Party Caricatures

A wonderful group of guests that were drawn last Friday evening in a rustic atmoshere held at The Stampede grounds. Most were electrical engineers. Another entertainer and myself arrived when speeches were still being held and both of us spotted the large glass bottle of candy kisses on the table. He had the same idea I did....lets have some candy while we were waiting....but you can't just have ONE candy....or even FIVE candies....maybe a dozen? After the speeches, the announcer asked the guests to hurry and fill out their best guesses as to how many candies were in the glass jar. ( Of course a prize was available)...we looked at each other...literally caught with our fingers in the candy jar....lets just say, all worked out well in the end!

Kid's Caricature

Kid's parties during the Christmas season have been steady and are so convenient for a party caricaturist as I do these in the afternoon, then change into a suit and go to my evening caricature events held for the adults. I liked this one as it was in a car showroom with a Viper sitting right behind the guest......it was hard to keep my eyes on the drawing.................

 

Before I arrive at a venue to draw caricatures here in Calgary, I never know what the atmosphere will be....I have to say that because of the corporate head offices here in Calgary, I'm never disappointed! One was an event venue Saturday evening, and the other was the lobby leading into another event venue a week ago....it's safe to say as soon as I started doing corporate caricature gigs, I went out and bought an expensive suit!

Working two Saturday's ago at The Calgary Zoo is always a gig I like. I could see into the flamingo exhibit after the event and have a quick peek around before getting on the highway and doing a high-end event at The Banff Springs Hotel in Banff. Whenever I do caricature gigs at The Calgary Zoo, they alway have an interesting show on stage in each venue where as I always come out knowing a bit more about animals than when I went in!

Frank Sinatra

My cartoon caricature of Frank Sinatra ( born Francis Albert Sinatra) ....if Frank was alive today, he would be 99 years old. I actually loved Sinatra's movies more than his musical performances....once The Rat Pack formed....he lost me.

Kelly Gannon

Calgary Party Caricatures

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A couple caricatures of some lovely guests from Wednesday evening's event. All of the ladies drawn that night were event agents that handle entertainment across Alberta and British Columbia, I felt honoured that I had the opportunity to be the caricature artist to draw them....thank you!

The lovely lady in white below (Sarah) is one of the entertainers from one of Calgary's high end talent agencies, Trixtan Entertainment. http://trixtan.com/

This is an entertainment company that provides Disney and Vegas style entertainment....thanks Tristan!

Calgary Kid's Caricatures

This Christmas I've had plenty of kid's Christmas events at this "park" in Calgary. Tucked inbetween the snow clouds is what looks a bit like a tower...it isn't, it's a bobsled run, it's where the movie Cool Running was filmed with John Candy. Below this is the event venue I quite often work at, usually for kid's events.



Stereotypical Hawaiian Tourist

To continue with my silly posts on "stereotypical types in cartooning" series....this is my version of a stereotypical Hawaiian tourist. I was in Maui one time and this would be some of the "colorful" tourists in the water. What I can say with relief is....good thing it wasn't in The Mediterranean where guys this age wear speedos.....

Calgary Party Caricatures

This is a first for me as a caricature artist is drawing caricatures in a wine store for a credit card company. The surroundings were beautiful and all the guests could try different wines from different countries.

Oh What A Night - Frankie Valli- Cover - Trio Avenue

http://trioavenue.blogspot.com
Another Youtube sample of my Calgary party band, Trio Avenue. The guys and myself are huge fans of the Broadway play "Jersey Boys" by Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Here is Trio Avenue's version of the song with myself playing a Roland drum kit.

Party Caricatures in Calgary

As would be expected, the Christmas season is a busy one for Calgary caricature artists. Five events alone on last weekend and five more this week....no complaints here! I had tried substituting my Mars brush pen for a regular felt tip pen and sure enough.....went right back to the Staedtler Mars brush pen.

