Sunday Mailbag: Reference Pics?

Q: I’ve been tasked with creating a multiple page “comic” featuring a client, her family and pets. The project is a secret and it’s been difficult to acquire references of some of the subjects to draw in various poses and at various angles. I ended up gathering a lot of reference from their Instagram, printing it out, and also printing a mirror image. I think I’ll get by, but how do you approach clients about likeness references when bidding a job?

A: I’m just very up front about the fact that how well the caricatures turn out is very much determined by how good the provided reference photos are. I explain that I do not know these people and have only the information in the photos to work from. Photos are two dimensional illusions and very often do not give you a truly accurate representation of a subject. I have to rely on the client to provide me with several good photos, and ones that they think really show the subject in a way that is typical of them. Odd pictures with atypical expressions, taken at awkward angles, with bad lighting, bad focus, in blinding sunlight, etc can present me with bad information and cause the caricature to be a failure.

I always ask for more than one photo reference, and at more than one angle. In a perfect world a straight on, three-quarter view and a profile are ideal, plus at least one showing me the kind of expression they think is appropriate to the subject. I take information from all of these references and incorporate them into the caricature.

If the client cannot provide me with references I can work from, I will usually turn down the job. It’s not worth the aggravation trying to do a decent caricature from a lousy picture. It some instances the client won’t take no for an answer and insists they will “love whatever I do”. In those cases I require payment up front, and make sure they understand I am hamstrung by their poor photo reference so the results will be whatever they are.

Thanks to Corbett Vanoni for the question. If you have a question you want answered for the mailbag about cartooning, illustration, MAD Magazine, caricature or similar, e-mail me and I’ll try and answer it here!