Unfortunate Policy #4: "Draw me again! And again....and again...."

I've been drawing caricatures for over 36 years, averaging 10,000 caricatures a year.  You'd think I've had enough experience, but I still find things I can work on.  I've tried different patterns, different markers, nuance of course, but it's good to focus on humility and seek to learn more.

I love what I do, and it's an honor to be of service.  Service is something many businesses have forgotten - the reason why they exist, not that the customer is interrupting their day.  Considering I make a living doing something I love, the honor is even greater.

However, every artist has their dark side.  For some, the dark side may pale in comparison to others, but I've yet to meet an artist who heart isn't somewhat on their sleeve.  You can be a tremendous success, popular with the masses, but just one negative comment can crush you (if you let it.  There are tricks to avoid that - ask me and I'll write an article on it!)

A common thread artists fear? Judgement.

Any form of judgement - critiquing, criticizing, comparing, disseminating, objective, subjective, all of it only feeds the fear and self-loathing that an artist fights to keep at bay.

So as contradictory as it may seem, given how much I've drawn and for how long, I fear my work being compared or judged against another's, especially when it's mine.

No one hires us to "slow down and show off."  It's not that we're working at a furious or exhausting pace, it's that we want to take care of as many guests as possible. The unfortunate policy? No duplicates.

Set aside the dehumanizing perspective that I'm some sort of human copy machine, and that my fear of comparison ("this drawing of me looks different from this other drawing of me") what will inevitably happen the moment we draw someone again, is that we set a precedent that now we have to draw them with a friend, or with a picture on their phone.  Meanwhile the line backs up, and all it takes is "Hey!  Why don't I get to be drawn?  She got drawn 3 times!"   The client finds out, and despite our best efforts to keep everyone happy, we're the scapegoat - the clock milkers, the prima donnas who are the antithesis of what we promised - or "we said no" which is a doornail to a relationship.

The popular definition of insanity?  Doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

In this case, it's expecting human nature to be anything other than human nature, i.e. expecting the inevitable NOT to happen.

There are artists who will scoff at this policy and certainly if time permits, or if it's slow enough, we MAY draw someone again - or perhaps another artist can draw them (it can be fun to collect different styles, no problem!)  But precedence....oh that powerful precedence....

The road has many a flat squirrel who couldn't make a decision.