Political
Caricature:
A step-by-step photo-intensive drawing "how to" of Senator
Harry Reid
Caricature and Drawing
Newsletter for March / April, 2006
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Once and for all getting you drawing faces
and caricatures:
March / April, 2006
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Your March / April 2006,
YouCanDraw.com Communiqué
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Howdy all,
Hope Spring has been
spruingin' for ya'll -- and for those of you in the Southern Hemisphere
(do you capitalize that?), I know Autumn has arrived and Summer is wrapping
up. So just like the weather, I'm gonna whip right into the next caricature.
Today's subject: Senator Harry Reid.
Here's a shot of my
computer screen running Photoshop:
...And here's the
one I've settled on to draw:
Without wasting even
a second, let's dive in. It's just my preference but I almost always start
with the eye on the left. I often try to force myself to do the other
eye first - since I'm left handed and if reach across to do the other
eye I second, I get a lot more accidental smudging. Anyway, here's
what I'm focusing on:
Kind of hard to tell
but in this first photo Mr. Harry's right eye, eye brow and nose lines
are being sketched in. I find the deep tall lines that extend from the
nose into the forehead as very notable for caricature. Note too how this
rather grumpy picture of Mr. Reid forces his eyebrows right down on top
of his eyelids:
Here we're reinforcing
the lines around the first eye, darkening the shadows around the nasal
lines that pass into the forehead; and we're beginning that one aspect
of the nose there:
Speaking of the nose,
note how his particular nose is rather long bridged that leads to an almost
Santa Claus like bulbous tip (and believe me, I'm not making fun of that
- I have one too..the bulbous nose deal :-) :
Oh and yes, can't
forget about the glasses - and here's the thing you'll have to pay close
attention to drawing his glasses: I think they're of the non-rimmed
glass kind. And that makes for real close observation about highlight
and shadow. Note how the shadows on the cheeks (from the glasses) are
so much more noticeable than the actual edge of the lenses of the glasses
(see above). And you can see how I rendered them below - along with starting
to fill in the lines around the nose:
Also notice in the
sketch above the shadow cast from the glasses right on to the lower lid
of the eye. Squint and notice the minimal amount of highlight around the
pupil - but how much the rhythm of light and shadows (represented by pencil
lines) makes the area around that eye really jump out.
I've also fell into
the practice the last year or so of layering lines to represent contour
and shadow areas. It's starting to work for me (I'm stumbling on to my
own style I guess - and entirely by accident and by experimentation. And
this will happen for you too if you just keep working at it :-)
...but as you can
tell, this isn't making Senator Reid any happier:
Ok, next photo. Filling
in the other eye, adding the glasses to that side as well. Notice the
shape of the shadow areas and notice how on the right side of the picture
the shadows the make up the eye area are pretty much represented with
the same kind of crosshatching. If you squint and look at the photo, you
can collapse a lot of the detail and see how to simplify what looks pretty
complicated. Also compare the size of the glasses in the real photo and
in the caricature. Here's the photo again:
Here's the drawing:
Notice also in the
sketch above the darkest area of pencil on the bottom of the nose (left
side of the picture). Notice also the rhythm of light and dark. If you
look at any photo or at the person right next to you, you very often see
this pattern. Why? Because with the light coming form above the underside
of the nose falls into shadow - but very often it catches the reflected
light off the upper lip (actually the apron of the upper lip).
And hence the light - dark - light - dark pattern. Capiche? Cool. You'll
start seeing this all over the place.
...still not making
Harry any happier:
Observe the lips and
chin above. Note how the edges of the lip / line where the lips touch
align with pupils. With the mouth apparently that small, and the upper
lip on the narrow side, you can see the results of that interpretation
below:
Also note above the
diagonal line beneath the nose: it's the precursor to what will be the
long shadow cast by the nose. (Keep at it until you find it.) Scroll up
and see if you can't make out the shape of the shadow cast by the nose.
