Thursday, February 25, 2010
Frank Lampard
I burnt the midnight oil a little last night and finished this around 3am. I find it's the best time for me to work as there are no distractions at that time of day.
This took around 6hrs and was painted digitally on a blank canvas using my Wacom Cintiq and Adobe Photoshop CS2.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Featherstone rovers V Batley Poster design
I've just submitted this artwork for the Featherstone V Batley Matchday poster. For the game on Sunday 28th February 2010.
It's created digitally and will be used as a centrepiece for the posters. I m going to be doing a few of these this year.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Great day at the Mills
Ive just had a great gig at the Batley Mills in Yorkshire. Drawing the guests in a 6hr booking i probably drew around 50 people in the day, nice and steady. Real nice people.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Rory Delap
I'm hoping one a day will keep the bailiffs away!
here's Rory Delap- famous for his ability to throw the ball a ridiculously huge distance.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Addition to the services!
This year as an addition to the services we provide the guests on Park at my Alton Towers Concession. We will be offering Ltd edition prints for sale of your favourite Soccer stars.
Here's the first one which I completed on Saturday- Carlos Tevez. and Completed today- Wayne Rooney.
I'm hoping to make 250 Ltd edition prints available of each player.
Monday, February 15, 2010
The venting of ones Splean!
We'll i finally got back the remainder of the unsold artwork from Warrington Wolves this weekend, sadly no cheque yet but it has only been 1 year and it is over £200. (he states sarcasticly)
Rugby League, I love the sport and have done ever since my Grandad would carry me to the Featherstone Rovers Games on his shoulders, I think i was 5 at the time and they are memories i'll sherish for a lifetime. I've always helped out the game where i can and have provided artwork to many SL and National League clubs over the years at kind of mates rates, as even from being very small I've always thought the game got the short end of the stick as far as media coverage was concerned compared to anything that anyone well spoken followed- like Football, Rugby union, Tennis, Golf, Cricket etc. ( I'm an ex coalminer and someone with a posh voice even shut my pit down! or was he American?)
So after being contacted last year by firstly a Charity claiming to raise funds for injured players and then Warrington Wolves I began to think i may have the chance to earn a modest living doing the job i love within the sport I have followed all my life and hoped to supply as many SL clubs as possible with my artwork, as retail sales items and Sponsors Presentations. what more can a man ask from life? plus helping raise funds for the injured guys added evenmore a sence of pride and worthyness to the task. I thought my artwork would add something to the game, as my passion for the game i feel is evident in every RL piece i create and i hoped it would add something substantial and collectable which would become a part of it's history and value. It may still do so given time. I guess it's all about finding the right people who see where im coming from and the possibilities involved.
I must admit it's been the worst year long experience of my life.
The Charity saga- A guy phones me out of the blue and asks if i could create him some artwork of past GB Legends like Billy Boston, Alex Murphy etc. he told me the story of the charity and how they raised money to help people who were injured whilst playing the Greatest Game. So i instantly agreed to help, what could i say apart from yes, it was a real honour for me to be able to help in this way. We came to agreement where i get 20% of sales of Ltd edition prints.
done correctly it would make them around 80k per year.
Everything is running smoothly untill I notice one of the prints for sale on ebay with a £65. bid on it, the artwork was framed atrociously so i contacted the charity, bearing in mind id offered to frame the prints for far less than he was paying anyhow so i expected a pro job on them, not the cheap looking bingo prize he'd turned them into. I knew if everything was done to spec the prints would easily raise £150. i wanted to help the charity all round but my plea for improvement fell on deaf ears, untill one day the guy calls and tells me the deals off and im not getting paid. It was unbeleivable how guy just switched off totally, like id interfered with "he who shal not be questioned"! no converse no anything, no money most importantly as id invested 3 months work into this venture.
There wasnt enough money in the job for the legal people to be interested, plus i'd failed to draw up a contract, which eats me to the core daily. But i never thought this would happen with a charity, i managed to get a few of the original pieces back but the sneaky so and so switched a few for prints. How come I have no lawful protection against things like that and most worryingly of all was how come no one within the game at any leve was interested in my plight.
Rugby League, I love the sport and have done ever since my Grandad would carry me to the Featherstone Rovers Games on his shoulders, I think i was 5 at the time and they are memories i'll sherish for a lifetime. I've always helped out the game where i can and have provided artwork to many SL and National League clubs over the years at kind of mates rates, as even from being very small I've always thought the game got the short end of the stick as far as media coverage was concerned compared to anything that anyone well spoken followed- like Football, Rugby union, Tennis, Golf, Cricket etc. ( I'm an ex coalminer and someone with a posh voice even shut my pit down! or was he American?)
So after being contacted last year by firstly a Charity claiming to raise funds for injured players and then Warrington Wolves I began to think i may have the chance to earn a modest living doing the job i love within the sport I have followed all my life and hoped to supply as many SL clubs as possible with my artwork, as retail sales items and Sponsors Presentations. what more can a man ask from life? plus helping raise funds for the injured guys added evenmore a sence of pride and worthyness to the task. I thought my artwork would add something to the game, as my passion for the game i feel is evident in every RL piece i create and i hoped it would add something substantial and collectable which would become a part of it's history and value. It may still do so given time. I guess it's all about finding the right people who see where im coming from and the possibilities involved.
I must admit it's been the worst year long experience of my life.
