'Rocky' from New York

Another 'fun job' for a fellow member of the ISCA (International Society of Caricature Artists) - Rocky Sawyer who hails from New York.

Meanwhile in the jungle ....

Just finished a different commission for a client depicting friends from Africa in the Tarzan and Jane mode. The clients loved it.

Mr Obama ...

I'm not a great follower of US politics, it always seems very big on 'razzamattaz' and low on substance. I've never figured out what all the bunting, flags, balloons, money and rhetoric has got to do with electing the right man. The process seems far too 'Hollywood' to seriously produce a person who has such a big impact on the rest of the world.

Democracy at work eh ? 

Having said all that the new President does seem to tick most of the boxes, though I think we can probably reserve judgement until this time in 2011 - he's got a lot to do.

He has two big pluses with me - he's a Macintosh fan and also a left hander, in fact, of the last five presidents only George W Bush is a right hander. 

I've always found left handed Mac users such really nice people !!

Something slightly different ..

An interesting commission for a local speedway driver who wanted a poster size caricature of himself in his car. The car - and the bloody decals - took by far the most time. Interesting task which I've worked out for pricing if I get another one - which seems likely !!

All done in Photoshop CS4, I'm sure Illustrator would be the way to go but it was too much of a learning curve for this job. I downloaded the demo but it was too different from Freehand MX which I'm familiar with. Sadly Freehand is getting harder to handle and more buggy as it hasn't been updated for years since Adobe bought it and then cast it aside.

One day - when I get some time and money - the 30" monitor is priority one !!

Adam Pate - Caricature Guy

One of the great things about being in the NCN (National Caricaturists Network) is the worldwide networking of all members, about 700 caricaturists in total (could be more), there's always someone who will give you a hand if you're struggling with a job.

The other plus is we draw each other as 'warm up's' for other jobs - you can really experiment and do things that most clients don't request for the paying work !

This is Adam Pate one of the most active members, nice guy I met him at the Raleigh convention and did a pencil sketch of him which got a bit tied onto the paper size - computers don't hem you in like that !! Reworked the sketch in Photoshop.

Incidentally the NCN is renaming to ISCA - the International Society of Caricature Artists - doesn't that sound impressive !!

Couple of commissions ...

Couple of jobs to start the new year off with - I've got quite a few going through at the moment - maybe the recession isn't biting yet ?! 

Top one was for an oil exploration company - a young Irish engineers send-off - two day turn around, printed and framed. The lower one was for a Rail Freight company - a staff retirement - final print was A2 and framed - looked good that size. 

Happy 'victim' ...

One of the disappointing things about gift caricatures is the ' Thank you very much ' and out the door goes the framed picture - okay I've been paid - but it's really nice to hear how the final presentation went. Just got this photo back from one of the Christmas commissions - I'm really happy with the likeness and I know from the family this guy loved it !

New Panoramas .....

In October Nola and I enjoyed a fabulous cruise around the Eastern Mediterranean on the 88,000 tonne Costa Atlantica - it was brilliant and we're now big fans of this style of holiday.

 I took the opportunity to take some more panoramas - lots of 'em - here are the first two. 

The top one is Santorini in the Greek Isles taken from the ship, the bottom one shouldn't need a title !

I bought Photoshop CS4 last month, not a great upgrade I said at the time, for painting and my mainstream use - BUT - the automerge function for stitching panoramas has taken a huge leap so much so I've restitched all of my original panoramas. 

It even joined the old 'unstitchables' I could never get to work. Well done Adobe. Now just fix the paintbrush lagging or isn't a MacPro with 7 gig of RAM powerful enough !

A larger image of Santorini is HERE and the Pyramids HERE and if you click the magnifier is should double in size. The originals are over 1.2 metres long and just under 100 Mbyte.  ( I'm sure the small images used to link before - can't seem to do it now !!? )