Miss American Pie's Blog

study for painting

2007-03-21T07:16:00.000-05:00

I am really excited about this one. It's just a study, and I'm tweaking the image of Shatner a bit, but I'm making this into a full-fledged painting, which I haven't done in a LONG time. yay! :)

You may wonder why I never color anything. Now you know. LOL

A few more restaurant surfings...

THis lady's nose and forehead were completely adjoined jsut like in this drawing.

This guy said something to piss off this girl and it ruined their whole lunch. her whole face changed. Very interesting.

This guy looked like he was out of work. He kept trying to see what I was drawing, but I was too slick, pretending to be drawing the other couple, above ;)

I drew this lady the other nite on a cocktail napkin. She looked like she was no one to be trifled with!

This is one I missed from before. Not using the blue so much anymore because I can;t filter it out, but I'm useing a harder pencil which isn't as distracting as the softer pencils I usually use.

Hooray for Roz!

2007-03-20T06:07:00.000-05:00

Some of my little cartoons. I've been drawing these things since I was a kid. My goal this year is to try to get some of them published.

"I'll tell you what's wrong with it. All it plays is reality shows!"

Roz Chast is my hero! Some of my cartoons really look like hers - this is one of them. Her weird sense of humor is similar to mine - - AND she is a staff cartoonist for the New Yorker! Hooray for Roz!

..this one is more in my drawing style. Still needs work. The first illustrator I ever remember noticing as a kid was Quentin Blake (Shel Silversetein was a close seond. I have most of his poems memorized). Quentin illustrated all of Roald Dahl's books, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. As a child, I thought Dahl drew them all himself, that's how perfectly they fit. I still love Quentil Blake - and Roald Dahl. :) I reread Dahl all the time.

I must have a thing for grumpy Santas. I'm currently writing a story about one.

This is based loosely on my daughter, who refuses to do a thing I say even if she WANTS to do it. Such as eating her ice cream.

I think this may be Charleton Heston. I wasn't trying for it but that's how he tured out, LOL

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CCS friends

2007-03-20T06:03:00.000-05:00

Friends from CCS
Current mood: tired

Thought I'd post drawings of some new friends...
Chris

Mike

I have one of Joe but need to re-ink it, didn’t like the way it turned out. Scott, I will draw you soon! Good luck on the interview!!! J

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Sketchcrawl

2007-03-20T05:44:00.000-05:00

Went on a sketchcrawl Saturday with the new friends I've made at the College for creative Studies. Thanks Scott! I feel like I'm in high school again. I used to skip study hall to go sit in the art room and hang with the art majors. I got the best of both worlds - I got to fool around in art class but didn't have to complete any assignments! :)

Anyway, not much good results from the sketchcrawl, but came away with one drawing I liked:

And one I drew of a fellow sketchcrawler but did not like as much:

Been doing a lot more sketching at restaurants, following the advice of a friend(www.subwaysurfer.com). His blog has a tutorial for drawing in public, he does it on subways (thus the name Subwaysurfer) and i've been using this technique, rhough I still can't figure out how to filter out the blue. It's been helping a lot.

Unfortunately for this lady, this is dead on! :P

This guy reminded me of Ernest Borgnine

This one is of my daughter Grace.

EF article

2007-03-20T05:16:00.000-05:00

Thursday, January 18, 2007

On Risk

THe article from Exaggerated Features:

When I arrived at my first NCN convention this past September, I didn't know who half the people WERE. I was unable to access the forum beforehand due to the fact that my right brain doesn't know what my left brain is doing when it comes to things techie, so I did not have the benefit of looking at other's works or reading the message boards beforehand. Undaunted, I made the leap of faith to Orlando. I entered the lobby and blithely began drawing, not really looking around or realizing (at first) the incredible talent I had the nerve to be smug among.

I realized the moment I sat in the first seminar that my work, for want of a better word, sucked. In one sickening moment, I realized that I had been drawing portraits, not caricatures. I can pinpoint the exact moment: it was when Dion put up the slide of Harrison Ford. The slide showed a line drawing traced from Ford's face, and then a caricature based on his face. The caricature was not only much more recognizable, it was also much more interesting and artistic.

Change is difficult. It is painful. I cried more than once that week, but not for the reason you might think. It wasn't from having my face distorted and reflected back to me like images in a funhouse mirror - Au contraire, I love being warped and perverted (in a wholesome sort of way, of course) and being able to take home the evidence! I'm wearing a "draw me" sign on my back next convention, see if I don't! No, I cried after the likeness competition when I saw my work next to everyone else's and realized I couldn't even create a decent likeness.

