"He's a Real Character" Eddie Renner

Eddie Renner is one of the most prolific artists in Northern Michigan,  By his won estimate, he's completed some 60,000 to 75,000 creative images since 1996.  Even conservatively, that's an average of more than 10 a day, everysingle day for 16 years.  And many of those were created in public, right befroe an audience, in a matter of minutes.  Renner is a caricature artist who has sketched images of tourists and other visitors in Traverse City and Mackinac Island since 1996.
     "I answered an ad in '95 from a guy who said he'd pay me to draw," recalls Renner, a Cheboygan High School grad who took classes at North Cenral Michigan College then at the Art Students League in New York City.
     "He had me draw one of his buddies at the Big Boy restaurant in Cheboygan.  He hired me and I started on Mackinac Island in 1996 and have been doing it ever since.  He threw me right out there.  It was sink or swim."
     Renner saw it as an opportunity to deaw wnad he's turned it into a comforatble career.  "Eventually I took over the location on Mackinac ISland and until recently I also had a booth at the Great Wolf Lodge in Traverse City," he says.

     Informal Background

Born in Mt. Pleasant, Renner grew up in Cheboygan, but had a rather informal art background. 
     "I always liked cartooning," he recalls with a smile.  "I had a typical boy mentality, drawing monsters, Conan the Barbarian, fighting creatures,k that kind of thing,  I like to say I learned to draw in class - math class, science class, English class.  Got in some trouble for that."
     Technology has made a huge difference in Renner's techniques.  When he got started he did most of his works live on location using a pencil and an airbrush, but now Renner creates about 90 percent of his caricatures online for clients around the world.
"About two years ago I switched to digital drawing," he explains.  "I had played with it for about 10 years, then decided to incorporate it into live sittings."