Here, There and Everywhere

Illustration Friday - Boundaries

2011-09-09T06:19:00.000-07:00

Acrylic on a 17" round

This "Party Animal" will not be held by the conventional boundaries of other Piñatas!

It just seemed a perfect fit for this week's Illustration Friday.

This piece will be in a show opening tomorrow -

Reception Saturday, September 10 - 4 - 8PM

Fall Fiesta Art Show & Sale

Discover Art League and C & R Framing Presents at

at C & R Framing

700 Harvest Park Dr. Brentwood, CA 94513

925-634-7742

September 10 to October 10

Show open Mon - Friday 10 to 5:30 & Saturday 11 - 4

Illustration Friday - Safari

2011-05-17T23:36:00.000-07:00

Illustration Friday - Bicycle

2011-04-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

Colerase pencil on paper

Isn't it just so natural to think of an elephant riding a bicycle!

Take care,

BIg AL

Warrior Day, CSU Stanislaus - Live Caricature - May 9th

2008-05-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

Five hours in Turlock of no end in sight drawing college students.
It was fun! This was about my 4th year there I think?!?

A few caricatures from last Saturday night

2008-04-08T14:18:00.000-07:00

Drawn on a short SF Bay Cruise.

Event Caricature from February 9, 2008

2008-02-11T00:54:00.001-08:00

It was a busy week for February. I drew on a Bay Cruise out of San Francisco Thursday. Saturday at the Mall in Pleasanton and a Mardi Gras event in Livermore. Sunday I drew at a 4 year olds birthday party.

This drawing is of Artist Joanna Crawshaw and her husband from the Livermore Mardi Gras event.

This weeks gonna be busy too. 3 days at the World AG Expo in Tulare, CA. Central California. February 12-14th.

Event Caricatures from February 2, 2008

2008-02-04T06:37:00.000-08:00

This past Saturday night I drew to raise funds for the High School Drama program that my daughter is part of.
They're presenting "Singin' in the Rain!!!" starting February 29. Info @ Liberty Playmakers.

The main gist of the event was a fundraiser for the choral program. So some of the subjects really hammed it up!

Fresh Ink from this morning.

2008-02-01T22:33:00.000-08:00

I occasionally attend a friday morning figure drawing session in Livermore.
This morning there were a lot of familiar faces. Some who hadn't been there in quite awhile.
Some of the artists have been drawing figures in the tri-valley here and there since the late '80's.

Event Caricatures from January 27, 2008

2008-01-28T22:29:00.001-08:00

Yesterday I drew for promotional purposes at a Party & Wedding Faire in San Ramon.
Here's a few of the images.

This couple told me they had a bunch of black & whites drawn by me of their friends and family at the Farmers Market out in Brentwood a few years back. They said they were hanging on the walls at home. Cool!

Event Caricatures from January 12 & 13, 2008

2008-01-14T09:41:00.000-08:00

This past weekend I was having fun drawing with color!
Colored Sharpies and Prismacolor Artstix.

Sunday I drew in Modesto at a Party & Wedding Faire.

Saturday I drew for an event at the Asian Art Museum.

RIP Maila Nurmi - the Original Vampira

2008-01-11T22:14:00.000-08:00

Sketched this out about an hour ago. Right after I saw a notice about her passing. I rarely just draw for fun anymore.

Event Caricatures from December 20, 2007

2008-01-04T06:54:00.000-08:00

Oh, yeah!!! Finally figured out how to get this blog back!

2007-11-01T09:57:00.000-07:00

At the beginning of October I attended my 8th NCN Caricature Convention.

Here's some of my work from that week.

My lovely wife and myself. The girl was with us, but she avoided photographic capture

Elgin from NY

Alison from NY

Naoko from Japan

Etsuko from Japan

? from LA

? from LA

Eve from Texas

Ben from ?

George from Pennsylvania (Thanks Emily)

Harold from Reno

Okay, back to work!

Altered Barbie 2006

2006-07-27T00:54:00.000-07:00

I'll have 3 pieces in the show!

NCN 1998 Caricature page

2006-07-14T06:39:00.000-07:00

Before DSL (I've been on dial-up since 2001) it would take me half a day to setup a page.
Now it's real easy, so ...

Here's the full compliment of my images from 1998:

NCN 1998 page

Here's a caricature of stylist extraordinaire Trudy Nash of the NCN.

NCN 2005 Caricature page

2006-07-13T07:19:00.000-07:00

I just put a page up of some caricatures I drew at the NCN 2005 National Caricaturist Network annual convention.

NCN 2005 Page

One of the drawings I did was of Wilmer Rowland Jr. and Sunshine.

While I was drawing "their" picture ... Sunshine did most of the talking.
I wasn't quite sure whether Wilmer was a caricaturist or just some "clown".
When all the caricatures from the week were exhibited I found out ... he had created these sculptural found object caricatures which were just awesome!

