Tielman Cheaney
Pencils & Inks - "father's day"
tielmanc@hotmail.com
PORTFOLIO
CARICATURE WORK

Tielman Cheaney, an easy-going and talented artist, got his start at 18 years old drawing amusement park portraits. It was a perfect job for him at the time. He recalls: "It was a great education for me. I was drawing 20 or 30 total strangers every day, trying to make each one perfect. The boss would come by one week and say: "You're not drawing good enough! Draw better!" So I would. Then he'd come by the next week and say: "You're not drawing fast enough! Draw faster!" So I would. For months like that, back and forth. I'd ask, "Which do you want, better or faster?" He'd say, "Both, of course!" And knock out a drawing in 5 minutes that would put me to shame.

After learning the basics, Tielman became a traveler. "Drawing portraits and caricatures, and cutting silhouettes, is a great job if you want to travel. Sometimes I would be offered a job, sometimes I would just go and try to find a spot to set up." Locations visited were diverse, including Californa, Japan, Jamaica, and Missouri.

Through the years, he never stopped drawing comics. Some were published, some were not. Some were completed, some were not. But there was always at least one in the works. "It's just an activity that I love. I like working out all the kinks in composition and flow, keeping the artwork interesting while serving the story, setting a pace fast enough to finish but slow enough to do a good job. I've never been able to sustain myself doing it, but I do it anyway. I remember being out on the beach, lounging by my makeshift caricature stand, soaking up the sun, drawing comics. It's like an affliction."

Currently, Tielman is settled in Las Vegas. He takes care of one caricature stand, a house, a wife, and two needy cats. His day job is search engine optimization, His night job is caricature artist, and his inbetween job is freelancer and webmaster. And in between that? "I still draw comics. My pace has slowed down immensely thanks to all the other activity, but I'm always thinking about the current one and planning the next one. I can't help it. I'm just never going to stop."