Caricatures for Shell Christmas Party Edmonton

I had a great time drawing for a Shell Christmas Party. They treated their employees to a jazz band, DJ, karaoke, a great dinner and me doing caricatures! It was cold night with snow from a recent big snowfall, but everyone was having a great time. I enjoyed chatting with those people I drew. Here are a few of my favourite drawings from the evening.

Caricatures for Shell Christmas Party Edmonton

Caricatures for Shell Christmas Party Edmonton

Caricatures for Shell Christmas Party Edmonton

Caricatures for Shell Christmas Party Edmonton

Caricatures for Shell Christmas Party Edmonton

Caricatures by Edmonton Artist Laurel Hawkswell

Face and Body Painting at Christmas Party Edmonton

What do you get when you have a Christmas party and little girls in pretty dresses? …. You get several who want you to paint Elsa from the movie “Frozen”! They were so adorable all together.

Santas, snowmen, snowflakes, Grinch, gingerbread men …. it’s such a nice treat to paint Christmas things instead of the usual stuff.

Body Painting at Christmas Party Edmonton

Caricatures by Edmonton Artist Laurel Hawkswell

Caricatures at the INTUIT Kid's Christmas Party Edmonton

This little girl was so super cute. She gave me about six different smiles to choose from!I loved her little sweater dress as you can see in the drawing. Another one of my favourite things: her hair style. I love drawing that crisp cut.

It was a day of drawing entire families. I don’t have any photos though because one family member would sit down for me while the rest of them were off getting their face painted, or a balloon animal made, or eating and then once I was done drawing that person, the member of the family would come over and the one sitting in my chair would head off to do the other activities too. Gathering a whole family up for a photo seemed like too much to ask. But I’m happy to have this little gem of a photo to show you ….

Caricatures at the INTUIT Kid's Christmas Party Edmonton

Caricatures by Edmonton Artist Laurel Hawkswell

Caricatures for Thurber Engineering Christmas Party

Some photographic treasures I found on my camera from Thurber Engineering’s Christmas party in December. 

Caricatures for Thurber Engineering Christmas Party at the River Cree Casino

I truly love looking over photos from past parties...

Hope they mean as much to them as they do me!

 Caricatures by Edmonton Artist Laurel Hawkswell

Caricatures for Boschman Construction's Company Christmas Party

A beautiful Christmas party at The Woodvale Community League for Boschman Contruction. Complete with beautiful decorations, buffet dinner,photographer, Coco the Clown, a visit from Santa and me doing caricatures! 

I drew a lady who I’d actually drawn for at her son’s 1st birthday party a couple months ago! She was at this party. 

There were some sweet kids, nice families and even a nice young lady who was working at the event who came to say hello at the end who thought it was cool that I was doing caricatures. She’d wished that she could just stand and watch instead of working. 

a Man holds up his Caricature

Caricature drawn at Edmonton Christmas party

Pointing at his Caricature drawn by Edmonton Artist

a couple with their caricatures

Caricatures by Edmonton Artist Laurel Hawkswell

Caricatures at Pasticcio Trattoria

I drew caricatures at Pasticcio Trattoria for a company Staff Christmas Party. It was a cozy, warm place with a great atmosphere for visiting. From what I heard, their food was amazing, with food being served throughout the evening. I was busy drawing caricatures but I didn’t mind because nobody was in a rush, so it wasn’t a “get the lineup done” kinda event. What a treat! I chatted with some really nice people while I drew them.

 The two ladies pictured together just met each other that night yet I thought they were best friends till they told me that they had never met before the party.

The two ladies pictured together just met each

 The couple in the photo are engaged and told me the story of how he proposed. It was really special and I loved hearing it. THAT’S the kinda cool job I have!

Engaged Couple with their Caricature

 The picture with Nello, the owner of Pasticcio was a treat to draw for obvious reasons. He’s got quite the outstanding personality! Amy, the organiser of the party, wanted Nello to be drawn before we were done and I sure wanted to draw him from the minute I walked into the restaurant! Find Nello and his staff at 11520 - 100 Avenue in Edmonton. I intend to go in … maybe after Christmas when I take a bit of a break to recharge my artistic batteries!

