March 27, 2024

Meet Angelo Martin of Toon Upz in Los Angeles

Local Stories

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angelo Martin.

Angelo, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I never stopped drawing ever since I could pick up a pencil. I am originally from Southern California but I first started drawing caricatures for a source of income back in 2012 while studying animation in art school at Academy of Art University in San Francisco. I was considered a street artist, drawing crowds at Fisherman’s Wharf. I fell in love with the art. It was a way to expose my passion to the public very quickly, provide laughs and smiles every day, and sometimes have the art framed and hung up in many homes. It provided an instant gratification that is seldom found any other way as an artist.

After graduating, I had high hopes to take my other passion of working in the animation industry back to LA, but my love for the art of caricatures took me in another direction. I was striven to improve my skills in the art of caricature, but since I was self-taught, many challenges laid before me. Most caricature artists start off in theme parks, where they have a mentor and a group of artists to learn from. I had none of that, but was confident enough in myself to dive in to working at birthday parties and events, learning as I go.

Clients started loving the work and networking became easier and easier. Thankfully social media and the internet in general made it easier for me to put my name out there. So I let my artwork speak for itself, and word of mouth built up. Gigs started coming by much easier, to the point where I had to turn down a lot of clients because I was already booked.

I then brought my very talented artist friend, Sean, that I met in art school to work some parties with me. He too fell in love with the art of caricature, and we became a little bit stronger as artists and as a party event service by working as a team. Eventually we worked hard enough that we needed to recruit other artists to take clients because we were being overbooked.

So in the span of 5 years when I first started to draw caricatures as a part time gig, we have expanded to a network of up to 5 artists working all around LA and Southern California, working with clients like Chris Brown, Jack Black, 50 cents, DreamWorks, NBC, Snapchat, AT&T and many other well-known companies.

Has it been a smooth road?
It was not smooth at all. I had many obstacles to overcome. The first obstacle was being self-taught in the art of caricatures for retail and events. Most caricaturists start off in theme parks, where a mentor and a group of artists are peers you can learn from. Being self-taught, I had to fail many times. Not just in creating the art itself, but on learning how to run my business from the ground up. My other obstacle was making my business known. Because this was my only source of income when I first started, I had no safety net when it came to finding clients. Working parties was mostly the only way I could pay rent, and if I didn’t find a way to book a party, I could be on the street. Which is where I was sometimes anyways to grind money with my art by being a street artist on occasion, drawing on the streets for money and networking for future parties. Eventually my artwork spoke for itself, and I was able to get my work exposed enough through networking, social media and word of mouth to the point where I no longer had to look for clients, they would find me.

So, as you know, we’re impressed with Toon Upz – tell our readers more, for example what you’re most proud of as a company and what sets you apart from others.
Toon Upz specializes in caricatures and cartoons for private events and retail. We are more known for doing a little more flattering, cute and funny caricatures which set us apart from the majority of caricaturists out there who tend to focus more on extreme exaggeration.

We tend to try and make you look a little “better” while maintaining a strong likeness. Who doesn’t want to look good? Most caricaturists tend to exaggerate heavily on your most pronounced features, most often than not, play on your insecurities resulting on a rejected drawing. We try to find a way to use those pronounced features in a way to still make it “cute.”

Let’s touch on your thoughts about our city – what do you like the most and least?
LA is a great area for caricaturists. You have theme parks not too far, so people are already exposed and familiar with it. There are tons of parties, and weddings that take advantages of our services. It is also great to work with well-known companies and celebrities here in LA.

What I don’t like about LA is the traffic. Sometimes it will take me over 2 hours to get to an event, which drastically can affect how many gigs I can take on in the weekends.

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