Your Source for Caricature Art, Art Instruction, and More!
Home
Hello, and Welcome to Dennis Draws! Your One-Stop Shop for CARICATURE ART, GRAPHIC DESIGN, and ILLUSTRATION!
Dennis Draws Tom & Jerry:
An animation history lesson on the GREAT CHUCK JONES and his Tom and Jerry design!
How to Draw April & Donatello (TMNT)
Here’s a lesson on how to draw characters in COOL ACTION POSES! Enjoy!
Tips On Creating Cute and Cuddly Characters
Get your two sheets of paper, black magic marker, pencil, and light table ready for this lesson on creating cute characters! Message me to give me ideas on what to teach next time!
A Quickdraw of The Fab 5 of Oz
This video illustrates how I normally approach a drawing. I start with the basic shapes like circles, cylinders, and squares . This forms a sort of wire-frame for my art to go on top of. I do this in pencil so that I may brainstorm without any sort of boundary to my creativity.
In this case, I inked the characters in black while the background was inked in color. I liked how Hanna- Barbera was doing this in their cartoons in the late 80s, allowing for the characters to really pop in front of the settings. I reinforce this by going darker around the edges of each character to separate them from each other. Here I’m using Chartpak markers.
As for the background, I use the Disney technique of outlining the shapes in a darker color. For instance, the yellow-brick road is outlined in brown, followed by a fill of yellow. In this case, I’m using Prismacolor Markers.
About
Bio:
(From Left to Right) My mom, Brother Christian, and Myself
Dennis started drawing at the age of four, in Somerville, NJ. His father, a Colombian-American immigrant saw his son’s talent and immediately entered him in local contests. Dennis was happy to see his father so proud of him. Having grown up with Spanish as his first language in a predominantly white neighborhood, art was an ice breaker in his early days of education. In pre-school, instead of recess; Dennis preferred to fill post-it pads with sequential illustrations, staying in with his teacher so that she may add captions. Dennis didn’t know how to write yet and found this special time with his teacher very rewarding. Though this created a pattern of social avoidance, it’d eventually pay, flourishing in his very own “Doodle World”. Dennis very much enjoyed reading his older sisters Archie comics and in the 4th grade, he was thrilled to be collaborating with classmates in making their own comics called “Dangerous David”. Later he would be creating comics for his high school newspaper. In 2008, Dennis entered Tampa Bay’s Art Festival and won 1st Place in the field of character concept design. Later, Romero received his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts (Computer Animation Major) from IADT in 2009.
Dennis interned at the Spot Ad Agency (2008) in Tampa, making computer graphics in Photoshop for local real estate properties, followed by a job at Virtual Web Productions (2010); acting in commercials, writing scripts, and designing computer graphics. Dennis began to see the effects Photoshop was having in his illustrations as early as his college days, and continued to thrive in this particular software. His career relied heavily in this design realm from then on. As a kid, he loved the idea of having a career in ads like Darren Stevens on “Bewitched” or Allison on “Melrose Place” and like in these shows, he was starting to see a big influence from marketing and social media in his portfolio.
In the summer of 2017, Dennis looked into the field of Caricatures. His illustration style was influenced by Dan DeCarlo (Archie Comics, Josie & the Pussycats), Bruce Timm (Batman, the Animated Series) and Hanna-Barbera (Scooby-Doo). He liked his characters to have very simple, iconic lines. He predicted this style would come across nicely in the caricature field. He was right, that winter he landed a job at Walt Disney World as a caricature artist. He loved learning from his peers on the value of economizing lines, having a goal of five minutes per person. He decided to take what he was learning and started his own business, Dennis Draws & Designs; doing caricatures and graphics for local businesses from his home office in Lake Nona.
The best place to go and see a variety of Dennis work is his Instagram (@dennisdrawsorlando) where he posts almost daily. Currently, Dennis still makes appearances at the Disney Boardwalk and Icon Park, as well as performing caricatures at parties and events like yours!
Information on Events and Commissions:
Dennis Draws & Designs provides live entertainment for your events and parties with CARICATURE ART! Contact us to book yours today!
You can count on DD&D to get your ideas across and capture you and your business in art. Be it for logos, illustrations, or graphics. Look around this site to get an idea of how DD&D can help your notions take flight.
Customer Feedback:
My client for this project was Roxanne B. We’d met at Disney on the Boardwalk where she’d purchased a caricature from me. I’d mentioned that I take commissions online as well. For Father’s Day, Roxanne wanted to gift this photo as a digital painting without the Ryder truck that is seen in there in front of the lighthouse. She’d sent me the following picture as well to help me see the structure without the truck. While I could’ve imposed the boys in front of this picture, I felt the sky was too foreboding for the atmosphere of a light family painting. Instead I chose the following picture of a more inviting sky.From these three pictures, I used my Photoshop skills to come up with this finished piece and had it printed on canvas. Said Roxanne,” It looks awesome! Thanks so much! “
Contact
We will be happy to answer any questions you may have about Dennis Draws & Designs or booking Dennis as an artist for your next event.