The difference between caricatures drawn from photos and those drawn on-the-spot at parties is often quite stark. A caricaturist can appear to have a split personality because the styles are so far apart.
When you are drawing in the quiet and solitude of your own studio, from a selection of photos, you have all the time in the world to make adjustments and corrections until the caricature is just right.
On-the-spot at parties and events, you become part-caricaturist, part-entertainer and the drawing becomes a side product of a totally different process. The caricatures drawn at parties are hardly ever a caricaturist‘s favourite example of his artwork. They are drawn at speed and a certain amount of premeditated formula helps to do this and get a good resemblance.
Here is a selection of caricatures I did on-the-spot for Make It Cheaper (who, paradoxically, were one of my best-paying clients in December!).
There is a fear amongst caricaturists of seeing one’s on-the-spot drawings together like this because they can sometimes ‘all look the same’ (exposing the ‘formula’). But I think I’ve been lucky with this lot and most of their individual characteristics show through.
This was one of those interesting projects where I had to take the caricatures away and then compose them together as an A2 Group. Here they are all in the same group (click to enlarge):
The client was very pleased with the results!
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Good work here Simon! Your description of the difference between studio and live caricatures is very apt!
I’ve always found my on the spot caricatures are always somehow better than the ones I have spent time over in the studio (The kitchen Table!). I think the on the spot caricatures somehow put you under pressure and you just go with the flow rather than correcting. Your first attempt is normally the best I find.