Quarehawk

Congratulations to Martin and Erika, who are getting married in August! The yellow motorbike in this picture was Martin’s idea, I don’t ask questions I just draw what I’m told to …

That’s his real first name according to Wikipedia. It’s a pity this man gets so little attention from the media, although I believe he’s a well-known actor of some sort.

A quick Friday-night poll of my drunk mates gave this one the thumbs-down. No-one thinks it looks like Ricky Gervais (except me). One person thought it was supposed to be Dracula (!?!?!?!?!!!!!!!!).

Whatever dudes, this website is the ongoing tragic chronicle of one big-eared man’s attempt to become a caricaturist. Every effort gets posted, good and bad. Maybe in a year’s time I’ll look back at this and cringe, and marvel at how much I’ve improved. Hopefully anyway.

Future biographers can use this effort to construct fascinating insights into my development as an artist. Heheh.

And regarding Ricky Gervais - comedy: great, films: shit. So far anyway.

[UPDATE: My ears aren't really that big]

[UPDATE UPDATE: Actually though, yeah. They probably are. DAMMIT!!!]

Back in 2007 I did a drawing of George Hook. And lately I started using Twitter, so I sent it to him …

So that was nice.

I use Twitter to get the news headlines and follow interesting people, mostly comedians. But now I’ve noticed around 10 people have started following my updates! Dear God what do these weirdos want from me? I have nothing to say.

So I posted this a minute ago …

Hopefully that’ll keep them happy for a while.

Ella… ella… ella, eh eh eh …

Rihanna, you can’t beat her! Haha, BA-DUM TISH!

[Chris Brown joke there. Although I don't even know who Chris Brown is, because I'm a 35 year old man]

I signed on to Twitter and started following him. He’s a hoot! Is this likeness a bit wonky maybe? No time to stop and tinker with it though. Because look at the title of this blog - I still fully intend to draw everyone who’s ever visited Ireland.

Starting to like these simple monochrome cartoons though.

[UPDATE: Oh look. I've left what looks like some kind of pimple on Jimmy Carr's neck! Feck. Let's just pretend he has that in real life. For all I know, at this very moment, he does. Or he must have done at some point in his life]

I’ve decided if I’m ever going to get good I need to do more sketching. It seems to be the only way. All the experts say so in all the books. “Keep sketching” they say. They won’t shut up about it. So this is me getting started. I’ll review my progress after I’ve done, say, twenty.

I follow a few caricature blogs, and everytime someone puts up a rough black-and-white like this they say “Here’s a quick one of BLAH BLAH, I’ll finish it later when I get time”. Well in a shocking break with tradition - here’s my sketch of Clint Eastwood and guess what? I’M NEVER GOING TO FINISH IT!!!! Because I’m bored with this one now and will want to try someone else tomorrow.

Black-and-white kind of suits Clint Eastwood anyway I reckon.

Number of preliminary sketches : 4
Number of hours spent on drawing : 6
Number of black t-shirts owned by Simon Cowell : 714,856 *

* Source: The Guggenheim Museum

This is him in “Mr Bean” mode. What’s interesting though is that if you wanted to draw Rowan Atkinson as Edmund Blackadder, the face I have here wouldn’t work. That is, I couldn’t just stick a beard and an outfit on this pic and make it a Blackadder caricature. Even though it’s the same person.

For Blackadder you’d have to try to get his sly cunning into the drawing somehow. I don’t know if that’s a testament to the man’s character portrayal skills or what. He can give a radically different “vibe” depending on who he’s playing, using his physicality and expressions. Unlike so many of the talentless muppets appearing in every second Hollywood blockbuster, basically playing themselves over and over.

Although on the other hand, you could argue that Rowan Atkinson only ever plays one of two characters; a wibbly-faced weed or an evil scheming bastard. Whatever, I like his work.

A recurring problem with my caricatures is that I end up making people look younger than they are. I’m satisfied with the likeness I got here, but it looks like Tom Hanks from “Splash” rather than Tom Hanks from “The DaVinci Code”. And the references I worked from were all recent photos. I CANNOT figure out why this keeps happening. Too much smoothing of the skin?

Maybe it would help artistically if I got myself a beret (I don’t think I have the testosterone to grow a decent goatee).