Missing post?

Apologies for not posting yesterday. I have been so busy and not had a chance to get ahead of the game, so to speak and that led to me missing my very post this year!

It has been very busy with weddings and that is wonderful. It has been lots of fun during May and I was drawing at 21 events over the month. I met lots of people and everyone enjoyed the fun of the caricatures and had a good old laugh. They say laughter is the best medicine!

Some of the events were outside of Essex and it was actually nice to drive out to a different area and have a change of scenery. There were of course some traffic hold ups on the motorways but that was a minor frustration.

It is now just 2 months before my family and I go off on a well deserved holiday. I have at the moment, 27 events over the next two months before we go on vacation but I may still get booked for another one or two last minute requests.

I have said on a number of occasions, I am very lucky to be involved in the work that I do.

I do not take it for granted and I constantly strive to improve and change things, if required as I go along.

I work hard at producing a service that meets and often exceeds people's expectations when booking a caricature artist.

I approach it with the idea that it is entertainment and not just a funny drawing of a big nose. This formula seems to work very well.

To help me develop that and to stay 'sharp', I invest my time and money in attending the ISCA convention for caricature artists when ever I can and this November I shall be back in the USA at the next convention.

It is there that I get new ideas, share experiences and learn more about my work and the art form of caricature. I always have room to improve and I believe that to be a healthy approach to my work.

Meeting other artists is always a real pleasure. If your an artist and have never been to an ISCA convention, then I would encourage you to come and join us for the week at the convention and see what I am talking about and all that you are missing!

Hope to see you there!

Apple iPad is here in the UK

Yesterday we saw the launch of the iPad for sale here in the UK.

The BBC on it's breakfast morning programme gave it some air time but the iPad crashed! Somewhat embarrassing for Apple one thinks! Shame.

Now, I am a big supporter of the iPad, as I can see it will be the move/stepchange for the future in terms of computer hardware and how it will change to meet the needs and variety of how we use the internet.

My only beef is with the price.

In the UK we pay over the odds for Apple products that are already expensive in the UK market.

So lets take a look at the price comparison with the Apple USA...

We will be looking at the entry model: iPad 16Gb with Wi Fi

In the USA this model retails at $499

In the UK this model retails at 429 british pounds or GBP.

If we convert the USA dollar price of $499 to GBP at a rate of 1.3 (approx current exchange rate) we find it works out at 383.84 GBP for the USA version

That means that the UK model is 45.16 GBP more expensive! If the exchange rate goes up in favour of the GBP then it becomes even more expensive!

Lets imagine the exchange rate is 1.5 dollars to a british pound, then the USA models works out at 332.66 GBP, thus making the UK model 96.34 GBP more expensive than the USA version!

So my advice is to consider buying an iPad in the USA if you so happen to be visiting the country at some time.

I shall be in the USA in August and if the exchange rate is around 1.5 to a pound when I go, then I will save nearly 100 pounds by buying my iPad in the USA, thats a big saving!

External Influences?

Outside of art and cartooning I am influenced in other ways for my creativity and zany thinking!

One of these is music, which I love! There is only one band for me that I would select to take if I was on a desert island and that is Yes.

Below is an imbedded youtube video of one of their live performances that will give you a flavour of their music and the amazing vocal and lyrically unique voice of Jon Anderson:



I have been listening to Yes music since the early 1970's and have seen them live on a number of occasions!

Their music for me, allows me to find a place where I can feel that I connect to the universe, that may sound a bit airy fairy, but it's true and it helps me maintain some sanity!

Compare the Meerkats dot com!

I have updated my illustration/caricature of the famous Meerkats as you can see:

I have added this image to my zazzle store where people can purchase it as a Birthday card to give to friends and family members!

Click here to visit the store

You can also visit the official Meerkat website here

Android phone

My mobile or cell phone, depending on which country you reside in, runs with the Android software.

Just like Apple, Android has a variety of Apps that you can download to your phone, either for free or for a small fee.

Just the other day I downloaded FxCamera, a free app to help you create funky photographs that you capture using your phones camera.

The results are pretty good and it adds some fun to taking a picture with the phone! Above is a mirror shot of my garden shed that is soon to become the home for my studio!

You can see more about the app by clicking here

I have been taking more pictures with my new phone as it allows me to upload to my facebook page instantly and that creates a lot of fun.

