Project Vote Smart

Sir Francis Bacon said "Knowledge is power"...Project VoteSmart.org provides us with non-partisan information about the Candidates' backgrounds, issue positions, voting records, campaign finances, and performance!!

Photoshop CS3

Santa brought me the the CS3 upgrade for photoshop. I tried the beta version of it and fell in love with the new interface...the tabbed palettes make it so much easier to work. I played around a bit this evening with it and did this sketch. Now the only thing I wish it would have was the option to view the swatches as a color wheel (I think Mac allows you to do that)!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Snoop Dogg Final

Well I finished off the piece tonight and it was kind of a bench mark for me. This was the first time I went totally digital beginning with the sketch. My usual method is to do a rough pencil sketch and then scan it into PhotoShop...ahhh but I finally had enough balls just to dive in this time :)

Snoop

The DrawingBoard is running a Snoop Dogg jam on their caricature thread so I figured I'd give him another shot. I did try him awhile ago but really wasn't too happy with the results...so I'm posting a small detail of the w.i.p just to put something up until it's completed.

Tom Waits

An American Original!!!!

www.tomwaitslibrary.com
www.anti.com

Denzel

Deb and I plan on taking in "American Gangster" tomorrow evening (so far the reviews I've read haven't been too good) so I figured I would attempt Denzel. He was pretty tough for me so I'm assuming this might hold true for others as well...guess that's why I haven't seen many caricatures of him.

Bruce Willis Final

Finished this thing off although I could've tweaked it for a few more hours. I tracked it's progress and included an animated gif to show how it came along...and I guess that's it for him for now!

Inspiration: Otto Dix

Otto Dix is another painter whose work I find inspiring. He was a friend of George Grosz, (whose work I also admire and will post at a later date) and both belonged to a group of German Expressionists. In the early 1920's he took on a more realistic stlye but with a sense of caricaturist exaggeration. Some of his work tended to be very dark due to his experiences serving in the first World War and depicted the brutality he had seen. He was also critical of German society during the Weimar Republic again drawing attention to the darker side of life it represented. When the Nazis came to power in Germany, they regarded Dix as a degenerate artist and removed him from his teaching job and also destroyed some of his paintings.

http://www.mess.net/galleria/dix/
http://www.art-for-a-change.com/Express/ex7.htm
http://www.tendreams.org/dix.htm
Dix on Amazon

Hugh Laurie / House

A sketch of Hugh Laurie for this month's subject of Diluc's Caricature Challenge.

Shoes

I had to pull the air conditioners today...so while finding space to store them I came across this old sketch I did of my work boots. I always liked those shoes...very comfortable!

John Cazale

I did a rough sketch of the late, great character actor John Cazale last night. I'm not really sure if I captured him since I used a reference photo from "Dog Day Afternoon". He was superb as Fredo Corleone...it was tragic his career was cut so short by his illness!

Inspiration: Paul Cadmus

On occasion I will post some of the work of artists that I feel have all the qualities of great caricature. Paul Cadmus was one of those artists who worked in a "magic realist" style and used egg tempera as his main medium for the majority of his paintings. I recall my amazement seeing his 7 Deadly Sins exhibited at MOMA (part of it's permanent collection) in New York...all beautifully rendered and humorously grotesque. He never really had a large following since most of his work had a homoerotic theme. He gained some notoriety when his painting "Fleet's In", done for a WPA exhibition caused a scandal and was removed.

Some Sketches

Just doing some doodling to loosen up...Don Imus showed up...not really sure what recess of my brain he was buried in!!!

Bye Bye Blank Book

Well I finished my contribution to the Blank Book Project ahead of schedule and sent it off to Gary Fields, the next artist on the little wooden box's list. I chose Thomas Nast as my theme since his Morristown house is only about a mile from my own and because he was a big influence in my work.



Even though the the little bugger kept me up for a few nights it was really fun to be involved in this!!!


Sorry I can only post a teaser shot...but I'm sure once the book reaches it's final destination eveyone's images will be made available.

Blank Book Arrives

The "Sugar Frosted Goodness Blank Book" arrived yesterday afternoon. Jim Bradshaw, great guy and über talented artist was kind enough to forward it after we were unable to hook up for the hand-off. For anyone not familiar with the Blank Book Project it is a traveling sketchbook headed east to west across the country visiting 50 Illustrators. Each Illustrator will have a week to complete their entry and then either pass it off or ship it to the next participant. The book will reach it's final destination by mid December, 2008.

W.I.P. / Bruce Willis

Started a painting tonight of Bruce Willis...so we'll see how this progresses!
*updated 10/03/2007

25th Wedding Anniversary in Aruba

Deb and I just got back from the beautiful island of Aruba where we celebrated our 25th. It was our first time there and we absolutely loved it. A perfect climate with a warm breeze acting as a natural fan made it very comfortable.

We rented a 4x4 and explored Arikok National Park's rugged coastline, bat caves and natural rock formations. We also ate at The Flying Fishbone and Madame Jeanettes, two phenomenal restaurants which I highly recommend if you plan to visit.