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Caricature and Drawing
Newsletter for April, 2007
This newsletter is reproduced here courtesy of YouCanDraw.com -
Once and for all getting you drawing faces and caricatures:
April 2007
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to the www.YouCanDraw.com Archives
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Your April 2007
YouCanDraw.com Communiqué
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Howdy all,
Hope you had a Happy
Easter and Passover and that Tax day (in the states) isn't too, err, taxing.
:-) And since you're all busy, I'll give you links that send you to any
more in-depth areas of study and save all the long explanations. So today
we'll just do a whip through of what makes Ramsey Clark (former U.S. Attorney
General) caricaturable. But just for laughs...
First off is a recent
pen and ink caricature of comedian of Don Rickles:
I actually did his
caricature several weeks ago but my camera wasn't working - so I didn't
get to photograph the progression while drawing, it. Today's victim, Mr.
Clark shares the same page along side Mr. Rickles and you can see them
both here:
Get your pen or pencil
and paper. Here we go. Great to have a reference photo or model to work
from. Here's my screen with a group of Ramsey Clark photos and even one
cartoon / editorial:
As you can tell he's
a pretty drawable guy. Here's a close-up of the photo I decided to draw:
You can tell I always
start off with a gang of pictures of the person I'm trying to draw. Well
allow me to suggest getting a gang of pictures of anything you want to
draw. It really helps. And if you're in a slump and can't get fired up,
get yourself a library of Internet paintings, drawings, reproductions
of any kind, web sites, what have you, and pour over other people's work.
Something will grab you and you'll get all fired up again about drawing.
Guaranteed!
Back to Mr. Clark.
What do I note? What do I think is caricaturable? Here's a list:
- Lots of hair
for a gentleman his age. Slightly old school. (Heck, if you live to
be 70, 80, 90 years old and you still have hair, how can our
headpiece not be old school? Just a thought.)
- Eyes are
fairly wide set - and look pretty small, almost squinty in this photo.
Eyes seem to slant up a little going from nose side of eyes to temple
side of eyes;
- Bridge (or root)
of nose is broad, doesn't indent in much as you traverse from
forehead to the main body of the nose
- the nose is very
triangular in shape;
- fleshy cheeks
seem to bury the "apron of the upper lip" - contributes to
rapid transition from bottom of nose to upper lip;
- upper lip
is very thin, rolls right onto to upper set of teeth; Cupids
Bow ("the cowlick" of the upper lip) comes to a subtle
point;
- the mouth
and chin / jaw almost seem to be a separate piece of anatomy
the way the Burgermeister Meisterburger puppet chin is a separate piece
of mechanical anatomy;
- the overall
shape of his head is very oval;
- Mr. Clarks head
narrows to a thin neck on a working man's shirt, tie, and smoker.
That's it in a nutshell.
Who's the Burgermeister Meisterburger? He's the guy who said
"All toys are
hereby declared, Illegal, Immoral, and Unlawful!"
Here he is (see the
chin?):
 |
theBurger-
meister
Meister-
burger
|
See
RetroGalaxy.com for all sorts of stop-action puppets
I regress. Back to
the task. Ok. Draw a format (Don't know what a format is? Do a search
in your e-sourcebook. Ok, ok, it's a drawn border. The border you're going
to draw a picture inside of. ) Here's the one I'm going to draw Mr. Clark
in:
Next picture below:
I began with the root (or bridge) of the nose. Tried to make it tall,
triangular and appear to be in the same plane as the forehead. I've also
begun on the eye (his left eye), drawn the body of the nose, the bulbous
tip and the two nares. Nares are the two openings of the nose. You know,
where you'll always find a two year olds fingers:
You can see also see
the highlight shape on the tip of the nose there also (it's a rectangle).
The style of drawing I'm using is the "pure contour" approach
- see the two ezines posted before March. I've also drawn the groove above
the upper eyelid and try to exaggerate the arch that he has.
Next picture:
Added the right eye. They (the eyes) got a little bigger than I wanted.
But that's OK, I'm going to keep rolling. I also began by drawing contours
of the cheeks. Making them fleshier and chubbier than they really are
is accomplished by more lines and hatching to set up the 3d effect given
by values and tones (values and tones refer to how dark the darks are
getting and how white the lights are getting). Also, sorry if the pics
are just a little blurry - the shutter and lens on my camera are new and
I wasn't aware how unfocused the close-ups were getting. Also note how
leaving just a little well placed highlight on the dark part of the eye
(the iris) really makes it leap off the page):
Refer back to the
original photo to get your bearings:
Got a lot drawn -
or it at least seems like I got a lot drawn between the following picture
and the one just above. But if you look close, it's really not a lot of
lines. Find these - even on this small picture: the lines denoting
the cheeks, the lips, the jaw, the forehead and hairline. Scroll up and
down between the real photo just above and the drawing just below and
discover the exaggerations. It DOES NOT matter what style of drawing you
do, the basics of seeing DO NOT change.
Recognizing angles
and proportion, seeing edges, visualizing negative shapes, comparing and
contrasting angles and edges with true horizontal and vertical, perceiving
light and dark of shadow and highlight: these DO NOT change.
Accurate perception is at the root of all drawing - be it
realistic or caricature regardless if your style is like Al Hirschman,
David Levine or Phillip Burke. Develop your own style, but don't kid yourself.
(Someone recently suggested was forcing my style on them. No, just wanted
them to learn to see.)
Ears!
I forgot to mention ears above. Mr. Clark, like almost all white men of
advanced age, has large ears. It's true, Caucasian men have the largest
ears and the longest noses on the planet. And neither stops growing until
they die. This is a fact.
You can also see in
the above photo the extra lines around the eyes. See the section
on ears if you're feeling rusty on drawing ears. ( Or
this "how to draw ears" page - no password necessary.) Also
note the lines forming on the neck.
Refer frequently,
even all the time to your subject, be they in a photo or live:
Adding the "Concha"
to the ear. (Concha = the big seashell [conch] shape within the outer
ear). Yep, the eyes really are too big and open. This picture confirms
it. But that's ok. The likeness is still there, but could be made spot-on
by nailing down those details.
You can see in the
picture below the ear is fairly well shaded in and I've begun darkening
in the shadows in and around the mouth and teeth:
Close-up of the mouth.
I think I got the shape of the upper lip down pretty good but it gets
hid in all that ink. That's a risk of ink: you can't erase it very easily.
Also note, since the "bottom of the nose line" and the "middle
of the mouth line" are much closer than they are on Mr. Average,
to caricature them, you draw them even closer. If
you don't recall or understand these landmarks, see these sections in
your book:
- http://ycdinsiders.digitalchainsaw.com/InsidersArtistLoft/ani_difranco_part_3.htm
- http://ycdinsiders.digitalchainsaw.com/InsidersArtistLoft/partv.htm
Refer to the MAN again:
Ok, darkening the
darks of the "palpebral fold" - the line above the upper eye
lid, the hair line and the shadows around the mouth and chin:
Ok! The extra hatches
around and on the upper lids, the hair, the cheeks and the chin are making
the depth, the 3d effect of this picture work very well. I'm happy :-)
:
Squint your eyes and
see if you can't collapse those areas of darkest shadows all condense
into drawable shapes. Then try and draw them into the drawing. Do they
match up with those same areas of our drawing - even if we're exaggerating?:
OK! Now we're in the
last legs of this drawing. A rough treatment of the collar, the tie and
the sport coat with minimal detail give the focus of the drawing something
to stand on and lead your eye up into the drawing:
...and yes, I've gone
way outside the drawn format. Do I care? I don't care! :-)
A little shading on
that tie and a few more loose lines on the jacket and this drawing is
done:
Does it work?
It works ok. I think With a little more work around the mouth, teeth and
lips, and with smaller and squintier eyes that turn up a little at the
outside edges, more shadowing around the cheeks, this could be a really
close likeness. (That's where getting up and getting some distance while
you're drawing really helps. I don't do that when I do these zines...always
racing to get them done :-) But I'm happy with it. Here's Mr. Clark smiling
his approval (and for you to compare and come up with your own interpretation):
A little touchup in
Photoshop (airbrushing) of the two drawings:
OK. Assignment:
Compare every feature of the face you know of and ask yourself how are
they different and how are they the same, for example:
- Who proportionately
has the bigger nose, eyes, ears, chin, cheeks, neck, tie, collar, forehead,
- Where are the deepest
shadows in either picture?
- Where are the brightest
highlights?
- Is there anything
similar about the highlights and shadows in the two drawings?
- Who's head is longer?
Who's is wider?
- What part of the
face is widest in each drawing?
- Can you visualize
the a) middle of the eye line b) the bottom of the nose line c) the
middle of the mouth line and d) can you strategize how you'd exaggerate
even more?
Very cool! Now do
15 minutes of drawing. Get your timer. Draw one of the snap shot drawing
above. Draw as much as you can in 15 minute. Use whatever paper or drawing
pen / pencil you have right in front of you. 15 minutes, no excuses. Just
do it :-) Now. Go.
Warmly,
Jeff
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