Monday, May 22, 2023

McCaricature


blog·ger
noun
"a person who regularly writes material for a blog".


It seems that I'm at my best when I ignore the lines...and if not my best at least my most satisfying. Lines tend to put me in a box and keep me inline (Duh!). However, when I ignore boundaries, I have more fun and I find the final outcome of my drawing is more satisfying. For example (technically speaking) my Prince drawing is perfection 


However,  it is not my most satisfying accomplishment. That designation would be assigned to my Kurt Cobain drawing, even with its imperfection. This drawing's subtitle is "Perfect Imperfection”



I have the same feelings about my Event Caricatures.  When I first started drawing event caricatures, I had a formula that I followed. Although the drawings turned out ok and I could draw them quickly (most event coordinators want quantity over quality) they looked “formulaic” (i.e., conventional, average, common, commonplace, customary, cut-and-dried, everyday, garden-variety, imitative, mechanical, normal, plain, routine, run-of-the-mill, standard, stock, undistinguished, unexceptional, unoriginal, unremarkable - Dictionary.com). Although I saw the light of the, Almighty Caricature God and was saved from a life of uninspired caricatures, unfortunately there’s still a lot of lost souls out there producing uninspired, formulaic McCaricatures (I think of them as the McDonalds of Caricature Artists) and they rule the marketplace. You see them at amusement parks, on Fremont street in Las Vegas, in fact they’re everywhere, because they're nice, inexpensive and non-offensive. However, they're pretty damn boring.


No offense to the person who produced this caricature down at Disney Planet, but I have a question, why's the head so large?? Was the artist making fun of a woman with macrocephaly? Nope! The artist was following standard caricature guidelines (rule #23A to be specific) in the book, "How to Draw Uninspired Caricatures"

Apparently people (and the Disney Corporation) appreciate uninspired things. That’s obviously why God made Justin Bieber, voters elected Joe Biden (or did they??) and why people watch Jimmy Fallon. Don't agree with me? Consider these three top selling cars.



I would imagine you know someone who owns one of these vehicles (or one that looks just like it) Unless of course you're a man with a  a small penis, then you probably purchased an oversized truck (and if your penis really tiny, you hang a set of “truck nutz” under the trailer hitch).

God Bless America....


Sunday, May 14, 2023

Boeing 727 Aviation Caricature

Happy Mothers Day All! 

A short post today to introduce you to my latest Aviation Caricature, a Boeing 727! I created this drawing on 11"× 17" Canson XL Mix Media drawing paper with Pitt Artist Pens and Castle Arts Watercolor Pencils. Soon it will be available at The Michael Hopkins Caricatures Online Store!



Boeing 727 Aviation Caricature
 by Michael Hopkins

Wednesday, May 10, 2023

A guy, his dog and a Cessna 310 walked into a bar...

Hello blogosphere,

The last two days have been very productive, which lately (again) is unusual for me. This week's productivity resurrection was due in part to inspiration provided by a YouTube channel, Rafi Was Here Studios https://youtube.com/@Rafiwashere Rafi and his wife, Klee are artists who create YouTube videos and blog about their life as artists and their art business. I find that their ideas and thoughts about being an artist, have been very helpful and informative. So if you're also the creative type, you should definitely check out their channel.


This first drawing I created , started out as a standard Aviation Caricature, however it morphed itself into a detailed look into a moment in the life of a guy, his dog and their Cessna 310.



While creating this drawing, my bipolar excitement level went from over the top (Woo hoo! I'm drawing again!) to indifference (Yawn! Another airplane caricature...) to frustration (Grrrrr!! Stupid freaking drawing paper!!) back to excitement (Look, they're flying over a city!) to enjoyment (let's detail the crap out of that city!) and in the end, not wanting to stop the creative process. Yes, I had some issues with my drawing paper (the paper I was using didn't accept the wash very well) however, I endured the minor setback and found a solution for the India ink wash issue and came out with a finished drawing that I love! I guess the lesson that I learned is that (like life itself) if we give up and quit when things get frustrating and complicated, we may miss out on the glory that could have been… 


"The greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”  

-Molière


To put it simply, my second drawing is my Ode to Shakira's derriere.



Compared to most of my other drawings, this one is relatively small (8 ½" x 5 ¾") however, it's very detailed because I used quite a lot of cross hatching (I love cross hatching!). While drawing this caricature, my plan was that when i finished, I would add color. However, when I completed the drawing, I was satisfied…without color. However....here's a few with some color added!



Talk to you soon!

-Michael