How to Become a Caricature Artist

August 12th, 2010

Caricatures are a distorted portrait of an object but needs a reasonable likeness. The subtle but very important skill in caricature art is being able to capture your subject’s personality and expressing it well as you learn how to become a caricature artist.

A portrait artist attempts to recreate real-life pictures while a caricature artist focuses on exaggeration. Some over-exaggerate facial features; this is only a matter of style. For example, will the sketches be over-pronounced or will it just be a sized-up original object? To what degree should you combine the thin, thick, and dark lines? Always start with the shortest subject if you are drawing multiple subjects on a single page. Rather than draw horizontally, stack them vertically on your paper. Art class 101 lessons of drawing circles for the head and then filling the eyes, nose and mouth is reversed. In sketching caricatures draw the insides of the face first and mentally get an idea of where the cheeks and chin will fall on the paper. Lightly sketch some boundaries, but leave finishing touches yet. Begin with the eyes, the top eyelids first. Observe the distance, size and shape. Next draw the outline of the nose and note the relationship between the eyes and the nose. If your subject has a large nose, use thick lines, here is a good opportunity to exaggerate. When drawing the mouth, pay attention to the distance from the nose to the mouth. Observe the top lip. Is it thin or pouty? For wide-mouthed subjects, over-exaggeration works well here. Use softer lines. The face is drawn in a top to bottom order. Next, draw the chin, cheeks, and jaw in that particular order. The chin provides another opportunity to exaggerate. Drawing the chin first also automatically suggest how the jaw line ends. Remember this while learning how to become a caricature artist – exaggerations do not always have to be up-scaled. Next, draw the ears and the inside hairline. At this point, the finished caricature will clearly show if or not they have a big forehead. Round up by drawing in the hair and head. If they have hair, be generous, bear in mind that the outer perimeter of the head is an edge so a thick line is needed. If the subject has thick, bushy eyebrows, or almost invisible ones, you want to bring this out when sketching it.

Next, draw in the bottom eyelid and add the eye bags if present, next, eyeballs and return to finish the bridge of the nose. Next draw the cheeks, take note; some people have more cheek structure than others. The final steps are to add the minor details such as freckles, scars, and facial hair and your caricature is almost complete. Add finishing touches and now you have successfully mastered how to become a caricature artist!

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Public Speaking: Caricature, Cartoons, and Comic Strips

August 12th, 2010

When bound prominent options of something or somebody are highlighted and alternative features are diminished, that’s known as caricature. Studies have found that it is easier to spot a political leader from a caricature than from a real photograph. You can use caricatures of yourself in your own promotional material or in your programs to create fun of yourself. You’ll do the same issue to create fun of your competitors or your competitor’s products by amplifying no matter feature you wish to emphasize.

Caricature artists don’t seem to be too onerous to locate. Several times you’ll be able to realize them by trying within the telephone book beneath the classes of entertainment or party coming up with as a result of they frequently perform at parties. Cartoons and Comic Strips are the most universally accepted formats for humor across cultures. Realize out why by viewing this website’s article:

There are 3 ways that to use cartoons: first, you’ll tell the audience regarding a cartoon you saw; second, you’ll be able to cut the cartoon out of its publication and show it; and third, you can make up a cartoon yourself. I saw a cartoon once where a girl was holding a gun to her purse. The caption said, ‘Give up the keys!’ I take advantage of this example in my Business Lite Seminar after I wish to illustrate the employment of humor to assist ease the strain in embarrassing situations. (I have conjointly used this line several times after I am with a lady who is fumbling through her purse.) When I tell the audience I saw a cartoon, it helps them paint a mental image of what I am describing with words.

Describing a cartoon is an easy technique for using cartoons without having them physically offered or needing audio/visual equipment to point out them. Showing a cartoon is a a lot of powerful manner to convey its humorous message. This can be especially true in international audiences where the visual facet takes on a larger significance. During a terribly small crowd I may interruption the cartoon or I would possibly pass it around. In larger audiences, the cartoon ought to be projected (don’t forget to induce permission from the copyright holder) therefore everybody will see it clearly. I like this technique better anyway because I can management when it pops up on the screen. I want everyone to work out the cartoon simultaneously so their laughter can be cumulative. Attempt to fill the frame of the visual together with your cartoon or comic strip. You will create a greater impact.

