Caricatures in Calgary

Last weeks caricature event in Calgary was held at a children's theme park, today's event was held for a corporate client at a "mature" adult's theme park, Heritage Park. I always loved the layout at Gasoline Alley pictured above, this is only about one third of the room...it has to be my favorite venue in Calgary to draw caricatures in....I just have to pay attention to the subject and not be distracted by the visuals around me.....



Wedding caricature event



It was a busy Saturday for caricature events, I had drawn a steady four hour event at Calaway Park in the morning for a corporate client, then a quick drive back to Airdrie to change into a suit and tie and off to a hotel in downtown Calgary to draw four hours for a wedding. I always loved the looks of the glass blown ceiling design in the hotel. ( as pictured above).

Tonight's event had me drawing caricatures in Calgary at The Palliser Hotel for a group of accountants...these two bubbly ladies were a treat to draw for! Thanks! Stampede Week is coming up next month and events have really started to ramp up in June....stay tooned!

Dog Caricature

I'm honoured when I see one of my caricatures that I've done placed on Facebook, but I really enjoyed seeing this one I drew of "celebrity pitbull" Piper! ( Piper is on TV in The States). Thanks Laura!

Calgary Caricaturist

I know I havn't kept up my blog in months, lately I've been busy by spreading myself a bit too thin! I'll be drawing caricatures at Calaway Park tomorrow for a banking institution. I've been preparing for Stampede Week, logo's, etc. as well, this year, drawing caricatures at weddings has been HUGE! I have a cartoon business I would LOVE to disclose here, but I have to keep it "mum" until the website is built.....this is something I've been waiting a long time to come up with, so there was constant communication with a Chinese factory and all that goes with starting a new business, but I'm excited about this! I also decided to take on re-doing three of my bathrooms in my house....sigh.....no more comment on that one! Lastly, my sixties tribute band is sounding just the way I want! It's so nice to have three other talented individules helping create a sound that I love and admire....such experience and talent from these guys! Lastly, I can be booked through Kel Studios Entertainment, ( the logo is on the right-hand side of page), a professional event planner, Cara Gannon (Daughter!) will handle the caricature event for me as she has done so well done in the past. Now....to get my paper all ready for tomorrow's caricature event at the amusement park, hoping the weather is sunny!

Calgary Cartoonist

I was driving in Calgary when I seen a cartoon I had done for a client on a Mongolian Grill sign. Sometimes when I'm asked to draw these cartoons for clients, I don't know what they'll be used for....but it was nice to see the cartoon up there....though I would have put the lettering that was below much closer to the cartoon.....( I used to be a sign painter.... composition was always important! lol)

Caricatures in Calgary

Wow....Saturday was a "marathon caricature day" in Calgary! I had an eight hour caricature event that was one guest after another without a minute break (actually...I prefer these types of caricature events). The wrench in the cog was that I injured my wrist and shoulder lifting weights ( of course it had to be my right side...my drawing hand). The funny thing about the body and an injury is that the mind, when concentrating, can block out any pain that is coming at you.....but afterward...well.....ouch, my wrist and shoulder were throbbing that evening. The young girls were part of a championship lacrosse tournament that was my second one in two weeks, the first being one for the male players. Lately I've been drawing every weekend for sports teams, events that I really enjoy doing....thanks Rhonda!
Calgary caricaturist, Kelly Gannon, Calgary caricatures, caricatures in Alberta

At yesterday's event I was drawing caricatures at, I drew beside one of Calgary's finest face painters....Melody!  I always loved Melody's work as she can draw cutsie for kid's parties, body painting for adult parties and like the above.....a little bit of horror style for teenage boys....once she starts this style with teenagers around, her line-up NEVER stops........ Great job as usual Melody!

Fab Friday!