The Charity saga- A guy phones me out of the blue and asks if i could create him some artwork of past GB Legends like Billy Boston, Alex Murphy etc. he told me the story of the charity and how they raised money to help people who were injured whilst playing the Greatest Game. So i instantly agreed to help, what could i say apart from yes, it was a real honour for me to be able to help in this way. We came to agreement where i get 20% of sales of Ltd edition prints.
done correctly it would make them around 80k per year.
Everything is running smoothly untill I notice one of the prints for sale on ebay with a £65. bid on it, the artwork was framed atrociously so i contacted the charity, bearing in mind id offered to frame the prints for far less than he was paying anyhow so i expected a pro job on them, not the cheap looking bingo prize he'd turned them into. I knew if everything was done to spec the prints would easily raise £150. i wanted to help the charity all round but my plea for improvement fell on deaf ears, untill one day the guy calls and tells me the deals off and im not getting paid. It was unbeleivable how guy just switched off totally, like id interfered with "he who shal not be questioned"! no converse no anything, no money most importantly as id invested 3 months work into this venture.
There wasnt enough money in the job for the legal people to be interested, plus i'd failed to draw up a contract, which eats me to the core daily. But i never thought this would happen with a charity, i managed to get a few of the original pieces back but the sneaky so and so switched a few for prints. How come I have no lawful protection against things like that and most worryingly of all was how come no one within the game at any leve was interested in my plight.
Monday, February 8, 2010
It must be the weather!
One of my other Agents is at it now, Jeez you'd think they were royalty the way they talk to us mere Entertainers!
The World Famous Alton Towers Caricature Concession- Open March 2010
Alton Towers will be opening on the 20th March 2010 and the new ride down there promises to attract a bumper crowd this year! We will be opening the Caricature booth on the 20th and look forward to seeing my fellow bloggers down there and hope to provide you with some top quality artwork and have some great laughs along the way, so heres looking forward to a good year if the weather holds fair for a change!
I personally think this is one of the most rewarding ways for any Caricaturist to ply his/her trade, it sure does sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak! as you have to sell your work to your client, unlike the ease of a pre paid event where any old wannabe can serve up any old dross and generally get away with it as some of the Agents don't care so long as they get paid!
We have a new artist starting this year to work alongside my self and trusted friend and co-artist Mike Carlon, namely Liesbeth Beckers from Holland who will be flying over to work the summer holidays- July, August. Liesbeth is a fantastic artist and i can't wait to work along side her this year!
Some Agency's have no soul!
Having worked for the Magical Memories Entertainment Agency for the past 10 years, I've recently been forced to give them the elbow. I don't like being accused of being a liar and a thief but thats what they have accused me of, 10 years of loyal service and no gold watch or word of thanks to show for it, just sick unfounded allegations! Not only have they battered down my prices over the past 10 years and therefore forcing me to compete on price with amateurs and totally talentless excuses for Caricaturists, they then have the cheek to claim ive stolen a customer from them, which i never did as the prospective client was given my details by another Artist. My word is my bond and has to be or where am I if it is not, in the soup with the rest of the dross thats where! And ive worked too hard to get to the top of this tree to put up with being spoken to like that, I'm a professional not a gimp!
One positive to come from my recent debacle with the afore mentioned agency is that it's given me the impetus to drive myslf on and seek new pastures, i was in a pseudo comfort zone whilst i was on their books but now im not it's opened more doors for me than i ever imagined it could! It just goes to show that our fate is in our own hands if we are prepared to challenge and push ourselves and take a few risks now and then!
On a more positive note I got through my first gig with one of my new Agencys on Friday and for a decent fee too! I worked 3hrs at the City Inn in Leeds. which was a great venue and the food was delicious! They fed me at this one which was a very nice gesture indeed, i even gave them an extra 20 minutes in appreciation. I'll post some photo's of the event when they arrive!
I've spent the last week updating my website with lots of help from my good friend and fellow Caricaturist and blogger George Williams of Spot on Caricatures. Ive sadly neglected it over recent years as the work has been there so there was no reason ive thought to warrant the hours working on it. I've even started writing my own html code etc and am begining to understand whats required to get my site more visible to my prospective customers- please take a look- http://www.mickscaricatures.co.uk/
One positive to come from my recent debacle with the afore mentioned agency is that it's given me the impetus to drive myslf on and seek new pastures, i was in a pseudo comfort zone whilst i was on their books but now im not it's opened more doors for me than i ever imagined it could! It just goes to show that our fate is in our own hands if we are prepared to challenge and push ourselves and take a few risks now and then!
On a more positive note I got through my first gig with one of my new Agencys on Friday and for a decent fee too! I worked 3hrs at the City Inn in Leeds. which was a great venue and the food was delicious! They fed me at this one which was a very nice gesture indeed, i even gave them an extra 20 minutes in appreciation. I'll post some photo's of the event when they arrive!
I've spent the last week updating my website with lots of help from my good friend and fellow Caricaturist and blogger George Williams of Spot on Caricatures. Ive sadly neglected it over recent years as the work has been there so there was no reason ive thought to warrant the hours working on it. I've even started writing my own html code etc and am begining to understand whats required to get my site more visible to my prospective customers- please take a look- http://www.mickscaricatures.co.uk/
This is a Caricature ive recently created of my family and myself, as an example which i hope will spark someones ideas for their own Family Portrait for me to create for them! I firstly played with an Adams Family theme but settled for this Sharpes Rifles theme insted! as my Daughter and son didn't fancy the Wednesday and Pugsley tags i think!
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