really loved this. Frances has an elastic face. This is the best exaggeration I've done in a LONG time. Thanks for being my guinea pig Frances!


What a cutie!

From my caricature stand at Peddler's Village, Lahaska PA:

DE-triot Zoo

Mom and son



A very handsome hockey player... evidently he's a pro, so this is my first real celebrity! I didnt even care, he was so good-looking I was sitting there sweating! Never had THAT happen before. Now I know how the men who do this must feel!!! I can say that though because he was going back to Poland or someplace far far away the day after he got the drawing. Whew!



this guy practicaly peed his pants when he saw his drawing!

Oh, and a peice I did a while ago for the firing squad on the NCN forum that I finally just posted... I really liked this one! I think I caught his insanity heh heh

It's all Happening at the ZOO

OK here we GO!




These two were a trip! Father and daughter. He regaled me with tales of how he shaved his beard - ONCE - when the cops were looking for him! She was a dead-ringer for Jodie foster. I thought they were a couple for the 1st half of the drawing! She sat on his lap and called him "daddy!"


I hate drawing hats. This one didnt turn out too badly.

Little boy with Downs who I drew. My little girl has Downs too. She lives with her daddy. Sam "gave" him to me. What cutie! I just had to give him hugs and kisses :)



My friend and cohort, the undaunted Sam Gorrie (I would say inimitable, but I used that one in another post elsewhere :D )

A visitor from Canada

Sam Gorrie came to visit for 10 days. I had a LOT of fun with her. We have a lot in common - and we are both CRAZY... as you will see...






Sam did this to me!!!


Sam playing with gracie, my daughter


hanging with our friend and friendly neighborhood face painter, Karen (she hates kids but loves her job. Go figure)


Some Zoo shots:



We caught the lions - er - gettin it ON. I kid you NOT. This big leo walked back into the back room and we heard the whole thing!!! pretty damn funny.

me drawing in TOledo


my take on sam

me and my boss, the inimitable Robert Bauer


Cool shot... captures sams personality so perfectly




At the Detroit zoo, there is a room where you walk through a tunnel of water. Sea lions and polar bears (if youre lucky) swim overhead. Its the highlight of the entire zoo. We stayed for an hour just watching th sea lion frolic (yes, i siad frolic)

Artwork in next post!!!

Strawberry festival

After California, I went straight home to draw at the strawbetrry festival.
And now few drawings from there...




Just starting to learn how to do hair this way. Getting a little better.


way too portraity

new posts at last!

I've been realy, really busy.... lots of catching up to do! You'll see how busy I've been!

1st, I went to California for the C4 convention (cartoon and caricature)



This was the ONLY caricature I drew in California, but I was really proud of it. This is Beau Hufford. Heh – I told him he looked like Brent Spiner (data from STTNG) and he cussed me out! LOL This caricature was based on a cartoon showed at the convention, which sang the praises of George Washington – “He saved children, but not the British Children” Made me LAUGH And Beau was SO appropriate for it. I think he really liked it too!


Me and Joann, who was kind enough to let me stay with her. She is a cartoonist and a horse/animal lover. We had a lot of fun! Thanks again Joanne!

Me at the beach at La Jolla

coloring book

Been busy all this week working on my first coloring book. One I really liked:

new cartoon

I literally spent ALL DAY on this sucker. Got the drawing done early but spent all day playing around with effects in Painter and Photoshop. Now if I could only figure out what to DO with it!

digital selfie

About 8 hours in painter. I think I'm in love... with Painter! In painter, you just paint right over the sketch! How conVEEEENient! :)

Also I re-did the SuperGirl - better, I think. Still learning about the brushes, etc.

Sketchgroup a la mode :)

I love sketchgroup! I have a lot of fun and get a lot done...

Some warm-ups


Working on expressions.




A few celebrities…


Kate Hepburn. I couldn’t get the Hirschfeld image out of my mind, I think it’s too reminiscent.



Satchmo (‘pops’) - a new thing for me to work with ink & a brush for a large portion of the drawing like this. I think it would have been more successful if It had not had as much detail/wrinkles in the face.


Owen Wilson

A couple of cartoons! Woo hoo!






I 'll re-do the lettering leter.


And finally, a sketch for the Face Off contest at the NCN. The assignment: Find someone who’s been dead at least 30 years, and depict their AWFUL SECRET (it can be fictional.) I chose Mark Twain. This is a sketch of him (the religious skeptic that he was) singing in a church choir with the dove, a hymnal, and a halo. Can't forget the stogie! :)

FINALLY...

Lots, oh lots, of sketching and fun stuff to post! Oh, boy! Not like anyone is looking at a thing I put up here but I hope that will soon change :) Always the optimist...

