I was a caricaturist in my early 20s at amusements parks around California. I had knee surgery earlier this year and I needed a job not too labor intensive. So how I stumbled across a caricature stand at the aquarium here in Houston. I just talked with the manager. He told me to bring in some of my work in. I had to make some work and hand them in. I got hired. Truth be told it took me about two weeks to make 2-3 pieces. It took me awhile to get used to making art. It’s weird now I can knock out draw my entire shift and sell retail caricatures from my first day. Just a few things I needed to learn was how the register worked and how to get faster at drawing.
I’ve been working there for about a month now. Some say going back to the same line of work before you joined the military is a step backward. I might say yes. Then I remembered how much fun I had and how much fun I am having now. The only thing that doesn’t equate is the pay. I’ll explain that in a later post. The best part of the job is apparent, I get to draw everyday as a job. As a kid, I thought drawing as an occupation was such a hard job to get. It really isn’t. To live as an artist on your own terms is way harder. There are so many websites like fiver.com or upwork.com that hire designers and artists. Even if we didn’t live in 2019 there are several ways to make income as an artist. I will discuss this further in another post.
Since I started drawing caricatures back in 2004. I knew that I will never be as good as I hope to be. I’m only as good as my last sold drawing. The work never stops. I can always improve. I can always practice. This idea can lead to burn out. I draw at work. Then I go home and draw at home. I fear that I put too much pressure on myself on what other people think of me and my skill as an artist. Especially when I had a bad drawing/ reject. I believe this is associated with the idealogy of a job defines who you are, which I carried with me through most of my life. I don’t think like that anymore.
I had a to draw a lady with burn scars from the chin down to her chest. I don’t know what happened but with something like that. I assume people stare or ask them about them all the time. So I don’t bother. But what does the caricaturist do? Does he A. Leave them out B. Draw them. C. Exaggerated them. I went with B. I drew them. For obvious reasons I didn’t take a picture of the subject or drawing. If I was a better artist I think I would have incorporated it better with the caricature. Imagine living with that everyday. Maybe someday I could draw at the VA or some VFW gig. Just a thought.
I think these posts will be called Caricature Confessions.
PS: I drink while I blog and I probably do one or two edits before I publish. hahaha.
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