Stuff from my Studio #5- The Big Three!

The previous incarnation of my website had something called the “Me Gallery”, which was a collection of caricatures of me by other artists. It started out with some caricatures the users of an online maillist group (the precursor to forums and message boards) did of one another. Then artists from all over started emailing caricatures of me to be included. I think there were over 300 when I redid the website and decided to remove that section.

The caricatures of me you see above are what I call “The Big Three”. They are by three of the best caricaturists who every walked the planet, in my humble opinion.

The one on the left is by the late Al Hirschfeld. Yes, really. You can read the story of how I got this here, but there really is no story… I just paid him. Hirschfeld readily did personal commissions like this if you simply met his price. I’ll never regret getting it. Pen and ink on illustration board. By the way, there are five “Ninas” in this piece.

The middle one is by a German artist named Sebastian Krüger. He is now a highly respected fine art portraitist specializing in pop culture icons and celebrities. Back in the late 90’s he was an illustrator doing these insane painted caricatures for magazines. Sebastian was the guest speaker at a caricaturist convention I attended in Orlando in 1999, and after the convention I simply asked him if I could commission a caricature of me. He said yes. This was the result… acrylic on illustration board.

The last one is the most special, and not just because MAD Magazine legend Mort Drucker does rarely ever did/does personal commissions. It’s no exaggeration to say this piece of art changed my life. The story of how I got this, and what it did for my career, is worth a read.

Not a day goes by where I do not look up at these three pieces of art and am inspired to aim higher in my work.