ORIGINAL BUTT SKETCH ARTIST REVIEWS: Boston Herald.com Article Boston Herald Article Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Article San Angelo Times Article The Boston Globe: Drawing an end to boring conventions By Tom Coakley Wednesday, October 13 While others at the Mortgage Bankers Association convention sold software, insurance and underwriting services, Krandel Lee Newton sketched derrieres. And people lined up to get theirs done. Hired to bring business to the booth of an Englewood, Colo., Mortgage service company, Newton expected to draw the fully-clothed backsides of some 250 bankers, software sales people and other mortgage types over two days at the Hynes Veterans Convention Center. Men and women from the normally serious world of lending yesterday saw the free sketch promotion promotion as inventive and hilarious. Robert C. Hunter, one of Newtons subjects stood facing away from the artist, who had carefully spread open the rear vent of Hunter's dark suit jacket to get just the right amount of contouring on the focus of his art. Within minutes Newton had cast enough shading to just the right spots to add depth and shape to his portrait. I think I'll just give it to my wife and see if she can find a place for it in the garage," said Hunter, of Jacksonville, Fla. "It's different," said Hunter, who decided to get sketched after hearing about Newton from people in his company's booth. "It's kind of nice, human, personal approach," he added," Anyone can give away Frisbees. Newton, 36, of Dallas, was hired for the Mortgage banker's convention by Mortgage Origination Resources Inc., the company whose name appears promentantly on the top of each sketch. Newton, who claims to make a six-figure income at his craft, said he started sketching rear ends for money about seven years ago after quitting as a mechanical engineer in Dallas. Today, he said his company, the Original Butt Sketch, is about to hire its third artist rather than get behind in the staffing the hundreds of conventions, promotions, and parties using "butt art". Newton's next stop: a pest control convention in Hawaii. He has so many people coming by and saying, "Oh, you did my butt last year," said Pat Giroux of Mortgage Originations. Newton sees the gimmick as a way to make money doing something he enjoys: drawing. At some point, he said, he plans to get back into less lucrative, but more meaningful art. Newton claims to have sketched 80,000 behinds, most clothed. He says his subjects include New York Giants football legend Lawrence Taylor, actor Danny Glover, rock star Gary (U.S.) Bonds, and chef Wolfgang Puck. On Monday and yesterday, conventioneers queued up by the dozens to have their buttocks immortalized. Actually, I plan to show it to everyone in my family," said Christine Douglas, who works for a bank in Bloomingfield Hills, Michigan. "I'm on the computer side," she explained, I can get away with anything." Kathy Warren, a representative of a Southfield, Mich., computer firm, will hang her in her sketch in her bathroom, the site of first choice for Newton's work. "I just thought I'd like to see what my butt would look like on paper," said Warren, "He did compliment me on it, and it does look better on paper." FHM Magazine April 2001 The Arts Drawing Booty Texan cashes in on booming market for rough sketches of posteriors I'm the original butt-sketch artist, "trumpets 41-year-old Krandel Lee Newton, Perhaps attempting to distinguish his work from that of the countless imposters flooding the market with inferior scribbling of people's asses. He backs up his claim of longevity by remembering when butt sketching was not a field in which a man could earn a living. Back in '87, I quit my job to be an artist," he recalls, "but things weren't going so good. I was hanging out on a corner in Dallas trying to sell my paintings, until one day, a parade came by. I painted everyone from behind and suddenly people seemed interested. Next thing I knew, I'd coined the term 'butt sketch.'" The remarkable wisdom of those two little words helped spawn a booming business for which Newton has rendered more than 200,000 men's and women's rears. At first, he charged customers based on the shape of their can- flat, round, regular. Now he does them for $200 per our or $35 per butt. He's even willing to accommodate the budget-conscious by sketching just one cheek for $17.50. Yet, he insists the job never gets dull. "Each butt is different," he explains. "There's a whole personality there, a life. I try to catch that. Of course, if they're fat, I shrink them down. That's the way." (JB) The Chicago Tribune A Tale of An Artist who always gets behind in his work By Ellen Warren Monday, July 6, 1998 Feeling politically incorrect? Who'd have thought that a trade show booth at the Chicago Hilton and Towers would be the perfect refuge, a place where men and women could talk comfortably for hours on end about butt size, butt shape, comparative butt girth. In a world where such conversation has become actionable, this was an oasis of accepted butt chat, occasioned by the appearance of a man with an unusual occupation: He draws pictures of people's rear views for a living. Krandel Lee Newton is "the creator of The