Live Digital Caricature for Conventions, Conferences & Corporate Events

Another great performance by EventToons associate artist Jon Casey in Charlotte! Jon is at his best drawing gnarly guys, and there is no gnarlier bunch than the VMUG crowd. Is it my imagination, or is Jon instagramming these photos? 

Burns & McDonnell consults on many of the biggest power projects in the country, and they invited this artist to draw caricatures for their clients and friends at this huge show at oprange County convention center. As usual, word of mouth about what we were doing grew as the show progressed, until by the end of day 2 we had a healthy crowd of onlookers and willing subjects. All in all a fun show working with great folks!

Symantec likes to impact the VMUG conferences with EventToons caricatures and there are a lot of VMUGS all over the US and Canada. With Doug in Dallas, EventToons Associate Artist Jon Casey took the call and wowed them as usual. Jon is especially good at depicting testosterone laden features and there is plenty of that— along with a dappling of feminine beauty here and there—among the cloud engineering crowd.

I traveled to St. Paul to join this gathering of dentists and their assorted staffs, who happen to be a very congenial bunch, and terrific live digital caricature subjects also. That group of three guys on the left are the incoming and outgoing MDA execs, three amigos with great senses of humor and plenty of authentic midwestern character. Character was the theme for me  this trip. One way to gauge the down-to-earthness (DTE) of a group is to track the percentage of people who can answer the question, "What color are your eyes?" with one single word—as opposed to giving a discourse of their many hues depending on mood, weather and clothing. :) This group maxed out the DTE meter at 95%. A new record for this artist, congratulations Minnesota! I stepped away from my tablet and took the photo on the right at the peak of the second day. We had over a dozen fols lined up to bet tooned. I'll have more photos on the EventToons Facebook site later.

Meridios is my funnest client, so a couple days drawing digital caricatures of health provider IT folks with them in Las Vegas isn't too harsh a duty. The Meridios philosophy is not to let the fact that they have a seriously cost-effective solution get in the way of having fun. It's a company where the suits have not taken over. Yet, anyway. I'm enjoying it while it lasts! 

EventToons Associate artists delivered some live digital caricature entertainment for this group attending the INSIGHT conference in San Francisco. Note the custom San Francisco theme, just one example of the kind of template We can make for your special event!

This conference is an annual treat for this artist, mostly because of the wonderful assortment of international attendees. The variety of faces and the positive attitude of tis bunch brings out the best in a caricature artist. EventToons associate artist Zach Trenholm filled in for me one of the sessions—that's him at work in the photo on the left— and his ipad handiwork was much appreciated. 

How do you pack for Denver in the spring? T-shirt, sandals and swim suit for sweltering Sunday arrival, parka and snowshoes for walking to the convention center Wednesday morning. It was some crazy weather but we had a crazy good time at the Coraid booth this show. The attendees were Department of Defense contractors, which included plenty of security-minded folks, the kind who stay awake at night worrying about the next national threat so the rest of us can sleep. They really took to the live digital caricatures, in fact the Coraid won the show's "People's Choice" award as you can seen in the third photo above. The Coraid staff really knows how to take advantage of the booth draw aspect of Eventtoons. If you look at the second photo, which is the artist's eye view, you can see the staff member's hands as he explains the advantages of Coraid products and services to a captive—and captivated—lead. In the background you can see some of the crowd who were queued up to get tooned. Bottom line: Coraid's message got out and we had a lot of fun doing it.

Bay music invited this artist to join a crowd of entertainers for an incentive group dinner downtown. There was quite a lineup of entertainment—oragami artists, candy artists, calligraphers, a live lounge act, and of course yours truly, the live digital caricaturist!

This wasn't an Eventtoons gig, Jon Casey booked it and invited me along for a full day of fun in San Francisco. We drew caricatures together at the Omni hotel from 8-4 then packed up and moved to the Disney Family Museum in the Presidio. By coincidence, we drew the exact same number of caricatures each—90! Jon and I have very different styles both in the way we see faces and draw them, so a lot of guests at the events we work together like to get a "second opinion". A couple of those are pictured above—I'll leave it to you to guess who drew what. All in all this was one of my favorite days drawing caricatures ever. Thanks Jon! —Doug

EventToons artists Doug and Jon were invited to draw caricatures under a big tent in Union Square Park where partners and associates of the largest law firm in the world loosened their ties and partied for a few hours. It was an international crowd with lots of glamorous ladies, and I was so busy I only got one photo, which fortunately tells the whole night's story in her smile.

Here are some photos taken at American Medical Group Association conference. More, along with details in the next blog entry.

Rockin' mitzvah is correct. The dance floor was still packed when I left the building— a first for this artist! Congratulations Justin, for throwing a great party and for having such a nice circle of friends and family. And thanks to DJ Holiday of Celebrations Unlimited for the booking!

This is the second time in three months that SGI has brought EventToons to a California conference so I spent a pretty comfortable day at Sacramento convention center drawing caricatures with friends. The weather was balmy, and walking through the downtown in shirtsleeves in February felt surreal. After the show, SGI threw a mixer at a local restaurant where we ate, drank and "tooned" the last few faces of the day.

