"It's like every bit of their faces have been airbrushed and botoxed. "
I looked up Will and Gavin after the mention and yes, very dissappointing.
"This is one of the many reasons I will not eat at Sardi's. Never have, never will."
I didn't make it there the last trip but I have always wanted to go. More for the history of the place. I watched an amazing biography on the history of Sardi's.
I'm glad I'm not the only one who is really surprised at how bad they are. The coloring especially lacks class, or timeless appeal like a welldrawn b/w would have.
I'm not saying my drawings are amazing, amazing (thank you to an above poster tho) but I have to say that recent caricatures from Sardi's are pretty bad... don't resemble the actor him/herself or just don't have that essence to them...
They piss me off. Mostly because I'm an illustrator and my specialty is caricatures. When I see a new Sardi I want to cry.
On the other hand, when I see a new Tony Di Napoli's caricature, I cream my pants.
My dad is a retired illustrator. He never specialized in caricatures, but I've seen him do better ones in 10 minutes than however long it takes the Sardi's people to.
I doubt if it takes very long to do a Sardi's caricature. How long could it take to tear a page out of a coloring book?
I'm both a graphic artist and a caricaturist, and I must say i am appalled by the current "caricatures". Its clear to me that over the years the management is FAR too concerned with not offending the subjects of the drawings. I love that they even get simple details wrong (They gave Constantine Maroulis a full mustache) This is inexcusable, especially considering 2 of the top art schools on the planet are located in NYC.
This is really horrible.. I love what he writes on it "Thanks for this great honor." I would never want my face on that wall.
Constantine's HORRIBLE caricature
Stand-by Joined: 2/18/08
"This is one of the many reasons I will not eat at Sardi's. Never have, never will. I don't wanna be surrounded by pictures kids in pre-school could do. And the pictures scare me"
A little overdramatic over there.
If they don't want to offend the actors, then have a real artist make realistic portraits and don't even call them caricatures. But what they have on their walls now looks like a primary school display.
Holy smokes, Dr. Jones! That one of Constantine really IS horrible. Looks NOTHING like him whatsoever.
Agree Brody. It's like Constantine himself was airbrushed before his picture was drawn.
Stand-by Joined: 6/7/10
Kevin Chamberlin's looks like an Easter egg.
Ok, look at Chamberlain's wonderful face. Then look over at the caricature.
Then ask yourself "WTF?"
The problem of those drawings in my opinion is that the person's eyes in the drawing are not even close to those of the person. And yes, people in the drawings look like they have heavy facial treatment.
Broadway Legend Joined: 8/13/09
Even more WTF when looking at some of the classics behind the new ones. You have Liza in the background of the Constantine shots with these hugely exaggerated features, and then his, which looks like something you would see a teenage fan girl handing him at the stage door. The same with the bit of Lucy that you can see behind Kevin Chamberlain's.
Though, for a bit of history, I loved the scene in The Muppets Take Manhattan where Kermit has replaced Liza's caricature with his own, only for Liza to walk in and see that she has seemingly been removed from the wall.
Stand-by Joined: 6/7/10
^ Agreed. And the funniest part about the photo coverage is that it also included shots of some of the other caricatures of Addams Family cast members who had theirs done previously, like Terrence Mann's:
Which is delightfully exaggerated (as caricatures SHOULD be) but I knew who it was immediately upon seeing it.
The new ones are very PC, almost as though they are afraid they will offend. Was there a case where someone important had one and was offended?
Broadway Legend Joined: 6/5/09
It's true the recent drawings leave something to be desired, but the old ones are good, and worth seeing. I would say if you can afford it, (because it is an expensive restuarant), it's worth eating there at least once, because it plays such a prominent part of Broadway lore. And if you can't afford it, I would recommend having a drink at the bar upstairs, where the prices are quite reasonable, and you can get to see the caricatures on the walls.
Real life caricature
(Note, I am neither Alice Ripley nor the fan).
Kevin Chamberlin's face was MADE for caricature. This is getting obscene.
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