New President of NCS!

Congratulations to my good friend Tom Richmond who has been elected to the role of President of the National Cartoonists Society in America!

Tom is a great guy and is not bad at drawing either!

I know he will do a great job for the NCS and it also means that we are both President of our organisations at the same time!

You can visit the NCS website by clicking here

Go take a peek at the site!

Hands Across the Sand

Please check out the website site for this good cause

Click here to visit the website

Gaddafi

My latest caricature of Gaddafi...

Click on the image to view full size

We have now moved into a new arena where Nato is seeking to get Gaddafi in person. This was not part of the UN agreement and although I do not like him, I think it is wrong and illegal for the UN and Nato to now feel that they can go in and murder Gaddafi.

I predict troops will be on the ground within the next two weeks, killing Gaddafi and then we will be left with a political and legal mess!

I do not think that there is a leadership waiting in the wings ready to take over in Libya. The rebels are just a group of angry men who are laughable as a fighting unit. Civilians are not part of the rebel force, there is complex tribal situations that muddle everything and make these such problems as this a real mess.

It is completely wrong that innocent civilians have been harmed and killed but it is not as black and white as the news reports make out.

You have permission to use this image only if you credit my name and www.pencildreams.com

Las Vegas show!

Sketch Club 1.8

Here is this weeks subject:

Ignore the sand, just draw the seal and the shadow it is making on the sand!

God luck and sketches submitted will be posted on Wednesday with some feedback from myself!

Drawing buildings

This is a snap I took while in Tokyo a few years back. These are buildings in the financial district of Tokyo.

What I want you to look at is the outline shape that the buildings make.

You of course can see boxes, rectangles and squares.

It is these simple shapes that you would start with when you draw.

Take this approach and you will discover with some practice that you CAN draw!

Have fun and please come back tomorrow for this weeks SketchClub assignment!

Sketch Club 1.7 drawing

Karl Simpson has created a really nice sketch of last weeks subject, the elephant.
I wanted this to show some basic shapes again that hopefully people would pick up on.

Very Good job Karl!

President Obama in London

President Obama is today in London. Barak Obama is making his second visit to London to talk business with David Cameron, our Prime Minister.

I would love to be a fly on the wall to hear what they have to say to each other!

Sketch Club 1.6 drawing

Karl Simpson was the only person to send in a sketch for this clubs assignment:

Karl has made a nice sketch and caught the outline shape very well. Sometimes the detail is not important, the outline shape can be the main factor that goes to make a successful sketch!

So well done Karl, you have created a sketch that is better than you think!

Apologies for missing this post yesterday. At the moment I am not very well. It is unusual for me to be ill but these past few days have been rotten and I am trying to relax and recover as quickly as I can.

The current sketch club is the elephant ornament.

Here again is an outline shape that is more important than  the detail.

I hope you can partake in this one and get your sketch to me before Wednesday, when I aim to post the sketches!

This Friday I will be posting a rather more challenging sketch club assignment.

The idea is that for past few weeks we have been working on shapes and now we shall move on to a slightly more difficult subject but using our shape knowledge, the challenge should prove to be exciting!

Birds

As you can tell, I am a big fan of wildlife and especially bird life. When I was a boy I was a keen bird watcher and loved to go out with my binoculars and spot the different species.

In my garden where I live we have many different species as we are based in and around woods and a nature reserve.

This photo of a seagull is one I took when in California in November 2010, it is great to be able to snap pictures like this with my digital SLR!

Sketchclub 1.7

This weeks assignment! Check back on Sunday for last weeks sketches.

Ford Classic Car

This was completed this week for a client. It is for the guys birthday and he is a mad keen classic car enthusiast, with his Ford MKII Cortina Lotus

I enjoyed creating this but it took three times as long as I first thought but never mind! I am pleased with the end result!

Recent wedding pics

Claire a bride who's wedding I recently entertained at, very kindly sent me these photo's from her day, saying that everyone really enjoyed the caricatures and all the fun!

It is so nice to know that my caricature service for weddings is a big hit with everyone!

Inside the Shed NEW site!

I now have a dedicated site come blog for Inside the Shed!

You can see it at www.insidetheshed.com

It will be connected directly with all things form Inside the Shed!

I hope to be making more videos form Inside the Shed and cover more tutorials for you to enjoy!

Soon I will be making a vid on using the Wacom tablet!

I hope you will stop and visit the new site! THANKS!

Homunculus caricature

Based on the Homunculus, this my very good friend Bob drawn and painted in the same way!

Click here for the wikipedia site explaining what it is!

Bob was very pleased with the caricature as it was a gift for his birthday. His son had commissioned me to paint the caricature and I had a lot of fun doing it. Mainly because it was the first time I had my watercolours out of the box and did some painting with real paint and water!

I must do some more painting!

Sketch Club 1.6

Hello everyone! Well it appears that on Friday, Blogger went down and this blog was off line for sometime and my post for Friday was lost! Apologies for this, it was out of my control!

But here is this weeks sketchclub assignment, a luggage strap.

Look out for those simple shapes once again, avoid the detail at first...

Click on the image above to view larger

Good luck and I will be posting the sketches on Saturday to give you time to get them done!

Wedding Photography Essex

I have the pleasure to share with you not only a few pictures of my caricatures in action but also information about the photographer who took them!

Paul at Westside Studio is a great photographer, very professional and someone who I have worked with and alongside, many times at weddings all over Essex!

The following shots were taken by Paul and you can visit his website by clicking here

Above the couple have no idea what I am drawing except for peoples comments from behind while watching the caricature appear before their eyes!

Above the big reveal and hey presto they love it! Phew!

As I get ready for the next caricature, the happy couple take in the fun of the drawing I just created for them live on the spot in under 5 minutes!

That wedding was great fun and along with Paul, who was the wedding photographer, Mark his second photographer was there, the video guy and the chocolate fountain guy and below is a photographer of us all with the bride, taken just before midnight as the reception/party was coming to a close:

Above from left to right : Paul of Westside Studio : Chocolate Fountain guy : The beautiful Bride and myself : the Video guy : Mark of Westside Studio

It was a great night and wonderful wedding!

Paul is always a real pleasure to work alongside and I can highly recommend his photographic services!

Click here for his website

Sketch Club 1.5 drawings

A tough one but it is good to stretch the challenge!

Debbie Buckland:

This is the first time Debbie has used a wacom tablet and corel painter but its a great first effort! Well done Debbie!

Kenny Durkin:

A great sketch from Kenny! Way to go Kenny!

Karl Simpson:

Karl has done a very good sketch, well done!

I hope you enjoyed the Mickey challenge!

Another sketch club this Friday, so hope to see you there!

Font selection

As an artist and having started in an art studio back in the late 1970's, fonts and lettering have always held my attention. Today with technology we have thousands of fonts to choose from and it is so easy to select them and use them on your computer!

Here are just a few of my favourite fonts that I really like....

Please click on the image to view full size

These fonts can be found either as a standard preload with your computer of you can find them at this great website dafont.com

Click here to visit the dafont.com website

Let me know what fonts you like! I am always interested to see what others like and discover new fonts that I have not yet seen!

How to be a caricaturist

I am asked this question by many people.

The simple answer is that you need help and support from existing caricature artists.

How do you do this? It is easy, join ISCA, the International Society of Caricature Artists and you will be making one of the best choices in helping you become a caricature artist!

ISCA has over 500 members worldwide and members include established professionals at the very top of the world of Caricature!

Click here to visit the ISCA website and join up today!

Not only will you find help and support, you will have the opportunity to attend conventions and get to know members and discover so much more about the world of caricature!

There is no other organisation or group like ISCA, if your serious about your caricature art, then you really should join!

