Why not get a portrait painted for Christmas

If you can’t think what to get someone for Christmas (or you can’t bear to think about it yet) get a portrait painted or drawn. It’s the ultimate present, it’s personal, it’s an investment and it’s something you can all enjoy for years to come. If you have just had a baby this year, make this a first Christmas to remember with a baby sketch. Lets face it, it would take the legwork and anxiety out of the shopping rush and you can stay at home with the baby sure in the knowledge your present is being taken care of – put your order in and leave the rest to me. I will keep you updated along the way as the portrait progresses and make sure it arrives in plenty of time. I use an online framing company who are very reasonably priced, so all you need to do is put the picture in the frame, which is really easy; then wrap it and place it under the tree. There we are, that’s some of the Christmas pressure off your shoulders, now you can get on with the lunch.

Make your presentations more lively

A modern day pipet

How many people have fallen asleep through your powerpoint presentations? Have you started noticing the yawns half-way through? So how do you improve the attention of your audience to make sure they get the message and not the extra sleep they missed out on the night before?

A new client contacted me from a scientific product sales company who wanted to liven up his presentations to sell pipets. You can picture the presentation now – probably quite dull and sleep inducing. And, if it wasn’t the first time he had presented to his clients, then he had an uphill struggle to keep them concentrating. So my solution was to come up with the idea of doing some cartoons for him to illustrate the jumps in technology since the late Victorian era. The only restriction I had was to show the main figure wearing a white coat (it made them look like a scientist). But there is so much you can do to capture a period; fashion, hairstyle, accessories and technology are just some of the props at the cartoonists disposal and of course the sign off image always has the person smiling. So think outside of the box and give a thought to your customers, engage a cartoonist to liven up your powerpoints, it is guaranteed to lift sales and spreads.

Victorian scientist using a pipet

Cartoon illustration of pipetting in the 1960’s

Drawing on happy golf memories

Golf caricature

It seems, not only is golf a very popular sport, but it is also a very popular theme for a caricature.

I have a back catalogue of previous golf themed caricatures, teeing off, helicopter landing, putting, driving, with favourite car and even with pet bird,  that it seems I can tap into a lot of expertise and research when creating the latest golf themed commission. Luckily I keep a cupboard full of magazines, of all sports, for reference and even use sketches I have made when out on my field trips. The internet is useful too for material. But what a really great caricature always comes down to is the quality of photo I get for the faces. With the couple (right) I was given a link to their wedding photo album, so I had a lot of choice of pictures to work from. But very often I am not so lucky; recently I was asked to do a football themed caricature and was sent some very out of focus and grainy images of the subject. As I didn’t want to inconvenience the client, I went ahead and had to engage some real artistic license for that one, but luckily I pulled it off and the client liked the finished picture.

Sport is always a good theme for caricatures as it brings the picture to life adding action, movement and dynamism and by creating the caricatures in photoshop allows me to give some very polished finishes to the picture.

A simple portrait caricature is still just as much fun

Recently I was asked by a regular client to do a caricature for one of their customers, who had a member of staff leaving, “It will be easy they just want a portrait” they said. ‘That can’t be right!’ I thought, ‘nobody just wants just a portrait for a caricature?’. Surely every customer wants to have all the bells and whistles added, the exfootballer scenario?, the interest in mountain biking? the stamp collector?, but no, after 4 rough attempts to prise some fun out of the picture by drawing him in a variety of ‘The Joker’ disguises (as he is the office comedian) they stuck to their guns and insisted I draw a straight portrait caricature, and as you can see (right) it came out surprisingly well – I wasn’t even allowed to have his arms waiving!

Concentrating on the ‘likeness’ pulled me into the picture to make it a success as I concentrated on the subtle skin tones and hues and exagerating the features only slightly. Apparenlty they are going to present the image on a mug and a framed A4 picture. I wonder if I have started a new genre of funny caricature portraits. You never know I might be taking the Mona lisa’s place in the Louve . . . or just hung in another happy customers flat.

Caricaturing. Look for something different

It’s great to see various caricature styles; two famous faces
drawn in completely different ways. Both interesting and dynamic techniques capturing great likenesses. On the left Jack Nicholson and on the right Paul Gasgione. These aren’t new caricatures though; they were taken from the 1993 contact book of illustrators – the heyday of illustration, and a time when illustration hadn’t fallen out of favour to the charms of photoshop. The 90’s and 80’s were a period of real experimentation and development in illustration and many styles and techniques were developed.

Usually you see rather predictable styles when looking on the internet while trying to find a caricaturist today, and when you do come across someone who is different – it is quite refreshing. I suppose the internet is driven by the market. For instance, I doubt many people would commission a caricature in the style of Paul Gascoignes to hang on the wall, it is just too illustrative and editorially biased. I think most people would never hang that above the fireplace to impress. So what makes us make the choices we do? Vanity? Insecurity? or just the in built desire to want to feel good about ourselves when purchasing. Afterall Paul and Jack didn’t commission the caricatures here.

Caricaturing politicians – it’s fair game!

I can’t say I have seen many caricatures of Gordon Brown. Or have I not been looking hard enough? I can’t really think of better material for any serious caricaturist to have a field day. I can’t remember a more hopeless Prime Minister in recent history, well my history anyway (born 1960). Every day seems to bring new disasters and calamities for him, I can’t believe he can take this much abuse. His face is made to be distorted, but maybe the choice of satirical scenarios is just too vast, and there just isn’t the media space to publish it all. Either way I think he should be sent on his way at the elections next year with a portfolio of visual reminders from his time in office. Watch this space!!!!

Caricaturing, illustrating and cartooning when did I learn to love it

I became aware of caricatures when I started to study at art college in 1978. I hadn’t really noticed the illustration art form in the media before. Probably because I didn’t take much notice of the media. When I discovered the illustrators annuals from the Association of Illustrators my eyes where opened. Collected together in 300 pages where some of the best illustrations from that year. The annuals where like gold dust and were a feast for the imagination and eyes. Full of editorial and advertising, from cartoons to caricatures with all the current names and newcomers all on show in beautifully printed glossy annuals. Famous names like George hardy, Martin Handford, Gerald Scarfe, Ralph Steadman and Peter Brooks regularly appeared, all there to inspire us to greatness in our careers. They certainly inspired me and as others have since the days in the 80’s when I used to lovingly own and cherish these books. I wouldn’t say I have reached greatness yet, like so many of the other less well known artists who also appeared in the books. I wonder what happened to them?

A really good Christmas or birthday present

Do you want to create a suprise for christmas and give a loved one something they will love to own? What about a fun caricature on a canvas print? It’s simple, you just send a picture of the person you want to have the caricature done of by email. Negotiate a timing. Give the caricaturist a few hints about the person of things that you would like included in the drawing and you get a hilarious portrait back that is created in a digital format that you can get printed on a t-shirt, canvas print, framed print, a mug or use it on your mobile, your twitter site or just about anywhere else you can think of. Definately a present your relative or friend will treasure for ever. Why not include tha family pet with the person. That would really be different, to have a caricature of the cat or dog too!

My caricature and portrait website is born

After much struggling with dreamweaver I have managed to create my cartoon, caricature, illustration and portrait website. At last I have a window to the world to show my scribbles, for all and sundry to peruse. It’s early days yet and I am sure the site will rapidly be updated with new pages and pictures as they are done. There are multiple ways to promote the site – telling everyone I can – being the top of my list at the moment, but I heard blogging is the new tool, so here I am. It is going to have lots of funny stuff and some serious pictures of pooches and people but the main thing I want it to be is affordable and a great place to commission a treasured and a fun present.

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