JOHN K CARICATURE

HAW! Fresh from a box in the garage...another caricature of me by John K. Geez, that guy can draw!

JEAN SENNEP: GENIUS CLASS CLOWN

Many thanks to Jo Jo and Steve Worth for turning me on to Jean Sennep, the funniest 20th Century French cartoonist I know of. That's his work above. Sennep must have been the king of the French class clown artists.  I defy anyone to look at his best work without laughing. It can't be done.

Sennep did a lot of political caricatures. In the example above I don't know whether he was satirizing a real sex scandal or whether he simply decided to draw perfectly normal targets in drag in order to make them look ridiculous.  

Hitler was said to have seen a caricature Sennep did of him and was furious. Yikes! Imagine having Hitler mad at you!

I looked up Sennep on the net and discovered that Sennep was influenced by an artist named Sem.  That's his work above and below. The yellow wallpaper one looks like a parody of Lautrec's style. I have to remind myself that Lautrec was also a pen and ink cartoonist.

Sem (above) in turn was influenced by Cham. Who as Cham? Well, that's his work below. I'm guessing he was influenced by Daumier and Gilray. 

Haw! Good old Cham!

I planned on writing a post about Sem and Cham but got distracted by all the period cartoons I was discovering while doing the research. I especially liked the ones dealing with dance (above and below). 

Oh, to have been a fly on the wall in that era!

If you can believe the artists,  the crowded dance halls of that time could get pretty rowdy. The dance styles were increasingly flamboyant and insults, punches, bites, even riots would occasionally break out.  

The funny thing is that before all those wild gyrations could take place, the dancers were still expected to engage in a caricature of upper class gentility. You had to demonstrate your refinement before hopping around like a kangaroo. 

 Those early French caricaturists were fearless. They even dared to make fun of ordinary workers, something that must have appalled doctrinaire communards and socialists.

Maybe Van Gogh would have gotten a better reception from the peasants he lived with if he'd done some funny pictures of them first.

THE AL HIRSCHFELD WINDOW

Wow! Mike just sent me some pictures of a terrific window display in the Al Hirschfeld Theatre in Manhattan. That's Hirschfeld above, seated in the barber chair he did most of his later caricatures in. Someone...I've gotta find out who...did a bang-up job of transforming Hirschfeld's self-caricature into sculpture. Can somebody out there find more work for this artist? I want to see more exhibits like this!

For comparison, here's (above) the original pen and ink caricature that the window image is based on.

Here's (above) how the window looks at night...

...and here's (above) the same window in the daytime. I see Audry Hepburn, Woody Allen, Bernadette Peters, Marilyn Monroe, Whoopi Goldberg and Carol Channing, among others. My guess is that some of these were done by a different artist than the one who did Hirschfeld but I could be wrong. 

Yikes! A rear 3/4 shot reveals a few of the perspective cheats.

Above, more perspective cheats revealed.

Above, a close-up. The head looks like it might be flattened a bit like a bas relief, but I'm not sure.  If it is that was good choice since that approach makes it easier to subordinate the details to the need to emphasize line. I wish I could find an interview with the sculptor. 

Some of the framed pictures (above) behind Hirschfeld have 3 Dimansional elements.

The theatre's housed in the same building as the old Beck Theatre. When it was built it was the biggest vaudeville theatre in New York. Now it's home to lavish Broadway plays. 

I love the way the sign looks at night (above), though I'm not sure this photo does it justice. 

That's all I have to say about this. Thanks, Mike! 

   

The Flickr link: http://www.flickriver.com/photos93779577@n00/sets/72157637743809794/

RED LEGS

Just fooling around. Here's a caricature of me done by John K on top of a pair of legs I found on the net. 

Here's a caricature of Nate drawn by Aaron Philby on top of the same legs. Holy Cow! It works!

CARICATURIST NATE KAPNICKY

Haw! Here's a funny man at work. The caricaturist is Nate Kapnicky

 I found out about Nate from Aaron Philby. That's Aaron above, drawn by Nate.

