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827SPOTLIGHTNJ2_2023-08-27-14-33-37

My guest today is Rui Ma. He is the owner of Caricatures by Rui and his work is absolutely fantastic. What do you look for in capturing the essence of your subjects and your sketches? Well, um doing caricatures is actually pretty tricky. Um uh It's actually, it's hard to explain because it's the absence of detail and picking the correct details because you wanna make a, like a uh it, it's a simple drawing, you know, it's, that's why it's done so quickly. Um But it just takes a lot of practice. I mean, uh you have to simplify your, the characteristics from like, uh you know, like simple shapes, the distance of those shapes and proportions. It's like, uh it's like juggling a lot of things, but, you know, you get the hang of it. If you really put the time in. Let's take a look at your sketches too. I know people loved your work when you came to the News 12 Barbecue. Look at this. It's fantastic. Yeah, those are all um how long does it take to do this? Uh about 3 to 5 minutes a person that's, that's usually how, I mean, women take a little bit longer just because of, you know, long hair and, but, uh, yeah, it's, I try to do it quick because people don't like to be shared out for too long. I can imagine. What are some of your favorite sketches? Um, well, I do, I love doing live live sketches and getting artwork done like quickly and I don't like to dwell on, you know, art work for too long. I, I like to finish it in a day or so if I'm doing something bigger. But um uh I actually have AAA new favorite tool that I love to use. It's a new drawing tool. It's like the, the tablet where I do um digital caricatures. I'm, I'm trying to bring that into gig work and I'm also in the process of, of getting a caricature photo booths which will be incorporated into the, into my business as well. What's the challenge of working with a digital caricature versus one with a pen or pencil? Oh, it's much more equipment. You know, you have to bring a printer, you have to bring, you know, the, the, the tablet has to be connected with wires. It's, you know, it's a little more involved and, and it does, I'm trying to streamline it but, but it's uh it just take, it takes a little bit longer to actually get the printed photo out and then with, with drawing uh live characters with pencil and paper. It's, it's so much easier, you know, like drawing real quick and then you just hand it over instead of waiting for the print out to come out and, you know, and then people want it emailed and different, different um sizes for social media. And, you know, it just takes a little, a little more time consuming. Says caricatures are often cartoonish, but he opted to soften it for his customers. And coming up next at noon, he talks more about his digital art.

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827spotlightnjpart1_2023-08-27-14-29-32

We are talking with Rui Ma. He is the owner of caricatures by Rui and his work is fantastic as we've been showing you in this segment so far. You were talking about digital art. Let's go ahead and take a look. And you said you wanted to keep up with, with that social media was not something you were big on at first, but it is something you've come to adopt and love. Oh, yeah, I mean, it's a great, I mean, you could do so much with, with the digital artwork, correct mistakes. I mean, it's, it's great. But um yeah, it's true. I, I, at first I wasn't really into social media or even the internet so much but, you know, I had to uh adapt and, and for my business sake, you know, does it feel like a sketch a little bit? I just got, I, I remember that but no, it's nothing like it's way beyond. I just got, yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's like a, it's, it's a big uh tablet tablet and has so many features. It's, it's so great. I, I recommend it to any aspiring artist. Now. You said you had to rely on social media to help you get your business off the ground and growing. So how have you tapped into it to help you? Uh Believe it or not? Instagram has uh helped me out a lot. Um Google, just Google business pages, just setting up a business page really helped me out a lot. Um I get a lot of inquiries that way. Um social media, actually social media, not so much, but, but um word of mouth is, is big and, and um where are some of the places that you do? The sketches? Like I said, you came here to the station for our barbecue. What other places do you do this? Well, over the 15 years of doing characters, I've, uh I've done every kind of event. I mean, I, I think I've done every occasion. Um but I mostly do weddings actually, believe it or not. Um And weddings are always so much fun, you know, in general guests are, are pretty receptive and, and happy to, to get a piece of artwork to bring home. You know, it's, it's a great job. I never knew people did sketches at weddings. I love that. That is something new. Now, do you like working with adults versus Children or both? Um Children are, I, I love doing both adults and Children but Children, you know, they, they, they don't like to sit still for too long and adults sometimes too, but adults are are more, uh, believe it or not. They like it just as much as kids. And, uh, and, you know, the, it's sometimes adults are hard to do too, even at weddings at the end of the night when they've had too many drinks. But everybody likes seeing the finished product. Oh, yeah, they love it. Yeah, they get a kick out of it and you can see the finished product that he did for me with my sketch in the next segment here on News 12. So stay tuned for that.

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Ruy Mejia, of Caricatures by Ruy, joins this week’s Spotlight New Jersey to discuss the art of caricature illustrating and more.

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827SPOTLIGHTNJREAL1_2023-08-27-14-35-06

Spotlight New Jersey: Caricatures by Ruy

I am delighted to introduce you to my guest today, Rui Ma. He is with Caricatures by Rue and Hazlett. You are just so talented. You were at the news 12 barbecue this summer. Everybody loved your work. I said I had to bring you on. It's good to have you here. I'm excited to be here. Thank you. My pleasure. So, go ahead. Tell me all about your background and how you found out you have this gift. Well, I'm a, a self taught artist. I, I started at a very young age. I was very interested in um art and music and um I've been doing this for like 15 years now, caricatures professionally professionally. Now you said you started very young, how young uh as as far as I can remember, I was always drawing doodling, getting in trouble in school for not paying attention. But uh yeah, I um started at a very young age. II, I just always loved it like art and music. Did the teachers look at your drawings to see what you were doodling uh sometimes. But most of the time I was getting in trouble and you were getting in trouble but look where that trouble has led you to do a business of your own. When did you know you wanted to launch that? Uh, well, I just, uh, you know, money was a big motivator. I needed to make a living. But, uh, yeah, I was always trying to push, uh, our oil, oil, oil paintings and art work that I used to do. And then I, I kind of saw an ad on, in the paper for uh for characters, characters needed at uh six flags. And I actually um after I went there, I met an artist, uh Jim mcqueeney, he uh helped me out, showed me some, some tricks and, and, and also told me about doing side gigs, like doing uh private events and stuff and, and took off from there. And what was the name you said, Jim mcqueen? Yeah. Yeah. He was a really great guy. Helped me get started. Now, do other family members have this gift? No, there's no other um artist in the family. But like I said, I've been doing this since I was a young child. I remember as a, when I riding my bicycle to the library and just copying illustrations and pictures and books. And, and I think that, you know, proclivity to draw what I see really helped me with doing caricatures today. It like it made the transition easier and you were looking at a lot of his traditional designs right there, isn't he talented. Coming up in our next segment, Rui explains how you get the hang of drawing live sketches.

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