Car Show

I was at a car show today...I love these events! Here are some of my favorites, as you can see I'm partial to The Corvette. When I sold my over-priced, costly, over-rated BMW, I had plans to purchase an older Corvette...those plans went to the wind! Perhaps in the future. Two people I know started this huge car show years ago, one had a hot rod in his garage and the other one was his neighbor and purchased one shortly after they became friends...then it led to this with hundreds of cars on display. Another "serendipity" thing was the band playing was one I helped start years ago. I'd love to have these car events every month!

Calgary Caricaturist

I drew caricatures at a golf course just outside of Calgary.

We finished our tropical display in our house yesterday...getting ready for a Canadian winter...................

Okay.....my "weirdest" guest to draw ever..... wasn't sure how to approach drawing this fella..... this was at a university................

I KNOW you'll be tapping your feet to the cartoon commercial below.....my favorite! Enjoy!

Mini Wheats Commercial

Wedding Caricatures

A wonderful group of people were drawn in the mountain village of Canmore last night. When looking out of the windows, all around you would see The Rocky Mountains. Some of the guests came from as far as Switzerland. Many congrats Kayla and Paul...and thanks Debbie!

Fab Friday!

Fab Friday is... finally our kitchen is finished. Re-surfaced cabinets, new countertops and new backsplash and the last being new lighting. I always detested oak for a finish wood, I'm glad that's gone. I used to love ripping apart a house and refinishing it...as I get a little older, now it's almost a chore to just replace a lightbulb! But.....it's finished now!

Bragg Creek caricatures

To think...about a month ago the entire town of Bragg Creek was evacuated because of the floods as in the picture below, and now most of it (from what I seen) looks quite like it did before the floods. I drew caricatures for a group of young persons that attended a summer camp on Tuesday afternoon. Bragg Creek is an upscale community on the ouskirts of Calgary headed towards Banff National Park. Great group of kids and funtastic camp councelors!

Calgary caricaturist

I wasn't sure the weather was going to hold out while drawing caricatures in Calgary at an exclusive beach house...but it did, one never knows in Calgary what the weather will be like from day to day....it's gotta be a tough call when planning an event outdoors.This young fellow wasn't too enthralled to get a picture taken for some unknown reason......
Kelly Gannon, Characters in calgary, calgary caricatures

I just about forgot to post the caricature I drew of this terrific guest from an event a couple days ago....she collects caricatures. I hope you enjoy this one in your collection Cathy.

"I'm writing a book....I've got the page numbers done"............Steven Wright

I know....this has nothing to do with caricatures..........well, maybe. I just love the feeling before I go down to my studio, of walking through the entrance way in our home. When I go through this part of our house, I always have a relaxed feeling before I get to the computer. Personally, I feel that your surroundings, the colors, and objects that mean something to you are important when being in your own home based business such as I am. I do feel sorry for the person that has to wake up, run off quickly to work to fight rush hour traffic, go at it all day, then return home after a bout with rush hour traffic and be too tired and distracted to enjoy the fruits of His/Her labour....been there myself...................

Caricature Video

Another Stampede Week video taken while I caricatured kids at a golf course just outside of Calgary. Stampede is over now and all the paperwork that goes with it is on the table and worked on....takes a few days to get all the taxes and so forth worked out. Back to the gym now, a little weaker, but it won't take too long to get back to where I was initially. The band gave me some leeway while I drew for 11 days or so and will have to go over all the rehearsed songs I learned before Stampede....(they wern't easy ones...Come Together, by The Beatles was a bit of a tough one to get perfect). Two more events this week and it will be a nice change to go back to drawing on smaller paper. I had to increase the paper size as EVERYONE has a cowboy hat..........
Kelly Gannon, Calgary caricature artist, characters in Calgary

