The Group Caricature Continued – Drawing Faces!

Once all the photos have been correctly labelled and collated, the first thing I want from a client is agreement that the caricatures are accurate likenesses of each person in the group caricature.

Working on A4 sheets folded in half, I draw rough pencilled versions of each face in the A5 areas.

These are then scanned in (two per page makes for much less scanning) and saved at low resolution for emailing back to the client for approval.

I have found that one in every ten rough caricatures needs a small amendment (which isn’t a bad percentage if I say so myself!). This is usually because of the photos not really looking like the person. I can only draw caricatures from the photos supplied.

When you have a group caricature of up to 60 people, you can begin to understand why it is so labour intensive and the price charged must bear this in mind. There are people out there who cannot understand the difference between a drawing of one person and that of a large group. And they will shop around until they find the cheapest, but not necessarily best quality, solution to their problem. However, I shall leave my customer-haranguing diatribe to a later date! I have plenty of material!

So, once the rough faces have been sent off and all has been approved, what’s the next stage?

Watch this space – it’s composition time!

The First Stage of Drawing a Group Caricature

The client contacts me and eventually sends me what seems to be hundreds of photos of all the people involved in the caricature.

I like to streamline the process, so rather than print out each photo individually, I use Photoshop to crop them all down to the margins of the face and lay them all out together on sheets of A4. This produces ‘contact sheets’ of all the faces I am going to have to draw.

I make sure I don’t forget who’s who by typesetting names in as I go.

Then the client sends me a list of each person with details of what they should be doing in the caricature. They often send me their own thumbnail sketch which is always a very handy starting point for any artist.

Next: to start drawing all those faces!

Recent Commission for London Caricaturist

This was another  caricature commission from the wonderful Dr George Sik whom I wrote about in an earlier post.

He just sends me the photos and detailed description about what he wants and I draw the caricature and post it back to him. I don’t have to understand intrinsically what is going on. It looks like it’s a regular gathering of friends who happen to be Newcastle United supporters at a Surbiton pub they have jocularly renamed The Surbiton Strawberry for reasons best known to themselves!

However – another thoroughly enjoyable  job.

Daniel Craig aka James Bond 007

Here’s a man who is really difficult to draw.

This is a work in progress. It’s rubbish, in fact. But I will be back with a better version when I can!

David Beckham Site Ready to Launch!

Amongst my many studio jobs that I have been juggling recently, some of you may remember that I have been commissioned to draw cartoons and caricatures for The Unofficial Website of David Beckham.

This is a humorous website based on the spoof interviews with Becks on Los Angeles radio station K-Earth 101. Here’s the front page.

I drew a series of cartoons for various parts of the website which will be launched very soon as The Beckham Diaries.

Here’s a selection of the cartoons which you can enlarge by clicking on them.

   

Sensationally Successful Corporate Event!

Last night I drew caricatures of everyone at a Price Waterhouse Coopers client party at The Café du Marché in London. This was a 1st Choice Entertainment event and it went down very well.

It’s always satisfying getting a photo of a group like this holding their caricatures and they were only too willing to oblige and pose for me.

Caricature for The Vita Group

This is the latest caricature commission off the drawing board.

It’s a Black and White A3 caricature which I draw from photos submitted by email. The client supplies all the additional information, hence the kilt, cigarette, Diet Cokes, Choccy Bics and Blackberry.

As an ex-newspaper cartoonist, I ‘m quite keen on the traditional ‘newspaper style’ of cross-hatching. This is the method by which it is possible to suggest depth and form and is totally engrossing.

Now, I have to get back to the final two cartoons for the Beckham Project! More on that later!

Caricaturist on Magazine Cover!

Create Fake Magazine Covers with your own picture at MagMyPic.com
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Caricature from Photo Emailed Back to You! £60.00

One of my most popular services is the Emailed Caricature.

You send me a photo, I draw the caricature at 150dpi, A5 size, head and shoulders only and I email it back to you!

Here’s one I did today.

All you need to do is send payment by Paypal to simon@caricatures.org.uk and then email the photos.

The cost is £60.00 ($120.00).

Here’s another one:

Let me tell you MORE about Emailed Caricatures! 

The London Caricaturist tackles French Politics! (or How To Draw a Political Cartoon)

Every year I try to attend the wonderful Cartoon Festival in Louviers, France. This is a very well-attended celebration of the art of cartoon and caricature. The festival atmosphere is intoxicating as is the wine, food and considerable bonhomie afforded us by the international gathering of up to 50 cartoonists, their friends, relatives and the organisers.

Back in 2006 I was lucky enough to win a prize for a cartoon which made a political comment about the European Union, so I thought I’d have another go this year.

The 2006 cartoon was one which I had actually produced on-the-spot under the glare of TV cameras for BBC News 24, which explains its hasty look and roughness:

This year, the obvious target is President Nicolas Sarkozy and his typical Gallic philandering ways.

So, I started off by roughly sketching the face:

Then I put the face on a body and gradually built a setting around him;

I have already been thinking about the caption which you can see lightly written in along the bottom. Although my French is passable, I am careful to check this for accuracy with a couple of French friends.

It seems to me that the picture needs more detail, to put it in context, so I reduce the rough down slightly and add the other side to the story which helps the caption to make more sense.

You can see how the original drawing is becoming tighter and more refined while the new elements (the men) are still quite rough.

Once inked in, with a few minor changes, the finished cartoon looks like this:

I’ve added newspaper headlines to emphasize the state France is in while Sarkozy pursues more pressing matters!

This was really enjoyable in that indefinable way that most self-imposed projects are – when you are purely working for yourself. I’ll report back from the festival (in April) to let you know if I won!