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Being a Caricaturist

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.

I will try to put the subject and the drawing next to each other when I post again.

Alaska

I work outside drawing as a caricaturist at the local aquarium here in Houston. It is hot and humid. The worst I’ve ever felt. Mind you I lived in the California desert before, 29 Palms. I don’t mind dry heat. I think humidity is the worst. I really wanted to travel this summer. My knee recovery and lack of funds prevented me from traveling. What I enjoy most about my life is the freedom of choice! I can stay up all night, eat ice cream for dinner, or play video games. When I don’t have a wife or kids. I can do whatever I want. It feels great. One of my favorite things to do is to plan potential travel adventures.

Alaska next summer is on my potential destination list. This isn’t some Into the Wild pipe dream. I want to work in Alaska, not go into the Alaskan bush. I also would like to use this welding skill I gained last year. I watched this video, Timothy Ward, on seasonal jobs in Alaska. He pretty much sold me on the idea. I will do more research. He worked as a hotel care taker. I’ve volunteered around the world in exchange for room and board. I feel this would be a good experience as well as a story.

Timothy Ward mentioned this website coolworks.com, it is a site where you can find jobs all over the country for different seasons. Looking at all the options was a little overwhelming. It was a good place to start. I’m familiar with websites like this because I have used workaway.info for volunteering when I traveled abroad. Volunteering is cool but I like to get paid. I am not in the military anymore and need some sort of income.

Potential plan next summer. 1. Find a welding construction job next summer in Alaska. 2. Worst case scenario. I just find a normal seasonal job next summer.

My research consists of watching a lot of youtube videos on the subject and reading a couple blog posts.

If you have any stories of working Alaska or aboard please share in the comments. Any tips or advice would appreciated.

Next Post: Being a caricaturist.

Planning Ahead

At this point of my return to school. I am in my first semester at community college. I plan on finishing with an associates in teaching. I estimate that I will transfer by Spring 2021. Then on to a university, I am not 100% sure on which one yet. I have narrowed my choices down to three. University of Houston 90%. University of Texas- Austin 8%, and Sam Houston State University 2%. I realize I can elect to go anywhere in the world, I choose to stay in Texas because I just moved here, cost of living, and the veteran’s program I am using coincides with Texas.

How do I choose what college to go to? I think about what I want to do. I want to be a teacher. Great. Okay. What kind of teacher? There’s P.E, Art, Math, Early childhood development 1-6, social studies, special education, English as a second language. There are so many options! How does one choose? At this point I’ll finish with my associates in teaching. I have yet to take any classes either. I would like to volunteer at some schools in the Fall. My initial thoughts were to be a language teacher in a foreign country. I have a lot of time think about this idea and I will use the upcoming year to flush it out.

I finished my art exam test on got off of class early one day. I used that time to take a tour of University of Houston. It was an unusually cool for a June day in Houston. So a walking tour was perfect. The university was great with all the amenities and opportunities it offered. It is one the most diverse schools in the nation. It is located in the 4th largest city in the nation, behind Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. It was an easy sell for me because I just moved here and I didn’t want to move again.

The thing I don’t like about colleges. First and foremost it is a business. I didn’t really know what that meant when I was 18 years old. Higher education is a growing industry. In essence a school tour is a 90 minute sales pitch. I have visited a few schools in my time. I had a girlfriend who went to Cal( UC Berkeley), so I went there often and college avenue ran from my art school in Oakland to UC Berkeley. I visited Stanford University for the Cantor museum and Rodin sculpture garden. When it comes to colleges nothing really impresses me anymore. A normal tour consists of showing us buildings of where students and/or teachers gather, and so on. Unfortunately you can never know what a school is like until you go there. It is one of those experiences you can’t fully grasp until you jumped in. Much like the military me.

The tour illustrated an emphasis on college life. The first time I went I didn’t really enjoy that. I feel its probably better for young adults to start renting apartments and start being an adult sooner vs living in the dorms and life on campus. This is probably for economical reasons, city planning, and ease of access to campus. As an older student I will probably move closer to the campus but continue my activities in the city vs college activities. College will eventually end for all students. There’s no reason to switch off campus because you already have a community. No need to transition. In school, it is super easy to meet friends because they have similiar goals and interests. As an adult, making friends is very difficult. I believe people should be exposed to that as early as possible. These are a just a few thoughts on how broaden your college bubble.

