Sensationally Successful Corporate Event!

Last night I drew caricatures of everyone at a Price Waterhouse Coopers client party at The Café du Marché in London. This was a 1st Choice Entertainment event and it went down very well.

It’s always satisfying getting a photo of a group like this holding their caricatures and they were only too willing to oblige and pose for me.

The Lady with a Cello!

I’ve never drawn a lady with a cello before.

She was delighted!

On-The-Spot Caricatures – What they SHOULD look like!

 The difference between caricatures drawn from photos and those drawn on-the-spot at parties is often quite stark. A caricaturist can appear to have a split personality because the styles are so far apart.

When you are drawing in the quiet and solitude of your own studio, from a selection of photos, you have all the time in the world to make adjustments and corrections until the caricature is just right.

On-the-spot at parties and events, you become part-caricaturist, part-entertainer and the drawing becomes a side product of a totally different process. The caricatures drawn at parties are hardly ever a caricaturist‘s favourite example of his artwork. They are drawn at speed and a certain amount of premeditated formula helps to do this and get a good resemblance.

Here is a selection of caricatures I did on-the-spot for Make It Cheaper (who, paradoxically, were one of my best-paying clients in December!).

There is a fear amongst caricaturists of seeing one’s on-the-spot drawings together like this because they can sometimes ‘all look the same’ (exposing the ‘formula’). But I think I’ve been lucky with this lot and most of their individual characteristics show through.

This was one of those interesting projects where I had to take the caricatures away and then compose them together as an A2 Group. Here they are all in the same group (click to enlarge):

The client was very pleased with the results!

London Caricaturist Website Work Continues

My website is undergoing a complete re-design by Victor Taylor.

At the moment, it looks a little scrappy, as I did it myself a little over a year ago. But as Victor is about to step in and soup it up, I have had the courage to tinker with the front page a little, safe in the knowledge that it will all soon be perfect!

I’ve added THE FILM, which is very exciting as anyone visiting the site can immediately watch me at work in a live party.

By the end of January, the big re-launch will include all-new portfolio pictures, a new load of photos from events and a constantly updated News Page.

Also, on the Caricatures from Photos page, customers will be able to instantly upload their photos for caricatures and all payments will be payable through PayPal.

I can’t wait!

Caricature Entertainment at Weddings!

This is the time of the year when many engaged couples are putting the finishing touches to their wedding plans for 2008.

When it comes to entertainment, you always want something spectacular and memorable to make a lasting impression on your guests.

Standard entertainment like bands, discos and magicians are all a very good part of the mix. But what do they leave you with? Wonderful memories, of course, and perhaps they feature in one or two photos but what do your guests take away with them? Nothing!

 

If you have a cartoonist at your wedding drawing caricatures, your guests are not only highly entertained, ‘victim’ and spectators alike, but they take away a unique memento of your special day! An original piece of artwork.

The caricaturist at a wedding can entertain during the quiet of the Reception before you all sit down to eat, or they can circulate amongst the tables during the early part of the meal (but BEFORE the lights go down and the dancing begins!)

Each sheet of paper can be pre-printed with the names of the happy couple, the date and the venue, so each recipient always remembers your wonderful day.

And, of course, with happy, comic banter accompanying my every move, the whole experience is akin to a multi-media comedy show!

The pics shown here include other parties as well as weddings, but the process of entertainment is the same! Click to enlarge!

The London Caricaturist – The MOVIE!

Yes, here’s my latest promo video! This was filmed at a party for the Travel Trade Gazette after their week at The World Travel Market in the Excel Centre in London’s Docklands.

Those lovely people from Conrad Advertising were there and we all had a marvellous time. And I didn’t even pay people to laugh and look happy! (Apart from handing out my Million Pound Note business cards!)

The End of Term Party

Thursday 20th December: After my last live job of the year in the afternoon, I met up with a few friends at The French House in Soho. This was a semi-official ‘End of term Party’. For me, anyway. Eager Beavers like Paul Baker were still working right up to Saturday 22nd and Guy Carter was actually working on Christmas Day!

