Thursday, July 22, 2010

Caricaturing The Body

Sure, people have funny heads but doesn't the body deserve some ridicule as well?
I remember when I was a caricaturist at a theme park during summer break, my caricature boss told me what I was doing wrong: "You aren't drawing the heads big enough. A 'caricature' is when you draw a really big head and a small body. - oh and you take one feature -like the nose, and you make that really big too. - and put a wart on it." He also told me to have the small body holding a balloon- "That's what makes it funny." Or if it was a hot babe, "Draw her in a martini glass." Who knew the secrets of caricature were so simple!?
It might be harder to caricature bodies, but some people's bodies are just begging for it - like this actress'. Every time I see a full picture of her, the first thing that strikes me is not her face but her crazy proportions. If they ever make another live action Popeye movie, she could play Alice the Goon.

I know when a lot of us do caricatures we have our stock fatty body shape and our stock muscley shape, a stock skinny body but there are a lot more subtle variations that arrest the sharp eye as well.

Next: Is all this human drawing crap actually going to improve my cartooning?