Why not add me as a friend on facebook and you can follow my pictures as I take them with my phone camera, out and about on my travels with my work!

Convention junkie?

If you want to improve your caricature skills, get better and learn so much more about how to draw a caricature, then you need to get yourself to Las Vegas this November for the ISCA annual convention!

Click here for the ISCA website page all about the convention

The convention is almost a week long and gives every artist who attends a great opportunity to grow and learn as a caricaturist, it really is an amazing experience!

If your serious about your caricature then you must join us in November, I will be there too!

Wedding Caricatures

An example from yesterdays wedding, click on the image to view full size...

I have a very busy May with weddings and it is great fun meeting so many loverly people!

Girona Minicon website!

You can now visit the Girona Minicon website by clicking here:

Girona website

I highly recommend you visit and sign up to attend it will be a fantastic experience for everyone!

Press coverage

My good friend and super wedding planner, Kim Taylor, receivved some great press PR recently and she very kindly sent me the picture below of the magazine page that she was featured on, please click on the image to view full size:

As you can see, a picture of yours truly in action was used for the lead intro to the article, Kim had asked that I be named personally for my wedding services but they changed it to just a generic mention to caricatures. But there is a link to Kim's website and I am on there of course!

Well done Kim for getting the PR and keep up the excellent work!

Stay Tooned!

This is a great resource for cartoonists and or anyone who enjoy's cartooning!

Stay Tooned Magazine click here for the website

Take a look and enjoy!

Busy day but fun!

Hi everyone, have had some family things to get done today, helping my mother in law with her dental and chiropodist appointments, driving her around as she is disabled and has restricted mobility. My wife is her carer and we have spent the morning with her.

Later today I am drawing at an event in Fulham in London and that should be fun!

So sorry for the small sized post today, will get back to normal real soon!

We interrupt this service..

This came through to my inbox yesterday and it blew me away!

Please click on the image to view full size:

One of my hero's

The amazing artist Roger Dean is one of my all time hero's and inspirations.

I first saw Roger's work way back in the very early 1970's, when he had started to work with the prog rock band 'Yes', illustrating their albums back then with his wonderful paintings.

I also happen to be a big fan of the prog rock band 'Yes' and have seen them in concert a number of times.

Roger's art had a big impact on me for a number of reason's. Click here for Roger's website

Firstly the beauty of his compositions and use of colour. Secondly his amazing approach to thinking outside the box with his art in terms of what he depicted, for example, rock formations that float and exist in the sky!

His art showed me that anything can be done! That made a big impact on me at the time.

Roger designed and created the very famous YES logo that was used by the band and still is to this very day! Click here to see the Yes website and Roger's work

He also designed furniture back in the 1970's and created an experimental living space that was almost underground with soil and grass on the roof. It was very futuristic and helped set the standard for what is now a choice of home building that has become very popular.

Click here to visit his website, you will enjoy surfing around there!

Roger's art with the album covers for Yes, exactly fitted the style of music that Yes were producing at that time. Futuristic and with a realm of fantasy that was almost as if it were a reality here and now.

Roger also designed many of the stage sets for Yes and it was awesome to see his art in such a way in front of my eyes, on stage at many Yes concert's. Even to this day, Yes use his work on stage and on their CD's.

I hope you can visit Roger's website and enjoy his art as much as I do! Have fun!

iMac Update May 2010

OK, so here is an update to my overall Mac and Apple experience as to date since my last post on this subject of my iMac and Apple.

As you may recall, I moved over to the Mac platform from Windows back in December 2007.

I used WINDOWS based computers since the mid 1980's and was excited about the move over to Mac.

Without going over all the old ground again, all I can say is that my switch was not an easy one as my brand new iMac and Leopard OS gave me a stack of issues and problems.

I really think it came down to the OSX having a range of bugs inside the code.

Today I have Snow Leopard installed and I am very pleased to say that since Snow Leopard is my OSX, the iMac has been much better with only a few minor issues.

What I have learned is that Time Machine is not as stable as Apple make out, I have 2 friends who moved over to the Mac after me and on my recommendation, that have also had similar problems with Time Machine and the Apple Time Capsule. One of them is about to take his Time Capsule back and get a refund this week!

