Tag: caricatures

Draw a Crowd

2 Comments

Are you thinking of ways to generate traffic to your trade show booth? Why not hire a caricature artist? You may not realize it, but people love caricatures.  If you don’t already know, caricatures are an exaggerated cartoon type drawing of a person. Each caricaturist has their own unique style and not one is like the other. Some caricatures are very goofy, comical renditions, while others are cute and adorable. 

Some caricaturist have been drawing professionally for over 20 years and people will stand in line for over an hour and sometimes over an hour just to get a caricature to take home. Just think of it, not only can you get people at your booth, but they will stay for more than a minute or two. Now here is your chance to come over to them and hand out your brochures and talk about your services. Even if you had a free sweepstakes promotion, it wouldn’t be as lucrative as a caricature artist. It only takes a minute or two to fill out a sweepstakes ticket and the person is gone. However, while the caricaturist is busy drawing, you can attract a lot of people to the booth and hence more business prospects for you.

And here is another added plus. You can preprint the paper that the caricaturist draws on with your own company logo and other pertinent information. Companies such as Kinko can do it for a very reasonable price.  You will never be forgotten when the caricature is framed at home. This is a great marketing tool and it has been done by many large corporations for sales promotion purposes.

Caricaturists are very affordable and are not as expensive as you might think. They are a lot more affordable than keynote speakers, for example.  They are usually willing to “haggle” with you on a good deal. You don’t have to fly an artist from out of town. Just do a search in your favorite search engine and you can find local artists very easily. If one artist isn’t available for your particular “gig,” they will give you telephone numbers of fellow artists, due to the fact that they are constantly networking with each other, trading their jobs, etc.

Gerry Hoylie is known as the Hollywood Caricaturist. Gerry is a licensed NYC and New York State Art Teacher. She has taught painting and drawing to both adults and children. Gerry is also an Alumni of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. If you wish to contact here you can by sending her email to gerialana@aol.com or call her at 212-532-1142, or go to her website at http://www.allanaenterprises.com.

Hire Only the Best Caricaturist

How Do You Know Which Caricaturist is the Best One for Your Event?

You are having a party and you want to provide the best type of entertainment so your guests aren’t bored. Or maybe you are the exhibit manager at a booth at a big trade show and you are in charge of entertainment for your event. You were told to hire a caricature artist. Your manager told you to hire the best caricaturist that you can get, but you can’t even pronounce the word. So you go online and “Google” caricaturist and maybe put in a few more key words for your state, city, etc. You come up with tons of web sites with slick pictures of caricatures done by the artist, along with a bio and client list. You might make a few phone calls. One artist tells you that he only draws big heads with no “little bodies”. Another artist tells you that she only draws profiles with little bodies and to draw in color will be an extra charge. Another artist tells you that she will do the job but you must get a back up in case she doesn’t feel good that day. By this time, you are feeling dizzy from all this searching around for the best caricaturist in your particular city or town.

Caricature artists are a rare breed of artist. They are just like flowers, not one is exactly like the other. Because caricaturists are artists they look at a person or even a person’s dog or cat and render their interpretation of the subject. Caricature is a French word and it means to exaggerate. Traditionally caricatures were first done and supposedly invented in Eastern France in the 19th century to make fun of the political figures of the time. Obviously it took off from there and the world has fallen in love with caricatures since then. Therefore you must be aware of the way an artist exaggerates their subject.

Some caricaturists draw extremely comical renditions while others are a bit more flattering of the person in the “hot seat”. Some caricaturist, for example, exaggerates big beautiful eyes rather than a big nose. This might be good if your clients or your relatives are vain. Knowing all this information is not enough. You also need inside information, so you’ll know how to get the best caricature artist for your particular needs.

First, it is important to know that if you are having a large turnout of people, the artist must be able to draw more than four pictures per hour. There are caricaturists who draw “masterpieces that were museum quality,” but have up to 25 people standing in line waiting patiently while the particular caricaturist took twenty minutes to draw one person. This is downright sad and disappointing to the guests who went home empty handed. This is why when you select a caricaturist for your next party or even, that you get one who is quick and accurate.

It is very important as well to check references of the artist. Ask for more than one reference and ask if the guests seemed happy with their caricature. Ask if the caricaturist was personable and nice. There are some artists that hate the job and just look at it as a stop gap to their big break in Hollywood. The caricaturist you hire doesn’t have to be a stand up comic but a pleasant disposition is important and a genuine liking of people is important as well. It is also necessary for your own peace of mind to sign a contract with the artist. In case of an emergency, the contract should state that they supply an adequate substitute. Caricature artists are very familiar with networking and trade jobs with other artists all the time.

Gerry Hoylie is known as the Hollywood Caricaturist. Gerry is a licensed NYC and New York State Art Teacher. She has taught painting and drawing to both adults and children. Gerry is also a Alumni of the School of Visual Arts in Manhattan. If you wish to contact here you can by sending her an email to gerialana@aol.com or call her at 212-532-1142, or go to her website at http://www.allanaenterprises.com.