thoughts on caricature
Author: Nate Creekmore | Date: 08-01-2012 | Category: Artwork | Comments: 0Tags: HAWAII, DANCERS, NATE CREEKMORE, SKETCH, MCGAHA, GRILLING
It's unusual for me to look someone in the face and not immediately begin to imagine how I'd exaggerate his/her features into a caricature. It's the odd faces, the unusual faces that are the most fun to distort in a way that makes them more recognizable (when done well) than a traditional portrait.
Other than the fact that he has a remarkably unusual face and once appeared in a newspaper holding a trumpet, I know nothing about McGaha. But he's a lot of fun to draw and I've done it several times. Here's a recent attempt:
For me, the more attractive a face is, the harder it is to caricature. The exaggeration in this sketch (done from a photograph in a magazine) is so slight that it barely qualifies as caricature:
(...the woman in the photograph wasn't actually boiling a reptilian fish in a cauldron. I added that part...)
The best examples of my approach to caricature can be seen on the PORTRAITS page where I've put together a gallery of famous (and semi-famous) people who I find interesting for some reason or another.
I'll end this post with a random sketch book image of some Hawaii-ish dancers entertaining a lumberjack in his long underwear.