The 'sleep' condition for the iMac throws up some questions! Even today, my iMac can 'wake up' from sleep mode with no explanation what so ever? I know that if bluetooth connected devices are low on their own battery power, that can wake up the iMac from sleep mode but at other times, when I know I have fresh batteries in my keyboard & mouse, the iMac still wakes up for no apparent reason?

It's not a big deal but still is a little frustrating from time to time.

Overall though, recently and through 2010 to date, the iMac has been behaving itself.

Apple now have the iPad out but I have decided to wait before I buy one. Steve Jobs made a reference recently that there are some new products coming soon. I think this means that the iPad evolution will happen before Christmas this year, with new models released and I think we may see rumours of the iMac being refreshed yet again. I also hope that there will be another new innovation like the iPad on the cards.

Apple are driving the way forward with innovation of computing and I am sure that on Steve Job's desk, there is a master plan for the next 5 to 7 years of how computing could develop. Watch this space has never been so true!

New website to check out!

My friend Marion, in the Netherlands, has created a new and wonderful website that allows you to choose greeting cards with fresh and exciting designs that you can have fun with!

Click here for the website link

SO please do stop by the site and take a look around.

It is really cool if you are in the market for wedding invitations!

Football the FA Cup

Today is the FA Cup!

Although I am not a big football fan, I do enjoy watching games on the television from time to time and with HD television, a football match is really enhanced when they put it on in HD format.

The FA Cup has a long history and I can remember it being a highlight of the season when I was a young boy. Everyone used to watch it on the tee vee and back then we only had a black and white television set!

The only problem today is that the match kicks off at 3pm and at 4pm I am drawing at a local wedding, so I will only catch the first 30 minutes!

Portsmouth are playing Chelsea in the game today.

It will be a unique match as Chelsea are the league winners for the Premiership and Portsmouth are in administration and their players were told yesterday that this is their last match as the club has no money!

This will make the game very interesting to watch, if only I was able too!

Anyway, I can always catch the highlights later.

But the FA Cup receives a full 5 Steve rating for being a British institution and exciting event for everyone!

A typical day?

The other night while I was drawing, someone asked me this question, "what is a typical day like for you?".

I thought that it was a good question and not the usual type that I am asked so often. That got me thinking!

So here is a description of a typical day for me.

Lets start at midnight as the new day rolls in over night and most people are in their beds fast asleep. This is the time when I am just arriving home after drawing and entertaining the previous evening. With travel to and from an event, the time it takes for the 'gig', as we like to say, is extended by the distance to the venue. Thankfully many of my gigs are based in Essex and the travel time is short but occasionally I may have a longer journey that adds on extra time and makes my arrival home later than a local gig. Then again some of the Essex venues are tucked away in the deep countryside and although they are not too far away as the crow flies, with our small winding country roads, the journey is still long in terms of travel time.

So my day starts as I get home very late. I find it hard just to go to bed straight away as I like to wind down. So it is not unusual for me to hit the sack at 1am or even later. That means an early start in the morning is not on the cards!

I surface at around 9am and then my day continues. My journey to the office is just down the staircase and through the lounge to my studio. That still makes me laugh! I have had much longer journey's to work when I worked for other companies in the past, but today I just wander into what used to be my garage and is now converted to my studio.

The computer is switched on and I get started on checking emails. As well as the spam that we all get and that still needs checking, as one or two genuine emails sometimes fall into the spam folder by mistake, I will have emails waiting to be answered for enquiries for my services.

Along with this, is checking other things like this very blog. I am actually writing this at 10am today after a late night drawing at a wedding. I would normally prepare my blog posts in advance but when I am very busy, last week I had 6 weddings and this week I have 4 weddings and 1 corporate gig, I don't have the time to prepare the blog post's, hence I am typing away, badly I might add, at the keyboard to get a post written and published.

Part of the day for me is the 'running' of the business. I still have to work hard to promote my business and find new customers. How do I do that? Well I use the internet and that requires me to invest my time to network using the social media sites and many other websites that fall around that. Along with my main website and this blog, I have to constantly keep them updated and monitor how everything is doing from day to day. I am lucky in that I actually enjoy all this internet activity and if the truth be known, I am a bit of a geek, but keep that a secret between you and I, ok!

I also have to prepare for the gigs, so getting the paper printed for each gig is important and I like to stay one step ahead if I can, it can be too risky to print the paper just a few hours before the gig, ink may run out in the printer and the printer may decide to play up and not work. The last thing I need is to be
in a panic trying to resolve a printer problem. It has happened in the past, so I speak from experience!

