Let's take each element of the face and look at
in depth how each one could be caricatured. And let's
start with the eyes.
The eyes are usually the first thing people look at in a
photo or drawing of a person, so it's really important
to get them right in your caricatures. If the eyes you
draw don't look like your subject's eyes, your
caricature is going to be in big trouble even if you get
everything else dead-on.
Drawing cartoon eyes is pretty simple, it could be
done with two lines if need be. But with the eyes, don't
go for simple, go for likeness. Really try hard to get
your caricature eyes to look like your subjects' eyes
because if they don't, your caricature is doomed.
There's a lot of character in the eyes, so try to see
every little nuance in the eyes and get them on paper.
If the eyes are a prominent feature that need to be
caricatured, caricature them. But if the eyes aren't one
of the features you're going play with, draw them as
true to life as you can.
The area around the eyes should be considered part of
the eyes. The bags under the eyes, the eyebrows, and
also the bridge of the nose should be looked at when
you're drawing eyes. You should consider both eyes as a
pair when you're drawing eyes, note how they interact
with each other.
 Let's
draw the eyes pictured here. Get your lap desk out and
put a sheet or two of paper on it and get comfortable in
front of your computer. Sharpen your 5B pencil and have
your eraser handy. If you'd like to print out the photo
we'll be working with go ahead. Begin by knowing that
you'll draw these eyes just above the midpoint of your
paper. We're going to draw the whole face, so you'll
need room above and below the eyes for the rest of the
head. When drawing the eyes, start with the upper lid of
the right eye. Draw the contour of the upper lid with as
few lines as you can manage. I usually go from the tear
duct to the outside corner. Follow all the hills and
valleys you see in the upper lid. You probably won't be
able to measure anything because this is your first line
on the paper and you have nothing to measure it against.
So just draw the upper lid as wide as you think it is.
 When
you've got the upper lid done, draw the lower part of
the eye. As you draw this contour line, follow what you
see in your subject, starting from the outside corner of
the eye going towards the tear duct.
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Lightly drawn lower eyes |
Many times when I draw the lower part of the eye, the
line I draw is much thinner than the upper lid line.
This is because the lashes on the lower eye are usually
a thinner hair than the upper lashes, and there are
usually less intense shadows on the lower eye. So to
draw this, start at the corner of the eye and draw a
pretty thick line to show the lashes that are there. As
you draw the line closer to the tear duct, gradually
lighten it up. Sometimes, to the point that the line
doesn't connect with the tear duct.
Now
you should have upper and lower contours of the right
eye. You may want to measure the height of your drawn
eye against the width of it, and compare those measures
with your subject. Do this if you're not going to
exaggerate the eye. If you are going exaggerate the eye,
you're just going to have to hope it'll look right in
the final caricature because you're intentionally not
drawing it in correct proportion.
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Draw the contour of the eyes |
If
you feel that the measurements are correct on the eye,
measure to see how much space the subject has between
their eyes, mark that distance on your drawing, and then
draw the upper lid contour, then the lower lid contour
of the left eye. Notice that the contour of the left eye
is different than the contour of the right eye - DRAW
WHAT YOU SEE, don't just mirror the right eye. Even
though this is caricature and we're exaggerating
measurements, I still think the eyes should be the
correct distance apart, it'll make things easier in the
long run. Go ahead and draw in the eyelashes by just
thickening the contour lines at the corners of the eyes.
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Add the iris and pupil |
When
you draw in the iris, draw it with a really nice
gradient and people will think it's the best eye they've
seen. And all you did was make a darker shadow near the
top of the eye than at the bottom. You may want to fill
the whole iris in with a middle gray tone first then
darken the gray tone nearer to the top of the eye. Make
the pupil a crescent shape to allow for the highlight.
If there was another highlight in the iris, you'd just
not draw that part of the gradient and leave it white.
At this point I'd draw in any detail in the upper lid,
and also, I'd draw just a little hint of shadow on the
bridge of the nose to help guide where the nose will go.
And speaking of the nose, let's look at that
next...
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Your
Assignment: Try and caricature some eyes. Try and
draw your own while looking in a mirror, or draw these
here. Ask to draw your friends eyes - just as long as
they have very interesting eyes to caricature! I'm
kidding, draw any eyes. Draw them with as few lines as possible and try
and caricature them by making them droopier than they
are, or make really large upper eyelids, or really large
bags under the eyes, or anything else you can think of. |
