Caricatures from life.

Gympie, 1982. The Gympie Art Society members staged a promotional "Art In The Park" event in Queen's Park, Gympie. This was my first attempt at drawing people from life in public. I had not  considered doing this sort of thing until another GAS member, a shop owner, suggested I come and sit outside her shop in Mary Street and draw portraits of the passing public, to promote her business.
The idea of interacting with the public was not in my artist toolbox at the time. In fact, it clashed with my shy nature and almost gave me the sweats, just imagining how I would cope. It did, however, start me thinking of how I would go about the drawing task. What materials should I use - paper, board, paint, ink, pencil, pen, brush, charcoal, pastel, chalk - what sized paper or board and how long should it take, what would be the quickest style to use, etc. etc. ???

The Park event gave me an opportunity to test myself and some basic tools: newspaper stock paper and oil crayon. I was surprised at how easily the likenesses appeared and how people were not scary at all when they assumed I knew what I was doing. I caught the bug! Over the next 8 years I privately tried different tools and settled on doing line drawings with brush and ink without any pencil construction lines first. Without shading, they produced a thick/thin brush line in black on white cartridge paper with minimal bleeding. The flexible brush line gave the picture some dimension short of shading, which I had not yet worked out how to apply. From photos and observation, it was really an extension of what I was doing for the Gympie Times. I did not do any more public live caricature for the remainder of my time in Gympie, That idea was tucked away as a "possible" until it eventually grew into a "practical".

In the meantime, I enjoyed my art at Murrays Views, Gympie Times and Gympie Art Society. my next few posts will feature some of the work of each.