LOCK HAVEN - Chip Mock turns a critical eye toward his subject ...some say victim... as he applies a marker to paper, working rapidly to exaggerate some features, while minimizing others.
In five minutes or so, he reveals the image to the subject, who invariably smiles, chuckles, laughs out loud or otherwise shows some positive reaction.
That's what happened Saturday as Monks revealed his image to Dyneshia and Kayla Smith, 12 and 10, the daughters of Denise Heinz of Avis.
"Awesome!" Dyneshia says as she looks at her face transformed by the illustrator's imagination.
Both girls break out in laughter.
"That's what I shoot for," he said. "This isn't mean spirited ... I'm looking to make it fun for the buyer. I want to create something they will actually show their friends and family members. It's very important that everybody knows this is all in fun."
Mock, an Art Institute of Pittsburgh graduate, started drawing caricatures at the 1980 Three Rivers Arts Festival in Pittsburgh.
Since then, he's drawn around 400,000 smiling faces, all over Central Pennsylvania. And this past weekend he was drawing more faces at the Labor Day Regatta.
"I've done this event for four years running because it draws so many people," he said.
Chip is a pretty quiet and modest individual, but when you put a marker in his hand and some really big paper, he happily twists facial features all over the place.
To augment his efforts, he frequently jokes with his subjects about the possible outcome, noting this feature or that, as the victim twists in the wind, waiting for the results.
Chip also works as a graphic designer in the State College area, but caricatures are hardly a sideline. He works fairs, proms, wedding receptions, company picnics, regattas, university and high school functions, and just about anywhere there's a willing subject and a chance to move that subject's image around in an interesting and amusing way.
"I do pretty well at both my occupations," he said. "I'm working all the time, but I consider this to be my 'fun' job."
And quick.
Mock can draw up to 30 caricatures in an hour and produces at least 10,000 of them a year, at events between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia.
"The eyes are 80 percent of what a person is," he said, as he worked on another sketch. "Once you have the eyes down you exaggerate or decrease the other features for effect. I want the person to like what I do and think it's cool to look at."
Mock has won honors at the International Society of Caricature Artists convention in black and white and "Fastest in the World" competitions.
Away from the local scene, he's also done a couple of stints on cruise ships, and is particularly proud of the fact that he's practiced his art all over the world.
So you may just bump into him during your own travels, and if you do, perhaps you'll return home with a comical version of your own countenace whipped up in a few seconds by a very talented fellow named Chip Mock.