But you know what?

I needed that.

Years of sitting in a booth by myself and listening to praise as people watched me draw have not been good for me as an artist. People don't know much. They really don't.

I have been isolated from other artists for so long, working on my own, and rarely taking time to look at other's works. I would have done better to be in one of the parks, frankly. And so, my art suffered. I thought I had developed my own style. But what had really developed was stultification and ego.

The convention was an eye opener. Some conversations will never be forgotten. I had a brief one with Lar that summed it all up. He asked how the convention had been for me.

"Great," I replied, "except that my ego has been decimated".

"It had to happen," he said, shaking his head.

"You're right," I agreed.

And he was. Because now that I've been pushed to my limits, I see where I was lacking. Namely in drawing skills, but also in my sense of humor! Actually, what it all boils down to for me is RISK.

Caricatures are risky. You may offend someone. You may get rejected. And worst of all, you may not get a laugh. I'm a woman, and women are often pleasers. I know that I was taught to make people happy, no matter the cost. And so, I've been afraid to risk putting myself out there, in my art, in my humor, in my style.

Well, NO MORE!

I worked so hard that week at the convention, just trying to learn how to exaggerate. The pieces were not funny, and that was OK, I was looking more to learn some technical finer points. And you know what? It worked!

I had a gig the day I came back from the convention. I was so nervous, because I didn't know what to do. I had already changed so much! The thought of going back to what I'd done before was intolerable. And yet, I wasn't sure if I could take that risk and flex my neophyte exaggeration muscles, possibly ticking off my employer!

I even thought of canceling, but honestly, I needed the money. I just wanted to work at exaggeration a little more so I could put myself out there and truly feel like I was a caricaturist, not just a portrait artist with a magic marker.

So - guess what happened?

I exaggerated faces the best I knew how. It was a crude attempt, but something happened to me for the very first time in eight years of drawing professionally for a living.

I heard laughter. Lots of it!

That alone made up for everything. You know what? In trying to please everyone, like Bill Cosby so aptly said, I was pleasing no one. I was trying to make people happy with "nice" drawings of themselves. The truth is, I made people much happier when I made fun of them!

I may never, no, WILL never, be a Court Jones, but I will be the best me I can be.
I am convinced that if I risk, risk every day a little more, then it will get easier, and bit by bit, I will get better. So, a note to you newbies. If the convention didn't kill you, it will make you stronger. Don't you want that? I am so passionate about this. Keep trying, Keep looking, Keep asking, Keep risking. And above all else, Keep Drawing!!!!! I am talking to myself when I say this. But I'm doing it – taking risks, I mean, After all, I wrote this piece and put it out there for y'all to see. I hope it helps somebody.

Thank you everyone, for all of your help, your words, your drawings and examples. They have helped me immeasurably. I am so glad I can keep in contact with you folks on the forum. That is the only way I'm going to keep growing and pushing myself. I hope you all do the same.
- Kathy Bailey

BEFORE

AFTER
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first post

2007-03-20T05:11:00.000-05:00

First Post

I started this Blog some time ago on myspace but found out I can post pics here! Yay! so I am repositng all of my old posts. This one Is from last year, December I think.

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OK so here I am, and here's my first post.

I feel like a manic depressant. Gimme some meds! If you're an artist, then you know what I'm talking about. Because one minute I think whatever I'm working on is pretty good. Not great, but good. Then I go online and see more incredible work than I could ever do and I despair.

Then I try to give myself a pep talk - you know, Vincent Van Gogh taught hmself to draw, you can see it in his early work (he's my hero, except for the whole cut-off-his-own-ear-and-mail-it-to-his-ex thing).

Everyone had to start somewhere, right? The problem is, I DID start somewhere, about 15 years ago. Problem was, I got lost somewhere along the way. I got stuck in a rut and started making drawings people would like, instead of making them for myself. I got so stuck I began hating drawing.

Then I went to the NCN convention and everything changed overnight. I'll post the essay I wrote for Exagerated Features soon (Magazine of the National Caricaturists Network, aka NCN), which will hopefully go to print soon.

Anyway, I am teaching myself to exaggerate. This is something I literally never learned how to do, even though I've been a "caricaturist" since 1999. And Now I've got to learn how to draw all over again.

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