The Art of Caricature

 

Been doing a few brush pen caricatures and rereading and studying MORT DRUCKER movie parodies in the old MAD MAGAZINE issues I have kept since the 1970s.

A get asked to do caricatures  every so often in commissions. It is easy to do a cartoon, but getting the right likeness is always an anxiety inducing thing. If I can do a sketch quickly, and it feels right, that is great. But more often I draw and redraw, then loose all perspective on it.   Doing a bunch of quick sketches, exaggerating different features, and then work out which one has the best likeness is another way to go. So can do PICARD 3 in various ways...

Or in the Spray Booth at Kounting Kustoms...

Not exaggerating so much is a bit easier.  It is also easy to be unkind, exaggerating the wrong features. 

I so admire MORT DRUCKER's work.   Always great likenesses and not unkind. 

I spent part of yesterday doing pencil/ ink/ erase pencil/ scan/ put in gray background cartoons. But during penciling I did about 6 different versions of each face.  The one with the best likeness, I then redrew and finished. Interestingly, the RICK BEATO colored pencil sketch above was the 1st attempt.  I couldn't do that live sketching at a party some artists make a living at.  I had one done in Las Vegas once of me, and it doesn't have a very good likeness, even if all the features are right. Getting that magic is not easy.  

These recent ones are practice and just drawn on cheap A4 COPY PAPER.  Used these wonderful tools. The 2B 0.5mm mechanical STAEDTLER 925 25-05 is awesome, as is the Zebra brush pen 😍😍

The SEED Radarknock pen styled eraser is good too. 

I have a few books on the subject, but even in those, not all likenesses have the "magic" I am after. 

I always thought a rough sketchy look is easier, and what some political cartoonists do, but then I also wonder, do they do it that way because they can not actually draw?

We can be found at ArtAndTechnology