Above, left is my old boss at his retirement party. He's holding his gift. This was the first caricature that I've done that was given as a gift to a retiree. You can see everyone cracking up around him.To the right is a closeup of the image. As you can see it depicts him playing golf on a student's head.
This year our school was hit hard with the amount of retiring staff. Here they are in the order that I completed them.
First is the school nurse.
Second is my principal.
Last but not least, is the school audiologist.I am a huge procrastinator. I didn't start drawing them until the last few days. I actually finished the last one just a couple of hours before the party. That last one really held me up because I couldn't think of a gag. I couldn't find inspiration anywhere until one of my high school students gave me the idea for a giant hearing aid toppling over the little kid. Once lightning struck it was off to the races. But I honestly think I work better under pressure.
5 comments:
Those are the best presents ever. I want to come work at your school just so I can score one. You've really got the skills with the ink. The trees and lawn on the topmost piece (the golfer) in particular are really, really nice. Teach me your magic!
Thanks for the kind words. I rush these projects so much it's embarrassing. Because I rush my inking becomes very loose which, in my opinion, is more interesting to look at than super tight, anal inking. Don't get me wrong. I do appreciate the anal inking but the looser my inking is, the more I think it looks better. For the trees and grass texture I just go for a generalized shape and pattern and then slap the ink on. My advice is to not think too much about what you're rendering. Do a sort of stream of concscience sketching. You'll notice a difference.
Hey thanks for the tip. If you don't mind divulging some of your trade secrets, could you tell me what tools you use? Brush? Quill pen? Brush pen? I bought a crowquill pen, but I always scratch the paper to hell and have a hard time getting a continuous line. I have a couple of cheap brush pens as well, but my lines end up looking really shaky. So far, Micron tech pens are the only things I seem capable of managing, but those have no line variation, and when I try to add line weight it looks forced and unnatural. I know it's the artist more than the tools, but I really like what you were able to achieve so I figured if I knew what you were using I'd at least know it's POSSIBLE to get a good result with practice.
Thanks again!
I use pretty much everything; brush, crowquill, tech pens, and anything else I can get my hands on.
I think that this topic may make a good post for the ol' blog. I'm going to make it my next entry.
Your problem with the crowquill may be in the way you're holding the pen. If you hold the pen perpendicular to the paper you'll have problems with getting a fluid line. You'll scratch and stab the paper that way. The less of an angle you hold the pen the more uninterrupted lines you'll produce. You'll be free to create nice fluid linework.
Another problem may be the paper itself. The smoother the paper the better it will be. I find that crowquill or any fine point pen on a ragged tooth paper (some typing paper) doesn't work well together. The smoother the bond the better.
These are terrific! Nicely done, and very funny!
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