Live Caricature Action Catch-Up Vol.2014: Episode IV: A New Dope (July&Aug.2014)

Hello again out there and Happy 2015! I'm posting this continuing update of my overdue 2014 Blog from deep inside the Newborn Baby Bunker in Mount Airy, Philadelphia, where I'll be holed up for the foreseeable future, taking care of my beautiful little lady Eliza Jayne, and desperately trying to maintain a little structure (and sanity) to my chaotic life, in between soothings, diaper changings, doc appointments, and general house husband duties. Luckily, my awesome lady Maggie is here for the next 3 months doing all the heavy (nursing) labor, freeing me from that duty...uh, oh yeah, i don't have anything to do with that, but I'll be damned if that kid doesn't think I've got a set of manboobs that could do the job just fine...let's not encourage her....anyways, back to the sizzling hot middle of last summer, as we finally get to the halfway point in this journey through my very recent yesteryear of gigging... keeping things warm and sunny while we get the first snowfall of the season...

Here's some lovely people I drew at a family party for some high school grads in New Jersey - all very happy to get drawn in my patently goofy way with maximized silliness and elastic eccentricity...

Next up...the 2nd year in a row I set up at the Allentown(NJ) Freedom Fest...which this year represented 'freedom' from consistent business and low attendance, or perhaps high attendance but low interest...who knows - the week couldn't have started worse, with a near repeat of last year's all day torrential downpour, which destroyed my tent, and this year, another storm on the first night with me fighting the violent gusts of wind in an effort to close my tent walls as the tent shuddered around me, soaking and shaking me...anyway, that near-disaster over with, the rest of the week was calm, but hot, slow, and irritating since I was directly across from both the pony-ride 'barkers' and the 4 shows a day magic show guy, and once again, the 'Southern Rock' music stage theme brought lots of grizzled, ponytailed 70's survivors, all perfect faces to caricature but few interested in submitting those faces...anyway(part 2), here's what I did manage to scrape together from that dissappointing week, with a blueberry pie eating contest I entered and came in 2nd place (at least in my mind) topping it all off at the end, therefore making this stinky, sweaty slog through July worth it altogether...

          Hitting it off with my neighbor vendor (below, who was working for a company that sold window treatments - exactly what was needed at an outdoor festival, haha) in poking fun at the situation helped a great deal in making this show go down smoother, along with the aforementioned blueberry-pie contest...

 

Pumped for Pie...

...never eating pie again...

  

...aaaand looking forward to the next pie-eating contest! 

And now for a couple of quick ones from a company party at my favorite summer picnic facility, Mermaid Lakes...

 

Next 4 drawings are from the Burlington County Fair in NJ - where it was rained out the first night (a Tuesday),my phone died on the second night (a Wednesday), I did some business on Thursday, none on Friday since i had a gig and the artist who was to replace me never showed up, a gig Saturday, where I replaced myself with another artist, and Sunday to close things out, I did pretty steady business...and lost a bunch of photos too, darnit...

and another annual gig I do for the alumni at Lincoln University...

Now onto August, and the first, amazing event of the month....which I basically got no pictures of because i was so busy - a 6 hour wedding in LBI, NJ where I was given a sheet of all wedding attendees with personality descriptions and funny details about their lives - embarrassing incidents, occupations, habits/quirks, favorite sports/hobbies/activities, etc, etc. As each person sat down I'd ask their name, find it on the list, and proceed to go to town on them with whatever details were provided, but not telling them what was being drawn - many, many fun ideas and great reveals, but sadly, not a single one captured...however, one person sent me a photo of one of the drawings I did of a particular fellow and his wife, who's name looked very familiar to me on the list - one 'John Sprague', and I was to draw him as an artist! turns out he was the uncle of the bride and was a retired illustrator, and just happened to have my name! So here is the photo they sent, though I know I had taken a snapshot myself of them posing with the photo, but it's been misplaced - anyway, here's 'O.G. John Sprague' squishing the 'imposter' (that's me) down into a manhole, while doodling his wife in a yoga position, with me feebly protesting 'Hey gimme back my name' - fun times!

 

Once again (8th year?) please welcome back...the Middlesex County Fair! (ALSO in NJ...)

Awesome couple whose caricatures I drew of them last year were made into labels for little coffee and tea bags for their wedding favors this year...and of course, no picture of the labels! Which have all been consumed by now. sigh.

                                                        Caricature #3 for the lovely Rose!

 These two basically waited all week to get this drawing, coming back over and over to sit down when it wasn't busy, finally squeezing in some time on the last day to get drawn as strawberries and bananas...

     Totally blindsided marriage proposal done on the spot...she said yes, in a very 'dumbfounded, wth is going on' kinda way...

 

Repeat customers from 2013!

Next we have two of the few faces I drew for a public health event in Germantown...

And last batch for the month are these shiny, happy revelers from a wedding I drew at in beautiful Cape May, NJ...

                    Whew! Finally got that post done, it's only taken about a week of going on-and-off my (slooow) desktop computer, but I am DETERMINED to get this blog up to date and the brand-new website begun, at least before my little girl enters her first year of high school...so i've got plenty of time, guess I'll just sit back and coast for awhile....