 Nate has a proper appreciation of stupidity.

 Give the subject (above) a haircut and a shave and he could pass for a doctor, but the caricaturist is trained to overlook unimportant things like character and intelligence. A caricaturist quests after the ultimate, the summit, the Grail of funny art...I speak of the quality of sublime ignorance.

 Holy Mackerel! The guy looks like a hawk!

 Above and below: two awesome interpretations of the same girl. I like the use of subtle, grainy color in the portrait above.

 Holy cow! Notice that both versions show a fever blister. I know what you're thinking, that it's cruel to show that. It is, and for that reason I wouldn't have done it myself, but in Nate's defence I'll add that a caricature is done for the benefit of the crowd of watchers, as much as for the subject. Watchers like things like that.

 Above, a noble nose.

 Wow! A terrific side view (above)! Man, when you draw one this good you hate to give it away!

 I'm surprised that most caricaturists prefer to draw frontal poses. It seems like side views are usually more funny. Years of mugging in front of a bathroom mirror make most people adept at hiding their ignorance in a frontal pose. Few people, on the other hand,  are practiced in hiding it from a side view.

 Yikes! This kind of caricature (above) is not for the timid!

AARON PHILBY'S KOREAN CARICATURES

Man, that Aaron Philby is one heck of a caricaturist! I would have thought Koreans would be hard to draw, they're another culture after all, but he makes it look like a lot of fun. 

 I could swear I've seen this couple (above) here in America!

Haw! The girl's body appears to be hidden in the crevices of her boyfriend's face. 

A head like a telephone (above).....very nice!

The subject (above) has immense appeal, and is perfectly set off by those flat, cardboard-type buildings and overcast sky.

At first glance it looks like the boy, ignoring the wind storm that's raging around him, is biting his girlfriend's peanut-shaped head. 

Holy Cow! This guy (above) has teeth like mine! I like the discreet little patch of stubble under the nose, and the heart that's been squeezed out of their union.

This guy (above) is one of those lucky people who are born cool. His girlfriend looks soooooo happy about it.

Couples (above) should always have interlocking heads. It's a symbol of their romance.

That's it for now, but for those who are curious to see more work by Aaron Philby, the man resides here:

http://aaronphilby.blogspot.com/ 

JOHN DRAWS EDDIE

I showed John my new glasses and he thought the look was incomplete without a mustache, which he proceeded to illustrate. Geez, the guy can draw!

He even discovered a cleft on the bottom of my nose that I didn't know I had.

CARICATURE LESSONS BY THE MASTERS

If you're interested in caricature then this post should boost you up into hog heaven. It's a chance to study three brilliant caricatures almost side by side with similar photos of the live subject,which in this case is.......me.

This first one (above) is by John Kricfalusi.  

Here's (above) the caricature face, close up.  I have an ugly black pancreas clinging to the back of my head, a shovel nose, not even the semblance of a chin, dog ears, and big hairy warts.

Here's (above) the real me. No shovel nose but...I hate to admit it....the caricature looks more like me than the photo. Geez! It's spooky how a drawing can beat photography at this sort of thing. 

Here's (above) a caricature by Mike Fontanelli. The back of the head is so big that it needs a brace. The forehead is almost non-existent.

Here's (above) the proof that I have a forehead and, c'mon.....the back of the head isn't all that large. Sigh! Even so, I have to admit that Mike nailed me. A good caricature can take big liberties.

Above, another one by John. John has a theory that the best caricatures always provoke a "Yooooou f---er!" response from the subject. That's definitely how I felt, when I wasn't laughing. At least he gave me some male assets. 

Haw! I'm guessing that the tiny cup and straw (above0 was influenced by the way my kid used to draw me. I love the soft, leathery upper lip, which is weighted down by buck teeth.

Now I ask you...do I (above) have a leathery lip? Hmmmmm....maybe I do. Anybody out there have some lip starch?