Painted Monkey Entertainment

I have had fun doing group caricatures of casts from different shows, so I am doing more.  I do not watch Big Bang Theory, but I like the differences in their faces, so I thought I would give it a try.  I am not sure if I hit the mark on this one because some of the actors are actually pretty good and look very different in character.  Also, I do not know their names, so looking up character references was harder. I learned a few names along the way.  Sheldon’s face is all about angles.  from his arching eyebrows to his tight pursed lips. He has large eyes, which contrast his best friend (?)  in size.  When you exaggerate one feature big on one character and another has the same feature exaggerated small, it contrasts even more and makes for a better exaggeration :)  The girl, although pretty, still has a unique face.  Some pretty girls are hard to distinguish because they look too “perfect”  She has large, but sort of droopy eyes, and big lips that smirk to one side.  And her nose is small but flat (no ball at the end) and slightly down turned.  Coloring on a flat nose is important.  You have to color it very different than a round ball at the end of the nose.  The guy in the purple sweater’s nose is a little more upturned and his lips are large, but the bottom lip is smaller than the top.  And he looks kind of bored, or uncomfortable. The best friend with glasses has a very wide face especially compared to the others.  and instead of the smirk that so many other characters seem to have, he has a big goofy smile.  I am sorry I do not know the characters better, but it was still a piece I wanted to do.  I hope you enjoy.

These are a few of the misspelled or mispronounced ways of saying CARICATURE.

I met a fun loving, totally excited, a little sweaty, all around amazing couple at the 5K wedding run/ Kansas city, just about 2 months ago.  They were so excited to see me because they have been searching the internet to find a caricature artist and just.. couldn’t.  I was really curious because there are a few of us around here on the internet who have a strong presence, so why couldn’t they find ANY?!  I asked them what key words they used to search and realized, they didnt quite know how to spell/ say the word caricature. I mean, Yeah, its a toughy!  They were looking up characterture (understandable)  So I thought I would right this blog, (of course I will add some amazing pictures from their wedding too) to help some of you out. They are super cool, fun gifts, And you dont want to miss out on being the best host(ess) ever because it is impossible to find one of us.  By the way, I do them! :) Here is my link http://www.paintedmonkeystudios.com/  or know almost over 500 other artists in the world who do them too, if you aren’t in the Kansas City area. Or I would travel, if you are getting married in a super cool place. 

So, the stars aligned anyway and I was able to draw at their wedding reception. Here are a few of their guests’ drawings.  They had a custom boarder with their themed J2.

These students were ready for a break from studying for exams. Humor and silliness is a great way to relieve the stress!  Enter..... caricature artist!  

Painted Monkey Studios just got a makeover. Now Painted Monkey Entertainment, we want to show just how Elegant caricatures can be. Hand painted studio caricatures of the bride and groom, or guest of honor, can be displayed at the reception.  

In the “down season” of event entertainment, I started working on some celebrity cast sketches.  I love the New Girl and all of the characters, so I decided to draw them.  I love Coach’s face, but when I went online to look up some references I could not find the right angle.  (The struggle of a caricature artist, right? ;)  ) Well I wasn’t going to give up without trying something else, so I decided to watch an episode and pause it when he makes a good face.  This was so much harder than it seemed.  I got a good angle (showing the underside of his nostril because the angles on that sniffer is just too fun!) But he was not making the right face.  I went with it anyway because I could not find anything better.  Next time I draw it, I will do more research.  I don’t mind watching hours of that show for one good shot anyway.   

There is a little ink on it because it bled through when I inked it on the finished. 

Schmidt was tough in his own way.  He has a very distinct look and I was close, but it took me a few attempts before I was happy with it.  

Attempt 1 was too big to fit everyone in the same picture. Yes his head is substancially big, but this was still too big, so I used it as a reference for

Attempt 2:

I got the basic features, but it did not capture the essence of Schmidt. 

So I thinned his face and used a slightly more 3/4 view, The angle is also a little more down turned. 

Attempt 3:

Winston took a couple of tries too.  I needed to make sure the bridge of his nose is super small while the bottom was full and wide, a very distinct feature!  I also had to get a picture with his teeth smile.  The spacing and angles of his teeth are very Winston. In the rough sketch, his chin was too short so when I inked it for the final, I scooted it down for the outline and back up for the features to give more space.  You can see the difference in the final piece.

Nick had to make a Nick face, pretty easy, but I realize now, I made his beard too long.  Ooops!   I might just have to redo this piece with all of my hindsights....

CeCe (hey, that’s my name too :) But we could not look more different) has black hair, with a brown undertone (some black hair has a blue undertone. To get a good likeness, it is important to do the right one) and long bangs. her cheekbones are strong and round, thin tiny nose with little nostrils and wide angley eyes.  

I had to ink in on her rough sketch because in pencil it did not look enough like her, but when I inked it, i was able to see her.  I think her closed smile looks more like her than a teethy smile in caricature.

Jess had to be making a Jess face.  Chin up, full lips, mouth parted and WIDE eyes.  She too has long bangs but her hair is much lighter brown and wavy. 

OH, and her oversized glasses.  I do not make all glasses big in caricature.  Some artists do that as a gimmick, or at least they use to. But I think if they are small glasses, which I have had several pairs of in my life, its funny to make them small.

Ok, so the overall idea here.  I learned a lot and will probably do another version. Similar but with all of the stuff I learned like I really should have taken the time to find a better reference of coach, oh and I should have made his neck longer.  And Nick’s beard is not that long, I used the quick shade in lines on the rough sketch to mean long beard hair and did not take the time to double check with the reference.  Sounds like I should have slowed down on this one. 

With no electricity needed, I can do caricatures pretty much anywhere.  For example here, in this park.  A lovely little town north of Kansas City was having an outdoor festival where I drew for about six hours.  The weather was nice and the people were friendly.  Good day! 

I did not realize coming into this industry that colleges would be such a big part of the clientele. But they love them!  

Here is a sketch of the student body officers that were in charge of the event.

If you planning an event, whether it be during the holidays or on a warm summer day, don’t forget the entertainment!  You should book your entertainment 3 months in advance, 6 months to a year is best for the busy season (June- Dec is the busy season, also prom time). Caricatures are such a great idea because they are not just entertainment, they are also the party favor.  Two for one! Score!! 

Think about your event from beginning to end, when planning for your entertainment.  If you are having a sit down dinner, have your entertainment before or after that, No matter how cool we are, if your guests come hungry, they will be eating during that scheduled time.  If, however, it is a more casual dining experience that does not have a set time, we will be just as busy as the the whole party. If you have a mandatory awards time or speech that may take longer than 30 min, schedule that at the beginning or end and have your entertainment come before or after that to maximize your entertainer’s time. 

 We typically draw 20 black and white faces an hour.  That is not pictures, if their is more than one guest in a picture, each face takes time to draw.  So if you have an event that will last 3 hours of entertainment time and have 200 guests coming, you might have some disappointed guests and should hire two or three artists.  

Here is a live sketch I did of some guests from a company party last week: