Here is a drawing I found from a while ago. It was for a New Yorker story on Peter Gelb’s new regime at the Metropolitan Opera (now four years in). It shows from left to right, Placido Domingo, Karita Mattila, Mr. Gelb, Renee Fleming and Natalie Dessay sharing a bow in front of the famous gold curtain. The job got killed but I love this sketch for a bunch of reasons. I actually find caricature quite challenging but it helps when you’re really into the subject. This was a delight for me because I love all these people. Each is such a strong, distinct and familiar presence, they practically draw themselves! Also this, to me, is great example of a sketch that has a lot of verve and panache. I’m always desperately trying to recreate that feel in final art with varying degrees of success. Finally, it’s an embarrassing  glimpse of the pre-computer me. I only got a computer two years ago, (GASP!) and the way I used to forward a sketch (and still sometimes do) was to send the sketch by fax to my reps, then have them scan and forward it to the client. In this case the sketch was too large to fit through the fax machine, so I folded it in half and sent it as two pages. Hence the split in the drawing and the trace of the reverse side you can see faintly on either part. God bless Reactor for their infinite patience!!