Here are a few sketches from the past week...









I am drawing in pencil so often now I wondered if I forgot how to draw live with no pre-drawing. But here's one(from a distance at a restaurant, yet!), I didn’t do too bad…



And last but not least, a few new CARTOONS! YAY! Actually, I like making these more than I like doing just about anything else. I wish I could just make cartoons all day long.

These are for a site where they post a topic and you draw it.



Red Riding Hood… I Will color it digitally when I get a chance

Wil be posting soon...

I was moving this past weekend and my laptop got SMASHED. The screen is half obliterated but it still is limping along, so now that I am all settled in my new place (I atually have a STUDIO for once!) I will be psting some new stuff soon. Like, maybe tomorrow. Or, as soon as this god-awful earache goes away. Hope I can sleep tonight. Ugh.

My first digital painting!

My first digital painting! WOO HOO!

I really thought I just sucked at digital painting. Turns out I was just using the wrong softwear! I can work on getting beter :) This is in Painter2. I did this in about 6 hours.

Here it is!



And the photo I drew it from:

Sketchclub

Sketchclub tonight! Hooray, hooray!



…this one turned out nice… putting it in my online portfolio (www.makingfacesportfolio.com)



The barista



A guy who looked so much like hirschfeld I just HAD to draw him!
Al hirschfeld is my hero. My favorite caricaturist will always be The Line King.



The captions reads:

HIRSCHFELD IS ALIVE AND WELL...



... AND APPARENTLY, HE EATS AT OUTBACK.

THe Firing Squad

A coupla NCN firing squad pics from today.

Angie



Kev

brain dead

This guy, Pag, from the NCN, went and aired some of my dirty laundry with a funny drawing that had me laughing all day long. SO I had to find a way to get him back. Just because I'm female doesn't mean I have to be ANY nicer than the boys. Ha ha!!





And the Einstein I worked on all day yesterday:



YES, his eyes are supposed to be off-kilter.

Easter Sunday at the Coffee Shoppe

I've found I do some of my best sketching at Starbucks. I'm REALLY enjoying these pen and ink drawings! :)

warmup



a cartoony elvis



Tom Richmond

NCNer Joey Judkins

a few new ones

Here are a few I worked on tonight at sketchgroup. Thanks, Ritchie, for letting me make you into yet another cartoon! One of these days I'll really GETCHA. So watch out!!!


Ritchie


Ritchie took one look at this and said I made him look like a communist. I'm still not sure what that means.




Beautiful Batsam and her hew haircut. I just can't seem to caricature pretty women, they end up as cartoons instead. This is about as close as I can get.


I'm very pleased with this one...
Parsnip


Parsnips was the first NCNer to day he liked my work.It's really nice to hear something nice, maby I'm improving! Now, instead of SUCKING, maybe I only SEMI - suck LOL!!!

From Ye Olde Coffee Shoppe

I went to Barnes and Noble last nite to sketch, wound up standing at a table and reading for about 10 or 15 minutes. When I finally put the book down, I looked up - there was a guy sketching ME! LOL I shoulda asked to see it, but I was too amused to think of it :)



This girl and her lab partner were studing biology. I think she wanted to study biology, all right... She definitely had the hots for him! Did I catch that in the drawing? ;)


This fella caught me sketching him (the tables were really close together) and wanted the original. I compromised. I’m emailing him a high-res scan of it.

Can you smell the ink?

Here are a few new ones... I REALLY love the Nicole Ritchie! I'm in the process of trying my first real digital painting, and she is the subject! Yahoo!

Drew Barrymore



NCNer Beau Hufford



NCNer Alison Gelbman



Nicole Ritchie



Self Portrait

My first decent inkings!

Thank you, Tom Richmond!!! His site has some gret tutorails about inking. These are the results(except the aniston, which is done with a brush pen) Hooray!



Arnold



Don Knotts



Jennifer Aniston



Brad Pitt


(drawn a while ago, inked recently. I think you can tell I drew it a while ago!)


Reese Witherspoon

on being a nerd

http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html

I didn't write this, but I thought it was fitting. I am a nerd. Always have been one. Too smart for my own good. I remember moving when I was 13 - I remember the exact moment when I was branded a nerd. I was in French class. I happen to come from French lineage, I have a little knowledge of the language. The teacher asked a question - I remmeber the answer was "apostrophe," so I raised my hand and in my best accent, answered, "L'apostrophe". All heads, every single one, swiveled to look at me. And that was it. I was branded. Life was pure torture after that.


-KD

Sketch Group

Welcome, Alaina! :)

Scott and Ritchie







Alaina

Sketch Sniper

Some new Sketch Sniper drawings

A few new sketches and a cartoon or two

Here are a few I drew today at a playground. My friend told me one mom was staring at me suspiciously. Yeah, lady, I'm drawing your kid because I want to sell the drawing and make a million dollars. Sheesh!




