The ToonHeadz Team traveled down to Orlando, Florida, and attended the 31st annual International Society of Caricature Artists convention. The International Society of Caricature Artists, or ISCA, is a non-profit organization dedicated to elevating the art and artists of caricature. Each year, ISCA holds an awesome convention that is packed with fantastic caricature artists from all over the world. The convention consists of seminars, meetings, retail booths, and one big competition. Each artist registered to compete will receive a wall section inside the big banquet hall where the convention is being held. Each wall space is decorated with fantastic, creative, and fun caricatures to leave any artist inspired for years.
This is a caricature artist's dream! You get to meet incredible caricature artists from all over the world, shake hands with some talented and well-known artists, make lasting friendships, learn the art of caricature, get outstanding critiques on improving yourself artistically, learn new business ideas, and push yourself to be a better artist overall. The convention is jam-packed with creative artwork stretching from paintings to digital work and to even 3D designs. Each artist brings their creativity and gets to play with new ideas.
This year, ISCA invited some fantastic speakers to the convention. They had the famous Paul Moyse, Brian Oakes, Alani Jimenez, Melissa & Paul Sepulveda, and an incredible art exhibit with Led Redman.
" Each Speaker did an amazing Job. I appreciate ISCA because it never fails to inspire and teach me better tricks for being a better artist." -A.J. Jensen
This was an excellent opportunity for The ToonHeadz Team to learn and help push themselves to be better artists. It's always helpful to learn from different artists; that way, you can gain momentum in being inspired, motivated, and push yourself in new creative ways.
"I learned so much at ISCA! I had a blast." -Meagan Lafferty
Competitions and Awards
During the ISCA week, a couple of competitions were going on each day. These are; The Likeness Competition, The Speed Competition, and the Best Live Event Style Competition. The Speed Competition is entertaining because everyone is racing to draw the quickest caricatures. It's also super interactive, as some artists will be subjects for the artists trying to compete in the competition. There are some talented artists out there that can complete a caricature in about a minute!
The Likeness Competition is all about getting rarkableme likenesses of a subject while still adding exaggerations to make it a caricature. Each round is followed by a new subject that is being hosted on a screen. Each artist studies each subject and continues to think,
"What makes this person, this person???"
The Best Live Event Style Competition is a lot like the Speed Competition, but this time drawing excellent, clean, and unique caricatures for the subjects that sit down. Each artist's style shines in this round. Each artist competing will have 30 minutes to draw as many fun caricatures as possible.
This year, ISCA had unique awards that artists were trying to compete for. Each award has its own category and is granted to the artist that was voted for that particular category. The majority of the award has a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place for each category. These Awards include: Best Likeness Award World's Fastest Caricature Artist
Best Live Event Style
Facebook Contest Winner ( artists that compete on the Facebook Group throughout the year )
Best Live/ Retail Portfolio
Best Studio Piece
Ishmael Roldan Award ( Rookie of the Year )
Guest of Honor Award
Outstanding Group Composition Award
Best Body Situation Award
Most Humorous Award
Outstanding Monochromatic Technique Award
Outstanding Color Technique Award
Outstanding Exaggerated Style Award
Outstanding 3D Technique
Outstanding Cartoon Style
Most Innovative Technique
Top 10 Caricatures of the Year ( 1-10 of the best caricatures at ISCA )
Top 10 Caricature Artists of the Year ( 1-10 of the best caricature artists at ISCA )
Caricature Artists at ISCA
With each passing day of the convention, the walls in the banquet hall get more decorated with outstanding and creative artwork. Each artist that is competing will have their own wall space in the banquet hall. Each wall space showcases the artist's unique talents and style with caricatures of other artists attending ISCA.
" The best and most overwhelming thing about ISCA is wondering the room towards the ending days of the convention. You end up feeling humbled, motivated, embarrassed, shocked and inspired all at the same time. It's a cluster of feelings that can leave you either excited or insecure. Which, in my opinion, really helps push you as an artist. You always want to be challenged and inspired - that way, you continue with your artistic journey." -AJ Jensen
The reason why caricature is so fun is that you can draw one person a million different ways, but no matter the approach, you can still see the resemblance of that person. There can be outrageously exaggerated caricatures to very minimal caricatures. You can have a caricature pop out with tons of colors or have a caricature only have clean and crisp lines. The styles of the artists are embedded in each of their artwork, which allows you to always see a different approach on a subject. It's like seeing the same story of a movie be directed by 30 different directors. The story is always the same, but the approach is always different.
ISCA really showcases that possibility.
Artists from all over the world are drawing non-stop in the convention hall. ISCA not only brings new artists to the caricature community but super popular artists as well. There is a huge range of talent inside the convention hall. The beautiful thing about a caricature is that it always helps expand any sort of artist creatively. So you will see a lot of artists working in animation studios that used to do live caricatures at theme parks. Caricature is a great tool and lesson for learning how to be professional, draw fast, interact with clients or guests, and find an amazing drawing style that hundreds will admire. ISCA will help you meet friends and shake hands with artists that you have admired.
