Charactertures, episode 1: Sponge Bob

"Charactertures". LOL. As a professional caricature artist and a pretty good speller,  I find it funny that the actual spelling of "Caricatures" is a challenge for so many people.  I can't even begin to tell you how many bad attempts I've seen at spelling, and SAYING this word. For this new feature of my blog, I decided to borrow one of my "favorite" versions: "Charactertures". This version is close to the word "Character", and I think it's what people mean. They think I'm going to make them into a "character" when I draw their "Caricature". Actually, they're kind of right, since I do lean toward a more cartoony representation of people in my work, and not gross exaggeration. Anyway, I am  going to be using "Charactertures" to term my drawings of other companies'/artists' "characters" on this blog.

See, I had this thought the other day... my life has been so busy for the last fifteen years with just caricatures, and providing for my family through caricaturing, that there are hundreds...probably thousands.... of characters I'll never have the chance to draw "professionally". Like Superman and Spiderman... I always wanted to draw for the "big two" comic companies. But now, I don't know that I'll ever get that chance. And to be truthful, I don't even have the desire to do it as much as I once did. But I do still like to sketch characters like them when I have a chance.  So, I thought I'd just MAKE myself have the chance. I'm going to set out to draw a "Characterture" of each and every character I can think of ( with my own twist on them of course ), and share them here on my blog. If there's one you'd like to see me draw, let me know, by the way.  Some of these may be just sketches, some more finished. Either way, I'm gonna have fun drawing them and hopefully someone out there will like them.

For this first "Charactertures", I actually chose a character that's not even a particular favorite of mine: Sponge Bob Square Pants! Truthfully, I don't know why I drew him... he just came out of my pen the other day as I was working on another job. LOL  For the record, the art on SB has always bothered me a bit, but I do like the voices and the writing. Anyway, this is my quick take on the famous water retaining character.

Stay tuned for more...