Then scroll down below and see if you can't see how that nose shadow has
progressed:
So what am I erasing
here? It's the jowl. It's fun to make big saggy jowls where anyone might
have a jowl but I felt I could make the lower part of the face appear
narrower than it was heading by raising the the jowl some. (I did that
too because the overall shape of the head is like that of an egg - just
big side up.) Moral of story: don't be afraid to make mistakes! But don't
try to make it perfect. If you're erasing until the paper is getting torn,
you're getting too serious! Take a break. Go for a walk. You will
get this :-)
Next photo: adding
the glass arm or temple or whatever the heck you call it and adding to
the cheek on the right. I'm not going to point that out because I'm leaving
it up to you as an exercise to sleuth out the addition. Scroll up and
down till you find it:
...filling in the
jowl on the bottom right side of the picture - don't go to the next photo
until you find it :-) Do you see the asymmetry of the chin? Compare it
to the center of the nose - draw an imaginary line from nose to the chin.
See the inequity? That's a part of all faces...even if I invented it.
There it be:
Refresher: look at
the original picture:
Only progress here
is the addition of the shadow under the eye and cheekbone on the right
side of the picture and the more shadowing on the nose. Again, scroll
up and down till you find it:
Hey! That's coming
along:
Reference to original
for your viewing pleasure:
So check out those
ears. Big small? How would you draw them? Which one resides in more shadow?
Here's my version:
Here's a sleuth question
for you. Can you see what's different between the sketch above and this
next one below? I'll tell you in a second. Hint: look at the shadow under
the nose - under the nose, and on the cheek - both on the right as you
look at the picture:
Answer: See the extra
set of almost vertical hashes on the apron of the upper lip? And the extra
hashes on the cheek? Keep looking. By the way I don't know why the picture
got orange all of a sudden. Acid in that paper? Happened awful quick.
That's what ya get for drawing on cheap water color paper :-) (Actually
I really enjoy drawing on the very affordable Strathmore 140 pound cold
press water color paper. Hear that Strathmore people?)
Observing out subject
again:
What do you see different
here:
See the enforcing
of shadow areas? Horizontal lines drawn over the ear and eye on the right
side of the drawing; deepening of those nose lines that run off in to
the forehead:
Ok, Back to good ol
B & W. Here we're actually beginning on final touches: like the subtle
shadows on the forehead:
Put your attention
on the hair. See any directions or divisions of the hair you simplify
or abstract so you don't have to draw every danged hair?
...More forehead below.
More shadows. Filling in the hair on the left. Hair is always at it's
darkest right where it pops out of / transitions from face to hair:
Jumping down to the
necktie and suit coat here:
You have to look close
now. I've lightly sketched in the overall shape of the hair as well as
some subtle "locks" within the overall hair shape:
Here's a close-up
of the hair and a few individual hairs No need to draw them all:
Reference:
Pretty much done:
Hmm. Thinking the
shadow side of the the face was too light, I added a few more shadows:
Doe! Doesn't seem
to help that much and the detail around the eye on the right side of the
drawing starts getting lost. Can't hit "control" -" z"
with the real drawing. Oh well. I'm pretty satisfied with how this turned
out. AND very lastly....
...here's Harry doing
what politicians do best: pose with some of the really cute neighborhood
kids - and that still doesn't make him happy! Shees. Well actually he
is starting to smile a little::
Look how that shadow
works under Harry's nose! I'm very pleased
And talk about sturdy!
That's snow you see all over the place in the background and it's only
42 degrees on this day.
Your Homework:
May challenge to you:
be as fearless as these two and commit to 30 minutes a day, five days
for one week. Just get your materials gathered on the first day and do
a little drawing in the time left in those next 30 minutes. Then on the
second through fourth days, do all thirty minutes of drawing. Go for it!
Then spend one hour drawing anything that grabs your eye outside this
coming weekend.
Here's a link to
the previous John Bolton caricature:
http://www.drawing-faces-and-caricatures-made-easy.com/political-caricature-bolton.html
And
if you're just gettnig here, check out all the Karl Rove political caricature
lessons - we go into depthe in a dioffernt way: http://www.drawing-faces-and-caricatures-made-easy.com/drawing-karl-rove.html
Keep on drawing!
Warmly,
Jeff
Kasbohm
& Company's
Drawing-Faces-and-Caricatures-Made-Easy.com
and
YouCanDraw.com
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