Brilliant!....who is it?

Confession time....I hate doing caricatures. Loathe them, detest....am.... not..... partial! I've done quite a few of them, but they are just not something I enjoy.

Why?

Well, its the pressure.

Achieving a good likeness, capturing their face and features, but being significantly cartoonish is tricky. What doesn't help is thinking the participant will be offended because I've given them a big nose, or made them look more overweight than they already are. And if the painting is of a female, that anxiety only gets worse!

Invariably I've tried to dissuade people from getting them, or offered alternatives - I do more simplified portraits that remove the need for big noses altogether.

And yet, every couple of months someone will ask, and invariably I will say yes.

I struggle to say no to anything, and my personal pride wont let me do a bad job.

But a good painting does not a good caricature maketh.....or something.

If you would like a caricature from me in the future however, I have a few simple conditions then.

They are as follows:

1. Have a 'caricature ready' face to begin with - big nose, questionable facial hair, few teeth missing....gents, you too.

2. Provide photo's - plenty of, all angles and decent quality....just the face though and maybe the ears, though I can probably improvise there.

3. Ask for lots of distracting other details- these will put me at ease when drawing, and distract your eyes when you see that I may have given you that big nose or a few pounds.

4. Try not to be female, or if you have to be accept you may not look female in watercolours.

Obviously if you've already had a caricature from me cheers, you probably want to ignore half of what I've just written. Unless you're someone enjoys having the piss taken out of them visually, which is effectively what they are anyway.

If that's the case, I thank you.

Sorry about your nose.

#caricature #illustration #painting #tameink

What's in a name?

If I have a 'most popular' commission....and I use that phrase cautiously, it would be the paintings I produce of peoples names with an illustrated background.

Nearly always for children, but not exclusively, they allow me to fill a page with colourful and exotic creations and freestyle a bit with a paintbrush.

Doodling really....and if you've ever sat near me during an important meeting or training exercise you'll know I'm really good at doodling. Some of my best work has materialised when I should be paying attention to someone else.

I'm lucky enough to have been asked to paint for a few people that like unique artwork for themselves and others. I'm also tight enough not to buy Christmas presents, so friends' kids, nieces and nephews walls are littered with my work whether they wanted them or not.

Pets next.

Though each painting is completely original, I do use a menagerie of returning cast members. Keep an eye out for bubble blowers, rainbow, donuts and one-eyed aliens. Sometimes the client will ask for specific details. I love that....vagueness and clients not knowing what they want, only to tell you that they didn't want, once you have painted it, can be time consuming.

I've yet to have a repetition of the same name, or a Peter....both would be extremely exciting....imagine if 2 Peter's came in at once!

I nearly put in 2 exclamation marks.

#illustration #watercolour #watercolor #commission #tameink #illustratedname #alien #kawaii #monsters #dinosaurs #superhero #batman #superman #spiderman #hulk #marvel #lfc #animals #rainbow

Surrounded by Hills and Valleys.

For the first quarter of my teaching career, that inconvenient mortgage paying distraction to total world creative domination, I taught mostly Graphics. Not graphic communication, nice posters and font appreciation, but graphic products....making stuff out of card and drawing it in 2 point perspective.

I wish Graphics had been an option subject when I was a student, because it's great.

Or was.

It's rather become extinct in comprehensive education because the youngsters enjoy themselves too much and their were too few mentions of imperial colonies. Possibly.

Technical drawing...isometric, orthographic and the like gave a structure to the creative responses and making objects from thin, pliant materials like paper and card meant you had to be accurate, but still produce quality stuff.

Why is this relevant?, I hear you mutter.....there's only ever 3 people in here, I can literally pick you out.

Well, here's a few examples of the card creations I have been playing with recently.

Each of them started as a sketch or doodle somewhere, as all the best ideas do of course. I then prototyped them roughly before moving into illustrator and producing the final digital images.

They slot together without glue for the most part, which means kids can make them, once they're lopped off a couple of digits cutting them out first.

Copies of many of these are available on the website - www.tameink.com

I hate the term card-crafting incidently, makes everything sound really middle-class and twee, perhaps created by that frightful Kirstie lady off the telly. Who made her queen of all thinks craft btw? The worst.

A lot of inspiration came from Desktop Gremlins - they used to have a website, but it doesn't appear to be around anymore....Google it. Genius.

If you have downloaded and made any of these, send me a picture, I'll post them.

Unless they're a bit shoddy, you people have no place here.

Pete.

P.s. - you get the hills and valley reference, right? Both are types of folds....

I know you knew that.

#tameink #cardcrafting #card #modelling #papercraft #desktopbuddy #desktopgremlins #fairy #dragon #aliens