Caricature via photoshop

This was created in photoshop after scanning in my rough pencil sketch that I did on paper.

Working on layers as usual, helping me to have complete control over the colour work, I build the details like the eyes and teeth and add the final flesh colours last.

The end result is a fun process to get too..

I used photoshop and my Wacom Intous tablet to do this caricature.

I hope you like it? If you have a question, please ask on a comment here and I will be happy to answer!

It is New Years eve today, so I  hope you will all have fun where ever you may be celebrating!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Caricature Tattoo

What must be almost ten years ago, I drew a mate of mine's girlfriend and they both really liked the caricature.

So much so that he had it tattoo'd on his chest!

When I found out I was amazed! He showed me the tattoo and I was speechless.

Back to present day and another friend had a tattoo voucher for his birthday this year and he asked me to draw him a special request. He is an amateur magician and wanted a rabbit coming out a hat holding a card in his hand. Well although I have no photographs of the tattoo on his arm, I have seen it and it looks great!

I have to say that there is something special when you have your work transferred from paper to skin!

I wonder if I will get to some more in 2011 that will end up as tattoo's?

Look what Santa gave me!

I am a big fan of comedy and Bill Bailey is one comedian who I really enjoy to watch!

So to get this box set of his DVD's was great! Bill has an off beat comedy style coupled with his musical talents and his shows are both very funny and very entertaining! Ho ho ho...

iPad case

You can now get one of my great designs on an iPad case!

Now available from my Zazzle store, you can view and order your iPad there! A great way to keep your iPad protected and looking very cool! Priced at 34.95 British Pounds plus shipping.

Click here to visit the store page for the iPad case

iPad doodles

Having fun with s few doodles on my iPad using Zen Brush...

Merry Christmas!

Let me wish you and your families a very Merry Christmas!

 I hope you have fun and special moments with your loved one's through out the day!

Road Trip

Our road trip that I mentioned yesterday was fantastic!

We had a great SUV rental that was a Ford Edge and I really like the vehicle:

I am not a big fan of Ford motor vehicles but I have to say that would buy one of these!

The Ford Edge was a pleasure to drive and very comfortable for the long trips we drove each day.

Along the way we saw some beautiful scenery..

Even in November the fall colors were still evident around us and we loved every moment driving along and taking in the wonderful views from the car...

I think I can say that early November is a good time to visit the deserts in Nevada! We were lucky with the weather as it was warm and dry.

Well tonight millions of children shall find it hard to get to sleep as they will be excited about Christmas morning!

Maybe, just maybe, like me, you too still get excited about Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

ZenBrush

Cartoon drawn in ZenBrush on my iPhone4! I used my finger to draw with!

Death Valley

Back in November my wife and I were on a road trip through California and Nevada.

We drove through Death Valley and to Badwater Basin, the lowest point in America I believe!

At Badwater Basin there are salt deposits and it is very interesting to be there and see how the ground and surrounding areas look!

As you can see from above, you walk down along a ramp onto the basin's floor which is covered in salt!

The vast expanse of the desert is breath taking and so beautiful to be a tiny element for a moment, standing there in the silence...

Death Valley is a place I would like to return to again!

Clock!

I am very lucky to have received a wonderful early Christmas gift from my good friend Carl Brind!

Carl hand made me a clock for Inside the Shed..

Carl is a fellow artist who lives locally and has fantastic talent! The likeness he achieved with my ugly mug is wonderful and spot on! Thank you Carl!

My new clock is now inside the shed and ticking away nicely!

Look out for it on a future episode of Inside the Shed early next year!

Please stop by Carl's website to see more of his great work: click here

Icy England!

We still have snow here in England and today it is very icy! I almost got stuck last night trying to get out of the Gosfield Hall car park! But thankfully I made it home ok!

It was another fun night drawing at the wedding and the guests enjoyed their caricatures. I have one more wedding this week before Christmas, as well as one last corporate event to draw at and then, I can enjoy the Christmas holiday with my family. I am looking forward to all the excitement as we are only four days away to the big day!

We shall be celebrating the birth of our Lord and having lots of fun!

I wish you a great week and trust you shall get your shopping all done in time!
......
Above is the icy snow outside my front door!

Wedding feedback!

Hi Steve , 
well what can I say ! We are sooooo pleased we chose to have you attend our wedding.
How popular were you !
Everyone thought you were fabulous, and so many of our guests have commented on what a fantastic idea it was , and how talented you are. 
I could not believe how many people queued up for you.
 
we particularly loved how you managed to capture the personality of so many of the guests in your drawings. You got mark DOWN TO A T ! 
 
