Larry David! Plus...Jury Doody!

Buckle up- this one's a humdinger!

Caricatures are fun to look at. Caricatures are fun to draw. I like drawing them.

Less and less calls for caricature illustration jobs come in as the years go on. Since I refuse to read into it, I’m just going believe that caricature simply isn’t as much in vogue with art directors as it was 20 or 30 years ago. I see them in various media from time to time, and yah, I do get the occasional caricature based job, but in general if it’s not political, it just doesn’t seem to be ‘where it’s at!’, as the kids say. (I’m hip. Word.).

I did a caricature based movie poster last year, but its intent was to appear as a throwback to movies from the 80s, where humorous illustrations were much more prevalent.

Maybe I should do more political stuff. Meh.

What I do get are personal caricature commissions, and that’s always fun. I’ve got a few on the board now, one in particular is unusually fun. It’s of a couple, along with Larry David, Jerry Seinfeld, and Rupaul. Because of course!

I have no clue what the story is, but I’m sure there is one.

I’m about 95% done with the drawing, but can’t share it yet, since… the buyer hasn’t seen it yet… (Hi Rich!)

But, I can at least share a little bit of me working out one of the caricatures. This is the first few iterations. To keep filming till the end would be insufferable for anybody watching, including myself.

For years I drew caricatures in theme parks. That process is worlds away from studio work. Live caricatures require diving in to the finished drawing. Each line is final, and there’s no sketching. Hard to learn how to do, but looks really cool to a crowd when done right.

Drawing quick and efficiently is one of the ‘skills’ I brought with me from that world. The difference now is I get to do multiple iterations of something until I get to what I want. Sometimes it’s one pass, others can be multiple. Either way, it’s all quick, with as little hemming and hawing (not to mention erasing) as possible.

With Larry, here, the drawing was less about the structure of his face, more on what his face was projecting.

With each pass, I’m getting more and more familiar with his face, so that in the end, I’m less reliant on reference. (Full disclosure, I had a number of pictures of Larry up on my screen to draw from.)

The goal is to (hopefully) be able to manipulate what I’ve learned about any given subject to more accurately shape it into what I want the final illustration’s story to be, in this case, Larry being more fed up and disapproving than scowl-y. (Though I think scowl-y is way funnier.)

In a future post I’ll share more of the final image. Gotta git to colorin’ now!

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This week…

I have the dubious distinction of being on Jury Duty!

And now you know: the thrilling and suspenseful parts of my posts always come near the end.

Shameless plug for my online store ahead…

Head over to my website for signed & personalized books I’ve illustrated, as well as info on these personal commissions I’ve been blathering on about!

So many options, where to begin!