Caricatures | Everything You Need To Know

What are caricatures and what does the word “caricature” mean?

A caricature is an exaggerated drawing of someone. The purpose of the exaggeration is not to distort, but to make it clear who or what you are talking about.

Caricatures exaggerate facial features, parts body, or clothes that distinguish someone. They can also exaggerate personality traits like attitudes and behaviour.

When it comes to caricature drawing, they can be drawn in different styles. One way to draw these caricatures is to exaggerate facial features. For example, one might draw a woman with a very large nose or a very small mouth. Another way that one might draw a caricature of a person is to show the person doing something interesting. For example, one might draw a person including a hobby, sports or interests.

Caricatures are regularly drawn for newspapers, magazines and online media and celebrity caricatures are an increasingly popular art form, especially to meme popular and latest news.

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How do caricatures differ from cartoons?

As mentioned above, caricatures are an exaggerated representation of somebody, usually to create humour.

However, a cartoon of a person does not exaggerate in the same way a caricature does. A cartoon is a simplified illustration that has a sharp, playful style to it. Anything can be drawn as cartoon work whether it’s a person, animal or scenery, whereas a caricature is typically done of a person / human face (although caricatures of dogs and car caricatures are becoming increasingly popular).

Caricature drawing entertainment

Caricature experts usually work at festivals, in busy streets and other public events, drawing pictures on large sheets of paper, or digitally on a iPad. Also, live caricatures can be drawn at events such as private parties, weddings, Christmas parties, corporate events and trade shows. At trade shows, digital artists drawing caricatures and providing entertainment are one of the best ways to pull in a crowd!

Traditional Caricatures vs iPad and Digital Caricatures

Traditional caricaturist

Traditional caricatures as you’d expect are created using traditional materials, typically marker pens and thick card stock.

Caricature Paper / Card

Card stock has to be a good thickness which is determined by the weight and grade, measured in gsm.

Caricature Markers

The marker pens used by professional caricaturists are usually “brush tip” pens and “fine liners” for details. The brush tips can create thick to thin lines depending on the angle and pressure applied. Copic Markers are a good example of brush tip markers perfect for drawing caricature art. They also do a fine liner range.

Caricature Shading and colour.

Copic marker pens come in a range of grey shades for black and white caricatures, and also in a variety of colours too. Many a caricature artist use chalks or pastels to add colour to the artwork. Having colour caricatures created traditionally live at functions obviously takes longer, and therefore less can be done in the time booked. That’s why black and white caricatures are the most popular for weddings and parties.

iPad & Digital Caricatures

In recent times, digital caricatures have become more and more popular for a number of very good reasons. Most experts have chosen to use the iPad pro in conjunction with the Apple Pencil for on the spot digital caricatures.

The iPad Pro offers a good battery life, is pressure sensitive for that brush tip style line work, and easily connects to most displays and printers. Popular software for this is Pro Create which is cheap to buy and is fantastic to use.

Digital caricatures can be projected to large screens so that a bigger audience can be reached. Also, the final images can be emailed, printed, coloured and branded more easily than traditional work. The contemporary print finish that’s possible is not far off studio quality, even though they are drawn live.