Drive By - Train - Cover - Trio Avenue

I couldn't resist putting up another Youtube video of my band Trio Avenue covering a song by Train entitled Drive By. It was tricky for our singer at first to play the off beat pattern on guitar and sing on the beat....he asked that we leave it with him for a week and sure enough, Don nailed it! ( Don Kletke). When we play live, I think this has to go over the best for dancers. Enjoy!

Tee Shirt cartoon

Thanks Laura for sending me a copy of the tee shirts I designed for The Coast to Coast Bully Run....loved caricaturing your dog Piper!

Herman's Hermits

I received my autographed retro photo today from Karl Green of the British Invasion band, Herman's Hermits. I had caricatured first their lead singer Peter Noone and the cartoon caricature was turned into a tee shirt. Next I cartoon caricatured their bass player Karl Green, again, turned into a tee shirt. Odd thing was, I was just watching two 60's movies with Herman's Hermits about 3 days before I got the call to caricature Karl.

Check out Wikipedia on Herman's Hermits... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herman's_Hermits

I always like when I draw a cartoon or caricature when the client has the courtesy to send me a copy! Thanks!!

Caricatures in Calgary

As expected, with only weeks until Christmas and New Years Eve, caricature events are going full steam! This past weekend was no exception, there were late in the evening events, then up at 7:00am to draw caricatures at a children's event, then grab some fast food, and off to an evening corporate event....but that's ALL good! I drew at a MOVEMBER event on Friday night, and with the type of crowd, I could realy have some fun with my cartoon-caricatures, but because the light source was behind the guests, NONE of the pictures turned out...and those ones were fun! :( This one above was in a giant building with the best corporate band Alberta has to offer as the entertainment, The Groove Academy! ( Bassist Henry is a friend of mine, and a musical inspiration!) check out their website...  http://www.myxgroup.com/

With this classy event and the huge long line-ups (there were five caricature artists), I had to put my back to the line-up as sometimes when I see how many people are waiting I tend to hurry to get through them, at this one I thought I would slow each drawing of a person to about 4 1/2 minutes each. A wise decision as I was happy with the results.

Stereotypical School Marm

To continue on with the cartoon stereotypes, this time I drew the school teacher. Again, there are very few school teachers that resemble my cartoon, but in the cartooning world, the cartoonist has a stereotype they "draw" from. In this case, she's past the age of retirement, cranky (perhaps that's why), a little outdated in her fashion and hairstyle and voila...there you have it...a stereotypical school marm...

But one thing I have noticed after drawing a few hundred thousand people...school teachers are THE most politically correct in today's pc climate.... I do prefer the older ones than the young ones as the young and middle aged ones seem to be social engineering disciples....and the college and university professors... they're among the worst socialists living in their ivory towers and not the real world...

Kelly Gannon, Calgary Cartoonist

I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson - Cover - Trio Avenue

Nothing at all to do with drawing caricatures...but this year I've managed to record three studio cd's. I try not to mix my caricature work with my music, but we were quite proud of this cd...we're all huge fans of Motown and especially Smokey Robinson, and not everyone can sing in that range, but we're so lucky that our singer, Don Kletke can. The bass is played by our keyboard player (Reed Crapo) with a digital, clean sound. Yours truly is playing a set of Roland 15 digital drums with mesh heads....love them! The horn section you hear are played by our keyboard player (I'm ALWAYS amazed how Reed can play keyboards with one hand, and a bass pattern with the other!) Turn your speakers up loud...and please enjoy!

Calgary Caricatures

After flying back from Reno I was a bit tired but was up for three caricature events in Calgary this weekend. Because of the "push" at the convention by artists to exaggerate more in the drawings, I tried that the first night....no dice! After a few I would ask my guests if they wanted it exaggerated or cartoony...CARTOONY won....hands down!

Three different venues this weekend to draw caricatures at, from the picture of the Safari Village at The Calgary Zoo, ( above ), to downtown Calgary, to the offices of a major airline based here in Calgary.

Convention ....over.....

