Sunday Mailbag: Visualizing the Caricature?

Q: I’ve got a question about what you see (visualize) when you are drawing a caricature. When I try to draw something (caricature or otherwise) I can’t really visualize what I’m drawing until it’s on paper. When you begin a caricature, do you know what it will look like or are you ever surprised with how a drawing turns out?

A: It’s a little of both, especially when doing studio work. Yes, I have a decent idea of what I want the image to look like in my head, but it’s not like I see the finished product in its entirety. It’s a little like seeing it from the corner of your eye, or through a bit of a haze. You see it but if you try to “zoom in” in your head it swims away. That’s where your rough sketch comes into play. You try and capture what you see in your head by “searching” for that image on the paper. Sketches are that search. The lines you draw are seeking their correct place. You experiment with shapes and forms until you find lines that are working, and those become part of your final drawing. I seldom just start drawing with no idea of where it’s going, but the end results don’t always match what I had in my head. In the process of that search you often find things go in new directions, and your final drawing is a bit of a surprise. It’s a journey.

Live caricature is a bit different, because you do not have the luxury of ‘searching’ for your image on the paper. In that case I try and simplify what’s in my head to very basic shapes and my exaggeration choices, and try and “project” that image on the paper. Then I draw around those shapes with bold, confident lines. The final result is a bit of a surprise as the caricature will change as you go along. Hopefully it does not go off the rails, but when working without a net like that some drawings turn out better than others.

Thanks to Chris Spencer 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!