Designing the caricature - #1

2006-04-28T09:12:00.000-07:00

Why? I'm not sure, but here's what went into creating this caricature of Brooke from the National Caricaturist Network's Annual Convention in Orlando, Florida in 2003.

Live from Raley's Field.

2006-04-24T06:11:00.000-07:00

There were four of us drawing at an event in Sacramento on Saturday.
This was my last caricature of the day.

The best thing about this drawing: while I was taking the picture a little boy was there, looked at "the drawing", pointed and said, "GRANDPA!"

Hunter S. Thompson on Election night 1984

2006-04-03T08:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a drawing from the first time I witnessed Hunter S. Thompson.

... and the accompanying article I wrote. Read the column on the right in the rhythm of " 'twas the night before Christmas".

A look back - 1998 Las Vegas Convention Caricatures - I

2006-03-24T07:23:00.000-08:00

Stylistically (I believe) my 1998 NCN (National Caricaturist Network) caricatures were the most consistent.
I really hadn't worked "live" with colors like this before the convention. I always take a large variety of materials to choose from and just see what strikes my fancy. Sometimes it varies from drawing to drawing. Not so in '98.

I think I've drawn at least one self portrait each time I go to the convention.

Everybody needs a Bippy!

Why I drew this one without eyes I have no idea! When I handed her the drawing though she asked if I had heard her remark about her eyes falling out because there was so much great work on the walls of the convention hall.

About caricatures: I'm always asked if I look for a definite feature to pick up on ... usually I say no ... I just kinda draw all around and what comes out comes out. Not so this time!

Hunter S. Thompson live from 1985

2006-03-23T07:52:00.000-08:00

I would practice drawing caricatures at Comedy Shows and Events I would attend starting about 1983.

In 1984 comedian Steve Kravitz asked if I'd attend a show that he was opening for. It was Hunter S. Thompson at "the Stone" in San Francisco. ¿Who? I had no idea. One of my college buddies lent me a copy of "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" so I could learn a little. The 1984 show was fun.

Anyway, in 1985 Thompson came back to SF and "the Stone" (which is now a strip ... um ... er ... a "Gentleman's Club" - how apropos). Here's the 1985 sketch:

Inspired to draw Charlies' stalker, Rose, from "Two and a Half Men"

2006-03-22T22:40:00.000-08:00

I was lookin' over at Funny Cute and Katie Rice had drawn some characters from the movie, "But I'm a Cheerleader". I recognized the last drawing as Charlies' (Sheen) neighbor from "Two and a Half Men".

I then searched 'til I found some good reference then drew then searched some more then drew some more then inked somethin' then drew it with a litho pencil and finally drew it with a col-erase. Anyway, I was inspired.

So, here's some sketches of Melanie Lynskey.

A few caricatures

2006-03-14T22:55:00.000-08:00

Reference vs. Inspiration

2006-03-08T13:08:00.000-08:00

These facial sketches were referenced from this photo posted at Funny Cute.
Funny Cute posted: I'm curious about other artists that use photos for reference...what features on this girl would you have pushed further? I ignored her face and drew a somewhat generic one, *(I like the face she drew
... seems to have personality to me.)
She also said: and took more interest in her funny standing pose and hair shape.
*I believe I would have passed on the photo based on the pose. It seems kinda static to me, but she did a great job giving it some swing.

Anyway, the next day I was sketching while waiting in the car ... I drew the face on the left first and then inspired by the Funny Cute images gave her a turtleneck and then drew the other figure.

rhinoceros II

2006-03-02T00:17:00.000-08:00

rhinoceros

2006-03-01T23:53:00.000-08:00

2006-02-23T12:19:00.000-08:00

hmmm ... I signed up for this thing in august of last year, but this is my first post.
I was lookin' at some artists (my problem is I always want to edit and have the punctuation correct ... should it be artists, artist's, or artists') blogs today and I guess it's about time I start this thing.

Last week I was in Tulare for the 3rd year in a row drawing for GMC trucks at the World Ag Expo for 3 days. My partner in crime for the event was none other than Zach Trenholm, nationally published caricaturist. For 3 days we drew mostly teenagers from California's central valley (Tulare is directly between Fresno and Bakersfield). This year another colleague of ours, Doug Shannon, was drawing for some dairy industry company.

Anyway, it'd been forever since I had a new caricature of myself up on my easel (I'd been using one from 2000).
The week before the event I finally finished a new caricature of myself for my display.

So, one afternoon one of the young ladies in the booth was having her caricature drawn by Zach and she asked if she could either be or have a "penguin" in her picture. I believe he obliged her. Why? ... well, it seemed my (new) self caricature reminded her of a PENGUIN!

Here it is: