Look at what I helped facilitate!

So I got a call shortly after Thanksgiving from a client named Jon who asked if I could meet him at a restaurant and pretend to be hired by the establishment. Then draw them, but have him in a cartoon bubble "Will you Marry Me?" I thought "That's something I've never done" he said he'd get back in touch with me. Thought nothing of it, my girlfriend and I thought it was a sweet idea, but were sure he was just tire kicking.

So I get a call about a week ago and he said he wanted to do it. I said to him, I'd rather he send me photos and I can do a nice drawing that he can frame rather than a five minute sketch. He was up for that.

So he tells me where to meet up. So I do my thing drawing of them up, show up at the restaurant. I end up drawing a bunch of the staff there. So they get there. There is four of them, his best buddy and his wife too. I have a little sign I hand drew while I waited, "Free Caricatures by Mugshotz" She was up for it but the girls needed to head to rest room. He's nervous as a soldier heading off to war. I tell a few jokes and remind him he needs to get on one knee of the proposal isn't legal etc.

So she comes back... completely clueless I can tell. He's nervously laughing at all my stupid jokes. I actually start a live sketch of them even though he's just a wreck. I get through his face in a few minutes trying to calm the poor fella down the whole time with little stories of his hometown where I drew for a few days etc... So I finally got through that and then I say "Alright... I can't do this any longer and pull out the studio drawing... her reaction...

"Shut the #*@% Up!" "This is a joke right?" "This has to be a joke" ... he gets on one knee and she starts crying... and bobs her head... "YES!!!"






The color on the scan seems to be washed out.. but here they are...


That's one I've never done before.... lots of fun. I was starting to get nervous for him. I'm so glad she said Yes. He seemed like a good guy. Best of everything Jon and Lauren!!

Finished Crosby Digital Painting

I finished this last week, during the Thanksgiving break. I'm pretty happy with the final results.

Finished Piece from over the Summer

I ended up losing a bet with fellow caricaturist Robert Bauer from Detroit for the Stanley Cup finals. Robert obviously is a Detroit Red Wings fan and I'm a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. Well they are fantastic and one of my clients. It works out well. :) So the Pens lost in game six and i had to pay up.



I ended up doing a 11x14 digital painting of the Captain Nick Lindstrom. Part of the bet was that you had to put Stanley Cup Champions just to rub the dirt in a bit deeper. He fortunately had a great face and I like the Red Wings uniform, but I didn't let Robert have a free ride. I had to put my feelings on the bottom partof the drawing. :)

Click on drawing for full drawing.

Sid the Kid (in progress)

click on photo for full size version

Working on this for the banner for the Penguins Games this year.  The Pens are using the blue 1968 Throwback jerseys they made popular in the Winter Classic on New Years Day 2008 as a third jersey this year.  They are selling like crazy.  So I decided to use a photo from the WC and see what came of it.

Obama final version

Click on painting for full size

Obama Digital Painting

In honor of the 44th President of the US I painted this from his Election Day speech in Chicago

Reference Photo:

Off to the NCN Convention

Starting Sunday, I will be attending the annual NCN (National Caricaturist Network) Convention in Raleigh, NC.  This will be my second annual convention and third convention all together.  I attended a mini-convention (about 80 attendees).  

The NCN Con generates around 200 or more attendees from around the world.  This year it will be from Sunday until Friday evening.  That last one I attended in 2006 opened up my mind, and got me more focused than ever.  I'm hoping this one will do the same.  It's like getting your car inspected every year, needs to be done to keep you motoring safely.  

We have seminars, workshops, competitions, classes, guest speakers and general comradery that makes our fringe occupation feel not so small.  If you are interested in finding out more about the NCN or the convention visit:

www.caricature.org

John McCain

Audrey revised

Audrey Hepburn

Long week...

