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Presenting: The Juggler!

Posted in Best work, Caricature, celebration, From Photos, gift, Technique, tagged juggler on May 10, 2022| Leave a Comment »

If you have a friend or a boss who has too much energy, too much expertise, too much personality and, generally, is “just too much”—you may not be able to come up with something to buy as a present for this person. We may be dealing with a juggler-type here. You need to turn to an expert caricaturist for the remedy of your gift dilemma. Ta-tah! The Juggler!

Thank you, Connie.

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More Jasper Laughing Out Loud

Posted in Block Party, celebration, tagged Jasper Indiana, Strassenfest on April 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Jasper, Indiana is the place to see and been…at least during Strassenfest.

To continue the previous post…

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Making Some Noise in Jasper, Indiana

Posted in Block Party, celebration, tagged Jasper, Schnitzelbank, Strassenfest, Umlaut on April 25, 2022| Leave a Comment »

Jasper is a town about an hour South of Bloomington. If you happen to find yourself there because you made a wrong turn off the highway, you may think you’ve been transported to a Bavarian village. The street signs are in German. Here, State Street is called “Staat Strasse.” So, Strasse means street. The annual festival where these disciplined, hardworking, law-abiding descendants of Germans allow themselves to make some major noise is called “Strassenfest.”

Jasper people have names with lots of Umlauts, like Kluemper and Buechlein, which I helped them pronounce. If it’s not the Umlaut, it’s the “sch” and “tz” clumps of consonants that catch your ear and eye. For example, a restaurant called “Schnitzelbank.” Say it. Have a Kleenex handy. Gesundheit!

I had the fortune to participate last August. (A little late in posting this, wouldn’t you say.) Over a three-day weekend I drew and practiced my German for a total of eleven hours. I was set up under the authoritative, majestic columns of the courthouse in the center of town. The columns may have been majestic and authoritative, but my drawings, not so much. With these jovial, good-natured Jasper folk sitting in front of me, my marker flowed easy and, well, jovially. Let’s just say it was a blast!

Thank you, Heath!

Air and Sky

Posted in Block Party, celebration, Kids party, Picnic, Technique, Therapy, tagged End-of-June picnic, Indianapolis, Post quarantine party on July 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »

Imagine a front yard as big as a city park for neighborhood joggers: twelve times around and you’ve done your 3 miles. To find such a yard in Indianapolis is thrilling enough, now add the post quarantine exhilaration of sharing this open greenery with a hundred and fifty ball tossing, laughing, chatting, singing, eating, and dancing newly liberated folk of all ages. It’s an annual End-of-June bash for members and friends of a near-by Catholic church. End-of-June? Yes, indeed, some people will find any time of year, any month on the calendar as an excuse to have a wonderful get-together.

I shared a tent with a face painter and a balloon twister. Smaller kids stood in line with a parent to have their wishes realized: lots of balloon dogs and star wars headgear and then vivid colors of a kitty face or a unicorn forehead.

School age kids were curious to see how I would portray them. I never draw children ha-ha-funny. I want to please them and, knowing that they themselves draw, I hope that my drawing will spark curiosity about how this expressiveness is achieved.

I only got to draw four adults. You can see that here we get some ha-ha-funny. Drawing adults is very different from drawing children. I love the psychological nuances of this business. When they see their drawing, adults will laugh out loud. A child will say, “Thank you, I like it.”

It was a wonderful afternoon. Thank you, Chad!

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Hagerstown, Indiana

Posted in Block Party, celebration, Friends, tagged Hagerstown on August 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

We were celebrating the town of Hagerstown. No anniversary, no particular heroic deed, just the resourceful, enduring folks of Hagerstown. Love it!

I drew seventeen people in probably an hour. I say “probably” because for a while there were drops and we made adjustments under our tents and umbrellas, reminding ourselves that real rain was scheduled for much later. Errr, not so. The clouds moved in forthwith and everybody had to close shop.

Still, I value the drawing opportunity and I enjoyed the people watching.

Thank you Robin!

All contents copyright (C) 2010 Katherine Hilden. All rights reserved.

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https://katherinehilden.wordpress.com/2019/08/18/the-view-at-mount-adams-cincinnati/

Why Color? It’s all about Hair.