All through this activity the telephone will ring, both the landline and the mobile and often both at the same time! When someone calls me, I must of course attend to their call as priority and while this is perfectly fine with me, it will of course happen while I am in the middle of something on the computer!

Remember that multi-tasking for a man is difficult. So a phone call can present some complexity to my day!

Somewhere along the way I need to eat something and then I have to get ready for that days gig, a wash and brush up and get the glad rags on!

Next is leaving in time to make the journey to the gig, this can be anywhere form 4pm onwards.

So my time at the studio in the day is somewhat restricted.

I will spend the evening drawing and entertaining, last nights wedding was great fun and there were a couple of great faces to draw! Then I will make my way home for around midnight and my day starts over once more.

That is a typical day!

Drawing Feet guide

OK, so lets look at feet as again, some people may find this a challenge.

The same principle applies here so we use simple shapes to determine an outline for us. At this stage we ignore the details, as I mentioned in yesterdays post about drawing the hands.

What we are striving to do, is give ourselves a picture in our mind of these simples shapes that create an outline for the subject mater, that being feet here:

Above you can see on this profile view of a foot, simple shapes of circles and tubes. They are there and connect to each other in a simple way. By drawing these simple shapes first as a practice routine, you will begin to develop confidence about putting the shapes together to deliver an overall shape that is like a foot. Please do not be afraid of mistakes as the more you draw just these simple shapes over and over, you will find that you will develop a 'feel' for the connection and creation of the foot shape.

Above we can see a forward view of the feet. Here as you can se I have placed the simple shapes to the left foot as we look at the image.

Again, simple circles, a rectangle and a triangle shape to form the leg is what you can see here.

As I just mentioned above, draw just these simples shapes over and over without the detail and then you will develop confidence to create a 'foot' shape.

After you have practiced the drawing of the simple shapes, then you can have fun adding the detail. You will find that as your confidence grows you will begin to draw the actual detailed foot or feet without having to draw simple shapes first, it will 'flow' naturally for you.

So have fun and remember to keep drawing the shapes over and over before you attempt a detailed foot.

Let me know how you get on!

Drawing a hand

Drawing a hand is not as hard as you may think. The secret is to break it down into some basic shapes and then look to see how these shapes fit a hand, so the palm is almost like a square that sits on the end of the arm.

From that square we have a thumb and four fingers to attach.

Here's a diagram I have put together from what is standard art tuition for anyone learning to draw:

As you can see here. the square sits on the arm and the thumb and fingers are shown as dots.

The dots help you build the fingers and the thumb into what they are supposed to represent.

Remember that these shapes are there to help and guide you in making a decision on what the final lines will look like and where they will be drawn in position.

Here is the hand as it looks using this technique:

So give it a try and draw your own hand!

This process can be used for drawing anything. Look at the subject of which you want to draw and by ignoring the small details, put in your mind some shapes that make it basic just as we did above with the example of the hand.

You should find this technique very helpful every time you wish to draw!

Let me know how you get on

Busy bee

Todays work, adding some revisions to an existing project...

Please click on the image to view full size...

Theirry Martin link

I forgot the hot link to Theirry's blog yesterday!


Here it is: http://thierry-martin.blogspot.com/


Please do stop by Theirry's blog and enjoy all that's there, he is a great artist!

Thierry Martin artist

You must check out this wonderful blog from the excellent artist Thierry Martin:

Click here to see his work

Thierry's work is such an inspiration, he makes me want to get my water colours out and start painting again!

Wedding Disco

If your looking for a Wedding Disco, then look no further!

I can highly recommend Danny Owen to you, a highly experienced DJ!

You view his website here

Danny's Disco servies are based in Essex but he can travel further a field!

Prices start from 300 pounds and thats great value for the exceptional service you will receive!

Contact Danny to find out more!

Wedding photographs

Here are some photo's from the wedding that I was drawing at on Tuesday this week. The location was at Parklands, I blogged about the venue yesterday, in Quendon, Essex.

The photo's were taken by the wedding photographer David Islip, who along with his photographer wife Sandra, are both extremely talented and very professional! I have worked with them many times before and I can say with all honesty that they are fantastic and I would recommend them very highly.

