Last caricature gig of the year and drew a terrific assortment of attendees. Most in the event business themselves.

A group of fellow artists got together in Orlando at Stardust Video and Coffee Shop last Wednesday night. We get together around this time of year to catch up on the goings on in the past year. Above are Pam Treadwell, Paula Large, Jerry Darkey and me.

Here is a step by step of a watercolor caricature I painted on Halloween.Above is the pencil and preparation for watercolor.

Here I’ve added the watercolor.

Finally, I brush in the line work.

Created this watercolor caricature for a client who contacted me earlier in the day. He had to have it by noon on the 27th. So we met and I drew, inked and painted the artwork at a coffee shop. Here’s step by step of the development of the caricature. All are photographs at the scene.

‘Funny Folks Behind the Serious Business of Cartoons’ is the name of a fun panel of Florida cartoonists and author Tim Hollis this Saturday at the Orange County Regional History Center.

Tim Hollis starts off the event at 12:30 with a talk about the history of cartooning and tourism. He will also be introducing his new book, ‘Part of a Good Breakfast’ about cereal premiums for the Baby Boomer set. Tim will be available to sign books after his talk.

The cartoonist panel starts at 1pm with cartoonists Bruce Beattie, Allen Bellman, Mike Osbun, Jeff Parker, Mark Simon, and me. Each will talk about the cartoon work they do.  Then the floor will open to questions from the audience.

Afterward be sure to take a stroll trough the Peanuts exhibit of comic strips reflecting outdoor issues.

I organized the cartoonist panel and dove tailed it with our annual Florida Chapter meeting of the National Cartoonists Society, which I am also Florida Chapter Chairman of. I’m also involved with the History Center.

A Socrates Cafe is a group that gathers and talks issues for a couple hours. I attended one today and, as usual, sketched the ideas we discussed. Here are a couple pages from the sketchbook.

Here are a few caricatures I drew near Sarasota on September 6th. Started off outside.

It soon got dark….

So we all came inside.

This is one of the last I drew after more than 4 hours non-stop.  I was pooped!

Found this in Publix – Hamburger Cake! A chocolate cake that looks like a hamburger.

Got on a drawing spree this evening. 5 projects knocked out in 5 hours.

This is a painting of Manley Fuller who is president of the Florida Wildlife Federation. I painted five of these for those who spoke at a water and springs awareness event back on June 23rd at Silver River State Park. I’m involved with a great group of folks called the Silver Springs Alliance that sponsored the event.

Charles Lee is the director of Advocacy at Audubon of Florida and came to speak at our event at Silver River State Park June 23rd. He spoke about how water is used. About 50% of our water resources in Florida are used to water grass.  As Charles points out, grass is just for decoration and yet swallows up so much of our water. Something to add is that the decorative grass is also responsible for the poisons of fertilizer and bug killer being added to the soil that filters it’s way into our Florida water supply. His talk is below and was recorded by Live Oak Production Group.

This is another in a series of five watercolor paintings of speakers from a conference I was involved with this past June 23rd.