WHY DO YOU DRAW ON THE SUBWAYS, WHAT IS THE ATTRACTION?

Like most things It all happened by accident. I work as a professional caricature entertainer/artist for corporate parties, and special events. My jobs take me to different parts of the city, parts of Long Island Nassau County, Westchester and Staten Island. Like most New Yorkers, the subways was and is a major inexpensive form of travel to my gigs when a car wasnt available. As you might guess, these rides were also very long, sometimes taking 2-3 hours or more. To pass the time, and also to warm up I would sketch faces on the train. I likened myself to a basefall pitcher warming up in the bullpen before the big game. After a couple of hours of pre drawing undercover on the train, it became a snap to do it at the party.

Prior to doing my subway"pregame warm up" my party pictures were stiff and lifeless. It took me at least 30 minutes to start making lively pictures. Once i started doing itregularly, I was able to draw with life power and relaxation.
There came a point where I started looking forward to doing the subwaydrawings not only as a pre warmup, but as an art discipline unto itself.

Every artist knows the value of life drawing regardless of their discipline, and this became part of my discipline. My own personal life drawing class.

But then it became something more and started to evolve more.Pretty soon I started adding text to my drawings. Nothing really thought provoking, maybe a funny caption or two. Other days I would sit back and draw and when i viewed the picture i would realize I captured something very personal and honest in the expression or gesture, I would comment on that. Other times I would wax philosophical on the way the passengers interacted with each other , how they handled this "forced intimacy" of the subway car. I began to watch and record things with a more focused eye. From time to time people would ask me what i was doing, and we would talk about the pictures. I noticed that the caricatures were a natural conversation piece and made most people feel at ease and open to conversation. Most would share personal things and that feeling would sometimes spread throughout the car. I liked that the most. That feeling of connection, of community. I began to realize then that this "subwaysurfing thing" was more than me "just drawing" warming up for a gig. It was a way of expressing my personhood, a way of connecting with strangers, a way of bringing about community. In no time at all, I simply started doing it for the sheer joy of it. Miraculously, I managed to "brand" myself. I developed a persona of sorts, not to mention a massive amount of drawings that I immediately threw online once I discovered "the internet". Maybe this will turn into something big, I thought....What an understatement THAT WAS!

Overton loyd, and Hirshfeld, two caricature mentors by subwaysurfer

I've guess I have always had it "in me" to do caricature. I think it's something you have to be born with. As much as I loved drawing superheros, comc characters, etc. I was always fascinated by the looks and expressions on the faces. I think its due inpart to some of the great warner brothers cartoons I watched. If you watch the old ones from the 1940's ALL of the characters have such rich nuances of expression. It just never occured to me to draw a character without one.I keenly remember everytime Id do draw and expression I could feel myslef literally making that expression myself and trying to "put it into" the picture I was drawing.

As a kid I used to watch the Jerry Lewis Telethon Every year, not because it was particularly entertaining for me, (even though in all due respect, it is for a great cause) but because of the great caricature logo of Jerry Lewis I used to see from time to time on the show. I was fascinated by the picture and wondered "how does that NOT look like him, AND Look like him at the same time???" I later found out that the picture was done by the "line king" himself, Hirschfeld, and I became an instant fan of his, and picked up everything I could on him. Hirschfeld was the artist to the stars on broadway and his work was constantly featured on playbills, and in the sunday news. I copied line for line his style, happy that I could mimic it a little but still mystified as to how he did what he did. Copying his work did train my had somewhat to do the graceful line quality that Im able to achieve in my pen and ink work.


On the other end of the spectrum was an artist called Overton Loyd.
http://www.overvision.com/
Overton was the artist responsible for drawing the comics and characters on the Parlaient Funkadelic records I listened to as a teenager. One day, my friedn Dennis came home with a picture that was drawn my Overton at a party he attended. I could not BELIEVE that an artist was able to do something like that with so few lines. I think I decided that DAY thatI would be a caricature artist, even though I had no idea how that was possible.....
Overton was THE only Black Caricature artist/cartoonist that I even KNEW about. His work had that crazy energy that you find in plimpton's animation, and also that "mad magazine-esque quality. Overton's characterization was the perfect compliment to Parliaments lyrics and rhythms and was ahead of its time in terms of marketing and branding. Fro what I understand He even did a few animated shorts back in the day to promote the albums and the personas rapped/sang/played at portrayed in the music. had Clinton come out today with Funkadelic, no doubt there would be clothing, animation, and toys associated with the product.

ZAP COMICS AND R CRUMB

I discovered Zap Comics by accident. After years of reading Superhero books I began to get kinda bored, while walking through the comic isles I stumbled across a zap comic and opened it up. Now most kids are blown away by the erotic content and irreverent nature of these comics, but for ME, I really didn't care for that. I zeroed in on how SOLID crumbs pictures looked. They were Dynamic and had weight and structure. The characters were full of PERSONALITY and looked like "regular people" in all their quirkiness. I ditched Marvel and started copying crumbs stuff to discover how he did what he did. His art really influenced my caricature/cartooning style later on.
I also discovered Basil Wolverton around the same time, and added that to the mix.
Getting back to Crumb, he has that rare ability to be able to draw cartoons, caricature and photo realism, all equally good. I didn't appreciate his angel food mc spade toons( as an African American, I was outraged) but was able to overlook that and focus on his artistic genius.
Incidentally, my folks never discovered my Zap collection, because I literally destroyed the books once I finished drawing em.

I had a love hate relationship with Crumb. Objectively speaking I love his work as a cartoonist and a draftsman, but the pornographic, provocative, sexist, and sometimes racist subject matter was offensive. Still, I learned a lot by copying his work, and he is "in me" and always will be, I'm afraid...