I love cartoons and animation, especially caricatures. You can tell that from my painting style, too. I grew up on MAD magazine and was thoroughly influenced by their brand of visual satire. Humorous exaggeration brings out the traits that make something loveable—or, in the case of certain politicians, despicable.

I can draw a single-person caricature in about 10 or 15 minutes, which is slower than the five-minute event caricature standard but mine are a little more detailed and shaded. They’re more like exaggerated portraits. I vary my levels of distortion according to what I think they (or I) may be comfortable with. I do full colour studio caricature portraits, too. I’ve always been faster at depicting people than doing my panoramic landscape scenes. I have years and years of people in old sketchbooks.

Event Caricatures – You Can Hire Me!

At events or public places, I’ll take picture with my cameraphone and work from that if the subject wants to wander around and do something else than watch me squint at them and draw. I’m always happy to talk and draw at the same time, too. Some folks are more comfortable being drawn than others.

I’ve also been known to sketch random people when I’m waiting for a plane or something. Sometimes this goes over well and sometimes not so much.

But you can hire me! All I need is a table and some people.

Here are some examples of my work over time with photos of the real subject.

Cast of Dragon’s Den, Season 9	Polarities. Sort of.
Cutie-pies Cian and Celtie have characteristic grins.	These are my cousins: Ben, Sam, & Tim. They each have distinct personalities and I enjoyed bringing that out. Ben is Mr. Coiffure, Sam’s like a mad scientist, and Tim has a mischievous air about him.
Good sports, these two.	Sophie looks just like a Disney princess, especially with that smirk.
Klara is both regal and Russian.	Zita is totally fun-loving.
Babies are hard to draw because their faces are so small and perfect that it’s sometimes difficult to exaggerate. They’re also hard to draw because they never sit still! Mila needed three drawings.	My beautiful former studio mate, Sally.
Rebecca and Matthew. Actors are always fun to draw.	Chris and Cheryl are a happy couple with a good sense of humour.
Dave really didn’t want to be caricatured but he was fun to draw.	He was pleasantly surprised that I didn’t overly-distort him. Can’t imagine why he thought I would.
Kalia & Mike are an attractive couple. Attractive people are sometimes harder to draw.	Kalia, version 2
My buddy Brian and his Facebook profile picture. Sometimes when I need to practice I just open my Facebook feed and draw the first selfie I see.	He was a little surprised when the wait staff gave it to him. My plane was boarding so I had to run. Thanks, and sorry, random airport guy!

Painting, like writing, is usually a solitary practice. It isn’t audience-oriented like theatre or music. Yes, there are many entertaining live painters and there are a lot of art battle-type competitions done in front of audiences, but most of the artists I know prefer to take their time on their work. Layers, contemplation, addition, reduction. And, frankly, watching someone paint, scrub off, and repaint a canvas isn’t as entertaining as watching a musician play or an actor perform.

But live caricature is the one performance thing I can do! It always surprises people when I’m not as mean as they expect.