Geeky guy in a hoodie

Saw this guy waiting on the train platform this morning.

Caricature experiment

An experiment in drawing a full-body caricature sketch from a life model.



I was trying to see if I could caricature everything about the model - including exaggerating the angle I was viewing him from, his clothes, shoes, the chair etc.

The effect is more like a technically warped, distorted drawing than the caricatured look I had hope for. Maybe next time.

Caricature Study Part 3: Thomas Doran

Here are some of my sketches of Thomas Doran, who was kind enough to pose for me. It's one thing to caricature somebody from a photograph, but having the real person there in front of you is so much more helpful. Especially helpful if you're specifically trying to improve your skills, as I am.

I don't have a photo of Tom, so this sketch will just have to do:



That's the first sketch I drew of Tom, and is pretty conservative. A careful, reserved study of the basic shapes that form his face. And overall head shape.

In addition to striving for a likeness, I like to include something more about the person I'm caricaturing. Tom's a painter, so my first attempt at this was to stick his head on the end of a paint brush.



I tried to simplify things a bit in my next sketch, which involved an even closer look at what was going on in Tom's face that made him uniquely him. I then played with that a bit:



I couldn't help adding some whiskers. Don't ask me why. I suppose it's the size of his nose, the shape of the tip along with the shape of his mouth as well as the facial hair that suggested a small rodent-ish look to me.

In my final sketch I built on everything I'd observed so far:



I think the design works as a cartoon character yet still retains a lot of the qualities I look for in caricature.

Check out Tom's work on his website. He's a fabulous painter, and a top bloke.

Caricature Study Part 2: Amy Winehouse

Last Saturday I posted this caricature of Amy Winehouse. I've always struggled with achieving a likeness in my cartooning work - something I'm trying to address with my recent experiments in caricature.

I thought Amy would be a good person to start with because she has so many unique qualities to her look but as I found out, despite those iconic visual traits of her's, drawing a half-decent caricature is still hard work for me!

I started with this quick sketch:



Of course her fantastic hairdo is a big help in cheating that likeness. I've simplified the shape of her head and facial features, making her pretty generic. It's hard to say whether I've over-simplified things - I feel any 'likeness' to Amy in this drawing is down to the tattoos, hair and needle. Not sure if that's cheating or not.

On the subject of the needle, when I look at the work of my favourite caricaturists, there's always much more to them than just a likeness. There's also the artist's perspective or a comment made with it. So in the case of this drawing, I was trying to incorporate the needle from a sympathetic point of view and pose her in a way that represented the fragility of her situation. Dunno how well that comes across.

This next sketch is those same intentions x 10



hmmm, perhaps too much of a victim? Besides, throwing in all those props (needle, distorted nose, mic stand/bottle), I felt I ended up with an image containing too many elements for the viewer to decode. There's no solid, clear idea being put across.

So I went the opposite way with the next drawing, and just used one of those props:



Certainly clearer. Simple. Less is more type stuff.

I couldn't resist this quick doodle next:



Not much of a likeness, but I do think it's got character. Or it is a character.

So, looking back at the one I posted last week:



Depicting the press as buzzards was my attempt at building on that sympathetic angle I had at the start. Viewing Amy Winehouse as a victim as much as anything else. I think the balloon idea works well with the buzzards - the notion of her drifting off, getting high etc. has potential. But the lighter and spoon - although in keeping with all the rest, is probably a bit too much for the viewer to decode.

I'll find a way to arrive at an image that reads immediately, with a strong, clear idea and a good likeness to boot.

Caricature Study Part 1: facial expressions

As you may have gathered from my recent posts (Amy Winehouse, Jack Lemon, politician) I've been dabbling in caricature lately. Aside from being a lot of fun, this is helping me improve my ability to capture the essence of a character. By making a close study of people's unique visual traits, I hope to improve my work as a character designer and cartoonist.

A big part of capturing someone's character is their expression, so a couple of weekends ago, at the drawing school, I decided to spend some time studying exactly that. Here are some of the sketches I made of our life model's facial expressions. She was constantly looking around, chatting away, so I had to draw fast and constantly reposition myself so I could see as much of her face as possible:

Caricature sketch of an anonymous generic politician

Caricature sketch of an anonymous generic politician I saw on tv.

Jack Lemon

A very quick doodle I made while watching Billy Wilder's The Apartment last night:

Amy Winehouse

Fat cat preachin' 'bout growth 9_9