What's "Cartoon Bill" Up To?

My name is Bill Crowley and I draw and paint caricatures, paintings, and illustrations for a living. It has been a wonderful way to go through life...sitting at the easel or drawing board and creating. As a humorous illustrator, my work appears on greeting cards, children's books, newspapers and magazines, etc. Drawing CARICATURE GIFTS FROM PHOTOS keeps me very busy all year long (there is always someone who is having a 50th birthday, an anniversary, a promotion at work, etc.). I receive photos from all across the country thanks to the postal services and email.

The one thing I have learned to expect is the un-expected. As a free-lance artist it is always a surprise at the NEXT assignment. The variety of creative challenges makes going to the studio each day a new adventure. FOR INSTANCE: the latest fun job (shown here) is to draw members of a local CIGAR CLUB. They meet once a month at a local restaurant, tell stories (and lies) while enjoying a big dinner and then go to a near-by lounge where they sit around and smoke their cigars. Watch TV. Smoke their favorite cigar. Talk. Smoke their cigar. MY ASSIGNMENT: draw them so that they can hang on the wall...for all to enjoy and laugh at. The artwork is done with pen and watercolor. All framed in 8" x 10" frames. For me, as the artist, this is a fun assignment.

Since I am a non-smoker, what I did was go to the lounge and take digital photos and then print them out and do the finished artwork in the leisure of my studio. It works like a charm. They are fun guys and are enjoying the fruits of my labors. HINT, HINT: does this give you an idea?? Do you belong to a group that possibly would like a "hall of fame", sort to speak??? Let me know. Web site: www.cartoonbill.com. I have some of the smokers displayed on the site. Take a look and Thank You for tuning in.

Bill Crowley, artist

PS: I have two granddaughters and we, on a fun moment, had our pictures taken with these crazy glasses and noses. I laugh every time I look at it. Enjoy.

My studio is located in the Citadel Mall, Colorado Springs, CO. If you are fairly local, c'mon in. You'll see hundreds of samples of my caricatures, paintings, and illustrations.