What do you think? Did you graduate from college? Do you have children? What do you think they should do? Write your comments below.

Next blog post: Alaska.

Back to school

So I officially started school AGAIN. It’s a little weird to go back. The young students are probably wondering why I’m so old and going back to school. That’s just me projecting and being insecure about being older. Back when I was in college I used to wonder why the older students were so driven. Now as an older student I know why. I have had so much life experience and years of working in the world. I’m going back to school more focused and knowledgeable on how to accomplish tasks. I look back on my 20s, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. I’m impressed with these kids that do know what they want to do, but really they don’t know what it’s like to work in their proposed fields.

By being older I’m more focused and dedicated to my craft. I know what I’m capable of and how the world works. I’ve failed at many things in life. I learned resilience from getting back up. For example, I’ve dropped out of art school, I failed out of Navy Dive school and I’ve had two knee surgeries. These low points are necessary for the high points. If I didn’t drop out of college, I wouldn’t have join the Navy and seen the world. If I didn’t attempt to try for special operations I would have always regretted not trying. I’m a better person for failing at something. My recovery from my knee surgeries gave me the opportunity to learn Spanish, something I always wanted to do. Now I’m learning Korean and improving my conversational Spanish towards a near native level. The experiences I’ve had from the time I’ve left college initially couldn’t have been learned by following a common archetype. Even now I plan on finishing towards a Bachelors degree. My future job will be an unconventional location in relation to forty years ago. My age is an incredible asset when it comes to returning to school.

I have to address that many students choose nursing as career of choice. Nursing is an up and coming industry that will need workers. It is a stable career. I’m Filipino, it is ingrained in our culture, well, my upbringing. My mothers a nurse, both my sisters are nurses, several members of my extended family are nurses. I know very well about this occupation. I worked as Navy Hospital Corpsman for 7 years. I know what it is like to work in the healthcare industry, among doctors, nurses, and other specialists. To sum up my experience, it isn’t for everyone. I didn’t enjoy seeing people put in hospice care. I didn’t enjoy the bedside care. I didn’t enjoy people dying. I think the last reason was why I couldn’t deal with it. That aspect is a small part, it takes a toll on a persons mental health. As a result most of the ICU staff I worked with had black humor, as most do that work with death so closely. Its an interesting coping mechanism among first-responders. I won’t mention the bureaucracy among the United States healthcare system or the how we heavily medicate with drugs and pharmaceuticals. I won’t forget my time as a corpsman. I admire any one willing to aspire to be a healthcare professionals. I just hope they do it for the right reasons and not the money.

Some other News

I finished my Spanish intermediate online class. I received an A. There’s something wrong with the foreign language education system in the United States. Is it the teaching method? The policy? America’s general attitude towards languages of foreign countries? That’s another blog post. I have to keep studying. There is so much to learn. I learned many different nuances and subtleties in the class. I still do italki.com classes with a community tutor.

I got a new/ old job. I draw caricatures at the Downtown Aquarium here in Houston. I drew for Kaman’s Art Shoppes from 2004- 2008 at Great America in Santa Clara, Ca. I miss being around other artists. It is very hot humid here in Houston. It is something I just have to get used to. So far my boss is cool and my co workers are warming up to me.

I started teaching Jiu Jitsu to kids again. Well, I’m the uke. (Uke: a japanese term for someone receiving the technique.) The purple belt uke. More to come on that.

I will try to post more. College is about writing papers. I have to practice writing.

Move forward

I’m in this cross roads in life. I should either get a job or go back to school. An unalterable fact is that I’m going through physical therapy for my ACL surgery recovery for the next 6 months. I had to decide fairly quickly so earlier this week I went to my local community college and applied. It is fairly daunting to go back to school, especially being 34, but if you put all the anxiety behind you everything will work out. I took a pretest for my basic college skills. Basic math and pre-alegebra, English reading and English composition. I did horrible at math and English composition. I understand that I suck at math, I hated it in school. But English!? It’s my mother tongue. I also write constantly in my journal, text, letters, and postcards, but rarely on this blog. It’s honestly something I avoid trying to be good at, or even average at, because I didn’t need to write well in any of my jobs that I’ve had. (Navy Eval writing doesn’t count.) Regardless of my skills I need to improve on these subjects if I want a better life. Not just to be good in school or avoid remedial classes. If that is the result I will accept it.

