I think I finally figured out this blog thing. I was looking over some old articles and I came to the one where I said this would continue and I never did. My fault. Mae Culpa to you!

For those that tuned in before or are just reading this, I had an article about how I draw caricatures and how I began. In a few words I will sum up the vast majority of the article: I was born, Mom gave me a crayon, I connected the dots, I then drew big heads little bodies, something must be wrong with this kid?, he hates fireworks, something is definitely wrong with this boy!, test his hearing, he seems okay, get him into kindergarten, no more big-headed/small-bodied people, continue on for 4 years.

Wow that was quick! Now I have to mention that during all the years that I was in school, I still loved to draw and create art projects. I had kids copy ME as to how I would draw things. In second grade I even told the teacher that the project she had doesn’t make much sense. In third grade I learned the “proper way” to drawing a face. Then, like in the movie 2001, the pencil I had in my hand turned into a rocket ship, or as I like to explain to people 4th grade happened.

Now this is way back in 1983. I was a skinny kid with big glasses and artistic ability to boot. I was not athletic in any way, I could barely handle multiplication and addition problems, and I was not a “ladies man” as you probably can attest to my skinny frame, big hair and bigger glasses. In short: I was geeky!

Now I think this happened in either early September or late September. It could have happened sometime in April, I really can’t remember for sure except that there was no snow on the ground and it happened in the afternoon. See back then if everything was taught for the day and you still had an hour in school, Mrs. Lorrigan, my teacher would turn on the black and white tv and have the students watch PBS. I guess that early in the afternoon nothing else was on and PBS was a sure bet to have something educational on at that time.

As we were drinking our milk, we watched a show. Now I don’t remember the name of the show. I have been trying to figure it out. It had a guy in a flannel shirt wearing overalls and a mustache. At one time I thought he was the original Lennox man. Anyway this guy would talk about a theme. We watched the show from time to time and while another guy red a story that was part of the theme (NO not Reading Rainbow, stick to the program!), an artist would draw the scene in pastels. Then magically the scene would move and it was pretty cool, except that it was on a black and white tv. yet I remember colors….hmmmmm….

Anyway, after snippets of the story (they never finished a whole story - that was the point, get you hooked and then try to find that book), the mustached man would come back to the show and talk about stuff. I really never paid attention to what he said as it usually was boring. But one day, as I was drinking the last remnants of my chocolate milk, mustached Lennox-imposter man talked about the presidents and how each had certain features that were recognizable. He showed cartoons of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, FDR and Gerald Ford (I guess it was an earlier show). Anyway he explained what those funny looking pictures were called: caricatures. My head almost exploded!

To be continued…....

Hello, I have been writing this blog now for two weeks. And I have seen that it has been viewed by people. Which is good. But I would like some input and questions asked of me and I will post the questions and maybe highlight a question for an entire blog! Wow! Yes it is true. So address the questions to me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) as I don’t know how else you can contact me. But I will answer your questions and try not to embarrass you or myself in the process. In fact I have a few questions right here so I will answer them.

Jimmy from Manitowoc, WI asks:
Why do you have Illinois basketball players but Green bay Football players? What kind of freaky fan are you?

Well Jimmy, I am not a freaky fan. I am a die-hard Packer and Wisconsin fan of all sports. My cousin James Augustine played for Illinois and went to the 2005 Finals. He is one tall guy and I remember when he was a little kid how he loved basketball. I drew him as the starting center for Illinois as he was one and thought, I bet the other players would like a caricature too. So I drew the whole team. And they signed their caricatures and that was cool.

Jimmy from Oshkosh, WI asks:
Why do you have 2 Brett Favre caricatures?

Well Jimmy, I drew the first one in 2004 and the other one in 2006 and Brett aged a lot between the two. So I drew him as such. Plus the pictures I based the paintings on were different. I am just lucky to have them signed as Brett is notorious to ruin a caricature or picture for a fan. In fact the newer Favre signed his face on the original painting. So I kept the print.

Jimmy from Green Bay, WI asks:
When did you start caricaturing and collecting signatures?

Boy there are a lot of Jimmy’s in Wisconsin! I drew caricatures as a way to get my feeling back in my hands as I was going through Chemotherapy for cancer. I had so many caricatures that I thought, I could get these signed and looked up the addresses at the library. eventually I moved on to Autograph Collector magazine and then to StarTiger.com the place to find addresses of the stars. And Tigers I suppose….I must have close to 200 caricatures that are signed.

