How to make a Caricature.

Every artists has her/his own style of making Arts. I bet most of you know or have seen quite a number of artworks produced by many Caricaturists out there. To me, caricature is one of my skills because I love drawing and painting human figures. I believe, you have to understand human's face/ head first before you can draw a caricature. Still a lot to learn though.... But today, I'd like to share the Steps that I took to produce a Caricature.

Firstly, find a good photo.

Here's a photo of my sweet-natured lil' niece, baby Jasmeen.
As you can see, not much reference of the baby's body and the whole head.
But the best thing about Art is.. you could always imagine and make it happen on a blank piece of paper.









Now, on the paper.. make a rough sketch of the head, body and the pose you imagined.

Yeah.. I imagined Jasmeen on a stroller.
A sketch doesn't have to be perfect. Make a rough one..
Get the basic shapes of the head, body and the stroller/ action you plan to do.
Just a guideline for your next step, of course.






Then, I usually start with the overall face by placing the eyes, nose and mouth. Even the body could be lightly sketched too.

At this point, I make quite a number of adjustments- just to get them almost at the right places and forms.
When doing caricature it's important to see what is the most outstanding feature of the face you're doing.
For Jasmeen's face, I thought it was important to get her beautiful eyes and the pouting lips.
My tendency is.. to make a portrait instead of making exaggeration from the outstanding features. So that's why my caricatures are not really like those funny looking faces you sometimes see in other caricatures.
Thus, my point of.. every artists has her own style of doing it :)



Next, time to sharpen the faces more and and more.. making sure everything is in place..

I had a little problem drawing the left eye.. hmmps.

well, as in many things in Life.. you can't get everything right all the time.. but you've got to try your best.
As you can see, I still haven't done much about the body and the stroller. But that part, you can have fun with it, so I save it for last.








Last but not least...

Sure.. not 100% the same as the real thing.
Most importantly, when you do caricature.. try to get the 'essence' of the character.
How I decided I got it?
Hard to explain..but you just know in your heart and mind that it's there.. and hopefully, others agree with you :) hehe.

Have fun drawing a Caricature.
If you draw a caricature, can you share your work with me?
They say you could learn so much by sharing and your knowledge would prosper too. So, let's do that.