This "Fab Friday" was truly a "Fab" one! I had a surprise letter today from an  amazing guy, friend and one of the nicest people you'll ever meet....Mark Dawson! ( the above pic) Mark is the lead singer and bassist for the sixties iconic group The Grass Roots. ( Heaven Knows, Live For Today, Midnight Confessions and many more million sellers ). Mark is always on tour with different bands and performers and when he was on tour with Mickey Dolenz ( the legend above with the hat on....if you don't know, Mickey Dolenz is one of The Monkees)....... I jokingly sketched a cartoon-caricature of Mickey and sent it to Mark....well he took the liberty of getting Mickey to sign it for me and mailed it to me.... how many rock stars take the time to do that...not many....Thanks Mark!  Thanks Mickey! It was special because when I was young, I would watch Mickey play the drums and I still play to this day...( my band does two songs by The Monkees)

Caricatures in Calgary

Drawing caricatures in Calgary had me drawing at two events on Mother's Day. I usually draw caricatures at The Forzani's Mother's Day Run, but this year it was taken over by another sports company not using caricaturists for this year....NO problem, when one door closes, an even better one swings wide open.  When in the entertainment business sometimes a new group or comittee comes into the scene and changes things around, sometimes for the good, and sometimes messing up what worked for years. This lovely lady above is from Australia, I could have chatted with her for a long time, but a line-up behind me had me on my toes as far as speed went. Happy Mother's Day to my own Mother!

Calgary Caricatures

A ton of events this weekend, today's was for a sports team in Calgary. Because the kids have to get into the game at certain times, speed is the key word here, so these had to be drawn very quickly for the child to make their game on time. Tomorrow is Mother's Day....Happy Mother's Day to my Mother! An inspiring woman! But.....sorry, I have two events I have to draw at tomorrow....restaurants are always busy on that day anyway....

Calgary Caricatures, Caricatures in Calgary, Calgary sketch Artist, Calgary Charicturist

Fab Friday

In keeping with the theme of "Fab Friday's" by showing some creative endevours, instead of what the news media reports, always bad news, this Friday, it's window displays that are eye-catching and draw you in, such as the two above. Too bad some retailers don't hire creative companies to attract more customers by having eye-catching window displays. When I had a day off while I worked drawing caricatures in Disneyland, instead of going on the rides for the umpteenth time, I decided to really look around at the creative aspects that imagineers worked on, that's when I really noticed their window displays and have been a fan ever since. The hard part was watching people just walk by these cool scenes and head right for the Coca-Cola stands......looking straight ahead.........well....I appreciated the artwork!

Caricatures in Calgary

Every year I draw caricatures in Calgary for a worthwhile event at The University for The Cassie Campbell Street Hockey Event. ( For those that don't know Cassie, she was captain of the Canadian Woman's hockey team that lead the women's team twice to Olympic Gold....I watched the games and though I don't watch hockey, the girls dicsiplined playing, focus and just plain toughness, inspite of goofball officials, were inspiring on all levels...). In attendence were a number of NHL players. Cassie Campbell lends her name to raise funds for on eof the best charities I know of, Ronald MacDonald House.

I had seen that there was an event somewhere in the United States ( I THINK it was around Chicago) and low and behold...there is the tee shirt I designed for a pit bull society....shows with the internet how small the world can be......(the cartoon pitbull is the cartoon of the dog being drawn on by the lady, (I think she's facepainting the pooch!)

The "serendippity" part about doing a blog is that I posted some of the cartoon-caricatures I did for the Huston band "The Fab 5," then I posted in "Fab Friday" the drummer for Motley Crue's drum show....meld the two together and notice on the poster that The Fab 5 is the warm up act for Vince Neil of .........Motley Crue.....

Fab Friday!

In keeping with the "Fab Friday" theme about showing creativity around the world INSTEAD of what newspapers do and show depressing bad news, here's what I find exciting this week!

My Son went to the Motley Crue concert this week and loved the show! Notice I said "The show." Though I wouldn't buy one of their recordings, I love a great rock show myself, I feel if they make a gazillion dollars doing what they do...lets go over the top with a show, and that Motley Crue did do with the drummer Tommy Lee's roller coaster drum solo. Built on a 360 degree track, the drums are welded into place and Tommy Lee is strapped in as well as choosing a fan from the audience who is also strapped in behind him. Tommy Lee isn't Buddy Rich, but who is? Doesn't matter, he's taken the drum solo to an exciting level, though I'm not sure how he can top this!