So a BIG THANK YOU to David and Sandra for being so kind as to send me the photo's!

Click here to visit their website

Ok, the photo's show the bride and groom, a guests and the grooms mother's reaction to her caricature, which she liked!

Please click on the images to view full size:

As you can see, I work using a french easel using A3 size paper, along with a Dixon Markette marker pen. The Markette pen is safe and the ink dries almost immediately with the pen delivering a strong black line, that can be varied in line width by changing the angle of the nib as you draw.

We all had a lot of fun!

Wedding Venue

On Tuesday I was drawing and entertaining at a Wedding that was held at Parklands, which is located in the Essex village of Quendon, not far from Stansted airport.

It is a beautiful location and venue, with acres of countryside around and with it's own heard of deer in the park that surrounds the venue!

Click here for their website

Please click on the images to view full size

The Wedding went very well and I was very busy as usual, drawing a large majority of the guests. The brides mother had booked me for the wedding because she and her husband were drawn by myself at another event they were guest's at. At that event they really enjoyed all the fun and enquired about their daughters wedding. So it was loverly to be booked for their daughters wedding, knowing they were looking forward to having me there to draw and entertain the wedding guest's!

It was great fun and I am always so grateful to be a part of a couples special day!

Feedback from last Friday!

Please click on the image below to view full size

A loverly emailed thank you note from the mother of the bride who hired me for her daughters wedding last Friday at Gosfield Hall in Essex!

ISCA Europe Minicon

Next year in April 2011 the first ISCA European Minicon will take place in Girona, Spain!

Dates of the minicon are April 19th to 22nd 2011

My good friends Jan and Jose, along with Vizcarra are organising and making it happen!

If your a caricature artist you REALLY should be there! More details shall be released as information is confirmed, I believe they are putting a website together at this very moment to help people register their interest.

Here's the promo video:

Wedding sign in board

Here is a picture of the sign in board I had created for my couple Ryan & Sophie, it was taken with my mobile phone so quality not perfect but I hope you can see the idea. After I had finished drawing the guest's in the afternoon the board has been filled with lots of loverly well wishes from everyone!

Ryan & Sophie were very happy with everything! They are now on their way to Las Vegas for their honeymoon!

Busy!

Its a mad weekend with lots of weddings!

Shall catch up here with you soon!

Wedding Sock Monkeys!

The weeks seem to fly past! Some time ago I discovered that the mother of my old school mate had her own business making Sock Monkeys.

They are great fun and can be used for a whole variety of reason's, from helping children in their learning at school to just as a gift for some fun!

They are now being made as a unique gift for weddings!

Why not surf on over to the website and have a peek at the Sock Monkeys and see all the fun!

Click here to visit the Monkey Gang!

This and that?

As you may have seen, I have been adding some new features here on pencildreams.com!

My online store has been doing very well and it is great fun creating designs that sell on a range of products. People have been ordering a whole variety of stuff from tee shirts to coffee mugs, from pin badges to men's tie's!

I have also now added a tweetme button here on pencildreams.

I have been wanting to do this for a long time but had not the time to work it out but then this past week I attended the Internet World expo in London's Earl's Court and there I met Kate who works for Tweetmeme, a company who specialise in Twitter apps/buttons. She very kindly explained to me how it works and how I could get the code for the websites! Awesome! Kate was very friendly and so kind to take the time to share with me all bout tweetmeme. And so, as you can now see, I have a tweet button that when clicked, shares on twitter the link to my site! Very cool!

It makes the website more interactive for people and if they have a twitter account (get one if you do not already have a Twitter account!), they can share with their followers what they have seen!

I have also put a retweet button on my main website drawn4u.com

So along with the retweet button and my store, the blog is going along as planned and later this year I hope to continue to grow the followers/readers and visitors.

My main site www.drawn4u.com has also maintained a page one ranking on google searches and I am now able to go into the html and manage the site more closely. This allows me to keep it updated with fresh content on the homepage and also the links page.

Keeping a website search engine friendly takes work and I enjoy doing this stuff, html is fun and I have a basic grasp of it!

This weekend in the UK it is a Bank Holiday and a very popular time for celebrations and weddings. I have six weddings that I shall be entertaining at, over 5 days!

I trust your weekend will be fun! Leave a comment below and let me know what your up too!