AND, last but not least, a new CARTOON! I gotta start using real ink, not marker, on these. I found Tom Richmond’s excellent tutorial on inking and coloring (http://www.tomrichmond.com/blog/?p=181) It's helped a LOT.

Star Trek Cartoon

I THINK it's finished.

Any C&C would be appreciated!

more restaurant surfing

This lady couldn’t stop talking long enough to eat…. Blah, blah,blah

little cartoons

I have been drawing cartoons since I was a kid. Here are a few recent ones:







This lady is me, and I only have ONE kid…



I have a thing for grumpy Santas.



This is based loosely on my daughter, who refuses to do a thing I say, even if she WANTS to do it, such as eating ice cream.

more restaurant sketches

More sketches at restaurants and other places…


About 17 – young to already be a redneck, if you ask me!


I was very pleased with this. He reminded me of Napoleon Dynamite.

NCN sketches

The NCN stands for the National Caricaturists Network. It was founded some 15 years ago and is a network of caricaturists from around the world (yes, we need to rename it!).


NCNer Sam Gorrie


Dave

Sketchgroup

Started going to a Thursday evening sketchgroup. We meet at Starbucks. Mostly it’s people from the College for Creative Studies in Detroit. It’s good to get together with other artists once in a while. Thanks, Scott, for inviting me. And I hope you had luck with the interview!



Mike



A girl I drew



Chris


Went on a Sketchcrawl last week, 3/17/07. St Patty’s day! This was the only good drawing that came of it:



You can check out the resuts of the 13th sketchcrawl at: http://www.sketchcrawl.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2060

blue restaurant sketches

I have a friend named Elgin who is a caricaturist and a wonderful cartoonist. He has a tutorial on his blog, www.subwaysurfer.com , that tells how he does his sketching on subways - he works in blue marker, then inks over the image in black, scans it into photoshop, and erases the blue lines. Unfortunately, I can't erase the blue because I only have Photoshop Elements, but I didn't know that when I started these sketches. I'm actually glad - I had to get over wanting to erase everything and muddying it all up. Here are some results:






This guy cracked me up. He was sitting at the playground, watching his kids. Slightly incongruous with his “look”, huh? People are funny!



Unfortunately for this lady, this looks just like her!




This older gent reminded me of Ernest Borgnine





This woman was eating at Cheeseburger in Paradise. I love eating there, and sketching there too. Here in Detroit, it gets so cold and dark in the winter. Cheeseburger is my little oasis. Once, a few months ago, the owner came out and thanked me for my business. Then, he proceeded to pay for my meal! He got himself a customer for life!

Trip to Florida

Trip to Florida

I went to Florida at the last minute, needed some sunshine. I just drove and drove, straight across the Florida panhandle.

The waitress who took this couldn’t believe I was vacationing alone!






I drew these twin 5 year-olds at a stop along the beach. They loved their drawings, then proceeded to draw ME. They crawled all over me, begging for pencils and paper.





A swamp I stopped and went hiking in. I think I walked about 10 miles each day along the beach.

The ocean and her many moods.

Marilyn

My Marilyn. Still needs a little work.

Reference pic:

first posts

First Post -

I started this Blog some time ago on myspace but found out I can post pics here! Yay! so I am repositng all of my old posts. This one Is from last year, December I think.
__________________________________________________________

So here I am, and here's my first post. Why do I feel like such a LOSER??

My art SUCKS. I should have gotten the blogspor, myartsucks.com

HA!

If you're an artist, then you know what I'm talking about. Because one minute I think whatever I'm working on is pretty good. Not great, but good. Then I go online and see more incredible work than I could ever do and I despair.

Then I try to give myself a pep talk - you know, Vincent Van Gogh taught hmself to draw, you can see it in his early work (he's my hero, except for the whole cut-off-his-own-ear-and-mail-it-to-his-ex thing). Everyone had to start somewhere, right?

The problem is, I DID start somewhere, about 15 years ago. Problem was, I got lost somewhere along the way. I got stuck in a rut and started making drawings people would like, instead of making them for myself. I got so stuck I began hating drawing.

Then I went to the NCN convention and everything changed overnight. Anyway, I am teaching myself to exaggerate. This is something I literally never learned how to do, even though I've been a "caricaturist" since 1999.

And Now I've got to learn how to draw all over again. ARGH.

Anyway, if you are like me and you are jsut learning, I hope this blog helps you in some way. And if you are readng this and have any help to offer, it would be GREATLY appreciated!

C&C ALWAYS APPRECIATED!

-KD