These are your best two drawings yet. I'd sure love to see SpongeBob animated completely in your style for just one episode, like in the first drawing.
Do you have any advice on caricaturing and how I could break into that business in a few years when I get out of high school, or even my senior year? I already draw real people from my sketchbook all the time, but I want to improve my own cartoons and prevent them from being cliched from caricaturing. I think I remember Bob Camp saying on his blog that you guys went traveling around the country at carnivals caricaturing people or something close to that.
Robert, Bob and I started doing caricatures at Six Flags Over Texas.(Well he started a few years before I did.I was 15 when they hired me.) At the amusement park we were paid 20% commission on everything we made. Caricatures were $2.95 for a profile, 4.95 for a 3/4 front view. They taught us a terribly formulaic process for drawing caricatures that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
After two seasons there(It was only summer work) my mom was going to religious convention in San Antonio. I knew it was a tourist town so I brought along my easel and set up along the riverwalk and started doing pictures of people and keeping all the money for myself. I hadn't planned very well. I didn't bring lights or chairs for people to sit in, so after dark I'd have to close up shop. I didn't make a ton of money but it was a lot easier than doing 50 caricatures in a day to make 50 bucks. I think at Six Flags I averaged about 20 a day. Just enough money for gas and a drink or two. So after San Antonio, I went back Six Flags and Told Bob and our friend Benjamin Vincent about how much easier it was than what we had been doing. It wasn't long after that, that they made the trek down and set up some serious shop there. They met other street artists along the walk and worked out a deal with the shop owners there to use their power outlets and what not. After working into the night they would crash in fabulous old flop house that had at a much earlier time been a swank hotel for the hoy polloy. The majestic Hotel Navarone. Probably long since torn down. I'm pretty sure it still had the original carpet that must have been installed around 1904. Bob met a group of portrait artists and branched out into doing pastel portraits as well. He did some amazing portrait work. Then he and Benjamin started traveling around the country with them working rodeos and fairs. They had many and varied adventures while I sat in Dallas working as a lowly paste up artist (that would occasionally, if I was lucky, get to draw an oil rig or a big truck to be published in one of a 100 little telephone books Compo Graphics produced for different towns in and around Oklahoma and Arkansas)
Then Bob discovered New Orleans and on visit back to his folks house said I should join him on a trip down there and give it a try. He was dating a gal that he said had a very pretty sister. He was right on both accounts. Well I've rambled on and not told you anything of use. As close to a Grandpa Simpson rant as I've done in a while. Short of how we wore onions on our belts which was the style at the time.
But I'd say study old Mad magazines for Mort Drucker and Jack Davis'work. Bob's work of course. Fluck and Law the English caricaturists, they are amazing. John K has a bunch of incredible pieces on his blog. Marlo Meekins does beautiful insanely wonderful caricatures. There more but those are all that are coming to mind at the moment.
By the 90's the Six Flags over Texas operation was up to 32% commission. But, the formulaic process probably hadn't improved much. Thanks for the story, Grampa!
Yeah, the big money in the Dallas area was working parties. I thought I'd do some of that when I moved to California, until I could break into animation. But there are so many animation artists out here that the pay was a third of what I was getting in Texas. So ended up working construction for about a year, barely able to cover my rent.
9 comments:
10 Am Saturday SpongeBob Panel
A video on the how the show is made.
A special raffle type thing, and an un-aired episode will be screened.
Nice.
These are your best two drawings yet. I'd sure love to see SpongeBob animated completely in your style for just one episode, like in the first drawing.
Do you have any advice on caricaturing and how I could break into that business in a few years when I get out of high school, or even my senior year? I already draw real people from my sketchbook all the time, but I want to improve my own cartoons and prevent them from being cliched from caricaturing. I think I remember Bob Camp saying on his blog that you guys went traveling around the country at carnivals caricaturing people or something close to that.
Robert,
Bob and I started doing caricatures at Six Flags Over Texas.(Well he started a few years before I did.I was 15 when they hired me.)
At the amusement park we were paid 20% commission on everything we made. Caricatures were $2.95 for a profile, 4.95 for a 3/4 front view.
They taught us a terribly formulaic process for drawing caricatures that I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.
After two seasons there(It was only summer work) my mom was going to religious convention in San Antonio. I knew it was a tourist town so I brought along my easel and set up along the riverwalk and started doing pictures of people and keeping all the money for myself. I hadn't planned very well. I didn't bring lights or chairs for people to sit in, so after dark I'd have to close up shop.
I didn't make a ton of money but it was a lot easier than doing 50 caricatures in a day to make 50 bucks. I think at Six Flags I averaged about 20 a day. Just enough money for gas and a drink or two.
So after San Antonio, I went back Six Flags and Told Bob and our friend Benjamin Vincent about how much easier it was than what we had been doing. It wasn't long after that, that they made the trek down and set up some serious shop there.
They met other street artists along the walk and worked out a deal with the shop owners there to use their power outlets and what not.
After working into the night they would crash in fabulous old flop house that had at a much earlier time been a swank hotel for the hoy polloy. The majestic Hotel Navarone. Probably long since torn down. I'm pretty sure it still had the original carpet that must have been installed around 1904.
Bob met a group of portrait artists and branched out into doing pastel portraits as well. He did some amazing portrait work. Then he and Benjamin started traveling around the country with them working rodeos and fairs.
They had many and varied adventures while I sat in Dallas working as a lowly paste up artist (that would occasionally, if I was lucky, get to draw an oil rig or a big truck to be published in one of a 100 little telephone books Compo Graphics produced for different towns in and around Oklahoma and Arkansas)
Then Bob discovered New Orleans and on visit back to his folks house said I should join him on a trip down there and give it a try. He was dating a gal that he said had a very pretty sister. He was right on both accounts.
Well I've rambled on and not told you anything of use. As close to a Grandpa Simpson rant as I've done in a while. Short of how we wore onions on our belts which was the style at the time.
But I'd say study old Mad magazines for Mort Drucker and Jack Davis'work. Bob's work of course. Fluck and Law the English caricaturists, they are amazing.
John K has a bunch of incredible pieces on his blog. Marlo Meekins does beautiful insanely wonderful caricatures. There more but those are all that are coming to mind at the moment.
By the 90's the Six Flags over Texas operation was up to 32% commission.
But, the formulaic process probably hadn't improved much.
Thanks for the story, Grampa!
You're welcome youg fella. :)
Yeah, the big money in the Dallas area was working parties. I thought I'd do some of that when I moved to California, until I could break into animation. But there are so many animation artists out here that the pay was a third of what I was getting in Texas.
So ended up working construction for about a year, barely able to cover my rent.
My life is boring. Good story.
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