Sunday Mailbag: Workshop in My Town?

Q: Will you please do one of your caricature workshops in my area/backyard?

A: I’m in Orlando right now, on the last day of teaching another of my caricature workshop. I just posted a new workshop location/dates for August in Detroit, MI yesterday. Whenever I post a new workshop, I invariably get the following: “Can you do one in Miami/Dallas/Brazil/my backyard?” I get this one a lot… so often I repost the answer now and then. The answer is “maybe”, but there IS a way you can make it happen if you really want to.

I choose where I am going to try and do a workshop based on a few factors. Population, obviously, is a major one. I am going to be doing my fourth workshop in the Los Angeles area nest month. I’ll be back in the New York City area for the third time in May. This is my fourth workshop in Orlando. Obviously the denser the population the more likely there will be enough students to fill the workshop.

Another factor is requests by interested parties. I keep a file of messages I get from people asking for a workshop here or there. When I get enough people asking about the same area, I start looking into it. So, if you want to suggest a city for a workshop, suggest away. It works best if the place you suggest is also a decent sized city, so the population factor can help fill the class. Suggestions from interested people are the reason I’ve had workshops is places like Pittsburgh, Atlanta, Dallas and Chicago… I just need enough people to express an interest in a city to look into it.

If you really want me to come to your town and do a workshop, there is a way for you to make it happen… even if it’s Tinytown USA. You need to find me at least 9 students willing to take the class, and a hotel with adequate meeting space and reasonable room rates. Anyone who is willing to do that local legwork for me not only gets a workshop in their area, but they get a free spot in it as the workshop organizer! I’ll work with you on finding our class dinner location, and any other specifics that need local handling. You get a free spot in the class!

I figure there are a finite amount of people out there willing to take this sort of thing, and I am eventually going to run out of students, so this workshop thing will not last forever. In fact I am beginning to see the end of these endeavors… I just had to cancel a workshop I had planned both New Orleans and Phoenix this winter for lack of interest. I’ve only got 5 people signed up for the Vienna workshop, so that one is not yet a sure thing. It looks like finding locations with enough interested students to conduct a workshop is becoming more difficult.

So, if I am doing a workshop in an area that is within a reasonable distance of you, don’t wait hoping I’ll come to your exact area. This is not going to be a long term sort of enterprise. Or, help me organize one in your area.

Thanks to a lot of different people for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!