This is my 6th year or so drawing Alltech VIP customers at the country's biggest agricultural trade show. People come from all over the world, including Bejing China, which is where the group on the right is from. I think I've drawn the girl in the middle every year since 2005! Check out the download page to see/download the caricatures. —Doug

This is a big week for EventToons, with artists in 5 cities, including the Atlanta, home of the Georgia Aquarium. Zach Trenholm and "Al-Rod" Rodriguez did the honors, entertaining the evening guests with their own unique flavors of caricature. The two photos onthe right are Zach at work—note the deadly accuracy Zach is famous for. No photos available of Al-Rod at work alas, so that's two of his digital drawings on the left. All subjects can download theirs on the downloads page. —Doug

This was the biggest of VMUG conferences, with crowds of caricature subjects at the Symantec table all day. One of the highlights of my day was the Elvis portrayal—uncanny resemblence don't you think? As usual it was a pleasure working with the Symantec crew, and as I often say, pretty women are well, pretty, but there is nothing more fun to draw than an male geek engineer. —Doug

EventToons brought 3 artists to this holiday party at Illumina in Hayward, and they kept us busy every minute. A real fun bunch of hard working people, they had never seen live digital caricature before but they  warmed to it instantly. The crowd enjoyed some really wild work from Jon, who has been known to hallucinate while drawing, as well as the more flattering fare of Salah and myself. I love holiday parties in January, let’s call it a trend. Thanks Veronica! —Doug

EventToons associate artist Jon Casy went to Vegas to draw caricatures for a group of Haulotte customers at Smith & Wollensky, the famous steak house. Haulotte is one of my clients who like a template created that integrates their product. When the product is something like this it works great! —Doug

This gala mitzvah was held at the Penninsula Country Club, where an energetic crowd, dressed to the nines for a Hollywood theme, celebrated Sarah. As it happened,  I never got to draw the star of the show but there were plenty of supporting actors and actresses willing to sit in the spotlight for a few minutes getting their caricatures drawn. Here are the last two of the evening.—Doug

Symantec has been sending EventToons artists on a tour of Canada with Ottawa the latest stop. It would be tempting for this Californian to complain about the cold except everyone assured me that this was a mild winter and that, “Today was rather balmy”. The local VMware group more than doubled last year’s attendance, an impressive feat in this economy and a real indicator of the future of cloud computing. The artist had a particularly good group of talent to draw upon as is evidenced by the photos above. It would be difficult to pick a “best of show” caricature but above you will see a few candidates. —Doug

This Woodside party is an annual rite for me, I’ve been drawing caricatures of the same cast of characters for five years now I think. This year I brought along Jon Casey to help out and give the kids a different perspective on themselves. They like crazy themes and in the past I’ve received requests for some pretty bizarre things, but this year a lot of them said “Surprise me”, so I had some great fun drawing whatever came to mind. Toward the end of the night I started just drawing subjects as they are, which is really my favorite approach. Nothing boring about youth and beauty, it’s the best theme every time. Happy Holidays, see you next year! —Doug

City View at the Metreon is a really cool venue with surprising views and a stylish modern decor. EventToons was invited to draw live digital caricatures for this Dolby holiday event by 2 the 9′s, a terrific planner. I brought along Jon Casey, my number one EventToons associate artist to help handle the crowd, and before the event started I finally got around to drawing him. Jon got off easy I think, next time I will beast him proper. All in all a memorable evening for artists and attendees alike.  —Doug

This holiday party for a company that shall remain anonymous here on the web was held at the Four Seasons in Palo Alto. I was joined  by associate artist Salah Khudari (sample above right), who charmed the guests at one end of the party while I worked the other. The group was expecting a photo booth so they were completely surprised by a couple of live digital caricature artists, but they caught on quick. Lots of happy faces here, reflecting a bright spot in this economy and high hopes for an expansive 2012.  —Doug

Symantec has been using EventToons to help impact VMForum conferences all over Canada and the latest stop, Vancouver is one of my favorite cities. The politeness and professionalism of everyone a traveler meets is impressive, and this particular demographic—smart, geeky guys with their heads in the cloud so to speak—are great fun to work with. Most of them had no experience with digital caricature but it didn’t take long for them to get their heads around the idea. —Doug

This is the biggest EventToons party of the year, three years running now, with five live digital caricature artists convening at the new California Academy of Science in Golden Gate Park. Thanks to EventToons Associate Artist Salah Khudari (Two middle photos above are his), and guest artists Zach Trenholm, Rhoda Draws and Marcus Sakoda for making this year another success. 

