June Update
American Caricature has been in production for six months now (eight if you count pre-production). Joe and I have been hard at work behind the scenes - travelling, filming, writing, editing, and everything in between. I think now would be a good time to take a step back and look at where we are in the process and what comes next.
About a week ago, Joe and I travelled to Minnesota and Illinois to interview two caricature heavyweights - Tom Richmond and Jason Seiler. While these two artists have little in common stylistically, they both share a passion for illustration and caricature as well as a desire to share their knowledge with others. This information is dealt out by way of blog posts, active social media pages, tutorials, photos of works in progress showing their process and technique - and they've both published books designed to inform and educate aritsts and non-artists alike. So it was no surprise that when it came to their interviews, they both had a lot to share. We spent four to five hours apiece interviewing Tom and Jason, as getting a look into their respective freelance careers.
Richmond, a regular contributor to MAD Magazine (lovingly referred to as one of the "Usual Gang of Idiots") showed us step-by-step what it takes to get a MAD movie parody illustrtated and published. Seiler, an accomplished painter and illustrator, was right at the tail-end of a painting for the cover of the New York Observer. We caught up with him just as he was making some last-minute changes at the request of the client.
It was an absolute privilege to be able to spend time with these artists in their studios - watching them work, picking their brains, and having a good time. With that, we're ready to move on to the next phase of filming. We'll be out shooting at a few different live locations to catch some retail artists in action. We want to show you what goes into managing a retail caricature operation. It may not look like it, but it is a real job after all!
So here we are, six(ish) months in. We're looking back on twenty or more interview subjects, ten states visited, and and an unknown number of hours of footage filmed. We have a lot more on our plates in the coming months. These past few have been the easy ones. The real challenge begins now. Let's do this.