Voting On the 4th Day of the convention, every artist is required to stop hanging artwork on their wall at the cut-off time. Which is always fun to see. A lot of artists are scrambling to finish their last painting or drawing and get it hung on their walls before the time runs out. You will see paper flying up on wall space, artists quickly scribbling their last line on a drawing, and people rushing around. Once the countdown is finished, you will hear a combination of clapping and big sighs throughout the convention hall. Some artists are just happy that they can get to sleep, as some stay up for 30 hours.
Later during the day, artists meet back up at the convention hall to start voting. Which is a bit overwhelming as there are so many amazing choices. All the artists that competed will be voters for the convention, and winners in a category are based on how many votes they received.
Artists will vote for each award category. They will find walls that they like and vote accordingly to that category. This can be harder than it seems, as you will find two walls that you like and have to pick one for that particular category.
ISCA voting system is now completely digital.
ToonHeadz Team at ISCA
Most of the ToonHeadz artists that attended ISCA were brave enough to put their artwork on their wall. As mentioned earlier, it's a very overwhelming feeling, as an artist, to be surrounded by so much creativity in one room. So putting artwork on a wall and showcasing your skill is a very vulnerable and brave thing to do.
"I am so proud of the ToonHeadz Team. It takes a lot of guts to put your artwork up at an ISCA convention. Every one of them impressed me beyond believe and I could definitely tell how much their work improved just by taking this journey." -AJ Jensen
Lillian Cotton's Wall
Meagan Lafferty's Wall
Sean Davis' Wall
Gabby Gonzalez's Wall
Ana Doran's Wall
Destin Andrews' Wall
AJ Jensen's Wall
Awards
On the last day, ISCA holds its annual award ceremony. It's a very professional and fun atmosphere, as a lot of the artists dress formally, and speeches are conducted showcasing the love for caricature. At the ceremony, ISCA also vocalizes their plans and organization for the organization. All the attendees will celebrate the organization's work and the awarded artists for that year.
This year, AJ Jensen - Owner of The ToonHeadz, was awarded five different awards. This is a massive achievement for The ToonHeadz. AJ Jensen has been doing caricatures for nine years now and has always been inspired to push himself to be a great caricaturist. AJ Jensen was granted 2nd Place in Outstanding Body Situation, 1st Place in Most Humorous, 1st Place in Body Situations, Guest of Honor Award, and 9th Place in Caricature Artist of the Year. The entire ToonHeadz Team is super proud of AJ's achievement.
"I am still in total shock about all the awards. It's super validating. I appreciate and thank all of The ToonHeadz Team for helping me along the way. If it wasn't for them, I firmly believe I wouldn't have gotten this awesome opportunity. Each artist on the team shines a light on different traits with caricature. Either being exaggeration, speed, clean lines, likeness, color, and humor. You have to appreciate that opportunity as it helps you grow artistically. And that is what my team helps me with every day."
-A.J. Jensen
Each year at ISCA, the 1st place winner of Caricature Artist of the Year takes home the Golden Nosey. The Golden Nosey is the highest honor to win at ISCA. Winners of the Golden Nosey showcase a super unique and loveable way of creating a caricature.
At ISCAcon 31, Sebastian Martin took home the Golden Nosey. His artwork is gold and one of the best takes on how to create a caricature. His ISCA wall was creative, fun, imaginative, balanced, exaggerated, and
gleaming.
The ToonHeadz Team is so proud of Sebastian's achievement and will never stop being a cheerleader for him. This is Sebastian's 2nd Golden Nosey.
The ToonHeadz also congratulates all the other winners at ISCAcon 31.
Kiko Yamada, Derek Brennan, Christian Meesey, Manny Avetisyan, Damion Dunn, Daniel Stieglitz, Damon Renthrope, Paul Sepulveda, Derek Brennan, Melissa Sepulveda, Glenn Ferguson, Kelly Berry, Joe Bluhm, Steve Dorris, Kelly O'Brien, Keita Noda, Carlos Ampudia, Carlos Fuenmayer, Kento Hino, Sarah Hartse, Tom Richmond, Heather Proctor, Thomas Ryan, Dan Almariei, Vincent Rensel, Ahn Seulki, Jorge Torreabla, Chinami Nishida, Brian Denisiuk, Rob Hume, Kage Nakanishi, and Eric Goodwin.
If you want more information about ISCA, please check out their website for caricature content and information about upcoming conventions. www.caricature.org
If you are or want to be a caricature artist, ISCA is one of the best opportunities for you. You will not only have the chance to receive awesome content, but you can have the luxury of meeting new and fun caricature artists around the world. Becoming an ISCA member will allow you to join the Facebook Group, Facebook Contest, Caricature BBQ, receive Exaggerated Features, and enjoy awesome content. If you want to add another journey to your caricaturing adventure, ISCA is one of the best routes to take.
Thanks to everyone that provided photos for this Blog. Mary Bluhm, Joe Bluhm, Sebastian Martin, Michelle Garzon, Damon Renthrope, Damion Dunn, Kelsey Roadfeldt, Erik Roadfeldt, Emily Byrne, Justin Glazer, Kelly O'Brien, Heather Joy, Haley Likes, Kim Morton, and Valta Klints.