Live Caricatures

These drawings are from last week at Legoland. I carried a camera with me for most of the time taking pictures of my drawings though out the day. The goal was to take the good/bad/and the ugly so that I could look at them at home and find areas of improvement in the drawings. These were some of my favorites. 

Lately I've been averaging 1 - 2 "reject" drawings a week. Usually the only problems I have are with young - teenage girls and their mothers. I did have a father get bent out of shape a couple weeks ago, that was a first. Usually though, I never get rejects (that I know about) and what's weird to me is, I don't think my "live caricature" style is that exaggerated. If any thing (and I'm not crazy about this) but my drawings seam to lean more towards being "cute." At least that's what the customers say. The park that I draw at (Legoland California Resort) is geared towards kids and parents so I can image most people getting a caricature aren't looking for exaggeration as much as a good likeness. Actually, it seams like people are more interested in the body we give their faces to go with the picture (ex. Jedi, Princess, Fairy, Power Ranger, etc.)

Selling retail caricature has definitely given me thicker skin about my art. My first year drawing caricatures, if I got a reject drawing, it crushed me on the inside. Now a days, if I know the likeness is a good one in the drawing and the customer hates it, it's no big deal. In fact, I like playing the "I'm a starving artist" card and let them know that this comes out of my pay check if they don't buy it. And truthfully, it kind of does. 

To end this post, I will say that it's an adrenaline rush when you're drawing someone and you have a good hunch that the person you're drawing won't be ready for the truth when you give it to them. It's even more fun though when you show the person your drawing and they love it! Can't describe the feeling much more than a natural high and that's something I want to push more towards these next couple months at the park.