Dean Foster’s quirky caricatures have graced these pages since 2011.
I’m sure you’ve noticed the fun, witty caricatures from our very talented illustrator, Dean Foster, over the past number of years. Since the July 2018 issue, Dean has been gracing our column pages with his excellent drawings as well as some of the feature story pages, but way before those column pages his illustrations appeared on a regular basis in Mojo Garage beginning back in the May 2011 issue.
Even as a youth, Dean has always had a talent for sketching: in public school, he sketched friends and teachers. He claims he was the class fool and sketching comical drawings came naturally to him. Later, in high school, he didn’t really enjoy fine arts so he gravitated toward technical drawing.
Designing Medals and Insignia
After completing his national service, he spent a few years painting surf boards and working at design studios, and later working as a freelance artist illustrating books, T-shirts and designing anything from tattoos to trophies. In the early ’90s, he began making chalk drawings on a local restaurant blackboard, and that’s when his talent for caricature took off. Photos of the board were frequently in the local newspaper and that garnered him a reputation that got him on television doing live cartoons during coverage of the Comrades Marathon.
He was self-employed right up until 2012 when he immigrated to Canada. He then had stopped drawing for about six years, until he met his wife who is a fine art artist and she wouldn’t let him waste his talent. He now drives a truck part time and draws the rest of the time. His goal is to grow his reputation in the central Alberta area, sketching at weddings, birthday parties, and corporate and community events where possible.
Motorcycle Nut
Dean began riding at nine years old on a Honda Monkey, and over the years progressed to Honda Blackbirds and Suzuki GSX-R1000s. He was nicknamed Ghost Rider after some of his hooligan high-speed antics, crashes…
