Mrs. Marty's Deli

About a month ago I was contacted by the owner of a local deli to do a commisioned piece. He wanted all of his employees caricatures drawn on one poster which he could then hang in his restaurant. He had one done a few years back by another artist and it has since become outdated. He had actually seen me drawing at a local street fair and took my card.

I started by setting up at their holiday party and sketching everyone onto one piece of illustration board, laying out the composition and general shapes of the faces. I also took photographs of each individual while they were seated for the drawing for later reference. While I was there I also got some really good food. One of the perks of being a caricature artist at parties.

When I brought the drawing home I began to ink over the existing sketches in pencil. You can see the faint images of the pencil drawing done at the party.



After inking I started to color with Prismacolor markers and color sticks. I liked Ron so I started with him...



Here's the final color drawing of all 36 individuals...



A detail of two of my favorites...



I dropped by there today to snap a photo of it on the wall. Nothing like seeing your art hanging crooked in a public place. I added the logo of the Mrs Marty's Deli in the middle of the piece to finish it.



This was a fun project. I was pleased with the results. It gets a lot of exposure in the deli which is very busy. Hopefully some more business will come out of it as well.