Nello, the owner of Edmonton's Pasticcio 

Caricatures at the Alberta Teachers Association Christmas Party

I had a good time drawing at the Alberta Teachers Association’s Christmas Party. Here are a couple examples from the evening. My camera lens had something on it and made the first photo a bit blurry but it also gave a neat effect. I would have taken more photos if I could have managed to get the smudge off! The second photo, the gentleman was nice enough to use his camera and send me the photo. 

Edmonton couple at ATA Christmas Party with their caricature

couple at Alberta Teachers Association Christmas Party with their caricature

As you can see, I had a great spot to spend the evening with a beautiful tree in the background. I’ve finally got into my own Christmas spirit with an evening at home decorating our house for Christmas.

Caricatures by Edmonton Artist Laurel Hawkswell

Caricatures for INTUIT's Family Christmas Party 2013

It was nice to be back drawing caricatures for INTUIT again this year for their annual Family Christmas Party. 

Boys at Christmas party hold their caricature

Oh I had such fun! Take a look at some of my favourites … These three little boys were adorable! They sad so nicely for me, polite and look how cute they are! This couple was so great to draw. I drew the man first and was laughing so much myself because I was tickled pink at how I’d captured his great smile. 

Smile! a couple hold their caricature

After the event was over, another caricaturist and I were chatting about how there’s nothing like the feeling when you feel like you really captured somebody! That’s how I felt with theirs.

 Caricatures by Edmonton Artist Laurel Hawkswell

Caricatures at Snow Valley's Christmas Staff Party

It was great to be back once again, to Edmonton Snow Valley Ski Club's Staff Christmas Party! I was neat to see some new and some familiar faces. Here are a few of my favourite's from the evening…

Why is the young guy holding up a package of Sharpies you may be asking yourself? He was saying that I must go through a lot of them and he hoped that I got a deal on them. I said, "Well, I just get them from Staples." we got the idea that I should mention Sharpies in every blog post I do and eventually they may take notice and send some my way for free or give me a good deal on them. Well, I do buy them at Costco too but I don't think Costco sells the big ones that I also use. Here's another night of using my Sharpies!

The group caricature of the two couples was a blast to do. Actually, my favourite part was at the end when I showed them and the blonde guy wearing the toque was the only one who hadn't looked at it at all through the process and he had a great laugh when he saw it.

So here's to another great night with the Snow Valley crew and here's to my son and his buddies having lots of fun on the hill at Snow Valley till the end of the ski season. It really is a great atmosphere for your kids to spend a day in.

caricatures by Canadian Artist Laurel Hawkswell 

http://hilaurel.blogspot.com

Caricatures for Edmonton Hotel and Convention Centre

Edmonton Hotel and Convention Centre had their Staff and Family Christmas Party last night and they invited me to come draw caricatures for the evening! This is a daughter of one of the staff. Such a pretty smile!

I was taken aback (in a good way) when one lady commented to me, "You're so kind. I've noticed that you compliment people a lot." I had just told her that she had such lovely, high cheek bones. And I found it neat that someone had noticed … because I have to be honest and say that I know that I do tend to vocalise the positives in people when they are sitting in front of me getting their caricature done. I mean, people already feel vulnerable having me stare at them, staring at every piece of their face. So if I think that they have pretty eyes or a neat hair cut, I tell them! Most of us are too critical of ourselves to start with, it can't hurt to hear a compliment!

So, I guess that's my point today, go out there and say something nice to someone! They'll feel good and you'll feel good too.

On the topic of going out and saying something nice to someone:

The other day, as I was heading out of our neighbourhood, I stopped to tell a man that I loved the snowman they had in their front yard. I said that it made me smile every time I passed it. He gave me the biggest smile when I told him that. They could have built the snowman so that it faced their front window but instead they faced it out towards the street. Like a little gift to passers by.

caricatures by Canadian Artist Laurel Hawkswell http://hilaurel.blogspot.com

2 pictures from Staff Christmas Party

Friends with their Caricature

Man with his Caricature

I was invited back a second day to Design Group Staffing Edmonton to draw caricatures of more staff. The organizer said my caricatures were 'a hit' with everyone. I could hear people out in the hallway say,
"Let's see it. Oh, it looks just like you!" I guess it kinda goes without saying that I always like to hear that!