Yes! Caricature artists do have conventions. ( I like explaining that to Customs officials when I travel.... :) The 2014 convention in Reno, Nevada has wrapped up for another year. The convention attracts the best caricaturists from all over the globe, from animation, newspaper, magazine, themepark and celebrity backgrounds. This years guest speaker was the great Sebastion Krugar from Germany (just one of the many guest speakers.) It was a time to see old friends and meet new ones and of course see terrific artwork produced before our very eyes.

From caricature sculpture created by Johanna from Holland, to book signings done by Sebastian Krugar from Germany.

Meeting up with talented caricaturists from as close as Edmonton, Alberta ( Laurel Hawkswell and Cathy McMillan) and seeing "far away" friends such as Liesbeth Beckers all the way from Begium.....it was my pleasure!

Off to Reno

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I have one more corporate caricature event tonight to draw at, then up at 5:00am to catch a flight to Reno, Nevada to attend a caricaturist convention... ( yes....we do have those...). This will be tricky as the corporate party goes quite late, then the drive home, with only a couple hours sleep, I'm hoping I don't sleep in. The above pictures are a couple of The Peppermill Casino/Hotel where I'll be staying.

Stereotypical Surfer Dude

Okay...I had to draw another cartoon of a stereotypical character....the surfer dude! I can safely say as I was in Hawaii, most don't look like this cartoon...perhaps California? We think of shaggy, blonde sun bleached hair, ripped body and of course...the "super hero" large chin, square jawline, and not to forget, bright white teeth with a huge smile. There you have it, at first glance...surfer dude..... 

My graditude to all who served in the name of freedom! I would go one step further in thanks, especially in WW11, to the resistance fighters, The OSS, ( spies parachuted behind enemy lines ). These men and women had to send back intelligence to western countries before ground and airforces could attack, making it one of the most dangerous missions any human can imagine....if caught, no POW camp....it was torture and death....thank you!

If you get a chance, Google in "Camp X" where the spies were trained in Canada and flown behind enemy lines to begin their spy missions. Set up by The British, directed by British, American ( Wild Bill Donovan), and Canadian ( Sir William Stephenson)( my favorite Canadian ! ), spies were trained to survive in hostile territory knowing their life span could be short...lets not forget them.....now if we could convince Canadian school boards to realize this even happened in history, young people just might realize why they have the freedoms they do...........

Calgary Airbrush Tattoos

Okay.....I was a bit out of my element a few weekends ago as I was asked by my Daughter's company to do some temporary airbrush tattoos

for The Calgary Flames hockey team. She needed quite a few air brush artists and one person took a "leave of absence" so to speak and I had a very quick, well ...lesson! I did get through it, but I'll leave this job to her next time and stick to drawing caricatures....   she's the pro....her contact number is....  caralgannon@gmail.com below is some of her work...NOT mine.....

Party Caricatures....the guys!

I keep telling myself I HAVE to get a new camera....after this caricature event Thursday evening, I did! This was a great gig raising money for children that could use a bit of a boost, the board members are excellent people to work with as well as the guests....and kudos to the beautiful venue. And yes....there were plenty of females drawn, this time I thought I would give the guys the spotlight.

As you can see....the guys can be a more fun...target...

The venue below is a beautiful garden setting....kind of makes you want to sit back and relax rather than work.......

Coast to Coast Bully Walk

The Coast to Coast Bully Walk is a walk featuring owners and their dogs held on October 25th every year all across the United States to bring awareness to the "bully" breed dogs, such as the pit bull. My cartoon on the banner is used for the official start of the walk ( I noticed the lovely blonde woman, Laura Bruccoleri, in the hoodie has the cartoon on the back of her sweater as well). This was started here by Laura Bruccoleri, I swear, she'll have her own television show one day! Great to see the one, rather large pit bull licking the face of the other! My family has always had the cute furry type of dog, though my Daughter owns a French Bulldog, he's adorable and I know my Wife fell in love with him as much as I have. The white pit bull, Piper, is a therapy dog used to going into hospices, nursing homes and schools. But thanks to Laura Bruccoleri for all your hard work and dedication....

http://piperspageoflife.weebly.com/