We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Duncan Campbell a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Duncan, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you share a customer success story with us?

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’ve always been an artistic type, but in 2013 I decided I wanted to learn to draw a caricatures. So I looked around on YouTube until I found someone that A) I liked their style and B) I thought I had the chops to emulate. The one I found was based in the UK, and has about five videos of just someone over his shoulder while he’s drawing. I dissected each one to learn about method and process. Then I went back and studied facial anatomy because you have to learn how to do it right before you can do it wrong. And I practiced a lot. It took me a year to really get it. I could make it look like a decent cartoon pretty quickly, but it took me a solid 9 to 10 months to be able to capture a persons likeness in an exaggerated way. My first event was a church trunk or treat at Halloween. That led to drawing at the farmers market New Braunfels, who loved me because I didn’t need electricity or a full booth’s worth of space. Then I drew someone at the farmers market, and they asked me if I did weddings, I said, absolutely, and it blew up from there. It was a hobby and a side gig that turned into something pretty substantial, and I was doing about two weddings per month before Covid hit. I’ve continue to study and practice and learn, and develop my style so that I can create a fun, live drawing in just a few minutes. Now that hobby has grown into a business, and I draw at events all over central Texas, and even have a sponsorship from the Chartpak marker company.

People often ask me if I’ve ever made anybody mad with my drawing, and the answer is very rarely. First of all, it takes a person with a certain moxie to even sit down in my chair, so most people know what they are getting themselves into. But secondly, I decided early on that I would rather create a fun drawing rather than a super mean one. I make stylistic choices to go for entertaining and exaggerated, but not make the subject feel terrible. I’m not trying to send anybody to therapy (and trust me, I could…), I’m trying to create an experience where they will laugh at the awkwardness during the process, but then walk away with a memento AND a memory that will be in their family for generations. Probably one out of every four people I draw tells me some version of the story of how they had a caricature when they were a kid and it’s still at their grandmother’s house. BUT my subjects don’t KNOW that I’m not going to be mean because they can’t see the drawing as I’m working on it. They’ve all seen the viral Tik Tok videos were some caricaturist just went over-the-top vicious, so there’s bit of fear in the back of their minds. I smirk and giggle and smile while I draw, and they think I am creating something so terrible that exaggerates all their flaws and oddities (which are what make us human, but the way. The happiest people embrace them). And I let them think all of that those thoughts, and use their minds to my advantage, so that when I show them the finished product, they are completely surprised by how fun it is will still poking a little fun. They were expecting to be harpooned and instead find something they really love. Learning how to craft that experience was not easy, but I believe it’s one thing that sets me apart.

And yes, if someone specifically asks me to go over the top, I’m happy to accommodate. :)

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I built my audience by doing reveal videos of the caricatures that I have drawn. I’ve learned there’s two basic ways to put a caricature on social media. The first is to set up a tripod and film the whole thing from beginning to end. It’s best practice to time lapse that portion because when people are scrolling, no one is going to watch a three minute video. All they really want to see is the reveal. But that’s a really great way to capture an entire days worth of drawing in about 20 seconds as I have done before. The second way to film it is to turn the camera on the completed drawing and then do a countdown where the subjects open their eyes, and I get their reaction. Those are a lot of fun too. Many of my subjects tag me with the drawing on their own posts, which is helpful too. I always try to reach back and thank them. The best videos are the ones where the people are really laughing so hard they can barely breathe, and/or are shocked at how fun it is! Not everyone is like that, so I definitely curate which videos I post. But you never know, so you have to film everything. It’s better to have it and not want it then to want it and not have it.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

I get some clients from service bid websites, but the best way is simply word of mouth and referrals. When I get booked to draw a gig, everyone has a great time, and then they tell their friends and coworkers and it just networks from there. I draw a lot of weddings, but then I draw people who have never even considered having a caricaturist at a wedding. So it’s exciting to provide an experience they never thought of and it ends up being a hit. But the word of mouth and the referrals are 100% tied into the product, the service, and the experience. It took me a long time a lot of hard work to become a proficient enough caricaturist to be recommendable, and to learn how to craft an experience, not just make a fun drawing.

Contact Info:

• Website: duncancampbellcreative.com
• Instagram: @duncan_campbell_creative
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DuncanCampbellCreative