Political Caricature:
A photo-heavy documentation of John Bolton caricature drawing
Caricature and
Drawing Newsletter for February, 2006
This newsletter is reproduced here by courtesy of YouCanDraw.com -
Once and for all getting you drawing faces and caricatures:
February, 2006
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Your February 2006,
YouCanDraw.com Communiqué
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Howdy all,
hope you all enjoyed
watching the Olympics as much as I did! It was inspiring. It was moving.
And for the first time I enjoyed the figure skating. I must be getting
older :-) And there was plenty to caricature! The "Tomato guy"
on the snowboard, the "Bode Bust", the Hedrick / Davis feud
- it was pure drama! So much so that I did no drawing for the entire affair.
And it would be too hard to decide who to caricature anyway. So I took
the easy way out: US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton. He's
someone I've been saving for a rainy day to draw. And once I got drawing,
I got fired up and drew not one, not two, but three versions of him :-)
So today you really get your money's worth.
The Tombo Pen
In fact, I applied
something I picked up from painters today: the Tombo Pen. What's a "Tombo"
pen ? It's a double-tipped water soluble marker. You draw your picture
in an outline form then take a wet finger, or wash towel or a paint brush
and go right back into the ink lines you've just drawn and smear the ink
around a little. Works great for adding that shadowed look. Lots of painters
use it for making a "value" drawing of a painting -- a mockup
-- if you will, of a painting they're planning on painting to decide on
where the darkest darks and highlights go. It's for planning. But it also
works great for whipping up rapid fire shaded caricatures. You can see
that below.
Photos!
You'll also see below
a whole bunch of photos of the second caricature I did of Mr. Bolton with
minimal editorial comment from me. I'll just mention what I'm seeing and
then it's up to you to find it in the drawing,. Yes, it might be a sign
of laziness on my part but I think you might find it engages your artist's
eye more too. So we both win: I don't have to write so much and you don't
have to read so much. Win-win. Yehaa. :-) So let's dive on in...
Here's today's
subject: Ambassador John Bolton:
Now here's a snapshot
of my monitor in Photoshop -- Photoshop allows you to open as many pictures
as your machine's memory will allow. Here's what mine looked like after
I collected a couple dozen off the web. Having all sorts of pictures of
your subjects will really make identifying the finer points of your subjects
features possible:
Here's the finished
first drawing of Mr. Bolton I did (it was the Tombo Pen
version):
First Drawing
/ Tombo Pen caricature...a little sloppy :-)
Here's the second
pencil drawing I did (which I documented as I drew):
Second Drawing
And here's the third
version of the ambassador - and arguably the best or minimally, the most
exaggerated one:
Third Drawing
Starting on on
the second drawling
I'll repeat the photo
of Mr. John here so you can get a fresh look at him:
In this first photo:
starting with the hair. Give him BIG hair, hair that goes from here to
the stratosphere and barrels right down on top of his eyes. At least,
that's how I as a caricaturist am seeing it right now (by the way,
that's not a stray number three there off to the top left, it's a stray
Tombo pen mark that's going to follow us all through the series here):
Next pic: adding some
filler lines on the hair. Hair has locks, and sections and bundles within
it. Sometimes it's more interesting to add a little line detail where
the edges of those bundles will be. Don't try to draw all the hair --
you'll never get done and it's not nearly as interesting as the rhythm
of partially drawn hair is. I'm adding the hair section on the short side
of the part here:
Next: expanding on
the hair some more. I wasn't satisfied with the bulk:
...Referring back
to the original for insight:
...Now adding the
first eye (I try to start with the eye on the right so my left-handedness
will do minimal smudging. What's interesting here is looking at the eye
as the rim of the glasses cross through it. Don't try to draw just one
eye. Note how in the original photo there's almost 2 colored parts of
the eye (two corneas) - the refraction in the glasses gives partially
repeated look. Don't let your thinking mind whine "but a person can
only have one cornea or one pupil per eye". No, if you see
two like there is in the photo, then embrace what your senses are telling
you and draw two:
I'm going to shrink
those glasses down too. More hair dang it! Look where that Tombo smudge
is above and look where it shows up in this next photo:
Eyebrows: look at
how the gray hair in the middle of the bushy eyebrows almost makes the
eyebrows disappear. Don't be fooled. Also notice how close to the cornes
the hair comes - adds a slightly angry look to him:
Starting on the "Malar
fold" - also called the "naso-labial fold". Not sure what
that is? Look it up in your sourcebook or check it out at an anatomy site.
But, hint, it is being drawn right here :-) :
Take a second to refer
back to the original photo:
Walrus mustache. It
fairly obliterates the "naso-labial fold". What's important
to note while drawing white hair is to get that hint of sections or bundles
of hair -- in place of drawing each separate hair. Note too where the
'stache is darkest. Also note how the direction of the hairs changes as
you travel from nose to chin. And speaking of the nose, can you see how
it slowly expands all the way down to the very tip? And the nostrils are
crowded together a little? :
Adding a lower lip.
Adding teeth. Adding the dark of the mouth:
Refer to the original:
Working up the cheeks,
the chin and the skin folds under the chin. Note the cross hatches: I've
found that parallel lines work to suggest shadow and hidden reflected
light within those shadows (look especially on the chin and around the
cheekbones and dimples for this effect):
A close-up (sort of
) of the chin lower lip, and skin folds / neck, and adding horizontal
hatches to convey the feeling of middle tone shadowing:
Stepping back a little
to review what we've done so far:
Yes, can't forget
the shirt, tie, and jacket:
Let's go after that
right ear (his right ear, on the left in the picture however):
...But you know, I
really don't know if that makes the drawing work...
...so I'll just erase
it...and what about all that smudging there?...big deal...I'll just erase
that later:
...I think I will
however make that other ear bigger (his left, on the right as we look
at the pictrure):
...Yes, but I will
cover the rest of the face with a sheet of paper so I won't smudge the
whole dang thing:
..Yea, I'm kind of
liking that effect. It holds the hair up better:
Refer back to the
original photo:
Adding detail, like
the furrowed brow:
...And a few little
hair spritzes...
And voila! Here's
the finished sketch:
Synopsis: big
hair, hair down to the eye (and could in fact be drawn over the eyes liie
sheep dog), a relatively thin nose with buttoned on nostrils, big white
walrus 'stache, lots of chin lines. And that's our Ambassador John Bolton
:-)
Does it look my other
John Bolton photos? ...
Yes, I think it does!
Good job. And here's all three drawing as they sit on the same 18"
x 24" sheet of cheap drug store bought watercolor paper:
Assignment
If I have one assignment
today it would be to experiment: experiment with the Tombo Pen, with different
papers, with different pencils, and most important of all, experiment
with different looks and different attempts at drawing and redrawing your
subject! One is not enough. The more you experiment, the better you'll
get and the less you'll feel trapped by having to do one "just right".
Dive in, don't be
afraid, and keep on drawing!
Warmly,
Jeff
Kasbohm
& Company's
Drawing-Faces-and-Caricatures-Made-Easy.com
and
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