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| SELF-PORTRAIT |
Full of
bluster, I fancy myself to be a planetary busker having the creds of busking with
either my guitar or my pencil on streets in Ireland, The Netherlands, Morocco,
and of course, Canada. In a line, I am accustomed to the bustle of streets,
both foreign and domestic.
Coming into
summertime, I’ve now decided to trade my pencil for a Sharpie, and foray into
the art of caricature. Yes, I am a tyro, but I can draw faces. No arms, no
trunk, no legs, no accessories. Just faces.
FACTOID: This seems apropos because I
believe I’ve a good enough eye and the hand skills and to make the switch from
portrait to caricature busking. I may be delusional, and I know the switch will
not be with facile. However, with just a week of practicing drawing caricatures
taking each between three to five minutes, I just recently attached a few of my
practice pictures to my application for drawing caricatures at the OLD WIVES
LAKE SUMMER FESTIVAL this July. Two days later, my application was accepted!
The OLD
WIVES LAKE SUMMER FESTIVAL is scheduled for JULY 19TH. Up
and until the day of the festival, I will PRACTICE PRACTIC PRACTICE, in my
effort to draw caricatures in under five minutes. (This I know from experience:
The longer I take to draw someone, the more my drawing is expected to look like
a photograph.)
Admittedly,
I shall be sacrificing quality for speed. But this is a good thing because there
is no artistry in perfection. Factoid: Imperfections create style.
The art of caricature
relies on an exaggeration of distinct facial features. I have read that to be a
successful caricaturist, not every detail on the customer’s face needs to be
exaggerated. Rather, a caricaturist needs only to highlight or alter the
proportion of the one feature that truly defines that person in the
caricaturist’s eye. It could be the nose, it could be the ears, it could be the
mouth. But really, no matter whose face I draw, I doubt I’ll have the heart to
make fun of the person. Hmmm. But if I ever do, it will only be just the one
feature on my customer’s face that I personally deem significant.
Factoid: Over the years of busking with my
pencil, I have always bragged that “My pencil never lies.” Now that I will be
busking with my Sharpie, I will confess that “My Sharpie always lies.”
I have
decided, at least for now, that my caricatures will be non-exaggerated
monochromes, drawn with a Sharpie black marker. And my measure for knowing whether
the faces that I draw are good or not?
If I am
pleased with the picture, most likely my customer, too, will be pleased with the
picture.
I know from personal experience, that attempting to eke out a living as a guitar busker can be very tough. I am thinking caricaturists have more opportunities, permanent jobs in theme parks, loads of freelance opportunities for corporate gigs, big weddings, birthday parties, and such.
Marching in
my CHAUCERIAN PARADE this week are those who posed for my ambitions
of becoming a nobby and planetary caricaturist:
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| MY COLLEAGUE |
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| MY COLLEAGUE |
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| MY NEIGHBOUR |
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| MY NEIGHBOUR |
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| OWNER OF MY FAVOURITE SCUBA SHOP |
MY KEN FOR DRAWING CARICATURES SHALL BE A BAPTISM BY FIRE AT THE OLD WIVES LAKE SUMMER FESTIVAL THIS JULY 19TH.
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| MY THREE-MINUTE SELF-PORTRAIT |
