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For more than a decade I’ve been schlepping across Birmingham, the wild West Midlands, the UK, Europe and the World leaving a caricature almost everywhere I went.
I’ve been caricaturing at weddings, as a busker on the street and I’ve drawn caricatures for people who’ve helped me out during my travels, so I’ve found that my drawings have helped me get out of all kinds of scrapes, financial and otherwise, and made me a few friends along the way too!
Read on to hear some choice(and sometimes crazy) anecdotes from the life of a caricaturist, from the West Midlands to the Wild West of America…..

A Wedding in Wednesbury
As much as I like a trains, planes and automobiles style trek across the country, I really love working locally, and luckily these clients were having their wedding in Wednesbury, right around the corner from me. I planted myself at a table and drew caricatures of the lovely guests and enjoyed the drunken buzz of the wellwishers all around me.
The entertainment was great at this one, from the famed local ‘Dancing Grannies’ the Fizzogs(https://www.thefizzogs.com/) to clowns, but my favourite entertainment of the night was the Groom.
As the wedding couple sat down for their caricature the groom had obviously had a LOT of liquid fun, and so the bride had to hold his head up and straight when I needed to draw him!
We all had a loff about it, I managed to get a likeness and everyone had a whale of a time!

An Oxfordshire Sleepover
Back when I had been caricaturing for a year or so and only had a handful of events under my belt I got a gig drawing caricatures for a company located in a little town in rural Oxfordshire.
I remember I worked out meticulously my route, my train times and distinctly remember being suprised there were such late trains leaving from such a small town.
Anyway, I was relieved I’d be able to get back home after the gig, and after a fun few hours drawing caricatures of people in fancy dress I was out in the cool autumn night air and walking to the station.
Glancing at the departures board it took me a while to come to the realisation that it was empty. I was stuck here, at 11pm, in my suit, in the middle of the countryside, with nowhere to stay.
Faced with the prospect of a cold night sleeping in a bush, all I could think to do was walk back to the town pub, the only place that was open.
Well, I got chatting to some regulars about my plight(still resigned to sleeping in a bush) and these two lovely people offered to let me sleep on their couch!
The caricature gods definitely smiled on me that night. Whatever you’re doing now, lovely people that took me in, gawbless ya!

Estonian Rock bar- I will draw everyone!
During a hitchhiking journey I took through the countries that surround the Baltic sea I had a pretty fun stop off in Parnu, in the south of Estonia.
My attempt at selling caricatures on the street had failed miserably but ever the entrepreneur I decided to take my guitar into the local rock bar and ask if they needed a musician in the next couple of nights. Bemused but intrigued the gaffer said yes, and the next night I played a good few drunken hours of whatever songs came to mind that I thought people would appreciate. Buoyed by all the drink and merriment, and feeling cocksure, I decided to test my caricaturist skills and vowed to all in earshot that I would draw everyone in the bar! With no Estonian skills to speak of I went table to table drawing the confused and jovial alike!
The next morning, hangover intact, I went to the bar and the caricatures had been put up on the walls. Let’s just say what they lacked in quality they made up in quantity!

Penniless in Portland, Oregon
Before I settled in the West Midlands I went on a haphazard hitchhiking trip through the USA. It was full of mayhem and misfortune of all types, but a time when I really had to fall back on my caricaturist skills was in the loopy city of Portland, Oregon. By the time I reached Portland in my trip I was in a financial slump. I had two options. 1; Play my ukulele for passersby, which was amplified with the smallest amp known to man(literally a pocket amp) or 2; Ask strangers if they wanted me to draw their caricatures. I tried number 1 first, and predictably I couldn’t be heard for toffee(even if I had made $30 doing the same in Missoula!). It took a few days of poverty to force me to do number 2, as I didn’t have a sign to advertise my wares. What I did do was draw a pretty good caricature of myself that I had in a drawing pad which I took from cafe to cafe and showed to people sitting outside. ‘Would you like a caricature for 5 dollars?’, I would say, to which someone
memorably replied ‘I love what you’re doing but it’s not for me, thanks'(!).

To Conclude
And so those are some choice anecdotes from my life as a caricaturist. They’re not exhaustive but they are exhausting! If you know me and you can think of a caricature-based
anecdote that I haven’t mentioned let me know in the comments on facebook or instagram and I’ll include it in a future blog. Currently I’m based in Birmingham, West Midlands, but can travel all over the West Midlands, UK and beyond to entertain your friends with my caricatures and hilarious repartee. As well as a caricaturist for hire I’m a caricaturist for commission. Just check out my portfolio section of my website to see the wide variety of styles I’ve created work in and you’ll see something that is perfect for you or a loved one.

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Visit https://penjones.co.uk/

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