"Derriere" Drawings

Okay...this was a much different caricature event than what I'm used to.....drawing a women's "posterrior." In the States it is often reffered to as "Butt Sketches," but I'm informed that for some reason that moniker cannot be used publicly. For this event,  me, the caricature artist, shows up to a corporate event, and for some reason....women line up, and I draw their backsides................. it can be tricky, as who really knows what their backside looks like? And what other artists work do you really compare your work to? With a front view caricature we have hundreds of artists to compare the work, but only a handful of artists that do backside sketches. What threw me off was that I had a line-up.....and received favorable comments from the ladies (all were very friendly guests to draw...thanks!!). It was also a challenge as most guests wear their shirts outside of their pants now, some ladies had dresses on and some were just nervous.....as was the artist! I don't think I'll base my career on this type of caricaturing...it's now...behind me.............
Kelly Gannon, rear end sketches

Caricature video

This lovely lady is an executive for a major oil company....cheers Marie!
Caricaturist in Calgary, Kelly Gannon

Video of "moi" caricaturing.

A very cool video of my last Stampede gig of "yours truly" drawing a guest, made by a friend and fellow caricaturist...thanks Emily Anthony! The young fellow was a great sport and was my first guest to draw that morning. This was fun for me as well, as I have never seen myself draw because I'm so engrossed in the drawing that I have no time to see it come together.
Calgary caricature artist, caricatures in calgary, calgary sketch artist,

Stampede Week over for another year

Well another Calgary Stampede Week is over. Thanks to Emily Anthony for helping me out again this year....you're going to be an expert at drawing cowboy hats now! Thanks for all the pancake, sausage breakfasts all over Calgary.....now I have to hit the gym harder than ever. But many thanks to all the good-humored guests that I had the honor to draw caricatures over Stampede this year.......yee haw!

Stampede at a close....

The Calgary Stampede is finally over for another year. Kudos to all the volunteers, city crews and planners that, despite Calgary's worst flooding we've ever experienced, they managed to pull it off on a short amount of time. To think, about two weeks ago the city of Calgary's downtown core was evacuated and the Stampede Grounds were submersed in mud and water, shows a high degree of western spirit.

I have one more early wake-up (at about 4:30 am) for tomorrow, then after the event, my guest caricaturist, Emily Anthony will board a jet and fly back to her home in Philidelphia, US. Emily was a great help and terrific company while we ran from event to event eating "junk food" inbetween events........thank you Emily! Now....time to revamp my diet, do all the paperwork and perhaps try to sleep in...............

Stampede Caricatures

I think if I had to choose one Stampede event that I love drawing caricatures for it just might be this event. I love the fun atmoshere that the guests create when they sit down to be drawn.....thanks to all my guests, especially when it's that early in the morning.................
Calgary Caricatures, Kelly Gannon

Stampede Caricatures

I was drawing caricatures at an event right beside the river where Calgary had it's worst flood in it's history. The homes below me all had major water damage, I won't name who it is, but the beautiful home on the right side of the picture is owned by an NHL hockey player, you could see the workmen working on the house still in clean up stage.

Terrific trio to listen to while I drew caricatures! Almost every event I've drawn at has had either a full band, trio or a duo entertaining the guests, to me this is encouraging as I am a musician and was dismayed that approx. three years ago there were very few band that were playing for Stampede events, only the large ones....things have changed for the better.....enjoy your summer of mr. DJ.................

Lots More Stampede Gigs

A couple of events yesterday that Emily and I drew caricatures at in Calgary were for an accounting firm and an insurance company...this was the accounting firm...I've drawn here for about five years now and these guests are some of my all time favorites to draw. Today we had a couple, tomorrow a couple, then it starts to peter down to about one a day until the Stampede comes to an end...then it's....sleep in time, with these early hours I feel as though I'm in the military! But it's all good............

More Stampede Gigs

Getting ready for a downtown corporate Stampede event at 6:30 in the morning.....coffee!!!

The second Stampede event of the day I just had to throw a fun "body" cartoon in for a trio of enineers.......only the guy that I gave muscles to posed with the picture..............

Yee Haw Caricature Gigs

A fellow caricature artist from the U S and myself are drawing at two events a day for the Calgary Stampede, years past it was three events, I wanted it not to be a breakneck pace this year. The beautiful thing is that this year we only have about three or four events at the Stampede Grounds, most are in downtown Calgary which offers fantastic event rooms, airconditioning and better food to buy...now...if we can just get the "parking authorities" to charge a reasonable rate in Calgary, all would be nirvana............