The third way to use cartoons is to make them yourself. After I initial started teaching this subject I might not use this method unless I hired an artist. Things are totally different now. There are a number of inexpensive pc software programs on the market that will be used, one among that is Corel Draw. This program has twenty five,000 items of electronic clip art, several of which are cartoons. I will create custom overhead cartoons for my speaking engagements. All I do is pick an applicable cartoon, add a custom caption for my audience.

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How To Draw Caricatures And Get Paid Over And Over

August 12th, 2010

When your first think of a caricaturist at work, you probably think of a busy theme park with crowds of people buzzing around the sketches of a talented artist, hard at work, cranking out exaggerated cartoons of amazing proportions, some funny, some offensive (all in good taste of course!), some that really stand out.

For some artists though, the very thought of sitting in front of a public crowd, sweating under the pressure of the spot light, makes them go weak at the knees. And for a few smart ones, fortunately there is an easier way. One that leads to ongoing income for their drawings.

Imagine being paid over and over for the one drawing, or many drawings for that matter. Imagine knowing how much money you were going to make this week, this month or even this year, how secure would that make you feel?

The technique I am about to explain can deliver just that, a full time ongoing income. Your caricatures will be sold over and over and over to a hungry market that has plenty of spare cash to spend on your creative talents.

So What Is This Secret Market?

Answer: Cell Phone Wallpapers

If you are under 20 years old then you will know exactly what I am talking about. The cell phone after-market industry is absolutely huge, with a forecast $7 billion spend in 2009 in the ringtones category alone. Wallpapers, (the cell phone equivalent of a desktop picture for the 30+’s reading this) are not nearly as big but they are second place getter in this race and that means they are worth going after.

So Exactly How Does A Caricaturist Capture This Market?

Answer: Clue, start thinking like a teenager and then create what they want.

If you follow along with their media you will get a good idea of the current “celebrities” that they are going to want on their phones, as a wallpaper picture. Try visiting MySpace, Youtube, celebrity websites, ezines, fan sites, musicians sites, cell phone ring tone selling sites like Jamster. Here you will get the latest, most viewed celebrities that you can do caricatures of and then give them away for free.

Did you say free? Are you crazy, how am I going to make any money doing that?

I know it seems ridiculous to do all that work only to give it away but unless you do, you will find it hard to get any traffic to your website, and no traffic means no money – at all.

So how do you make money doing it this way? Well first things first you need a hook (a freebie or 5) to get them to your site, then you need a way to get them interested in paying further down the track once they get addicted your freebies.

It works well like this…

Invite website visitors to download 5 wallpapers for free, all you ask is that they give you permission to send them your weekly newsletter to your latest and funniest celebrity caricatures, (with links to the ones that you sell for .99c each!)

Setup your payment gateway with the most popular ways teenagers use to purchase stuff on the Internet, to make sure that you don’t cause too much “friction” in the sales process. You don’t want to lose sales due to this so invest some time in researching what the most widely used methods are and emulate.

How Much Money Can Be Made Selling Wallpapers To Teenagers?

The answer to that lies in how large your list of subscribers is. With a good strike rate of conversion at around 4% on each weekly mailing, you can workout just how big you need to build your list to make sure you can do this fulltime.

Eg. List size 25,000 subscribers x $1 x 4% = $1,000

Now that is an income you could live on, and the good thing is this market, teenagers are very viral, so they will show off their latest acquisition from your caricature range to their friends to make them jealous and then they are going to want one too!

The Trick You Must Remember To Make This Work!

Create 10 new caricatures each week, otherwise your site will become stale and your visitors and subscribers will start to leave. You need fresh material, not that hard when all you need do is pick up the latest weekly magazine of “celebr-a-trash” at your local news outlet or drug store. Who’s pregnant this week, who’s been arrested, who’s engaged, new boyfriend, new girlfriend – I think you get the idea.
Rotate your freebies in your free to download area to be the last months selection that you previously sold. This way you can add to the number of freebies, which makes it more attractive and your site and subscribers will grow along with it.

The setup of your website is something that you need to consider carefully as getting the right payment gateway, promotional tools for marketing and the correct mechanism for building your membership site are crucial to your sites success and these steps need to executed with precision to make sure your making the most of this opportunity.