Posted in Best work, celebration, Technique, tagged Cincinnati, color technique, hair, humor, Mt. Adams on August 18, 2019| Leave a Comment »

We’re back on Mt. Adams in Cincinnati.

Here are four I didn’t show in the last post. And that’s because for these, color was crucial. It’s all about hair.

I love drawing a couple where he is bald and she has long blond hair. But this only works in color. Imagine if her strands of wafting hair behind his dome were just horizontal wavy lines. Wouldn’t work. But in color the effect is, as the woman obviously thought, hilarious.

Similarly with redheads. This drawing works so well because my markers can celebrate the orange and gold of his hair and—please, notice—the thick fuzz on his arms. And then, the contrast between the two people can only be brought out in color.

Dear fans, color takes only a little longer than black/white. Not much. Working in color does not involve “coloring in.” From the very beginning, it’s a different way of working. I can say so much in color, that in b/w couldn’t be said at all or only with a lot of extra –and time-consuming—lines.

Think color!

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The View at Mount Adams, Cincinnati

Posted in Best work, celebration, Employee party, Friends, Retirement, tagged Cincinnati, View at Mount Adams on August 18, 2019| 1 Comment »

Forget Paris. Forget Rome. The Côte d’Azur? Santorini? Don’t make me yawn. For a real party, take me to Cincinnati.

The View at Mt. Adams is the place to see and be seen.

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It’s on Celestial Street. Indeed!

We were celebrating the retirement of a top executive of an international firm.

The design of the restaurant itself is formal.

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But for this party the sartorial message was upscale casual. Why not? Since upscale is your element anyway, come as you are: elegant and relaxed.

I enjoyed drawing these people. Can you tell, they enjoyed it, too?

The party went from 7 to 11. The hilarity around me made me reach for magenta a lot. The executives got plaid golf shorts, bellybuttons galore. Then as the evening wore on more flesh got exposed. In the drawings only!!!! Please, blame the markers.

More on this party and drawing techniques in the next post.

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French Quarter in West Lafayette

Posted in celebration, Employee party, Technique, tagged French, French Quarter Theme, New Orleans, West Lafayette on July 30, 2019| Leave a Comment »

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You’re working at a software designing company in West Lafayette that’s going to celebrate its 15^th birthday. Not a big company, not big enough to have a human resource department. But one of the bosses picks you to plan this party. There must be something about you that makes him confident that you’ll come up with a good idea.

And you do. The office building you’re in has an atrium lobby. Hello! It’s a space that’s begging for strings of lights. What about a French Quarter street in New Orleans?! The strings of lights will bring the ceiling down to a more intimate level. Put in some plants to create narrow passages. Order spicy Cajun food, find a band to play Zydeco, hire a juggler with a black and white striped shirt and, if you’re lucky, a caricaturist who speaks some French. You’re so lucky!

I wore my velour French beret and rolled my R’s, spoke French the whole evening and fooled most of the people most of the time until. Errr, until someone sat in front of me who had spent junior year abroad –in France. My rolled R’s met their match in her superior vocabulary. Loved it!

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See this? This is what it’s all about. People lose it. Howling laughter and people literally rolling off their chairs.

Thank you, Erin!

wLafayetteX

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Caricatures from Photos

Posted in Best work, celebration, Friends, From Photos, gift, Technique, tagged caricatures as gifts, caricatures from photos on March 2, 2019| 1 Comment »

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It’s time I outlined for everybody what’s involved if you want a caricature from a photo.

1) The process starts with you emailing me photos of the face(s).

2) I make two pencil sketches of the face(s) and email those to you to choose from. You can ask for a change. Once you approve the face(s) half of the total cost is due. Here’s what the first stage for the above group drawing looked like:

3) You describe the activity or occasion to be celebrated.

4) I cut and pasted the heads and make the pencil sketch of the bodies.

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5) After you approve every detail in the sketch and specify the colors of hair, eyes and clothing, the balance is due.

6) I trace the pencil sketch exactly on the final paper and add color.

7) I mail you the drawing in a tube.

8) You tell everybody how brilliant you are for having found me.

The process can take as little as one week.

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