Some Weekend Drawin's

Here's some from a couple gigs over the weekend. This first one was an employee appreciation party. It was a carnival theme and I was placed drawing right next to some massage therapists. I told them that I tried to make people relax too from the smell of my markers.





Hi Colin,

I just wanted to shoot you a quick email thanking you again for coming to our event last night. You were a huge hit! Thanks for staying a little late, that was so unnecessary and greatly appreciated! I am sure we will be looking to use you again in the future! Thanks.


The next day my good friend Matt Zitman and I ventured out at 11pm to draw at a post prom until 3am. Thank God for energy drinks. There were a countless number of teenagers and everyone wanted a drawing. Kept all the drawings black and white for the sake of time.







The famous Zitman. In college he pressured me to become a caricature artist and I refused. He got my roomate to start drawing at Sesame Place and the summer after I caved in and joined him. Zitman taught me a lot from just watching him draw and working with him at Six Flags last summer. He is one of the best caricature artists I have ever seen and also a really awesome guy. Check out the link to his blog.



Last drawing of the night... we both gave a shot at really quick sketches. Every caricature artist sees something different in someone.

Live Caricatures

One from a horse racing BBQ.



The two kids on the end are sitting opposite of the way they were drawn.




Set up last weekend at a fair in Newtown,PA, my hometown. This was the third year I set up a tent. It is always a great time cause I get to hang out with my parents and eat good food with other good people. It was nice and busy with a lot of people getting drawings. That is until the rain started and never stopped. I had to take down the tent and retreat. Thanks Dad for your help. In return here is a gross looking drawing. Happy Belated Birthday!

It was all worth it. Too bad us caricature artists have no luck in the rain. The paper gets soggy and is really difficult to draw on. And forget about using the color sticks. I've had them rip right through the paper in the middle of drawing. That was when I did my time at Sesame Place. I've got a lot more events coming up. Busy, busy, busy. Will try and update more frequently.

Trader Joe's Caricature Sign

Made this new sign for Trader Joe's. This is Bud, he just celebrated his 80th birthday. My gift to him was to have his caricature on permanent display in our store. Happy birthday Bud. I guess you could call him the "Budler", get it? I had a great time making this one. Wanna do more of this in the future. I should have a pretty large "On the Helm" update coming soon. Lotsa signs are being made!

Two posts in one day! Call me "Hoagie" cuz I'm on a roll.

Caricature from Photograph

Just a quick post this morning before work. I made this a few days ago as a gift for my parents neighbors. Made it from a couple different photographs, but here is one. Don't you want one too???

Caricature Couple

This past weekend I had a couple events. I didn't take too many photographs, but I managed to get this one.



I like the way his head turned out. He had a great smile that lifted his entire face upwards. He is only about halfway there in this photo.

Lots of events coming up this month. A couple post proms, a couple of art fairs, and of course more sign making madness at Trader Joe's. I've got a big update of those coming in the near future. Good thing I am done making that bike. Now I will have more free time. Oh and of course, my website! It is coming I swear!

Fixed Gear Bike

It's getting nice outside, and you know what that means... bike rides! I don't use my car much anymore. I mostly only drive to caricature gigs. I needed a sweet bike to ride to work, so I decided to build myself a fixed gear. It took some researching online about how to actually rebuild a bike into a fixed gear. I have never attempted building a bike. My only knowledge to this point was changing an occasional bike seat or flat tire.

I found a nice used bike at a bike shop in Philly called Firehouse Bicycles. It fit me real nice and was lightweight, just needed some love. A Raleigh Technium, with an aluminum frame. it came with beautiful shades of red, white, blue, and rust, not really my steez.



So I took it all apart, not really knowing how to get it back together again.



Sanded down the rust and clear coating, then starting spraypainting. My neighbor Brian hung out on the porch with Martha and I. That was a good day.



Some primer.



Decided to go with black. A couple coats and some clear coats on top of that.



I am missing photos of the following steps. I bought some new parts. A crank and back tire. Then I flipped the handle bars and chopped them off, repositioning the brake. I only have a front brake now. Probably the hardest part was learning how to take apart and reconstruct the bottom bracket. I had to buy a few bike specific tools, but I needed them anyway. It was dirty job, but those are often the most fun. So here she is...





So there we are, my very first bike all built by myself. About 90% of the tutorial I recieved was from online videos. And the other 10% from a local bikeshop. There are still a few small parts I want to update, like the pedals. I also still need to get a true fixed gear cog on the back. Mine is still a freewheel. But those will come in time. As for now I can finally ride my own bike to work, not Martha's. (I have been borrowing hers for several weeks now). I took it out a few times already and nothing has fallen apart yet. So I think I did it right.