I cant thank you enough .
 
we look forward to seeing you again , at my 40th birthday! 
 
thanks again 
Kelly & Mark 
Gosfield Hall 
16/12/10

To get an email so quickly after entertaining at a wedding says a lot and I am very happy that everyone at the wedding enjoyed my work! Again as I have said before, I LOVE my job!

Leeds Castle

Email blogging!

My blog is now set to allow me to email text and pictures from my iPhone4 and I shall be using this new cool feature to keep you updated with 'live' stuff as it happens!

From pictures of me at gigs to the caricatures I draw, all the way to other areas such as places I visit on my travels!

I hope this will continue to improve and grow my blog here!

I hope you enjoy what should turn out to be great fun!

Yesterday I posted a picture of our Christmas tree in our home ad the very first post using the new feature of emailing to the blog!

It all worked fine! Looks like 2011 will be a fun year for pencildreams!

Christmas Tree

Brian Vasilik

Brian is not only a cool caricature artist but he also creates the most amazing and professional video's!

Brian has out together a fantastic video of our recent ISCA convention in Las Vegas, please visit his blog to watch the video, it is a must view:

Click here:- http://brianvasilik.blogspot.com/

iPad caricature info

I can see the iPad really moving forward in 2011 as a tool to use to draw caricatures

 on at all kinds of events and parties!

Not only is it great fun to use to draw on but people love to watch as I draw on the iPad and are intrigued by how it works and what the result of the drawing will be!

The graphic above is now on my website to help promote this new service!

I am excited about how I can use the iPad next year to help my customers with some really great entertainment using this technology!

What about you? Do you have an event planned for 2011? Lets talk and see how I can help!

Elf required?

Well this last week and the run up to Christmas is a manic time as always but I enjoy the fuss as the days pass so quickly and before I know it, it's Christmas and I can put my feet up for a few days, spend time with my family and friends and just chill out.

An Elf would be great though, to help me with all that goes along with being busy, for example, printing all the paper needed for the gigs, getting the route planned for each trip out, carry my equipment bag that contains my easel and other supplies to perform at events, setting up and breaking down all the equipment (I could do with a Roadie elf!) and lots of other things that go with being busy!

I am sure that I am not the only one who is busy and I know that you, the reader are also busy with the Christmas season, there are presents to buy and wrap up and a lot of other activities associated with this time of year, so join with me in taking a big breath and jumping right into the middle of it to get things done and have some fun with it all as well!

Wishing you all a great day today!

Emily's Caricature Sketchblog: Nurse graduation caricature

Emily's Caricature Sketchblog: Nurse graduation caricature

My good friend Emily's site that I am sure you will enjoy!

Gift caricature

Busy this week...... real busy!

Here is a gift caricature finished:

Christmas caricatures

On Friday I was hired to draw members of staff at an office as part of their Christmas celebrations.

It was a great experience as the people there were brilliant and we had lots of fun!

Darren above with his football theme!

Mr muscle...

Above is Kim who was the first brave soul to be drawn in the office

Kim really liked this caricature I drew of her, I wonder why... lol!

I am very lucky to be doing what I do and I love drawing people and meeting them and finding out all about them is also such fun as you never know who you will meet or what type of work they are involved in. It can prove to be very interesting!

iPad caricatures

On Thursday I was drawing at the Apple party in London and we had a great time.

I was using my iPad along with the Pogo stylus Pen and I really enjoyed the experience!

This is the very first time that an iPad has been used in London to draw caricatures live at an event! I am proud to have been the very first artist to do so!

Everyone who I managed to draw was very excited with the caricatures and it was great fun and a whole new experience to draw live in this way.

Here is how I did it, I used an app from the appstore called ZenBrush, it cost me £1.79 to download to my iPad.

In ZenBrush I used the normal white paper background and drew with a 3 to 3.5 sized brush in the app. I would increase or decrease that size when I wanted either a very thick heavy line for hair or a thinner lighter line for detail.

Once the caricature was drawn I wold set the app to save it to the iPad 'Photos' section on my iPad.

It worked very well and I had no problems using ZenBrush in this way and I can recommend it as a great drawing app for a very reasonable cost that anyone should be able to afford.

The only negative was the Pogo stylus pen, it worked fine but the foam head that connects to the iPad screen begins to drag off to the side with use and it can make it difficult to use. So although the Pogo pen works, I am going to buy another pen to use in the future.