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Know About Caricature Artists

August 12th, 2010

A caricature is a portrait that exaggerates and possibly distorts the essence of an object to create a likeness that is easily identified by looking at it. The object could be living or non-living Caricature Artists recreates objects using an exaggeration of some characteristics. The finished objects could be complimentary or insulting or both and usually serves for entertainment or carry a political overtone. Editorial cartoons usually feature political caricatures while those of celebrities are plied in various entertainment mediums. The term ‘caricature’ is coined from an Italian word meaning, to charge or load. In essence, it means a loaded portrait. There have been arguments that caricatures are only meant to depict the real-life objects and not fictional characters such as fabricated cartoons or other illustrations. The accepted conventional rule is that the characters ‘loaded’ must either possess objective sets of physiognomic features to draw upon for reference, or, in case of inanimate objects such as cars or coffee mugs, the anthropomorphic depictions thereof. Renowned Caricature Artists have often said that it is difficult to draw a caricature of an animal that works as best as those of human characters. Caricatures dates back to the olden days where famous artists sort for deformed models to feature in their works. They strived to represent the original image in a way more striking than portraits. This whole art was born out the need to load as much meaning to an image as possible. Caricature Arts used to be distributed among closed groups just for the mutual enjoyment it created. Nowadays, the art has gone public with many artists plying their trade commercially in public places such as parks, beaches, and other frequently visited tourist attraction spots. It is now a full time employment opportunity and the art is even taught in colleges and universities as a subject. In the past, it was just a natural talent or one picked up by sheer posterity or opportunity. Apart from the traditional political and celebrity satire use, most modern caricatures often drawn by fulltime or part time street vendors are used as gifts or souvenirs. Often popular at street functions, carnivals, and even weddings, caricatures can be quickly drawn to specification for random clients for a token fee. Many publishing houses used to employ permanent Caricature Artists to sketch portraits by hand for use in their daily publications. With the advent of modern tools and a much more varied need for caricature arts, the future of this unique art is still light years away.

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Using a Caricature Maker

August 12th, 2010

Some people have the natural talent of drawing caricatures, while others don’t. Have you ever felt the want to come up with your own caricature, but unsuccessfully did so as you fell under the group that didn’t have the talent to? Hold your horses; you do not have to give up that thought. With the help of an online program called the caricature maker, you are able to do just that – talent or not.

Before you begin, you can search online for available caricature-making programs. These programs are usually free, and require no downloading.

Basically, the caricature maker has a database of different ready-drawn features. These features are categorized into their particular features, such as eyes, eyebrows, nose, mouth, ears, hair, and face shape. All you need to do is to choose the feature you would like, and then select from the options of the feature you have selected. For example, if you chose the eye feature, you would have a selection of eye shapes to choose from, be it bigger, smaller, rounder or even longer eyes. Do not worry that the shape of the feature is not as big or round as you want. The program allows you to change the shapes as desired. Pick the closest matching feature to the one you have in mind, and then edit accordingly. After you have selected and edited each feature, you can see the results of your creativity.

Another thing you can do is to upload a photo of a face, and make it into an animated caricature. The program will transform the face into a stamp, which you can easily reuse with the click of a button. This allows you to choose the background and wardrobe you would like to have the face on.

After that, you can choose to download or dispose of your end product. Downloading it can be done by saving the caricature in .jpeg or .gif file formats to your computer. You also have the option of putting your caricatures online in any websites that supports HTML script codes, by copying the codes and pasting it into the desired website. An alternative is also to send the picture to your e-mail.

Some of these programs offer more advanced services, where a real caricature artist draws the caricature for you. Usually, you will need to pay for the services. Such services can include a personalized caricature of you which can be used as a gift idea, or even made into an animated caricature. Usually, you will have to send in photos of faces of which you want caricatures drawn, along with the background and wardrobe of your choice.

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Generate Your Own Caricatures

August 12th, 2010

aricatures are portraits of exaggerated features of a person or a thing. To draw a person’s caricature, you will need to understand the components of a face, and what makes one face noticeably different from another. While it takes knowledge and practice to identify particular features that makes a person unique, a program called a caricature generator can do just that.

If you look at the mind of a caricature artist, they will need to first look at the face to be drawn, study the details of the face, and then subjectively identify how certain facial features stand out among the norm that they are familiar with. When this happens, they keep in mind features that they find unique, and leave out certain details of the face that they deem insignificant. They then print the visualized image they see in their mind by drawing it out.