Bike tuff!

*Update 5/11/2008*

I recieved an email from someone who saw this post asking about more info of where I got the online tutorials. I thought I would post my reply in case anyone saw this and wanted to know...


This link is for a blog called Bob's Garage. The guy instructs you on how to take apart, clean, and put back together a fixie. He is a little bit on the corny side, but I found it really great. It's kind of like a This Old House for bikes. Only thing is there is no actual video, just still photos and him talking.
www.fixedgeargallery.com/index.html

That tutorial was a link off of www.fixedgeargallery.com which is pretty awesome and has links to all types of things fixed gear related.

And probably one of the best is www.bicycletutor.com these videos were really easy to understand and helped with alot of the technical stuff.

Of course there were a couple things I couldn't quite find a tutorial for, but nothing I couldn't figure out on my own after a couple minutes. Getting the bike apart was the first battle and I would recomend buying a chain splitter, crank remover, and an allen wrench set for bikes. I used those and couldn't have done the job without them. Also having large wrenches is a must. My local bike shop would have done it for me, but it would have cost money and taken a few days. Doing the work myself was the best part. I had to throw some money down on a new back wheel with a dual cog. I think thats what its called. I can have fixed on one side and a freewheel on the other. Then I can flip the back wheel when I want to switch. That cost about $100. But it was totally necessary and I plan on having it for a while. The cranks were only about $40. But if yours are already decent, you might be able to use the existing ones. I know Bob's garage shows you how to do that.

Oh yeah check out this website to see some awesome fixies...

www.frankencycle.com

-Colin

Wedding Reception

Having some fun at a wedding reception. This group was really great and had a lot of fun with the drawings. The idea of having a caricature artist at a wedding reception was unfamiliar to some, but it was a great success. I stayed overtime to make sure that everybody could get one done.













Getting close to finishing my new website. Finding the time to really sit down and do some graphic design type work has been pretty difficult lately, although I have been making headway here and there.

Junior Prom

Two days ago I drew at a junior prom. I believe that there were over 200 kids there, and only one caricature artist. I had a great time, but I had to keep the drawings really simple and really fast in order to get at least a third of the crowd drawn. I had the most fun drawing the faculty when there was a little down time. I tried out doing some of the gray tones with a warm gray prisamcolor marker 30% and 60%.





It went really great. Next year they wanted to hire me again. Although, I would bring two of friends along to help. I'm drawing at a wedding reception tonight.

Will probably use the gray markers again for coloring. Hopefully some funny pictures will insue.

Phillies Games

Saturday I set up for the first time this year at Citizens Bank Park drawing during the Phillies games. Bruce Blitz owns the caricature stands there and hires caricature artists from around to come in and draw. I ended up working with my friend Marlo Meekins. Check out her blog in the links section. She has a dog named Book Store. It was a great day. We drew a lot of people and the weather was nice. Much nicer than at today's game...







Drive-by Fanatic-ing. I like his custom baseball shift knob.



*From Today*

Like I said, the weather was not too nice today, as you can tell by the look on Chris Snee's face. He's a friend of mine from Tyler School of Art. Pretty crazy we ended up drawing together years later. I also met Julie. Despite the howling winds of the lower concourse, we had a pretty busy day of drawing.







Well there ya' go. I am back drawing caricatures again after a dry spell of a couple weeks. Good timing too because I have a number of parties and events coming up. I'm also currently working on a commision of 44 girls portraits drawn in black and white for graduation gifts. More on that later down the line. Got my first softball game tomorrow night!

From the Sketchbook

Portrait of tired, scruffy caricature artist.

Just a quick sketch I did right before I went to sleep a night ago. Hooray for the paint can tool! It's been a long, busy week, and it continues today. I drew at the Phillies game last night and I will be there again this afternoon. I have been taking photos of some of the drawings, so I will share those hopefully this evening.

I also starting playing on a softball team, our season starts this Monday. There will be 20 games over about 3 months. I got a new glove, so I am ready.

I started designing a new website for myself as well. I can't quite figure out how to update my old one, and the information and photos are getting outdated. There will be a whole bunch of new photos in the gallery of caricature, illustration, and probably even some of my fine art. Also, the much anticipated "Of Me" gallery will launch. Very excited for this. Martha and I are working on a photo shoot for the title pages. So look out!