EventToons associate artist Jon Casey went to Ottawa to draw some of the heroes who keep the lid on internet bad guys. He loves Ottawa so much he's begging me to send him back. Sorry Jon, next visit I'm going myself to see what the draw is. In the photos above are a couple of secure and satisfied net police. —Doug

Autodesk makes a wide variety of great software for designers and the like, including the quintessential Sketchbook Pro, which is now an iPad app. So I thought it appropriate that I take my maiden voyage using the program on an iPad here among the Autodesk faithful. To back me up I brought along Zach Trenholm, who has been using the iPad at gigs longer than anybody. Drawing with one’s finger is a little strange at first but after 10,000 hours of concentrated work I hear you can master anything. —Doug

Stylish and congenial folks convened at the San Francisco Four Seasons to celebrate this delightful couple’s wedding. It may seem incoungrous to have state of the art digital entertainment—caricatures no less— at a traditional Indian wedding but somehow with the scampering children, the colorful saris and lavish decor, as well as the pounding rain outside on the deck, everything seemed as cozy and natural as can be. —Doug

This conference is pretty techie, suffice it to say that the V in VMUG stands for virtual. This artist had a steady stream of willing caricature subjects stopping by the Symantec booth all day. As much fun as that was I really enjoyed my breaks too, taking walks around the downtown. Portland is such beautiful city even on a cloudy day.

The artist was invited to draw live digital caricatures for an evening letting off steam party for conference attendees, who, as you can see by these smilers, managed to let some off and look good doing it. —Doug

Sierra Central bank invited this artist to draw caricatures at the Argonaut Hotel in San Francisco. A great bunch of folks who seemed in good spirits, though they turned down my auto loan. I thought my Grecian coin collection would be great collateral but alas, no Mercedes for me this year.  —Doug

Moscone Hall was packed to the gills with emergency room doctors and Valley Emergency brought EventToons along to add some fun to their booth.  This template with old Victorians, a trolley car, Coit tower and the Golden Gate bridge in the background is available for clients who want to add a  San Francisco theme to the caricatures.  —Doug

HR Tech is a convention geared to human resource managers who use technology. In other words, ALL human resource managers. SHL Previsor invited EventToons to draw live digital caricature for attendees, and ET associate artist Jon Casey did a great job. Jon doubled down on his subjects, as you can see from these samples above. Hopefully he had as much luck at the blackjack table. For some reason he’s not talking.

SCOUT Investments is one of my favorite clients and San Diego is a favorite destination so I was prepared for a great time here at FPA, a convention for Financial planning professionals. And I am having a great time, with lots of great interesting faces to draw (as you can see by the queue in the photo above ), among them the gentleman holding not only the image I just drew of him, but the one I drew two years ago at another show which he keeps on his cell phone. Just one more example of how live digital caricature can resonate with people. —Doug

Bernard Hodes brought EventToons to ASHHRA, a human resources trade show, for the second year in a row, this time upping the ante with two artists, my self and Jon Casey. It was really fun working with another artist, hearing people comment on the different digital caricature styles styles. A few of the subjects got “second opinions” and you’ll see a few of those in the photos above. One thing for sure, human resource people are the best to draw— a fun bunch for sure! —Doug

This corporate leadership conference held at the San Diego Hilton was the site of a really cool party with lots of great entertainment including exotic dancing girls, drum crews, photo booths, a candy artist and yours truly drawing live digital caricatures. Drawing at a four and a half minute pace, the artist managed to capture a healthy slice of the crowd. —Doug

Associate EventToons artist Jon Casey drew caricatures for this corporate party at the Hahn Auditorium at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. —Doug

EventToons associate artist Salah Khudari went to St. Louis to draw caricatures at ASAF for Boxwood Online Career Centers. He was a big hit as you can see by the smiles in the photos. —Doug

TIVO has invited this artist in the past to draw at their annual carnival but now that EventToons is all digital, it was a different sort of scene. Associate artists Jon Casey and Salah Khudari joined me under a big tent provided by Plan-it Interactive where we drew nonstop live digital caricatures for 4 hours. We didn’t have time to stop for many photos, but I managed to snap these. 

Thomson Reuters invited this artist to Philadelphia to draw live diigital caricatures of attendees of the AALL, an association of legal librarians. Thanks to Vicenç Feliú of the University of the District of Columbia for the photos with me in them! This medium sized convention had plenty of willing subjects lining up by the booth—even at 6 minutes per subject we had a queue of a dozen or more nearly the whole time! —Doug

 This financial institution invited its best regional managers to enjoy San Francisco’s finest views, food and entertainment. EventToons associate artist Jon Casey (that’s him on the left) joined me atop the Westin St. Francis where we drew a slew of happy campers—er, bankers! Caricatures are such a great way for a company to recognize individuals, it doesn’t get any more personal than this! —Doug

While I was drawing in Philadelphia, EventToons associate artist Slah Khudari was making his trade show debut drawing live digital caricatures for Televox at CBA in Orlando. Salah’s first professional gig was an EventToons party only six months ago for Google! Nothing like starting at the top! —Doug

Financial advisers from all over the country descended on McCormick Place to attaend the 2011 Morningstar Conference. Scout Investment Funds brought me along to add some fun to the affair. We had folks stopping by regularly to have a digital caricature done, and hear about Scout’s great funds. —Doug