In the past he's hired magician David Copperfield to help design some of his drum extravaganza's, that right there tells me he cares about his fan base and has a creative streak in him.  This must be an insurance nightmare....but great on you Mr. Lee.....you've put the show back into rock when most rock bands today are getting away with sloppy tee shirts, ill fitting jeans and generally....boring ( Bon Jovie was the last extremely boring concert I've witnessed while with a fellow caricature artist....they justjust depended on their "pretty boy" looks to get them through their concert.)

Caricatures in Calgary

A couple of these young ladies were from Tibet! I don't think I've drawn anyone from that part of the globe....

It was finally a sunny day in downtown Calgary for the event last week.

These models had to stand like mannequins throughout the event...they did a great job!

I regularly work for a couple different department stores drawing caricatures in Calgary at the cosmetic counter. Above are just a couple of the many I drew that afternoon...this is one of my favorite venues to draw caricatures at, though speed is a factor as most of the ladies are on their lunchbreak!

Another "exercise" model I did for a client...Copic Marker (my favorite) and Prismacolor pens ...They wanted the model with muscles!

The 2013 Calgary Comic Con ORGANIZERS get a thumbs DOWN from me again this year. This is bigger than a sporting or music event in Calgary and they STILL have not figured out that perhaps it's time to locate a larger venue........( last year fire marshalls had a field day with broken bylaws). Sixty thousand fans showed up and still many thousands more wanted to attend but the venue is far too small (plus parking is over-priced). Time to shake up the organizers a bit and put in a committee that can handle the job much better...it would be like putting The Rolling Stones in your local community hall for a concert............

The Fab 5

I love a great tribute band. These were done for a Houston, Texas band called The Fab 5, a Beatles and sixties tribute. (backing up Vince Neil from Motley Crue). These are just the black and white sketches, I'll scan these, then color them in simply as they did in the sixties and someone from the band will arrange them via Photoshop how they want them. Check out their website at     http://thefab5.net    They'll take you on a "Magical History Tour" of the sixties.......

Fab Fridays!

Each hair was sown onto the body individualy to create a more natural look.

The cast is on the left of finished creature created after a sculpture was made from a drawing...

Because newspapers and media in general are ALWAYS focusing on the negative side of life, I'm going to put onto my blog once a week a feature from the creative files of life that shows that there are wonderful things to inspire us all. The first post is an exhibit I took my handsome little Grandson above to, about a month or so ago. Held at the Telus Spark Centre this was a travelling exhibit of animatronic monsters that were used in movies. The creator of these monsters and many more is John Cox, an Acadamy Award winner. When watching the creative process behind these you can see how science, technology, engineering, math and of course art is combined to come up with entertainment....and to think...it all started with an idea and a series of pencil sketches!

Caricatures in Calgary

Finally...a "live" band at an event last night! I'm surprised in a wealthy city such as Calgary that I might work events with maybe a total of four bands being hired for their parties. Calgary's music scene can't even be compared to yogurt as yogurt has more culture. But this was a great event to work at with upbeat friendly guests and of course....great music!

Caricatures in Calgary

This week again has been a whirlwind...Kel Studios Entertainment is getting ready to be in a trade show next weekend and props and supplies are both being bought and made to make the boothe look inviting. These two lovely ladies above are just a few I drew for this afternoon....I knew most everyone I drew as it was at the gym I attend everyday. Because my vocation is one that I "sit around all the time" kind of job...well, going to a gym is a smart idea! It was nice to let them know what it was that I do for a living as I come in at all different times of the day that I've often been asked..."what do you do for a living?" All the trainers and staff today were a joy to draw for....Thanks Tanya!

Caricatures in Calgary

When drawing caricatures in Calgary, guests at different venues will be in different moods to get draw, not wrong, just diversity....such as a child's birthday party will have kids that have a bit of sugar in them and might not always want a cartoon-caricature, or a high-end corporate event will have a different feel than a house party event....this event above spelled FUN...it was held at The University of Calgary....I could draw at one of these every week for the rest of my career and never get tired of them....thanks to all the guests on Sunday!