Caricature for Beginners
Caricature drawing is actually much easier then you think to do when you know how. I do not claim to be the worlds best drawer by a long shot, but with a little help from Photoshop programs you can turn even a bad drawing into something interesting and creative. This lesson will show you the basic techniques of how to do a caricature drawing and how to extend it into a unique artwork through Photoshop's basic filter tools.
1.The first thing to do is find a suitable photo of your subject, you really want something nice and close up just of the face.
● 2.Scan your photo and print out a copy of your image enlarging it to A4 size, it just makes seeing any details easier.
● 3.Draw a grid of squares across your picture you want 7 squares across by 5 squares up and down your page.
● 4.On your drawing pad/sheet draw a rectangle the same size as your picture print out of A4, and measure out those same sized squares, just mark the outside of the rectangle, you do not have to draw the same grid as your picture because this is the key to caricature drawing, just mark the points around your rectangular sheet where that grid should be.
● 5.Connect those dot points to the corresponding point across the page if you were to draw a straight line, but instead of drawing a straight line, make the lines wavy, bigger wavy lines (check image to the left). Use grey lead and very lightly draw them.
● 6.Now draw exactly what you see in the corresponding squares between your picture's grid and your drawing sheet warped grid, so if you were looking at square 1 you would drawing whatever was in square 1 of your picture into square 1 of your drawing sheet.
● 2.Scan your photo and print out a copy of your image enlarging it to A4 size, it just makes seeing any details easier.
● 3.Draw a grid of squares across your picture you want 7 squares across by 5 squares up and down your page.
● 4.On your drawing pad/sheet draw a rectangle the same size as your picture print out of A4, and measure out those same sized squares, just mark the outside of the rectangle, you do not have to draw the same grid as your picture because this is the key to caricature drawing, just mark the points around your rectangular sheet where that grid should be.
● 5.Connect those dot points to the corresponding point across the page if you were to draw a straight line, but instead of drawing a straight line, make the lines wavy, bigger wavy lines (check image to the left). Use grey lead and very lightly draw them.
● 6.Now draw exactly what you see in the corresponding squares between your picture's grid and your drawing sheet warped grid, so if you were looking at square 1 you would drawing whatever was in square 1 of your picture into square 1 of your drawing sheet.
7. Continue to draw your image until you have completed every square and rub out any grey lead lines from your warped grid.
8. Add some shading and definition, this works very well with people who have more wrinkles, so try out an older person for your first try.
8. Add some shading and definition, this works very well with people who have more wrinkles, so try out an older person for your first try.
Step 1. Find photo of face
Step 2. Draw outline of major features
Step 3. Define eyes and nose.
Step 4. Add ear and hair.
Define.
Add cheeks area and neck.
Define neckline, shoulder, mouth
. 
Add shoulders and background.
Final work. Warp the grid, (Medium- pencil)
You can be a bit rough with your pencil lines, it doesn't have to be perfect especially if you plan to play around with it in Photoshop.
If you don't have a copy of Photoshop you can download the basic version for free, it has everything you need to play around with images like this.
-Open Photoshop
-File-open-select your scanned drawing-open –image-adjustments and play around with the brightness /contrast levels or the exposure until you like what you see.
To save go to File-saveas- select your file to save and hit ok.
-Open Photoshop
-File-open-select your scanned drawing-open –image-adjustments and play around with the brightness /contrast levels or the exposure until you like what you see.
To save go to File-saveas- select your file to save and hit ok.
By altering the brightness and contrast of your image in Photoshop
you can play around with lighting effects and essentially take your
image to a whole new level.
Alternate ways to change the look of your image
Change your image by changing the hue saturation in Photoshop.
Go to Photoshop –File – open – select image – open - image- Adjustments - hue/saturation – play around with the levels.
Change your image by changing the hue saturation in Photoshop.
Go to Photoshop –File – open – select image – open - image- Adjustments - hue/saturation – play around with the levels.
By keeping the image above and opening the filter gallery and clicking on cut out you can achieve this type of look in seconds.
There thousands of variations you can achieve in Photoshop in mere seconds, don't forget this was a boring old grey lead pencil drawing only a few seconds ago. Again this was simply playing around in the filter gallery, this is really basic stuff and you don't need to be an expert in fact this is beginner transformation stuff.
It's a lot of fun to transform grey lead drawings in Photoshop, download your free basic copy by placing free Adobe Photoshop into any search engine
Why stop at just one!
Practice makes perfect, so why not see how to take the your end drawing picture and transform it in a different way entirely. So last time the wave warping on the drawing pad focused on my subjects elongated nose with giant ski slope end, by simply changing your warped grip other features can be made the focus point, so lets have a quick look at how changing the waves on your warped grip can change your caricature's direction.
Step 1. Starting picture.
Step 2. Outline facial features.
Step 3. Define eyes.
Step 4. Define nose and mouth.
Step 5. Define cheeks, ear and chin.
Step 6. Start defining areas.
Step 7. Define hair, neck, cheeks, chin.
Step 8. Add shoulders and background.
So here is the new drawing, looks quite different from the first drawing, so let's see what we can do with this one in Photoshop.
Going to the adjustment section and playing with the hues/saturation levels who can simply add in colour.
Photoshop has many filters that will change the entire look of your grey lead pencil drawing, and thousands of combinations, don't just stop at placing one filter over your drawing keep adding different filters and really play around with different looks, it is so much fun seeing what you can come up with.
Thanks for viewing this lesson, check out more lessons from Karen Elzinga in the Arts Education Hub at www.elzingacollective.com.au
Thanks for viewing this lesson, check out more lessons from Karen Elzinga in the Arts Education Hub at www.elzingacollective.com.au
You can see how much change you can get from using Photoshop, and there really are thousands of transformations you can do and colour schemes you can pick to get a unique artwork. Or you can always just keep your grey lead pencil drawings.
Even small changes can be made to turn your pencil looking drawing into a more painted looking artwork by playing around in the filter gallery.