The caricature generator works almost similarly. This program basically holds a database of common faces. When you upload a picture of your face into this program, it compares your face with its database. With this information, it takes the average common face as its guide to which part of your facial features it should amplify. For example, if your eyes are bigger or rounder than the norm, the program will accentuate your eyes by doubling or tripling its size. However, with this program, it does not leave out details that do not stand out completely, but only gives less exaggeration towards the feature. Nevertheless, this program is able to keep the exaggerated details within recognizable boundaries, only adding a little distortion to form the character of what makes a caricature.

Usually, before making the comparisons, these programs, just like caricature artists, will require you to identify your gender. This is necessary as male features tend to be different from those of females. Males tend to have sharper features, while females tend to have gentler curves. When your gender is identified, they may pay more attention to certain details of your face as compared to those of the similar gender in their database. Then, they will either make the lines of the feature sharper or gentler accordingly.

The caricature generator surely is one highly-advanced technology; having able to detect details we humans heuristically miss. With that said, using this program not only allows you to caricaturize your face, it also gives you an idea of how people see you. Try it out to find out which features makes what people think is you!

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Caricatures in Wedding Plans – Fun!

August 12th, 2010

Many admit that when planning for weddings, uniqueness is the number factor sought for by eager couples. They secretly want their wedding not only be a trendsetter but also a little fun that be engraved in memories for a long period of time if not forever. Wedding invitations are one of the best platforms for caricatures. Forget the traditional formal card with elegant script, which is way too common nowadays, do the unimagined. Consider having your wedding invitations cards decorated with a wedding caricature drawings of the bride and the groom on the front. For those unfamiliar with caricatures, these are pictures drawn to resemble real people in some form but are often exaggerated for ridicule and/or comic relief. For instance, the heads are blown out of proportion and sometimes other features such as the nose, mouth, lips, and ears are distorted, too. There are many caricature artists available today. Some draw solely as an occupation while some do it just as a past time. They can be found in malls or other popular tourist attractions centres; some even have their permanent offices. Traditionally, drawings are copied from live characters but a trend has seen contemporary artist draw off still images in photographs or just based on the imagination and verbal description. Many caricature artists will let you decide on a background, a beach if you’re having a destination wedding, a forest reserve if you are planning a ‘green one, etc. With the advent of the computer and the internet, there are lot of tools and resources available to create wedding caricature drawings. So, should hiring a conventional caricature artist be far-fetched in your area, your last respite might be available in one of the numerous online pages available today. There are many free samples of wedding caricature drawings to draw inspiration from. The finished drawing could then be placed the invitations or enlarged, framed and displayed at the wedding reception. This could seriously play down the often typical seriousness injected to what should a fun occasion. No matter what kind of wedding one wish to have, there is always an avenue for a display of a little fun. Wedding cards or thank you cards are some of the common ones available. Any of these ideas would be perfect for couples who don’t mind injecting a little fun and humour into what are sometimes overly serious occasions. But remember if you’re opting for a formal wedding, your invitations need to reflect that. However, you might still be able to add some caricatures drawings to your thank you cards.

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Appreciating Caricature Arts

August 12th, 2010

Caricature is one of the most prevalent and popular art forms available today. There are comic representations of the rich, famous, the wicked, the powerful in newspapers and magazines today. As much as these images are created for different aims and objectives, the most striking feature of all caricatures is the distortion of the body and its parts. Thin people are depicted as skeletal and the plump swell to ridiculous sizes. Other features such as the eyes are sunken or enlarged and the nose is made to appear larger than proportion. Distortions in manner, dress, temperament, etc. are scaled up or down to exaggerated proportions. Who or whatever the target is, the intention of Caricature Arts is to reveal a personality or characteristic through the comic exaggeration of their most visible features, habits and traits.

