Post 66: A Nina drawing and a post about impromptu caricatures of Japanese celebs...et al.

Needed to get a drawing done. There it is. A rather dense schedule ahead of me that isn't helped by the unexpected or the inefficient work habits affliction, you all know how that is. Yesterday the ever generous and explosive Ricky Nierva went out of his way to help me with some of his contacts about a Japan trip. And then, as luck would have it, Tom Sarris (Manager of International Publicity Marketing) was around looking to enlist Ricky in drawing caricatures for two visiting Japanese celebs. Ricky demures, since this is nerve wracking on camera sketching, and Teddy Newton is still not back from his trip to L.A. for the Incredibles premier. But back to the subject of my Japan trip, Kumiko Hidaka, of Cosmo Public Relations, who's handling the above mentioned celebs visiting Pixar is a good person to meet about the trip and could help immensely.

I get a rousing intro from Ricky to Kumiko and she, Tom and I talk about my trip. I mention my self-publishing venture and I offer to show them. After walking into my dishevelled office they notice the nina posters (thanks, Charles) and all the other art about. I love having the work get good response and this was a successful showing. Cut to Tom inviting me to do the caricatures with Ricky that afternoon (all this happened just yesterday, really). I say okay but I'm not sure how I'll do, I've never drawn anything on camera before, much less drawing celebs' caricatures. We have a longstanding factoid about caricatures: pretty ladies don't like them. Caricatures by definition are unflattering.

Anyway, I end up doing the drawing on camera, the girls were cute and very energetic--and I can't understand a word they were saying (Kumiko was translating off camera but I was too confused to talk or respond with any coherence) but it certainly was good for my ego that they loved the dusty pencil and pastel drawings I did of them. Whew! Ricky was standing off camera cheering me on along with animation's Love Lounge architect, Andrew Gordon--who snapped a photo.

Tom tells me that I did good and that they loved the drawings. The piece will air in Japan some day and I'll get a copy of said clip. I shudder to think how much I just drew and sat there like a lump, smiling and looking rather lost. All in all it was a good, new experience. My thanks to all.