One thing that I really enjoyed was using a grey shade to the caricatures. ZenBrush has three 'colours', black, dark grey and a light grey and you can switch very easily between these when drawing in the app.

So thank you APPLE for having me draw at your party!

I look forward to using my iPad more at live events!

Christmas rush

Very busy but either today or over the weekend I have a report to share with you about last nights gig for Apple!

I used the iPad to draw with and it went well!

I have pictures and more details to share with you once I have todays jobs out of the way!

ZenBrush on the iPad

ZenBrush app for the iPad is a great drawing tool!

It allows you to sketch on the iPad with the ability to use different paper selections for the background. So from normal paper:

Meerkat sketch on ZenBrush above

Through to japanese style paper:

Caricature doodle sketch for practice using the japanese paper setting in ZenBrush

My Panda sketch in ZenBrus on the japanese paper setting

Zen Brush is a great sketching app and very cheap to buy from the app store or iTunes but check out the developers website by clicking here

If your an artist or just enjoy drawing then I can highly recommend this app to you!

Cheryl Geary

Last week I had a special visitor to the Shed. Cheryl Geary popped along to meet me and see what I get up too! Cheryl is currently studying Illustration at University and part of her course requires her to see what other artists do in regards to their work.

So Cheryl had contacted me to ask if she could pop along and of course I said yes!

We st down with my wife and had a great chat about art and business and then I showed Cheryl inside the shed!

One little bit of advice I gave to Cheryl was to set up a blog and.... she has done so!

You can visit her blog and I really encourage you to do so, by clicking here

I hope she will be able to post on a regular basis as her work is wonderful!

I love the birds she draws and paints, especially her abstract style birds, the lines are so loose and free and I love the result she discovers with this approach!

Please do leave a comment on her blog, it will encourage her and I am all for helping young artists and encouraging them!

Art is a GREAT career!

Essex Wedding Professionals

Currently my good friend and Toastmaster, Richard Palmer has set up a new wedding directory that lists true wedding professionals, those companies and individuals that represent the best in the Wedding Services industry.

I am very pleased to be listed there and you can stop by the website and take a look by clicking here

I think it is a good idea and a great way to ensure Brides to be have the opportunity to contact the right people.

I have a number of weddings up to Christmas and I am very excited about entertaining for them all!

It is very special at this time of year to celebrate the union of two people and the venues always look so pretty with their Christmas decorations!

Drew Friedman

Check out Drew's website for his amazing art!

Click here

Drew is a wonderful artist and has a great career that is respect by so many people, including myself!

His work is simply fantastic and I always enjoy his MAD magazine artwork that he is commissioned to do for MAD!

I am sure you will enjoy his work too!

Wedding Magician

Looking for a Wedding Magician? Then you want the best there is and David Willmott is your man!

A total professional with extensive experience, David will exceed your expectations and have your guests amazed at his wonderful magic! He will really make your day!

To discover more about David I highly recommend you stop by his website at www.davidwillmott.com

Make sure you email or call him to check his availability and book him for your wedding!

Snow business

Yes we have had a bad week here with constant snow showers since Tuesday!

A snowy 'Shed'

My gig tonight has been cancelled due to the weather conditions and this is the first time it has ever happened!

This was the first batch of snow to fall over Tuesday and Wednesday and then we had more which double the depth of the snow here...

As you can see here above, I have had to dig out my car and today I am going to try to get down the town centre as we need to get the Christmas parcel off to my daughter, who is in New Zealand at the moment!

Snow is beautiful but it brings with it a whole bunch of problems and here in Great Britain, we never seem to be prepared for it!

Alcatraz

While in San Francisco my wife and I had the chance to visit Alcatraz, along with my close friend who lives just south of the city and whom I used to go to school with! But thats another story!

Anyway, the three of us had an amazing experience visiting Alcatraz:

Above on the ferry going over to the island which was surrounded by fog and looked very eyry!

Although a tourist attraction, the prison and island are just how it was when they shut up shop in the 1960's!

I shot in black and white mostly as I felt is gave a better representation of the infamous prison!

Above is the area where the prisoners where handed their quota of clothes and supplies but not much!

Above are the cells, not a place I would want to stay!

Above is a cell they have mocked up as if it were inhabited by a prisoner!

The visit was a lifetime goal and it was surreal as in the usual gift shop there was one of the last prisoners to leave the place when they shut it down, selling his book about his life and times at Alcatraz, he signed copies if you bought his book, which we did and it was a strange experience!

I highly recommend a visit to Alcatraz if you are ever in San Francisco!