Not very happy with this one. I think my caricatures are getting better and the Obama looks pretty good, but the idea is a bit half-baked. Making another list, how to stop the half-baked ideas:

1. make a couple versions before I start drawing.
2. get a second opinion.
3. think through what I really want to say.
4. time, time, time

Very funny site popped up. One of the political cartoonist is ranting about other cartoonist and their lack of talent. Unsure how long he can carry on with this tone, but still, his observations are keen and it is nice to hear a voice that is not cagle-rific. http://badcartoonist.com/

This time I lowered the Levels of the font in PS, instead of the image.

This cartoon started out so well... but then I went off the deep end with symbolism. At one point I was considering putting a reference to Narcissus in the painting and having Nader staring at it... Then I smudged that out and gave him a small mirror. I have no idea whether it works or not.

Noticing some issues with my caricatures.... (other than my Nader turned out way too realistic). I'm doing the big heads, little bodies thing. I don't know if this is bad, but I do know it is a common tic for real "caricaturists" (you know, those people who work at amusement parks,who are overly kind with your features, and who draw you doing your favorite activity like flying a rocket ships). If I practice more on the caricatures and make them more iconic, I think I can draw the heads smaller and overcome this tic... but then again, do I want to overcome it? Most political cartoonist draw so iconistic, that they make all their people regulation size. But do I have to do what most cartoonist do? Also, I noticed some of Steve Brodner's work in the New Yorker (see http://www.stevebrodner.com/ ...nice little political water colors)... and noticed he got away with the big heads little bodies thing... and he is a less iconistic artist. So, blah, for now I'm going to try not to worry about it.

My brother suggested I play with the Levels in PS to get my lines darker and to work better with the true-black font. I tried it with the above. Also, my registration copy of Font Creater ran out of time. Can't buy a new copy of the software now... I'll need to find another solution for my font woes.

I thought it was funny how Chavez was threatening to cut off oil from the US while continuing to sell the majority of its oil to, um, the US. Not that I side with US oil (or certainly not Exxon Mobil), but Venezuela obviously has no choice. I listened to a news story where they said Exxon Mobil made something like 10 times more money than the GNP of Venezuela and really didn't need their oil.

I also thought it would be funny to draw Chavez as a bourgeois gentleman, worried about the "bandits."

Um, don't ask.... I actually think this is a funny cartoon, even though the drawing sucks. I've been only able to complete a few half-baked ideas lately... I would like to have time to draw two different sketches based on the same idea, then pick one. This may eliminate some of the garbage.

As for pens, I've eliminated a few more.. The Uniball Vision Elites have too much friction in the finer points. The Staedtler is sort of fun, but for some reasons my drawings always turn out bad with them (this one, for example).... I'm not sure why. It's sort of like that one mirror in the house that always makes you look like a complete dork. I'm about to get on a website and order a set of illustrating pens. Enough with this Staples/Target crap.