Welcome to 2015! January tends to be a quieter month for bookings but there are always a few good ones due to so many trade shows like the CES in Las Vegas, The International North American Auto Show in Detroit. Here are some samples from this year’s charity fund-raiser for the Children’s Center in Detroit called AutoGlow. Goofy Faces was hired to provide 3 artists who drew eSketches™ all night for guests. Passersby enjoyed watching each drawing take shape on a large display monitor while the person being drawn received a final print of their eSketch when it was finished. This event takes place at Ford Field on the same night as the NAIAS Charity Preview Event so many well-dressed A-listers attend both. Here are some samples from the party!
Q: What defines a caricature vs. a cartoon, or is it one of those things that all caricatures are cartoons, but not vice versa? What actually makes a caricature!?
Well we are now in the final 2 weeks of 2014 and as usual, things are finally slowing down just before Christmas. The month of December is one of our busiest months of the year due to all the holiday party bookings we do. We also get busy illustrating many holiday caricatures as gifts for our customers each December as well. It all makes for a crazy and quick month each year. However, by the final week before Christmas, things get very quiet. Aside from a few New Years Eve bookings, all of our gigs are completed and gift orders delivered for the year. Our artists can finally take a breather and scramble to get there own Christmas shopping done before December 25th. We represent over 300 talented artists nationwide at Goofy Faces. We also have many artists who draw caricatures and paint faces for Goofy Faces at our retail stands throughout the year as well. And we get this opportunity each December to thank all of them for doing such a great job for us over the year. Thanks to all our hard-working artists for helping Goofy Faces continue to grow. We couldn’t have done it without you. Keep up the great work and we look forward to seeing more in 2015. Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Q: I am planning my wedding reception for the summer and love the idea of adding Goofy Faces to the reception for our guests to enjoy! We expect 300 guests. How many hours and/or caricature artists should we book?
A: Many of our clients and customers ask this question. Here is what we do to figure that out; First of all, unless it is a very intimate party with 30 guests or less, it is unlikely that everyone will have enough time to be dawn. But that’s ok. Not everyone wants a caricature. But everyone gets to enjoy watching our artists draw all your guests. Therefore aim to provide caricatures to about 60% of your guests. So, for instance, if you have 300 guests, plan for 180 of them to be dawn.
Next, how many hours do you have to work with? Most receptions tend to have 3 to 4 hours available for the artists to entertain guests. Most caricature artists average around 10 to 15 faces in B&W per hour (or half of that in color). It doesn’t matter whether your guests are drawn individually or as couples. The artist draws faces, so a couple counts as 2. Therefore, each artist is worth about 45 faces in 3 hours or 60 faces in 4 hours. To reach your goal of 180 caricatures for your guests, we suggest hiring 3 artists for 4 hours or 4 artists for 3 hours. The total price would be the same in either scenario since we book each artist by the hour. Rates vary per artist so make sure to research your choice of artists in our online directory. We also have an online artist calculator you can use to figure out how many artists you need as well.
# of artists X # of HRS = 60% of guest total
Q: We have a charity that holds an annual fundraiser every July. Would any of your artists be willing to donate their time to help entertain our guests during the event?
A: First off, I applaud those organizers’ efforts who take on the thankless task of soliciting donated services from vendors like us. It can be challenging to ask for donations from service providers who are used to charging for their services. Goofy Faces has participated in many charity events in the past. Some are organized with artists who we book while others I personally donate my own time during my slower months. Unfortunately, not many artists can afford to donate their time for events for free, especially during peak season. Artists make the majority of their income in the summer months, especially each weekend. They also get very busy during the holidays. Coincidentally, this is when many organizations choose to hold their fund-raisers and seek donated help.
If you plan to contact entertainers to help out your cause, avoid using services like Gigmasters since many of us pay your booking fees to be listed on their site. Also keep in mind that as entertainers, all us of are inundated with these kind of requests on a regular basis. This makes it very difficult for us to pick and choose which benefits to consider when we realize that we must give up paid work in order to commit to yours. I suggest a different strategy for your requests.
Instead of contacting artists to see if they can work for free, find a donor or sponsor who would be willing to pay in advance for the artists services in exchange for their business name or company logo preprinted on each sheet of paper they use. This way, charity organizers will have no trouble finding artists willing to work any fundraising event, while a sponsor is recognized for their part in your charity. We have found this method to be far more successful and have booked many charities using this process. Many artists will offer to print up the paper for free and even discount their hourly rate to help your cause.
The holiday season is swiftly approaching for 2014. December is one of our busiest months of the year due to so many companies and families hosting Christmas and New Year’s Parties across America. If adding our unique form of artistic, yet whimsical entertainment sounds enticing, you’re not alone. Last year we booked 37 parties in December and we expect to book many more than that this December. We have over 300 artists in our online directory but there are only so may weekends and evenings available to book during the holiday season. Therefore, to guarantee an artist for your party, don’t wait. Book it now. Happy Holidays!
Today is the most exciting week of the year…if you make a living as a caricature artist, that is. Artists from all over the world assemble once a year to enjoy an entire week of seminars, competitions, camaraderie and a ton of drawing at the International Society of Caricature Artists Annual Convention. ISCA (formerly known as the National Caricaturist Network or NCN) has been around since 1992 with a handful of American caricature artists gathering in Mexico for a get-away as well as a cozy convention. 22 years later and the organization has grown into a worldwide trade association with over 500 members from as far away as Mongolia! To find out more and to see who are this year’s top winners, check out ISCA’s public Facebook Page for the latest news.
The Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce Art of Achievement Awards recognizes outstanding business and community leadership and the artful ways in which successes are achieved in the greater Flint area. They held their awards ceremony at the Riverfront Banquet Center in downtown Flint last night and Goofy Faces was on hand with 4 eSketch™ artists to draw guests for 2 hours. It was a unique way to entertain attendees that went with their theme of creative arts. Many guests enjoyed having their eSketches™ drawn live while many more enjoyed watching each sketch take shape.
The Detroit Pistons had their 2014 home opener at the Palace of Auburn Hills on November 1st and Goofy Faces was there. The Pistons hired 2 eSketch™ artists and a face painter to entertain fans who arrived before the opening tip off. Both eSketch™ artists provided live color digital caricatures to guests at The Palace that featured a Pistons basketball player wearing their home jersey. Fans passing by enjoyed seeing each caricature take shape on a large display screen while those modeling for their caricature received a free 5X7 IN color print to take home as a souvenir from their evening at The Palace.
The Macomb County Provider Alliance brings together organizations which operate residential, vocational, and related services programs for individuals with disabilities in Macomb County. All activities of the MCPA are built around the common interest of improving the business conditions for their membership organizations that provide support to persons with disabilities in Macomb County. Each Fall, they host a conference for providers who work in Macomb County. The conference is an uplifting event that features a catered lunch, prizes, music and entertainment. Goofy Faces has provided caricature entertainment for the past 3 years and each year, they become more popular with the attendees. This year’s theme was Superheroes. Guests had a choice to be drawn as Wonder Woman, Superman or Supergirl just in time for Halloween. 
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