Caricature Series

Charlie Brown and Bugs Bunny are the reasons why I became an artist. This I know. I grew up in a small town in Illinois where art was not at the forefront of education. This was well before computers, internet and satellite T.V. We didn't have an art store in town. The closest we had to an art store was a stationary store.

I mention all this because the basis for my art education came not from grand Art Galleries or Artist seminars. It came from the Peanuts comic strip in the paper and numerous Saturday mornings watching Bugs Bunny cartoons and Schoolhouse Rock episodes. To me this was art that could tell a story or convey an emotion in a few, well thought out lines. The simple silhouette of Snoopy. The round head of Charlie Brown with black dots for eyes. The wonderful, oversized mustache and small frame of Yosemite Sam.

It was the masters of this medium who shaped the type of art that I would pursue in my career. Lately, I feel like I've been swaying from the basic premise that I grew up admiring. I need to keep things simple, both in my illustration work and my paintings.

With that thought in mind, I decided that I would like to do a daily (hopefully) series of quick 3 - 5 minute caricatures. Caricatures of people who might be relevant in the news that day or, maybe just random celebrities or politicians that strike a cord with me. Either way the point of this is to get me drawing something on a daily basis and to search for what made the 7 year old in me decide to become an artist in the first place.

For my first caricature I decided to draw Rainn Wilson, a.k.a. Dwight Schrute on "The Office". No real reason other than I enjoy him as an actor. His facial features are simple and lend easy to my style of caricature.