As you can see from these photos, sometimes something as simple as a great hair style makes it a lot of fun for me!

Oh, and one of the guys came back in later and gave me a box of Belgium Chocolates to show appreciation for his caricature! My son thought that was a great thing for me to come home with.

Caricatures by Canadian Artist Laurel Hawkswell http://hilaurel.blogspot.com

Caricatures from two different events I drew at this week

Young woman with her Caricature

A guy with his Caricature

A young lady with her Caricature

A Boy with his Caricature at a Birthday Party

Photos from two different events I drew at this week. The blonde, curly haired boy is from an 8 year old boy's birthday party. I thought when I walked into the party that this group of boys wouldn't care one way or the other the fact that I was there to draw them but I was really pleasantly surprised by their enthusiasm for it. Each one sat and chatted with me while it was there turn and several came back into
the room to look at the progress of each other's caricature. One little boy (now remember, they were 8 years old ...) sat down and said to me, "You're small." I was taken aback a bit and definitely amused!
I replied that yes, I agreed that I was short. And he said, "But you're smaller than my sister who's in grade nine. You're really small!" Oh the funny things kids say! When I repeated the story today
to someone they said that it was way bettter than hearing that he thought I was old looking or something! AMEN TO THAT! The other photos are from Design Group Staffing's Employee Christmas Lunch. They even invited me to enjoy their catered turkey dinner which was absolutely delicious. I had a blast drawing people. Here are a few of them. The one dark haired lady isn't smiling in the photo which is a real shame because her smile is beautiful as you can see from the
drawing. I giggle when I look at the girl's caricature with the curly hair. Her whole face lit up when she smiled and talked and I wanted to get that animated feel to the drawing too. I think I got it! Loved
drawing her curls too! So the caricatures were such a success that they invited me back today to finish up ALL the staff! The atmosphere there was so warm and welcoming that going in today felt really
comfortable. I almost felt like an employee myself!

Caricatures by Canadian Artist Laurel Hawkswell http://hilaurel.blogspot.com

Caricatures for Thurber Engineering Ltd.

Company Christmas parties are upon us! Tonight I drew at Thurber Engineering's Christmas party. It was really bizarre tonight … all of a sudden I was faced with temporary moustaches! Yes, it's Movember and men all across Edmonton are sporting moustaches that their wives or girlfriends don't like! It's really hard for a caricaturist to NOT draw what they see!

Here are some of my favourites from the night. I really do wish I had the time to take photos of each one so that afterwards I could sit down with a cup of tea and say, "Oh ya, that was a fun one to draw!" At least I try and take the time to take a couple pictures. I'll be able to look at these ones when I'm older and greyer!

caricatures at Corporate Christmas party

couple caricatures at Corporate Christmas party

caricatures at Corporate Christmas party

Caricatures by Canadian Artist Laurel Hawkswell http://hilaurel.blogspot.com

Caricatures at Intuit's 2012 Kid's Christmas Party

I enjoyed seeing families having such a wonderful time at the INTUIT Kid's Christmas Party again this year. I believe it was my fourth year drawing at it. The sweet mom in the photo with her two kids and husband said, "Oh that makes me happy looking at it." made my night!  And then there was Nicole who worked all night keeping the lineups for caricatures organised and running smoothly. I had to draw her before I left. So unfair for her not to have the opportunity to get one done. She really liked that I got her pregnant tummy in the drawing! How could I NOT make sure I got that in?!

family caricature

woman with her caricature

Caricatures by Canadian Artist Laurel Hawkswell http://hilaurel.blogspot.com

caricatures at SNOW VALLEY Christmas Part

SNOW VALLEY invited me to draw caricatures at their Christmas Party. Here is one of my favourites!

caricatures at Snow Valley Ski Resort

Edmonton Artist
Edmonton caricatures