There is more to a caricature than a mere representation of ugliness, or the other forms of distorted representation it traditionally portrays. It is an artistic portrait, in which the characteristic feature of the subject is presented in a way that deforms or exaggerates their essence to achieve satirical and/or comical effects. Creating fascination out of ugly portraits is the basis of Caricature Arts. Albeit deceptive and far from a real representation of the strengths and frailties of the human body, it attempts to tell a whole story from a grossly distorted and exaggerated portrait. The study of Caricature can reveal a lot about changing attitudes to body shape, diet, beliefs, relationships and sex. It can also present the most striking portraits of facial and bodily attitudes: anger, grief, reverence, joy, etc. The key is to make simple sketches that tell a whole story rather than complicated descriptions that confuses the viewers. Although the intention of any caricature is commonly for ridicule or satire, the real motivation for various portraits vary from artist to artist with the work of some aiming no higher than the display of crude national or sexual stereotypes with comic exaggeration. Some say that the evolution of Caricature Arts is relative to censorship; that artists devised a way to tell a story with more subtle ploys, and greater artistic and political undertones. The history of caricature has been often linked with the history of censorship. The real intent of the caricaturist’s art has in recent times been depicted as a negotiation between a natural impulse to ridicule and a higher wish for change or reformation.

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I Love Watching Caricatures Being Made

August 12th, 2010

I am not the most artistic person that has ever happened. In fact, my friends and family often laugh at me for how little I know about all things art. I cannot paint a picture to save my life, and any photographs I take usually end up off of center and unusable for anything. There is, however, one part of art that I cannot get enough of: caricatures. I absolutely love them. I cannot create them myself, yet I still never tire of watching them be made by other people.

I will never forget the day that I fell in love with seeing caricatures being made that truly reflected people. I was at a theme park with my family for vacation. I couldn’ have been more than ten years old. I was loving everything about the theme park, but when we walked upon a station where artists were creating caricatures I was mezmorized. I could hardly believe the way the artists were making true yet silly representations of the people that sat before them.

I was so intrigued with the process of caricatures that I convinced my mother to let me stay a little while and just watch. Looking back, I am quite shocked that she let a ten year old stay by herself in the park, but she did. And I loved that hour of watching. My eyes moved back and forth from the face of the subject being painted to the face of the artist to the hand of the artist doing the work.

I have continued to be intrigued with caricatures of all kinds. In fact, I have started a growing collection of caricatures. These represent attempts at creating likenesses of myself, my family, some of my closest friends, and a variety of other people that I admire. The caricatures are wide in variety yet they are of the same essence. I have many of them framed in my office and they make for the most interesting conversation starters.

If you’re looking for a new thing to collect or for a new hobby to pick up, then consider caricatures. I have taken two classes aimed specifically to help people learn to do proper caricatures. I am still a long way from considering myself an artist, but my skills have greatly improved. So consider the uniqueness and beauty of caricatures and incorporate them into your life however you can.

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Wedding Caricature Artist

August 11th, 2010

Caricature drawings can be a favourite past time, but even as many have come to realise, it is a full time job with established career paths. There are many things to consider before taking up a job as a wedding caricature artist. There can be quite some handsome reward for portraits but often, the clients would expect a quality job in return. It is hard to find quality in a drawing that is meant to ridicule but, the generally, a quality caricature portrait must capture the likeness and should show a reasonable semblance to the subject and subject must be easily recognised at first glance. The skill To become a great caricature artists, learning to draw well, is far from the primary skill needed for the job. The ability to interpret the personality, attitude and mood of the subject is paramount. The artist should have an eye to spot out a specific and outstanding personality trait or use the scenery of the subject to create a fun portrait. It is common for general caricature artist to emphasize negativity in their arts but for wedding caricature artists, zeroing in on the funny traits or scene of the subject is preferable. This is because, a fun portrait will promote the happy and perfect mood of a wedding, hence, attract more client base than an insulting one. For instance, if a person has an interesting and talkative personality, the artist might consider laying emphasis on the lips or mouth and blowing it up in proportion. Simple drawing a caricature with giant mouth/lip/nose does not make for a great portrait; there should always be a proportionate exaggeration of the persona and characteristics of the scenery of the subject – something that anybody that has pre-knowledge of subject/scene will be able to pick up at first glance. To be able to point out these unique areas of the subject, it is not uncommon for caricature artists to engage the subject or friends of same in a conversation to strike out the fine points. The Business Think of it, should the artist work for hire or simple start an own business? This can only be answered in relation to the forces of the environment at any given time. As long as the business demographics favour it, working for self is always a preferred option. With the competition of owing and running a business, it is better to leave the business side to the experts and concentrate of the creating charming caricatures. One way to go about this would be hiring or partnering with someone else to run the business part or working for an already existing wedding business outfit. While this might mean less money than being the boss, a pay on regular basis minus the rigours of overhead expenses can dull anyone serious about being a successful wedding caricature artist.

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