Mailbag
December 7th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: I have a question which might be a little more atypical than what you usually get. I admire how a cartoonist can draw things like floor lamps, armchairs, automobiles, etc -and give them each their own personality or quirky fun shapes. Since this is something I struggle with, I wanted to ask how much of your rules for caricature can be applied to props, vehicles, plants, or other inanimate objects? How do you decide on which parts of a floor lamp (for example) to exaggerate, and which parts to de-emphasis?¬¨‚Ć Do you have a few rules I could follow, or advice on what to… READ MORE
November 30th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: When teaching people to draw caricatures, do you have them draw a hundred variations of a nose, eyes, chin, etc., or do you have them jump right in and attempt to draw caricatures. In other words, what’s the best way to practice drawing caricatures? A: While practicing individual features on their own is a useful exercise for learning to draw those features convincingly, it doesn’t really help you get any better at drawing caricatures. A good caricature is the sum of the parts, not the parts themselves. The exact same nose on one person might be exaggerated in a completely different way on another… READ MORE
November 23rd, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
I haven’t had to post this image in a long time, but I am fresh out of questions for the Sunday mailbag! Well, it’s not really completely empty, but the only ones I’ve got right now are either repeats of previous questions or of the “can you teach me how to cross-hatch?” or “how do you exaggerate people in caricature?” variety which aren’t really questions so much as they are requests for long and involved tutorials, and are needing a lot more time than I can give for this weekly feature. A good Sunday Mailbag question can certainly involve an image or two and a… READ MORE
November 16th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
This week’s question comes from Ginger Meggs cartoonist, illustrator and caricaturist extraordinaire Jason Chatfield: Q: I notice your sketch-of-the-week pencils are a lot tighter than your MAD parody draft layouts. Have you ever considered doing a parody as pencils a la Mort, then colouring over them? I realise it’s not your usual style, but your Sketch-Of-The-Week sketches are incredible. A: Thanks, Jason. Glad you enjoy the SotW. Jason refers to some of Mort Drucker‘s later work in MAD, which seemed to get away from his traditional pen and ink style and includes more pencil work and less ink. Having never seen any of the originals… READ MORE
November 9th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: Have you ever been asked to do a pet caricature? What would be the challenges involved? A: No, I’ve never been asked to do one. I did do an illustration of Jeff Dunham‘s dog for him once: but it’s not much of a caricature. Except for making the eyes and ears a bit bigger and the snout a bit smaller, this is practically a portrait. I believe you can caricature animals, but not in the same way you caricature humans. With humans, you identify what makes them unique from other humans both visually and in their personality and exaggerate that. Different species of animals… READ MORE
November 2nd, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: (I’m paraphrasing this one from a non-english speaking emailer’s question) I’m a caricaturist and sometimes when I’m working on a sketch of a subject I just can’t get the likeness. I will redo it several times and ask others like my wife what they think, and even though they know who it is supposed to be I am still unhappy with it. Does this happen to you? Do you have a trick to drive you back out of a seeming impasse? A: This happens to every caricaturist at one point or another. There doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it… you… READ MORE
October 26th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How’s your finger healing? I have to imagine that was a little scary… did it limit your work and are you having any lasting effects? A: If you are not a FaceBook friend of mine, you are probably wondering “what did you do to your finger?” Well, here’s the story… Warning: graphic photos to follow. Late last month The Lovely Anna, The Animated Elizabeth and I took a short trip down to my old hometown of La Crescent, MN for my 30th high school class reunion. We stayed with my dad and step-mom’s place in nearby La Crosse, WI. The morning of my reunion,… READ MORE
October 19th, 2014 | Posted in Mailbag
Q: How many persons do you caricature within a year? Now and in your theme-park time? What is your estimation: How many persons did you caricature since you started drawing? Are there persons you caricature over and over again, maybe over many years? A: I don’t think I can even begin to answer any of those questions with any degree of accuracy, except the one about my theme park time. The first few summers that I drew live caricatures we used a system where we had paper receipts that we collected for each day and that’s how we got paid. At the end of the… READ MORE