Original Butt Sketch." Newton, 39 Made a recent visit to Chicago to draw charcoal portraits of people's backsides at a booth at a at the National Association of Mortgage Brokers convention meeting at the Hilton. What a concept. And quite successful. Newton charges between $175 to $200 an Hour (he mostly does trade shows) to pursue his special kind of artistry. After an arduous Work day, in which people wait in line up to several hours for a personal drawing, Newton Reports he will wander through the convention site, only to have people waggling their rears At him hollering, "Hey Buttman". Picasso probably had the same problem. Newton, charming and congenial, says "People feel compelled to tell me butt jokes. And puns, "You seem to be getting behind in your work…. You're at the tale end." This pun thing has rubbed off on the man himself. He says he has five artists, a public relations aide, and two "ass-istants" who now work for The Original Butt Sketch, an operation that brings in "six figures" each year. On his visit here, hired by Homeside Lending Inc. for the two-day convention, two Friends waited 90 minutes to be sketched. "My boyfriend's a butt man", explained Cindy Rouner. "I'm framing (the drawing) for his birthday." Her friend, Mary McClain, noted of her husband, Scott, "He's a breast man, not a butt man." Nonetheless, she too giggled with Glee when she saw the drawing of her posterior. "I've been accused of having a flattering hand," said Newman when asked if he trims off inches when he draws. For sure, says Rouner, who concludes that he had reduced her size 10 to an 8, maybe a 6. "He took a couple inches off my ass," roared Thomas E. "Tommy" Adkins Jr., Homeside Lending's senior vice president. "What a butt, man" observed another Homeside official, Terri Mullany, as one of her male co-workers had his posterior immortalized in charcoal pencil on a sketchpad that says, "HomeSide… We cover your bottom line." Newton, who graduated in mechanical engineering from the Illinois Institute of Technology often is asked how he came up with this idea. He quit his engineering job with Westinghouse in Dallas, he says, to pursue a career as an artist. On a street corner, there, he was creating a six-foot canvas of a rear view of parade watchers when an onlooker offered to buy it for $125. The parade scenes evolved into a customized deal where he would put the buyer's backside and the buyer's friends backsides into the picture. Then, to fill out the group, he'd grab people walking down the street and draw their behinds into the picture too. To thank these strangers for their cooperation, Newton would make a quick rear-view sketch for them to take home. Then, much like that moment when the other Newton saw the apple fall from the tree, this Newton thought he could turn this endeavor into an offbeat career. Before long, passersby were lining up for his drawings. One of those customers asked if he did trade shows and the rest is artistic history. In the summer of 1987, "I cam up with the phrase The Original Butt Sketch," he says. "It titillates a little, makes people chuckle." More recently, "In the heightened sensitivity of sexual harassment, I didn't want to get caught up in that," he says. He thought of changing the name to "Derriere Drawings" or "Posterior Portraits", but decided against it. And, in the 11 years since Butt Sketch began, he said there has not been a single complaint. Before he started doing corporate work- where drawings are free to those who drop by clients' booths- "I used to charge people based on their shape, whether they were 'fat', 'round', or 'regular.' (Those fees w3ere $2, $2.50 and $3 respectively, he says) "I was just having fun." He still is. He tells one client that she has nice legs, gets repeated hugs from other clients and handshakes from the men- who are as captivated by the drawings of them in suits or Dockers as the women in slacks, skirts, or dress for success suits are. Many couples come by to be drawn together. The most popular place to hang the drawings when they get home is the bathroom, says Newton. Newton says it takes about 21/2 minutes for a butt sketch. "That's a minute and a quarter per cheek." Yes, he does nudes upon request- though not at trade shows. "At private parties, they drop trou," he says. "Then, people start drinking and they're fully mooning me. "Just another day at the office". PARADE Magazine The Best and Worst of Everything Sunday, December 26, 1999 Best Butt From The Los Angeles Times Original Butt Sketch Artist, Krandel Lee Newton of Dallas, a former engineer at Westinghouse, has sketched an estimated 175,000 backsides- most of them clothed- since 1987. He discovered his calling while painting the backs of parade watchers. Today, his Original Butt Sketch World Headquarters employs a staff of five artists and a publicist. In addition to $200-an-hour appearances at conventions, the company offers $55 "Buttgrams," in which an artist is sent to an office for a surprise sketch. Celebrity fannies in Newton's oeuvre reportedly include those of John Goodman, Tony Curtis, Queen Latifah, Vanna White, Leeza Gibbons and Alex Trebek, whom Newton believes possesses the world's best butt. Is that what you call "Double Jeopardy"?