One final question:

Jimmy from Appleton, WI asks:
Are these questions you answered real?

Well Jimmy, I did make up the names and places but the answers are totally real as I have had many people ask me these same questions. So make sure to tell the other Jimmy’s to let real people ask the questions.

This is a basic concept of art that was discussed in high school. But it can be used in the grade schools too. When we first learn to hold a pencil we are “taught” the correct ways to draw. Basically the wrong way. We see an eye and we draw a football with a circle and then some spiderlegs for eyelashes and in our brain a conflict is brewing. The left side of the brain says"yep that is an eye,” while the right side is saying “it looks more like a football shape with spiderlegs for eyelashes and a circle in the middle.” As we age we start to listen to that left side more often and the right side is starts to sound like that uncle of yours that swears everywhere and says things like “I ain’t care.” You start to ignore that voice and eventually that voice disappears.

BUT

That is not why that voice is in your head to begin with and it can stay with you forever. Yeah the left side of your brain can figure out your checkbook and give 15% on a bill to your waitress, but the right side is the creative force inside of you. Plus why not use both sides?

So here is a project you can do that is easy and quick. Take a piece of paper and with a pencil just make some freehand loops and lines and such. Only for a minute. Then turn that paper over , close your eyes and then open them and turn over the paper. Now look for 10 things in your scribble. Look for a coffee cup, a horse, an acorn, anything. Try to be creative but use those swirls and lines to make the outlines of things.

Also have fun.

I think I am going to call it this because I can’t think of a better way of describing it. But here is the new edition of this compendium of caricature.

I drew James Garner as I knew he would be a good signer in the mail. I looked up the info on StarTiger.com and found out he had quite a quick turnaround. So I decided to draw him as Maverick although he had some other very good roles in other movies and TV shows.

The trick of drawing a good caricature is having good research. Thank God there is an internet because you can find any image of anyone on it. If they are famous. I found one of JG and drew him but his face needed to be longer and his eyes “squintier”. I knew I wanted a maverick outfit but how show it off. I thought of him at a poker table but the face did not jibe with that action. So I thought a walking action would work as maybe Maverick was having a great morning as the night before he won big. Low and behold I found a children’s book produced around the time of the show that had the look and feel I wanted.

So I used my airbrush and frisket to create the background with the finished caricature in oil based pencils. It was good but not great. So I looked and I thought if I wrote “MAVERICK” on the side, that would do the trick. The written word is a marvelous thing and lately I have been adding it to my caricatures. It,I don’t know why,seems to add class to the paintings. So I was about to write it when I thought, why not make the name and some cards spell it out? So I did and I created my own face cards with my older computer programs downstairs. It looked great, and I made a copy, sent it off to Mr. Garner and in about a month it came back signed.

Someone asked me once, I forget who it was, I guess it doesn’t matter really, but I will tell you anyway, “What is my favorite caricature that I had drawn?” I really just wanted to see how many phrases I could combine with commas to make a sentence. I guess I could have used more but then I would come out as kind of “loopy”. So I will get back on track.

My favorite caricature is hard to tell. I guess it change and it would be like asking a mother, “Who is your favorite child?”

Impossible to pick just one, but I will pick the occasional one and talk about it in detail periodically. So to begin, I choose the one that is hanging above me as I type this on my computer, Tony Shalhoub.
Granted there is not much background on this caricature. It is a plain white background with the MONK letters and Tony as Monk in front. Now Tony signed it which is a bonus. Plus it is my favorite show to watch and I spent a good amount of time on the details such as the curl in his hair and the pattern on his jacket. Plus the overall look is meek and humble, the look I was going for but yet it shows confidence and intelligence, much like Monk and Tony do. They are one in the same.

Getting back to the painting, I “paint” with oil based pencils. I like the amount of control I have plus you can color in large general shapes and also fine details. I then cover up the finished oil based pencil colorings with a frisket or “covering” and spray watercolor through an airbrush in the background. Considering that I wanted a “clean, sterile background” I only cut out the letters to MONK and sprayed red watercolor. Now that is a tricky move as I did not want any of the paint to touch the background or the figure. It worked and then I added the shadow and sent it off to Tony c/o the production site of MONK. I knew the address because of the website Startiger.com. They have addresses there that you can contact pretty much anyone who is famous. This is how I get 95% of my artwork signed by the subject. I also send a copy along for the celebrity to keep. That way they don’t keep the original and I have something too and the world keeps revolving….