I bought a cliff notes my review book and I’m going to read some English writing books I had on my book shelf. My test is in 11 days. I’ll be using this blog to be an experiment of sort for my writing improvement. I thank everyone and anyone who actually reads my writing, I know I should proofread and organize my thoughts better. I don’t do it well because I never really was taught how to write a blog. I usually type in a stream of consciousness way. The way I usually write letters, postcards, or journal entries.

I have this feeling that school gives me a new excitement for life. A new chapter.

Learn to draw

This video came on my Youtube video feed. I feel he should be highlighted for his work and effort. It’s a long video to watch but that doesn’t mean it isn’t insightful. There were times I walked away from the computer and I just listened to the sound. Give it a watch or a listen.

I struggle with what this guy struggled with, learning art. I went to art school too. Volen, the artist in the video, basically wanted to learn about art six years ago. Fast forward to 2019 and he learned so much on his own as described in his video. He goes through his processes, mistakes and failures, and what he learned out of all of it. He explains everything so humbly, as if he was an amateur even though from my perspective he is very good. He knows there is so much to learn still and he came a long way. At the end of the video he explains the trap of Youtube and learning from people on the net. As though he was afraid he was one of those people you shouldn’t listen to. A self conscious statement but a humble one. I think because he comes from a place of not knowing anything about art and then becoming very experienced on his own is very encouraging for others. I believe he should keep posting and inspiring others. The volume and amount of work he has accomplished is very impressive.

I look at Volen’s work and I realize that if I want to become an artist I have to work hard. The problem with that is I still think the path is undefined. I feel like art is so broad that it can’t be taught by just one person. (Can that statement be used for Jiu Jitsu as well?) For example. He just kept taking classes from different online instructors and sources. He kept self correcting his mistakes after. There are so many ways to create a picture. I think art school was such a waste because it was a lot of self discovery, and fixing your own mistakes. It isn’t a black and white test sheet. I feel like that was the conundrum of art school. They want you to grow as an artist while completing assignments. The goal is to learn and grow, not to produce things to grade. The problem is both teacher and student get lost in that dichotomy. Maybe the small schools of atelier got it right. I don’t know I have never been, but I have seen their art and students work. Ateliers are workshops/schools where there are masters teaching apprentices a certain discipline. I sometimes wonder if that will be a better choice than going back to art school.

This was a good video for me because recently I’ve pondering going back to school. I was thinking about going back to art school because I was so close to finishing. No other degree peaks my interest. Maybe English or creative writing. I like hedge my bets. I really enjoy traveling and languages. So maybe I’ll be an English teacher in South Korea or Spain. A reason why I don’t go to an Atelier to learn how to draw and paint. It doesn’t have a degree attached to it. So I can’t use my GI bill. I want to make the most out of every benefit the military offered me.

What I learned from this post. I need to produce more volume. It will be a long road. Although it seems like the journey is well worth it.

Week 7 Post Surgery

I know, I know. It has been a long time between posts. It just isn’t on my to do lists.

A few things to report on the past few weeks.

Cloth Drawings.

Purpose of the Drawings. I want to get better. I need to work on a portfolio. I think back of Daniel Adel’s Paper drawings. Amazing. It really is practice. I went back to drawing instead of water color because to paint you really have to be a good draftsman.

A failed Comic book. On my birthday I tried to do a 24 hour comic since I couldn’t travel or do anything I wanted to do like Jiu Jitsu. I wanted to do a comic about my travels in 2017. It was a good subject. I just didn’t have enough skill, experience or drawing endurance to complete such a task. It was a major undertaking. I learned a lot from the experience. My curiosity peaked to study the world of comics and drawing more. I read Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud again. Then I read Making Comics. Now I’m reading Comics and Sequential Art by Will Eisner. It is a project I still want to do in the future.

Some provoking questions to ask myself. What do I want to do with my Art? Do I want to make beautiful art. Yes. But that can’t be the only reason to make art. Anyone can make a pretty pictures. How do I transcend the surface of it? Story. Maybe a narrative to connect the viewer/reader with the art. Beauty gets boring. I like to laugh and have fun. How can I steer my work in that direction?

