Grad Caricature 4

This is the final graduate caricature. It was also my most difficult to complete. I really struggled pinning down the likeness while trying to achieve some sort of exaggeration. In order to create a successful caricature I really need to experience a person's attitude and personality. This girl was always subdued in my presence but I knew well enough that she was quite fun-loving and mischievous around her friends outside of the classroom. That left me drawing solely from photo reference, which bore no fruit. After days and many sketches later I came up with the above drawing to my joy. I think that I balanced the likeness with exaggeration pretty well. When I finished the image it felt like I just gave birth.

Grad Caricature 3

Here's the third caricature I did of our school's 2010 graduates. After I finished this one I realized that it kind of looks like Tracy Morgan.

Grad Caricature 2

Here's the second graduate I drew using pencil and Photoshop.

Grad Caricature 1

The senior class asked me to create caricatures of them for the graduation day program that was handed out for the ceremony. Here's the first one I did using pencil and Photoshop.

Crayon X-Men Caricatures

I know the end of the school year is upon me when I start doing caricatures of students. I don't start projects during the last week of classes because we probably won't finish them. So, as a form of classroom management I will pick a student in class and draw a fast caricature. The three knuckleheads in the image are from a class I refer to as the "Sweat Hogs." I've drawn these three many times before because they have faces and personalities that lend themselves to exaggerated caricature. The boy represented as Wolverine has recently become obsessed with the X-Men so I decided to represent these three as such. All three caricatures are on an 11"x17" copy paper. They were penciled and colored with some crappy crayons. All finished in a 45 minute period. From left to right: Nightcrawler, Beast, Wolverine.

Deer Under Stars 3 - Final

Here's the final composition for the deer illustration. Hopefully, they'll figure out where to go out to eat.

Deer Under Stars 2

Here is the final inked image.

Deer Under Stars 1

Here is a sketch of three deer getting together to plan the night's events. This sketch is for a new book illustration.

The Hangover - Zach Galifianakis

The Hangover - Ed Helms

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Here's the work of my students.

Dr. Martin Luther King Exemplar

Here is an exemplar I made for a lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that I will be doing with on of my elementary classes. His birthday is coming up.

Nutcracker Suite

Here's the finished image colored with Photoshop.

Nutcracker black & white

This is a simple illustration of a nutcracker done with pencil, brush, and ink on paper. This was done as a visual aid for a project I'm doing with some of my classes.

British Bulldog

Bassett Hound

Cocker Spaniel

Here's a black & white cocker spaniel I made as part of a teacher exemplar for a portrait painting lesson that I'm doing with one of my elementary classes. More dogs to come!

Cardboard Train

One of the teachers at my school came to me with a request for a visual aid of a train she needed for a presentation. I didn't get much more of a description than that. I had a couple of free periods that day so I got an old stock image illustration of a train for reference and hacked this out quick. It's black tempera paint on about 3'x5' cardboard. It took me about 30 minutes and I have to say it felt good. Almost like relieving yourself.

Where the Wild Things Are Toilet Paper Rolls

These are exemplars I made for a lesson I will do with one of my classes in the future. The idea for this came from one of the great craft blogs that I follow. Check it out.Max is a cardboard tube from a toilet paper roll while the monster is a cardboard tube from a roll of wrapping paper. Both are painted with acrylics. Think about that next time you use toilet paper!

Royal Pain 2

Here are a couple of tighter head shots. I like a more sallow pallor. He shouldn't look too healthy. I think that I'm going to go into a slightly different direction with the coat. I inadvertently found out through my research that the coat I'm trying to make for Royal Pain is actually considered a "pimp coat."