Wow, I have been terribly remiss on posting here, haven't I? To everyone who follows this blog, I am sorry. I will do better. And in fact, I already AM! I've posted the last couple of days, just not here on this blog anymore. In the last year or so, I've really been posting almost exclusively on FaceBook. And I've noticed that some artists whose work I really like were able to post on their blogs and then it automatically would show up on FB too. So, I did some digging around. Or Googling around. Blogger doesn't do that.. but Word Press does. So now, I just post to my new blog over there, and my posts automatically are publicized on FB as well. I can kill two birds with one stone now, so to speak.

The blog is still in its infant stages as I relearn my way around WP, but for now, that is my new home on the web. So to my followers here, I'd love for you to keep up with all my new work ( and I have been doing some big jobs recently that I look forward to sharing ) over at my Word Press blog:

www.keelansblog.wordpress.com

Hope to see you there!

Teacher!

An end of the year gift caricature for the teacher of my youngest daughter. Um... she keeps the teacher on her toes... let's just say that...  ;D

Toxic Audio!

Here's a recent job I drew for  the Grammy Award winning acapella improv group, Toxic Audio:

My wife and I are friends with all of the members of the group, and I have done posteres and CD illustrations for them for years. It's always fun to draw what they come up with for themes. This is for their upcoming Fringe Festival Show here in Orlando.

Recent Work: Disney Files!

 Disney Files is a great client of mine that I draw for quarterly.  It's a magazine for Disney Vacation Club owners, so it's got a much bigger circulation that you might expect, but it's really hard to find unless you're the target audience. The editor has a column in the front of the mag that he likes to spruce up with an illo of himself doing various things. I've drawn him in all sorts of themes and poses over the past five years or so. This latest one is an obvious riff on the iconic Lion King image... except with... a hippo.  From what I understand, there's a hippo on the cover, and this is the tie-in. I liked how it turned out....
By the way, this makes my SECOND blog post this year, it seems. Woo hoo! I'm on fire! I've just been crazy busy, is all. I'm still here, drawing away!

In the Chair: Robin Hood!

I drew this one awhile back, just getting around to posting it. It was drawn at a big event last Fall. And the guy's name REALLY WAS Robin Hood. So, I HAD to draw him like this! Did I have a choice? I think not!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Years!

Crazy, crazy time of year in the Parham household. Hence the lack of posts lately on this ol' blog. Here's another of my favorite Holiday Cards I drew this year.

Recent Work: Holiday Cards 1

I just finished this one up.  I do a lot of corporate cards each Christmas season, for small companies and large. It doesn't get much bigger than Disney, but this card is for a small team of managers who are over DownTown Disney, the shopping and entertainment mecca in Mouseland. We are opening up a kiosk there on Monday, so to get this job from them was extra cool. Hope you like it...

Cute Coffee Chick

Hey, gang! Haven't had a spare moment to myself in a few months, getting ready for some expansion in the retail side of my business at the Disney Parks. Sorry I haven't posted in awhile, but that's why! In the meantime, I thought I'd share a mailorder commission I did awhile back. For a quickie,  I thought it turned out kind of cute.

Crafty Piranha with a Flower

Playing around tonight on my iPad...



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

How Draw Caricatures..... The MAD Art of Caricatures!

Ya know, it figures I would land up on the FOREHEAD page of "The MAD Art of Caricature". LOL.

Yep, that's a drawing of me by my good buddy, Tom Richmond. It's on Page 94, to be exact.....

If you know much about me at all, then you know Tom and I have been personal friends for many years. Our wives and we met through the International Society of Caricature Artists, and have continued and grown that friendship through many National Cartoonist Society Reubens Weekends, San Diego Comicons, family vacations together, and basically anytime or reason we could find to hang out. I consider him one of my closest friends. 

Tom has always been great at caricaturing, and even started out doing live caricatures in theme parks like I did. That was the common ground we had when we first became friends. I was actually an early fan of Tom's, even before we met, having seen his work in NOW Comic's "Married With Children". You know, being the big comic book geek I am. Over the years, I've seen his work get better and better, to where he's now one of the best caricature artists and cartoonists EVER. So that makes me feel even more honored to be  included in his book.

For years now, he's talked about coming out with this book, both privately and publicly.  I first remember him talking about it in depth on a vacation to Hawaii about seven years ago. There were many times I doubted he would ever get it finished. There were even more times when he HIMSELF doubted he'd get it finished. But, man, am I glad he did! It is truly amazing, in the quality of artwork, the quality of writing, and the sheer amount of knowledge of it's subject imparted in it's pages. Without a doubt, it's THE definitive guide to drawing caricatures.

If you have any interest in cartooning, learning how to draw caricatures, or are just a fan of Tom Richmond's work, you gotta order this book!