My friends and family came to visit. It felt great to get out and experience Houston with my guests. I have friends here in Spring but childhood friends have a special place. We laugh and reminisce. They are also very creative and doing different things with their lives. Its interesting to hear their stories. We did a myriad of things. We visited the Johnson Space Center, watched a pro wrestling event in a parking lot in Montrose, saw the Fighting with my family movie, ate Texas BBQ at Corkscrew BBQ and tacos at Bigotes. Larry and Fernando are going to start a pro wrestling podcast. I fully support them because of their wealth of knowledge and experience of the industry. I pitched them a travel show where they go to different countries and interview the wrestling scenes in each country. There are subcultures in every country and pro wrestling is no different. I suggested the countries I’ve visited or want to visit. South Korea, Ireland. South Africa or Mexico. I can be their camera man I think its undiscovered territory in the Vloging world.

My mother and sister came. I can’t thank them enough for their love and support.

Post Surgery day 3

I’ll try to make this short. I tend to write forever about nothing and in an unorganized manner. I had my 2nd ACL (anterior Cruciate Ligament) surgery on Friday. The first part of me didn’t know what to expect. The 2nd part was that this was my 2nd time, so it will be a piece of cake.

I feel like there’s always anxiety when you come to such a major milestone in your life such as knee surgery. I really don’t know what the rest of 2019 will hold for me. I can only concentrate on things that I have control over.

Learning Watercolor

One of my year goals is to start painting. There are a lot of bad examples of watercolor on Google. It is a good thing that I always had a few artists in my mind when I think about water color. I really enjoy David Levine and Andrew Wyeth. That’s all the artists I can think about right now. I need to research more on this subject. When I think about watercolor, I think about flowers and vibrant/happy colors representing a picture or something painted to an almost photographic quality. I haven’t seen anything that’s very inspiring within the watercolor community. This is my amateur opinion. What I’m trying to say is I haven’t seen the art that I would like to see within the medium, besides Levine and Wyeth.

What am I doing? I am teaching myself to paint. I have a bunch of water color instructional books, paper, and all of 2019. By the end of the year. I hope to be proficient and confident in the medium, not expert. I would like to do postcards and travel sketches so I can send to friends or possibly make a book. I also want to paint the things I want to see. Like Jiu Jitsu moves, and food.

Here are a few pieces. I made color swatches. (Image above) Why? What’s not explained to a normal person. Is that you can’t just paint straight from the tube, well you can but the color’s intensity tends to be too strong. A David Levine study and my Seattle magnet.

1st painting of the new year. David Levine

More to come.

A year in Texas

I realized that I still auto pay for this domain. I couldeither cancel it or continue blogging. I’m going to continue blogging. Despite not keeping up with this. I’m going to start again. Its one of those new year resolution things. I want to write more.

I moved to Spring, Texas about a year ago. Before that I was on a 6 month tour around the world. My year in Texas consisted of going to welding school and training Jiu Jitsu. My Jiu Jitsu knowledge improved but my athleticism decreased, because I became efficient with my movements. I finished welding school with a base knowledge of pipe fitting. I’m still very green in welding but I have a gig fabricating furniture. When I’m working in the environment it feels good to apply what I learned and use my problem solving skills I learned in school. More on this subject to come. I kept studying Spanish but I feel I didn’t progress very much without italki lessons or consistent speaking practice. I still have travel debt from that year of travel but I do not regret one second of it. I have 2019 and the rest of my life to pay off that once in a lifetime experience.

A few of my 2019 goals.

-Recover from my ACL Reconstruction surgery. Yes, I tore it again. I will be taking a break from Jiu Jitsu. During my recovery I will still be learning and improving my game.

-Apply the Jim Rohn’s 70-10-10-10 rule. I’ve been lying to myself saying that I know how to handle money. I really don’t. I have to educate myself on the subject. It’s something that I must do if I wish to become wealthy. I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that can improve the way they handle their finances.

-Volunteer More and donate to 10% to charity. I probably won’t blog too much about this. I think people want to show people that they volunteer instead of actually volunteer. Sort of like being a tourist and taking pictures of cool places.

-Spanish. As soon as I get consistent money I will continue using Italki. I want to read more books in Spanish.

-Make Art. Eventually I’m going to go back to finish art school. I’m older, wiser and a seasoned adult. I know if I put my mind into something I’m going to do it. First, I have to create and get my skills up. I have to build a portfolio and learn to paint in watercolor and acrylic/oil. My Gi bill expires in 2032. Expect more art posts.

-Go to sleep early and wake up early. My goal is to go to sleep at 9pm and wake up at 430-500am. The Rock does it, and he accomplishes a lot.

-Blog consistently. Obviously.

That’s it for now.