The life I want lies in wait beneath the work I shirk. Hmmm. I want to be a full-time caricaturist and a part-time hypnotherapist. Being a caricaturist, I imagine, would offer moi many a fast-paced, freelance work opportunity filled with direct client interaction, with loads of fun and munificence on endless summer sunny days.
A
caricature is typically defined as being a drawing of a person in which
certain and striking characteristics are exaggerated to create a comic or
grotesque effect. My caricatures then, are not typical. My
caricatures are really stylized portraits, simplified sketches of the faces
seated before me, attempting each time to draw exactly what I see within my
self-imposed ten-minute time limit.
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| A CLINT CARICATURE -- NOT MINE:( |
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| ANOTHER CLINT CARICATURE -- MINE:) |
To ensure the person remains recognizable, I always focus on facial structure. Despite this focus and not by design, my caricatures do adopt a rather animated look, but not quite as cartoony as most others' caricatures.
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| SAGE BROCKLEBANK |
My signature style is derived from drawing as fast as I can. I draw my clients with a black fine point Sharpie, then highlighted with an Artist’s Loft grey marker. If ever I do add color, it is only to the person’s eyes and with a fine point Sharpie permanent marker.
Becoming a saleable caricaturist takes practice, practice, and more practice. Factoid: I have been drawing people’s faces since I was in grade school and so I’ve had lots of practice, but drawing caricatures with a black Sharpie, I have been doing so only for this past year.
As
I oftentimes fancy myself as being a planetary busker, I have sketched people’s caricatures (with my pencil) on the streets of Amsterdam, Limerick, Dublin, and Marrakech. But as a planetary busker with my Sharpie, I have drawn only on
the streets of some village and town summer fairs right here in Canada. Methinks on
my next buskation out-of-country, I will pack my Sharpies!
To
be living the life of a planetary caricaturist sounds fascinating and fun, and
for the most part it would be. Factoid: Every city mentioned above where
I’ve drawn faces of people on the street, on these same streets I have thrummed
as a guitar busker. From busking with both a guitar and a pencil, here is what I
know. Being a caricature busker offers considerably more social cachet than
that of a guitar busker. Oftentimes, guitar buskers are simply beggars with a
guitar, whereas caricature buskers are revered visual artists. Even so, I must
confess, whether home or abroad, being a caricaturist ain’t always fun, and it
ain’t always easy!
Drawing
faces all day long is physically draining. I have on many an occasion in
summertime, literally for hours, sat at my table drawing people from a long
queue of consumers standing under a scorching summer sun waiting to pay a good
dollar for me to draw their caricature. Seated at my mercenary drawing table
for hours on end is physically a pain in the butt. To ease my physical pain,
after finishing a caricature, I always stand up and stretch. And every time the
line goes empty, I go for a walk and peruse the other vendor wares at the market.
And
there is also mental fatigue. Having to focus on yet another face, after
drawing more than a dozen or so caricatures, I feel this to be mentally
exhausting. Admittedly, after a long while, all my customers start to look the
same! In a general description, we all have hairlines, eyebrows, eyes, noses,
chins, and necks. In a specific description, some of us suffer alopecia and are
bald with no eyebrows. Some of us are cross-eyed and wearing bottle-thick spectacles.
Some of us have pencil-thin necks and some of us are without necks. Yes. For
me, during a long day of caricature drawing, the mental fatigue can be hallucinatory
enough to have me imagine that we all share the same face!
Economically
speaking in cliché, being a free-lancing caricaturist means to be the
quintessential starving artist. Such a job change would reduce me to having an
inconsistent income! Keeping with the status quo, I am currently a daytime
counsellor under contract with a couple of provincial agencies, and a part-time
hypnotherapist in private practice every weekday afternoon. Weekends only, I am a caricaturist.
Factoid: Waiting for the weekend gets me through the week! Another factoid:
The reality of my current financial affairs doth easily kibosh my retirement dreams
to be a full-time caricaturist. Yikes! (In a line, I would have to budget!)
And
of course, being a caricaturist is not always flattering and therefore not
always fun. Sometimes my clients are not happy with their “portraitures.” In
such cases, customer interactions can be challenging! I remember, especially, many
years ago drawing a Dutch girl at a farmers’ market. The girl was polite and
sweet, but her mom was a know-it-all bag. After I drew the girl, her mom spent
at least ten minutes berating me on how I did not capture her daughter’s
spirit! And she was quite annoyed that I dare charge her anything for such an
abomination! But I didn’t budge. Neither did I respond in gesture nor in voice.
Myself exercising a passive stance, she eventually paid and marched away.
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| THE DUTCH GIRL |
During Yuletide 2025 while vacationing in Vancouver, I enjoyed Christmas dinner with my friends, Jennifer and Bob. To repay them (somewhat) for their graciousness, I drew their caricatures (not live but from a photograph sent to me later). Now here is a case in point when my customers could legitimately complain! I was not that happy with my caricatures but mailed it to them, nonetheless. I do believe I captured Bob, but I am sure my Sharpie likeness embarrassed Jennifer! (She is sending me another photo asap to redeem myself!)
Admittedly, I am accursedly addicted to drawing people’s faces! Any visages I encounter, I scrutinize the eyes and nose, the lips and chin, in the off chance that I may someday be drawing them. And to continue this lifestyle dream, when I do get that chance, my preferred place for this Sharpie caricature business would be on a sunny plage in a warmer clime!
(YES! ‘TIS TIME TO DO THE WORK I SHIRK!)
