How to Draw Caricatures

Video Transcript

"Hi. I'm Jay French at jayfrenchstudios.com and today I'm going to teach you how to draw caricatures. Okay. Caricatures can, of course, vary quite a bit in style. And, in fact, I would say that they, more than any other art form, you will find more variety in caricatures than any other. What I'm going to do here is myself because I know my own face. And one of the first rules of caricature and this is not a foolproof rule because I have seen it broken and there are no, in fact, there are no foolproof rules in caricature. But, usually, you have a big head, tiny body, skinny neck, so start there if you like, unless you have a different style. Now a lot of caricatures are exaggerative to an unflattering degree; mine aren't. But they are still exaggerative. In this case, I try to exaggerate the good points. I am going to exaggerate my ridiculously fluffy hair here. And, just give that an overview. Now, to be flattering, avoid things like heavy lines under the eyes. Never exaggerate a large nose; if you make it proportional, it'll be large anyway. But instead, exaggerate the features of the nose. In this case, we have the bulb end of my nose, the prominent bump, without making it overly broad. Then we have the fact that when I smile, my eyes disappear. So, and this common, you'll see this in Harrison Ford, I believe George Clooney has that kind of smile. Of course, you're just trying to get, as opposed to a portrait where you're drawing what you see, in a caricature, you're drawing an impression of what you see. So you can get a little creative license. One of the first things I do, is give myself a little more chin and jaw. It's always fun if the person can laugh and be flattered at the same time. Then again, if that's not your style, if you want it to be just your ridiculous caricature you can go that direction and this is still going to help. Beards are always tricky. If you have a light-colored beard, you'll want to just do the outline on the top and the bottom. And don't overdo smile lines too much unless the person is older. And there you have me. And that's your basic tutorial on how to get started drawing caricatures."