www.frankcaliendo.com
These aren't done on Brown paper bags (deceptive subject), but on recycled brown sketchbook paper (kraft paper by Cachet) - I love that as a starting ground, as it doesn't yet hold the darks or lights, so you have a bit more control on volume, in stages.
On the NCN Online Forum, a member submitted a face from a gig to draw for fun. I couldn't pass it up.
These two were great sports and actually loved this drawing. I remember being a bit dissatisfied by the execution and poor relative face-size in this drawing, but very amused at how silly it ended up. The Brits are a popular summer patron to Sea World, Orlando and were usually my favorite group to draw. They can take almost anything, and this is a testament to their lack of vanity and awesome sense of humoUR.
If a pigman could fly, I would guess his hind-quarters would resist, while his forelimbs give in.
Here's another live sketch from a while back. I'm cleaning up images, and this one is just too blurry to publish (damn camera). I was really enjoying this sketch. Strangely enough, the family loved the drawing, and didn't mind the baseball buried into the kid's head. I guess being a Boston fan and getting the Green Monster will help them overlook anything.
the world, staying up nearly 24 hrs/day for 4 days, attending a half-dozen seminar-style classes ranging from the very basic theory of caricature to advanced illustration and character design, competing for bragging rights with likeness and speed, admiring and voting for your favorite portfolios and studio pieces, mingling with world-renowned artists (OpDeBeeck, Silver, O'Keefe, Richmond...) and drawing any and every person around you, to hang up on (covering) the walls in a 7,000 sq ft convention
ballroom before a final banquet with a formal (well.. for some) awards ceremony. I can't compare it to anything. It is enough inspiration to last a year, and can be compared to even the best art schools. Unfortunately, I could only do two drawings this year. I was running around, taping walls, organizing events, setting up the live gallery, selling merchandise, and doing what a board-member does. Next year, I will make sure I am drawing most of the time... it makes me happy.
Attending the convention was my friend Aaron Philby, for the first time. I met Aaron a year ago when he came down to Orlando to work at Sea World. He draws some amazing caricatures in many different styles and though he'd say I inspire him, it works equally the other way around. He often uses materials in unexpected ways to get a new and bold effect from them, and also uses them sparingly enough that it's a 'cartoon' or 'sketch' even though you feel guilty calling it that. Aaron also brought in some sketchbooks for me to see at work, filled with hillarious cartoons, strips and one-panel gags. His sense of humor is dry and ironic, and I dig it. I just found that he had a website up, so check it out if you get a second. I keep telling him to send his cartoons to MAD!
I've just physically and mentally recovered from th
e 15th annual NCN Convention. Wow. It was exhausting and amazing, despite the fact I only drew 2 hang-up-worthy caricatures. I'll spare the pics for now, as there are hundreds and hundreds online already (maybe next post, after I go through my discs of images). A worthy vacation and schooling for anyone interested in exaggeration (portraiture, caricature, cartooning, animation, design, etc).
s (sunnyside gardens) and work in East Midtown, Manhattan. It's a great change, and I'm looking forward to being sick of Winter (figure that one out).
but they just want images of each contributor, I guess to head their section of a topic. I'm posting these under the "naked" angle because it's not my best work. Not that I didn't try or that I failed, but I had such a quick deadline and little time to do it in... this causes shortcuts and less time to plan/sketch. 
These are the bread and butter of illustration (from the little I know about it) - the rush-jobs. They look good and okay, but as an artist you know you can do better. This is great inspiration to work harder, and motivation to do better with the rush-jobs. My friend Tom Richmond once stated in his amazing blog that he envies those that can rush a j
ob. I wish I never did. There's so much more satisfaction in finishing something to the level and attention it deserves... but I guess that's why they pay me is so little (tee hee).
ussion, and feel they are fairly
consistent, nonetheless, but not my best work.
While training caricatures in California for Kaman's Art Shoppes (mid-June, '06), I sub'd for a friend at a gig at a large hotel near the San Diego convention center, for a group of accountants. Along with a few other artists, including good friends Court Jones and Gabe Hunt, I got the rare opportunity to really let loose and do what I wanted (as did everyone else).
