For me, drawing caricatures at a birthday party is not a new thing, but this particular gig I was hired to do proved to be a new experience. I was tasked with drawing all the party guests (or at least as many as could fit) in the same caricature with the birthday celebrant. I agreed, not knowing if I could manage to plan ahead that well, without having drawn more than maybe six in one caricature before. I used a larger sheet of paper, 16″ x 20″ to ensure I had plenty of space and that the assembled faces could be as large as possible. However, I’m so used to making one or two people per page, that I may have drawn the initial focal point person larger than I should have. But I managed to keep the rest in a descending size pattern, and it became a running joke for me to ask how important that they were to the birthday “girl” in order to determine what size they should be in the background surrounding her larger head.
By the time darkness fell, I had put about 22 people on the page, and the celebrants and celebrated all were glad to have this unique memento of the occasion. (I advised someone move it to a safe spot before a drink was spilled on it, or something…)
