We recently connected with Duncan Campbell and have shared our conversation below.

Duncan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. What do you think Corporate America gets wrong in your industry? Any stories or anecdotes that illustrate why this matters?

Great question! I’ll focus my answer on the caricature side of things. So Caricature as an art form goes all the way back to hieroglyphs in ancient Egypt, and centuries later, Leonardo DaVinci. He was one the greatest creative minds humanity has ever produced, but most people don’t know that he did some pretty savage caricatures of people! Time went on, and caricature became a tool for political propaganda as well as a subversive way to offer commentary on the social landscape. That was until someone in the twentieth century pivoted and figured out that it could be a lucrative form of live entertainment, i.e., regular people will PAY to be roasted! Then caricature became the purview of fairs, festivals, circus-type events. And even today, that’s where most people associate live caricatures. Most live caricatures these day are done where there are consistently crowds of people; “touristy” places. I often draw on the San Antonio Riverwalk, which is a big Texas destination.

But the opportunity that most corporations miss is that caricatures can have a place and just about any event from weddings to corporate celebrations, even store openings. My favorite events to draw are weddings, which many people don’t even realize is an option. But it is great fun for the guests because they get to have a laugh take home a personal, hand-drawn original piece of art from the Bride & Groom’s big day.

But why stop there? I’m trying to pivot caricature again: Caricature as Marketing. Restaurants and bars are prime examples of being perfect for caricatures. Patrons add some laughter and fun to their night, which is entertaining on the front end (and also chew up some time if they’ve got, say, and hour wait and antsy kids…). BUT then patrons take home a piece of art that’ll be source of delight for years to come; a feeling every restaurant owner wants associated with their establishment. Every time someone sees it, they get to laugh and say, “yeah, I got that at ______,” and suddenly, that restaurant has free advertising for life. Restaurants that busy or have a lot of foot traffic would absolutely benefit from a live caricature artist set up in the corner: people stay longer, eat more food, and buy more drinks. And then once at home, people will always remember exactly where they were when they show it off to others. Of course, the caricatures have to be great…

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?

Sure! So I’ve been drawing since I was old enough to hold a pencil. My mom is a professional artist and designer, and my late dad was a professional photographer. They taught me so much about cultivating the artist’s eye. When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the caricature artists I’d watch at the State Fair of Texas every October. So about 10 years ago, I decided I wanted to learn to draw caricatures for our church’s Trick or Trunk. So I went to the very prestigious University of YouTube and hunted around until I found a method that A) I liked and B) thought I had the chops to emulate. And I started practicing. I could make it look like a decent cartoon pretty easily but being able to capture the person’s likeness took me a solid year of practice. Then I did it at the Trick or Trunk, and looking back I wasn’t very good, but everyone loved it. That led to drawing at the local farmer’s market, who loved me because I didn’t need a full booth’s worth of space or electricity. I drew somebody there and they ask me if I did weddings, and I said “Yep! Sure do.” And then it really blew up. Before Covid hit. I was doing. 2 to 3 weddings per month until the wedding industry got crushed. And that’s when I started drawing on the Riverwalk in San Antonio, the foot traffic of which never really diminished. Now I draw all over the Austin-San Antonio metro area, based in New Braunfels, Texas, which is itself a mighty fine tourist destination.

But I also have the photography side of my creative business, which was born out of a favor of taking senior pictures for a friend’s son. When I started investigating how much senior portraits were, I intuited that there was a niche for people who still wanted stunning photographs, but didn’t need all the bells and whistles.. I was right, and ended up adding senior portraits to my services and a fraction of the cost. I’ve also done school portraits, and for the first time this year. That was super fun and I hope to do more in the future.

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

My social media was doing next to nothing with a meager following at best, until very recently when I began to leverage social media by making reels instead of posts. This is relatively easy for me because caricature lends itself to social media postings. Even so, a reel can only be 90 seconds long and that’s not quite long enough (for me) to do a full caricature. So what I decided to do created a series called CARICATURIST’S POV, wherein I break down how I draw different elements of a caricature, It’s half fun, half tutorial. I recently did a reel just on drawing men’s eyebrows; big, small, arched, bushy, unibrow, etc. So far, that one’s gotten about 12k plays. My first one on teeth and gums has about 18k plays. And now that Instagram has a “give a gift” feature on reels–presumably to compete with TikTok–I’m looking for that to become a passive income stream too (although I do think Instagram should make the gift button a little more prominent…). Even the reveal reactions videos get much more traction as reels rather than posts. The advice I would distill from this is to find the 15 or 20 seconds of your business that is eye-catching and fun, and figure out a way to turn it into a reel.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I mentioned before about starting to draw at the San Antonio Riverwalk after Covid hit. But there’s a little more to that story because right during that time I was also fired from my full-time job for reasons I’m still not quite sure. My background is in congregational ministry. I have a masters degree and 25 years experience, so I thought I wasn’t going to have any trouble finding a new job. But when Covid froze all gathering times for churches, let alone their hiring processes, I knew I had to lean on my creative skills to feed my wife and three kiddos. I’m a man of faith and prayer, and when drawing became the main thing, the prayers for provision certainly increased. I worked, and still work, very hard, but in the same breath, the Lord always provides. The photography, wedding caricatures, as well as other standing gigs such as the Uhland (TX) Fall Festival (see you this Fall!), are all ways I believe God affirms my resiliency, and whispers “keep grinding, I got you.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://duncancampbellcreative.com
• Instagram: @duncan_campbell_creative
• Facebook: Duncan Campbell Creative
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@duncancampbellcreative