After nearly 2 decades of being a fan I finally got to meet Tom Richmond (MAD Magazine) in Dublin in September last year. Not only meet, I participated in his caricature workshop that had been in the works for 3 years. Originally scheduled for 2020 it was postponed and then cancelled outright because of that business. Last year Tom decided to try a Take 2 and rescheduled the workshop in Dublin. I have to say it was the most formative professional experience since Niall O’Loughlin rang me up and tore my work apart when I was starting out as a live caricature artist (once I stopped crying it was actually incredibly helpful). I only got to attend one day but what I took whole concepts away with me. I find I do quite well with intense workshops (I did a 2 day production design workshop with Tom Conroy when I worked in Macnas and felt like I’d absorbed a 3 year course in 48 hours). Literally the next day my drawing was different, freer and more dynamic. Getting to meet other artists from across Europe was wonderful too, as well as seeing a few familiar faces from Ireland.
Tom creates group caricature portraits of workshop attendees each time. The Irish one was delayed because of major deadlines (I totally get that!) but it arrived in my inbox last night and I love it! I recently updated my own caricature based on the same photo set that Tom worked from for my caricature in the group portrait so it’s interesting to see the similarities and differences in our approaches. The group caricature is below as well as a side by side of me by Tom and me by me!
Tom offers workshops every year in a range of locations and if you’re a professional or a keen amateur I highly recommend taking a place, and even travelling for it (I may go to the States at some point to catch up on Day 2!)
Compare and contrast!
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I’m Allan Cavanagh and I have been professionally producing caricatures and cartoon art for over 20 years.
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Hi Christoph, nice to hear from you! Yes the workshop was superb, I too had pored over Tom’s book but to actually meet him and absorb his feedback in person had me drawing differently literally the next day. It sounds like you’ve taken it to another level with all your events, although I think people are getting a bargain from you, especially if you’re throwing in live music as part of the deal! I have the advantage of being able to draw continuously through my work, and as you say, that’s really important to develop your abilities, I learn something new every day I draw. Thanks for the link to the YouTube video of Tom drawing, I’ll definitely check that out. Great to hear you’ve got your hand back in the game of drawing. Hopefully we’ll bump into each other again in the future.
Best,
Allan.
Dear Allan, I just dropped over your post – just now (almost a year ago already !!!). Love it -thank you so much for posting this. I also want to tell you, that this workshop by Tom changed A LOT in my own artistic development and self-confidence. Even if I’ve studied Tom´s book and read it three times – the workshop gave me again much more insights. – I definitely improved also my own skills and – even more important: that gave me really self-confidence meeting all you guys. Unlike you and many other participants, I am not a full-time professional caricature- artist. But after that workshop I realized, that I at least can pretend to be one (lol!!) – for the audience sometimes it might be ok like that. And I started a new branch of my artistic activities. Livedrawing! I already got two gigs on two big balls of the German Armed Forces and was drawing the people nonstop for about 4 to 5 hours. There was a line. Thanks God, I could bring my wife with me to assist talking to the people. And I realized (just as Tom said) Caricature and livedrawing is an art that you have constantly to do in order to stay sharp. (I´ don’t unfortunately). – But I was already sitting with my rollup in the pedestrians-area of my town during a wine-feast and was drawing the people (for 15 EUR each) The people were astonished because they never saw someone like that here. I was drawing a whole bunch of local politicians from the CDU (Christian democratic union) and they liked it. A very nice young couple even engaged me for their wedding. And during the negotiations I suddenly offered a “special” – I told them, I would play for them at midnight a special little romantic show on the saxophone. That did it! … This gig will be tomorrow in Hamburg! – So maybe that can be an advantage, that I am able to play music and to draw. While I am sure, I play better than I draw – because I am professional musician for 40 years, but drawing I just started again seriously since 5 years. Again, it was so great, meeting all of you during the workshop, especially you. Great, that you dropped by the last day. You´re also a great Artist!!
On my drawers-website uhutoons.com you can see me drawing live. And the videoclip I made from the Dublin-Workshop with Tom´s permission. – filming Tom making a live caricature of Aden. Impressive. You can link it to your own site!:-). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB_L-laWL0k – I would be happy!
Hope to see you again one other day.
Cheers from Germany – Christoph