The Houks, (ink, acrylic on illustration board, 11X14). These are friends of mine and I drew this for them for their anniversary. They are the sweetest and most fun-loving people I know, and I wanted to convey that in the drawing. They own a chocolate store called Chocolate Mountain Images in Kennesaw, GA. and this caricature is proudly displayed there. The chocolate is fabulous, by the way.
You Need an Inspection Sticker, (graphite, airbrush on paper, 12X16). I did this early in my career. It's one of a series of four I did for a client and I have no idea what the gag means here. This graphite/airbrush style is typical of the way we produced caricatures in the theme parks I worked in. The guy probably took ten minutes to do, but I spent a little more time on the truck.
This was a commission from an event planning company that regularly books me for events. Its a promotional illustration showing some of the inflatables, games and services they offer for company picnics. If you look closely you'll see me drawing caricatures at the picnic. (I couldn't resist).
Irish Wedding Party, (ink, acrylic, colored pencil on illustration board). The bride and groom commissioned this work and they also had me draw at the reception. I was really pleased with this drawing. My favorite caricature is the bridesmaid second from the left. They wanted me to make sure the redhead had big boobs, and they loved what I did with her. It was great to work the event because I got to meet the whole wedding party and see how well I got their likenesses. I was disappointed because the redhead had become a blonde and I didn't think it looked like her anymore. She really liked it, though, (especially the boobs) and I got to draw her during the evening. Incidentally, she's a "duelling pianist" in Vegas. Weird.
Johnson Wedding Party, (graphite, ink, acrylic on illustration board, 11X17). One of the dangers of working from photos is you never really know if the people still look like they did when the photo was taken. The guy on the far right ended up being WAY fatter in real life than he was in his picture so my drawing didn't really look like him. Also, since the wedding was being held in a strictly fundamentalist church and the drawing was to be displayed, the church elders actually had to convene a meeting to decide if the drawing was appropriate or not before it could be displayed. They apparently had a problem with the wine bottle. I told them I was an artist, not a miracle worker. Otherwise I would have turned the wine into water. They ultimately compromised by agreeing to display it in the hallway, but not in the reception area.