That’s, from left to right: writer, film maker and demi-monde-ist Phil Munnoch, aka Captain Zip, caricaturist and ex-Matron (!) Helen Poynter, Dr Howard Cohen (who happens to be a big knob in the Jewish world of circumcision!), Myself, cartoonist and writer Guy Carter and journalist/corporate writer Julie Lefebve.

Also there, at some stage during the evening were caricaturist Simon Cassini, Paul Baker as previously mentioned and hypnotherapist Phil Pearl.

Julie and Phil are fellow members of networking group, Ecademy, where we strive to make ourselves known and boost our businesses with a limited amount of success. It’s a great place to make a diverse selection of friends though! Along with the occasional attendance of Guy, Julie and Phil are members of The London Writers’ Group which I also organise on a monthly basis. It has an out-of-date WordPress Blog here. (Memo to self: update it!)

I don’t remember much about it, but I think Emma Thompson made a brief appearance and then there was a ride on a rickshaw to Piccadilly Circus. There’s a separate funny story about Emma and me that I will relate at a later date. Watch this space!

In order to stave off the effects of alcohol, I drank a lot of Coke, which turned out to be a bad mistake because it kept me awake all night!

As a result, this Christmas has been largely alcohol-free! And I won’t look at a Coke with any sense of desire in the future!

Latest Photos of The London Caricaturist in Action!

Phew!

It’s been a busy week for the London Caricaturist. Tuesday was spent entertaining the wonderful bright young things of new satirical website, Eyebrow, where I duly overturned a table laden with nachos and beer, in the true tradition of satire and anarchy. It went down well in more ways than one.

Wednesday’s event has already been covered in a previous post (that’s when I was teamed up with comedian Brian Damage to entertain PatSystems). On Thursday, I was sent into the wilds of Berkshire/Hampshire to track down the Clearswift Xmas party where I found many willing recipients of my graphical satire in the environs of Trunkwell House. And finally, on Friday I was at the incredible Landmark Hotel in Marylebone dishing out caricatures AND my Million Pound Notes to the lucky financial globetrotters of Pimco Europe (not that they need the extra millions!)

I do believe that the pics enlarge if stimulated by a little digital poking, in both the anatomical and electronic sense!

The London Caricaturist goes through roof at PatSystems Party!

Yesterday’s job was at The Borough Bar in London’s London Bridge for market trading software manufacturer PatSystems. This job was brought to me by the wonderful Clyde West of comedy agency Stand and Deliver.

Not only did I produce 25-odd caricatures in two hours, but I met the brilliant musical comedian Brian Damage (the good looking one in the photos above). Sadly, circumstances prevented me from meeting his ‘glamorous assistant’ Krysstal

Here’s Brian and Krysstal’s Christmas message to you all:

Most notable of the people I caricatured was an Asian Nicholas Cage look-a-like. He’s the one with the droopy eyelids. I think you had to be there to see the likeness!

The London Caricaturist at Ecademy Christmas Party

That wonderful business networking organisation, Ecademy, had its Xmas party last night and, as usual, hired me to draw caricatures of as many people as possible.

Other entertainment on offer was magic from Matthew Duggan, spoof networking guru, Guru John Popolini and lookalikes, Sven Goran Eriksson, the artist formerly known as Prince and Billy Connolly.

I swapped hospital notes with Ecademy founder Penny Power, had a short but sweet chat with her husband and Ecademy CEO, Thomas Power and finally managed to draw fellow Ecademy director, Glenn Watkins for the first time

Strange though it may seem, a queue of women formed. The men who were watching this enactment of bees around the honeypot, or moths to the flame, put it down to the fact that I draw large-ish cartoon breasts on most women, if the setting requires. So if they ask to be drawn swimming, doing aerobics or dancing, the obvious revealing clothing is duly depicted.

Personally, I am sure it has nothing to do with this and was purely because of my animal magnetism!

Here are some (animated) pics: