Reproduced-

Suburban Journals

South County Journal-Life section

Wednesday Jan 9, 2008

By Julie Randle

jrandle@yourjournal.com

In 1997, David Zamudio start­ed his own art studio called Zamudio's Art Studio. The 50­year-old Affton resident does illustrations, cartoons, carica­tures, portraits, prints and Web sites under the name.

As a child, he enjoyed drawing soldiers, warriors and people.  As an adult he enjoys drawing cartoons that make people laugh, he said. Zamudio has been drawing caricatures since 1999. He has been hired for birthday parties, corporate pic­nics, employee recognition events, city festivals, weddings

and holiday parties.

Q: Is your wedding art popular? Tell me a little bit about how you go about drawing the people and the scene for these pictures.

A: I think as more people see and hear more about the wedding art caricatures popularity will soar. The design idea is to create a cartoon of bride and groom with a wide border as a frame where guests can sign the work. The bride and groom (or family and friends who are paying the bill) tell me what they have in mind for the composition. I help them formulate and express their ideas using an composition outline. I then create a pencil sketch or rendering of my idea for them to review. Most of the time the sketch works out just fine the first time. Once approved I finalize the work.

Q: Are you married?

A: Happily married for 8 years next May and my wife Joanne is a wonderful lady.

Q: Do you have children?

A: My daughter Jamie Zamudio (formerly Miss Missouri) 24 is the oldest. Andrew is 23 and the lead singer for the local alt. rock band "zamudio",  Aaron is a US Marine at 21 and serving his 1st year.

Q: What is the most challenging thing about doing caricatures?

A: Accuracy and speed. The idea is to caricaturize a subject in good taste without offending anyone and be quick about it. Usually there is an audience waiting on you to finish up so you can start drawing them! You have to be patient with people.

Q: How did you learn how to do caricatures?

A: I learned the drawing techniques from instructional videos created by a successful caricaturist. I put into practice what I learned and still practice to improve my speed and accuracy. 

Q: What is the one key needed to be successful at creating caricatures of people?

A: Ability to accurately draw the human figure. Since caricatures  or caricaturization is really a distortion of the real thing--exaggerating the existing features makes the caricature accurate and life-like.

Q: What inspired your passion in art?

A: Internal desire to create illustrated scenes. I get an idea in my head and then begin to illustrate what I see. Sometimes I actually get it right the first time but mostly it takes a few sketches. The development of these sketches is the fun part for me. You can go in whatever direction you want-this is the creative excercise I like. During times of deep reflection and prayer I realized that artists are born--not made. An artist spends his/her entire life creating, learning, mastering their talent and above all sharing that gift with the world. Artist just create stuff because that is what they are born to do--they can not curtail or stop the creative desire. Once the artist has overcome the inner battles of self criticism and stop comparing their work to other artists for affirmation he has matured. Art is  a passion that burns like a fire in your spirit and needs to breath and it expands with use. The more that you practice and develop your talent the more experienced you become and the creative desire grows. Crazy huh?

Q: When did you realize you had true artistic talent and how did that come about?

A: As a toddler I remember drawing on any white paper surface I could find-mostly inside hardbound book covers. Our encyclopaedia collection was a favorite drawing target for me. I liked the hard white surface to draw upon and any available pen, pencil or crayon would do. I continued to draw while family and friends offered favorable comments concerning my artwork. Later in my teen years I realized that my talent had grown when I won both 1st  and 2nd prize during drawing contest  at my high school sponsored by the local fire department. but I really did not consider my work good enough to like have a job as an artist. I just enjoyed doing it.

Q: How did decide art what was what you wanted as a career?

A: In 1978 I completed 3 years of active duty service and came home to St. Louis. While working as a carpet layer with my brother in law I attended night school at the Graphique Art Institute  for commercial art.

This experience helped to formulate my desire to continue my education in art. After graduation I continued to pursue the idea. Drawing was what I really wanted to do but I did not know enough about the industry to prepare for a career as an illustrator so I studied graphic arts. A career as a graphic artist was the closest thing to being employed as an illustrator I assumed. Later in my career I realized that illustration is my true talent.

For more information visit www.zamudiosartstudio.com