A caricature is a drawing of someone that is intentionally exaggerated, usually for the purpose of satire and parody. Caricature drawing is an expressive, interpretive art form that can be turned into a career for newspapers or as a caricature artist at fairs. Caricature drawings make great gifts as well. Learning to draw caricatures is primarily learning find the characteristics in a subject and emphasize those characteristics in such a way that your subject is easily recognizable, even though the intent is to alter your subject's appearance for the sake of humor. With a little practice, you can turn your drawing skills into a profitable career or a relaxing hobby.
Instructions
1. Study your subject for the details that make her unique. Look for a big nose, ears or lips. Look for something special about your subject's eyes. A caricature should focus on two or three physical traits that give your subject her special appearance. These are the traits you will emphasize to bring your subject to life in caricature.
2. Sketch your subject as you would normally sketch, except you'll be drawing larger. If your subject has an oval-shaped head, put a lot of emphasis on the oval shape. If your subject wears glasses, draw the glasses larger than the face to add emphasis to the glasses and make them really stand out. Emphasize the shape of the lips. Make full lips extra plump in the caricature. Emphasizing the lips and eyes (especially over drawing eyelashes) for a female caricature can be two of the best features for bringing out the feminine qualities and adding caricature to the image as well.
3. Add a body to your subject. Sketch the body in much smaller than the head, which will cause the facial features of your caricature to stand out. For top-heavy females, draw the body extra small (perhaps with an overly slim waist), but draw her bosom extra large, bringing this characteristic to the forefront of the caricature. This balance of big (for the strong physical traits) and small (for the more common features) is the balance that makes a successful female caricature.
4. Color your caricature with color pencils, using varied pressure to add lighter and darker shading. The color helps lift the image away from the paper. Adding darker color around the caricature features allows you to enhance those elements for a more complex caricature parody.