Here's the link, just to make it easier for you:

http://www.deadlinedemon.com/

"Bite"

 "Bite"

Acrylic on canvas.
Copyright 2011, Keelan Parham

It was all downhill from this moment on....

Recent Work: Recess!

A recent job for a CD cover I did. The song is by the group "Recess!", and is about... well, allergies. Food alleriges, especially. This group, from what I understand, performs at schools. Just a cute, fun little illustration of cute kids. I could do this kind of thing all day long....

QRE...

Pull out your smart phones and see what this says....

"Forsaken"

"Forsaken", acrylic on canvas, copyright 2011 Keelan Parham

"Eloi Eloi, lamasabacthani".... "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me? " Those have always been some of the saddest, most powerful words in the entire Bible to me. God promises to never leave us nor forsake us, but He DID forsake His only begotten son, the earthly incarnation of Himself. And it was all so WE could come back to Him, our sins paid for. This piece haunts me as I look at it. It depicts Jesus on the cross, at the exact moment God turned His back on Him.

I am SO glad I will never know what that feels like...

Fall

Another recent painting I did, in my series of Biblical images. The "Fall" of Adam and Eve.

Tempted

I've always harbored a secret desire to just be a painter. So, occasionally I will indulge myself and paint something.
I love Picasso, cubism, Covarrubbias, Braque, lots of abstract stuff, so that's what I like to paint. Here's a recent one I did.  I am doing a series of Biblical paintings, and this is the first. I call it "Tempted". It's of Adam and Eve in the Garden, kissing. Except that Eve is looking off at the Forbidden Fruit.

Charactertures, episode 2: Goofy

Hey, Esly, here ya go! Ya know, I've never had a great desire to draw Mickey's Pal, Goofy. Except for his incarnation as "Super Goof". I did love those old Gold Key Comics of him. But when fellow cartoonist, good friend, and SORELY MISSED Disney caricaturist Esly Carrero-Stampek suggested in my comments section that I try my hand at the Goofster, I decided to give it a shot. I wanted to do a retro version of him, and I really didn't change that much, I guess. Except for adding the tail. Come on... he's a dog, isn't he? I mean, I THINK he's a dog. In my version he IS, anyway. So he needed the tail. 

 I really liked the black and white version, so that's how I left it. I may color it at a later date. 

Art comes first at The First Academy....

Okay, look, the Parhams are artists. We don't even really tolerate Sports in my house, as strange as that may seem to most people on planet Earth. So when my daughters' school, The First Academy, sends out booster fund letters, and try out schedules for the various sports teams, I just groan. TFA happens to be really good at sports in it's division, and I'm proud of the student athletes I know, but still... it's sports. Ugh. However, an interesting thing has been happening at TFA the last couple of years... more and more graduating seniors are going on to further education in... wait for it.. the ARTS. Woo hoo! Something like 28% of them last year! NOW we're talking! So, last year I decided to put my money where my mouth is, so to speak, and start helping out in the Arts a bit at TFA. I became a substitute art teacher.

Yep, that's my "self toon" on the big 'ol white board in the HS art room, introducing myself to my students for the day. Now I HAVE taught before; I did private cartooning lessons for kids for a few years, and taught a few after school cartooning courses at some local Catholic schools. But it's been awhile. As in probably ten years or more. So, yeah, that makes most of my former students in their mid to late twenties. Some in their thirties. Dear Lord. That just made me feel really old. 

Okay... moving on...

Growing up in South Carolina back in the 70s and 80s, I would've given ANYTHING to even know, much less MEET and be TAUGHT BY a professional cartoonist. So, that's why I decided to do this at TFA at this point in my life. I do it when I can fit it in my schedule, in hopes I can inspire some future artists, by showing them that art can be a very real and viable profession for them. You CAN make a living doing art. You don't have to be a starving artist, if you just work at it.

I've taught now at TFA just two or three times, as I didn't get started in it until after Christmas this past year, and my schedule as usual was crazy busy. But each time I did, I was impressed. By the school, by the kids, and by the fellow teachers. 

 Hey, I'm a likeness based cartoonist ( aka caricaturist), so OF COURSE I had to draw some of my students!

All types here, just like "The Breakfast Club", but all great young people.

And we'll end on this guy... I grabbed a large pad of paper and sketched Kyle my first day subbing. I had noticed he was a talented cartoonist in his own right, so I felt I just had to draw him. Little did I know that a few months later he and another TFAer would start working with my company, drawing caricatures at Disney.


The school year at TFA is just beginning again, and I look forward to teaching and inspiring there some more this year...

Recent Work: Jeff Bigby

Big B

Awhile back, I posted a caricature of a friend of mine, Jeff Bigby,  drawn him in my new, more illustrative  caricature style. I just came across one of my reference photos for the drawing, and thought I'd share it here with the finished piece as well.

It was one of many I used for the drawing, but I think this one was my main reference. 

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...