I had a few gigs out of state last week.  So I took my girlfriend along with me for a fun roadtrip

Monday morning we took off from Pittsburgh and to drive to Des Moines Iowa.  It was a good twelve hour drive and finally arrived in town around dinner time.  With the time change it was a bit easier to deal with the unpacking since it was still light out.  The Hotel had an indoor pool and hot tub.  Our room was on the second floor around those.  It felt like a steamroom walking around back and forth to the car.   I had three gigs in Des Moines.  One Tuesday in Ankeny (fifteen minutes from downtown) one Wednesday in downtown Des Moines and one Thurs morning in Newton (45 minutes East of the city).  

Once I was done with the gig in Newton we took off for Eau Claire, Wisconsin.  It was a five hour drive though the Wisconsin scenery, which was beautiful.  This was the first GPS glitch.  Not sure why, but the GPS basically told us to drive in the river.  So when we finally figured out where to go it was fine until we got into Eau Claire.  The hotel we stayed in was off the map.  Even though clearly by the state of the hotel it had been around for quite a while.  The other was the goofy directions it took us to get to my gig in the area on Friday night.

I didn't spend a great deal of time in Eau Claire itself because I was in my hotel working on a small free lance job.  But the time I spent in the city was quite nice.   My girlfriend spent some time at a local mall while I worked in the area and thought it was pretty nice.

On Saturday morning we drove to St. Paul Minnesota.  It was less then two hours and a nice straight shot.  What a great city.  We spent most of the day there, and met up with a fellow Caricaturist for lunch at the Mall of America.  This place was a monster, to say the least.  About a half mile long and four floors tall.  Inside it had a mini Amusement Park with rollercoasters and water rides.  By the time we left we were beat.  

We got the hotel and there was the California Republican Delegation staying at our hotel.  For some reason the all dressed up in Hawaiian shirts.  Sat night I had a late gig and it went pretty well it was shortened due to the late job on the campus and not as many people showed up as expected.  We spent a bit more time in St. Paul on Sunday.  We had a return or two at the mall and it was extremely hard to even find the stores to return them.  Afterwards we had a nice lunch at an award winning greasy spoon called "The Nook.  "  They had a cheeseburger with the cheese stuffed in the center which is known in St. Paul called a "Juicy Lucy".  Great burger, neat little place.  

We decided to drive the fifteen hours back, all in one night.  We drove through Chicago around 10pm and found the skyline breathtaking.   We drove through the night and got back in Pittsburgh around 8am on Monday.  We were beat.  Next time I think I'll book a hotel somewhere between Chicago and Toledo and give an easy five hour drive the next day.  But it was a great time overall and we are glad to be home, I'll upload some pics when I get a chance.

Long weekend

Just trying to catch up on things.  Starting Friday I had a job up in New Castle, drawing for a company that just opened up a warehouse/plant.  Nice job.  On the way home I realized that the roads of Pittsburgh are just ridiculous.  You cannot make a trip anywhere without hitting orange barrels.  

Saturday I had two jobs one in the afternoon I took the Turnpike up the Wexford.  In the evening, I had a nice wedding in Elizabeth PA.

This week I have an all day trip to Cumberland, MD on Wed and then a job at Duquesne in the evening.  I know what I'll be doing Thurs... sleeping.  

Starting on Monday I'm going to be gone for about 8 days.  I'll three stops in Iowa, one in Wisconsin and two days in St. Paul/Minneapolis Mn.   Should be fun trip.

Hello

Just wanted to post a quickie here.... this is my first post under the title Mugshotz Blog.  I had posted some personal ramblings a while back, but this blog will be more dedicated to pop culture and posting my artwork.  

I grew up in Pittsburgh and went to school at Kent State and now work as a freelance artist and business owner of Mugshotz Caricature and Art Company in Pittsburgh.  You can check out my site Mugshotz Caricature Co.  the basics of that Company.

I will post some more things about what's going on in my life and what my company is up to.  Take care and say hello.  I'll post up some of my favorite blogs and if you are a fellow artist I hope you will do the same.  Thanks.