Above is the ISCA QR code!

British Politics

I try to avoid some of the more hot topics but this week here in Great Britain, we had a referendum vote on the alternative voting system.

The Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg was all for this and encouraged our nation to vote yes, as did his political party, the Liberal Democrats.

Well last night the votes were counted and an overall majority voted NO to the AV vote, myself included.

This has put a lot of pressure on the Liberal Democrats who would have appeared to have lost any confidence that they held with the British public.

It will be interesting to see how the next few months pan out in terms of our country's politics!

I shall be watching closely and may even get a cartoon drawn of the developments!

Sketch club 1.5

Above is this week sketchclub challenge!

Look for those basic shapes first, circles, rectangles and sketch them out as a trail run to see how they fit together. The you can either draw over the guide lines or start a new sketch but most of all, take your time and enjoy the process!

Shed stuff

Above is a shot of my desk and working area, from where I am typing this post right now for you!

The Shed has proven to be a big success in terms of my needs to have an office at home that doubles as a studio and lets me run my business and get any office based work done. The majority of my work is live entertainment, so when I perform I am out on location and not inside the shed!

I also now have more 'home' time as I shut the shed in the evening and spend the rest of the time with my wife, unless I am off out to a gig! This is really nice as before, when the office was inside the house, I would often be in there on the computer and my wife would be an office widow, sitting on her own in the lounge watching tee vee. But not anymore!

I am still connected to the internet while I am in the house as my iPad gives me the ability to stay ahead of emails and calls that need me to check dates etc etc concerning the business.

The iPad in this regard has been a real blessing to us! Along with my iPhone, I am able to step out of the office and do other things.

These past few months have been very busy with both work and my also the activities connected to my role as President of ISCA. Things are going well but I have not had as much free time as I would like to produce any recent 'Inside the Shed' shows for YouTube.

I do want to continue these and when I have the chance, will produce another show for you but let me say a Thank You for your patience while there is a gap before the next show is filmed and uploaded to YouTube.

ISCA is going very well and this years convention in Florida will really be one to attend! The other week, the European chapter ran a minicon in Girona, Spain and that was a big success! In July, ISCA Japan Chapter are running a minicon in Osaka and that will most definitely be one to go too!

Thank You as always for following my blog, I hope you are enjoying what is going on, the new sketch club is great and I am most grateful for everyone who is taking part and hopefully learning and enjoying the fun of it all!

Tomorrow will see a new subject to draw!

The world stage has been very busy too and along with Libya, Syria and now the recent death of Bin Laden, it seems like a crazy mixed up ride!

There never is a dull moment on planet Earth!

Sketch Club 1.4 drawings

Here are the sketches from last weeks assignment to draw my Grandfathers old Plane tool that he used in his job as a french polisher:

Karl Simpson:

A really nice sketch from Karl and very good use of shading to bring a 3D feel to his sketch.

Chris Reinhart:

A good sketch from Chris but the plane is a little short in its width here but not a problem. What I recommend is to draw a very light pencil line of the basic shapes first, so light that you can barely see them. Then use these faint lines as a guide to produce the final drawing. This should help in ensuring the proportions are drawn correctly but remember that from these trials and errors, we get better as artists so do not see this as a failure but rather, a chance to learn and improve!

Thank you to both Karl and Chris for taking part.

We will have a new challenge to sketch this Friday!

Osama Bin Laden

Most likely place for the guy who was a real jerk!

(New Animation)

Check out this video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcaWSJtfi5M&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Steve Hearn
Professional Caricaturist
http://www.drawn4u.com

President of ISCA
http://www.caricature.org

Caricature drawing tip

When drawing a caricature, try not to make everything big. Exaggeration works in scale and if something is drawn large, something else needs to be made smaller. The example above shows this in terms of drawing a large chin and cheek area of a face. The top of the head is made smaller to keep the scale correct and make the drawing and exaggeration work.