Anne Hathaway Sketch

posted 2.11.10 at 12:00 am
I've never been a fan of mean caricature.

Caricatures that are downright mean and nasty, for apparently no other reason than to be an outlet for the creator to freely (and passive-aggressively) be a jerk and go for a cheap laughs are, in my opinion, the lowest form of caricature.  They have nothing to do with satire OR parody, and frankly may be the least cerebral of all types of humorous illustration.  

These kinds of caricatures are for the lazy artist who doesn't feel they have to be accountable for their  representation of a subject (mean and nasty or otherwise), but would rather hide behind the ridiculous phrase, 'I'm an Artist, that's why!'.
With that said, here's a warm-up sketch I did today of the lovely Anne Hathaway.


I must say, I am a fan of hers.  Though I've never seen an Anne Hathaway movie, her performance on Saturday Night Live last year proved (to me) that she is charming and has a great sense of humor.

 

Certainly not a subject deserving a mean and nasty caricature, in my humble opinion. BUT...
A drawing of her by me BEFORE I developed my opinion of her would have looked a lot different.  In pictures I always thought she was kind of odd looking.  Pretty, but just a little odd.  As a friend of mine pointed out, her facial features all seem to0 big for her head.

 

Hmmm.

To look at a photo of her and draw solely from that, without any emotional reference, it'd be real easy to just focus on the big, dark, wide-set eyes, big, dark eyebrows and wide enormous smile with a million teeth.  (Her unusually flat face and pale skin only makes all these dark features stand out more, thereby carrying more 'visual weight'.)  However, generally a drawing that would focus on those things alone would more than likely end up a very bizarre looking caricature.   This is a good example of where going beyond the features and thinking more about the 'emotional response' of the character becomes necessary to a successful drawing.

The thinking, then, is for the artist to translate not just a likeness, but a feeling, or attitude of the subject.  In other words, the statement successful artwork makes to the viewer should include not just a visual representation of the subject (that's the easy part), but the artist's emotional statement of said subject.
The unconscious stuff that we as humans deal with everyday in our interactions with others but can't readily explain (unconscious emotional responses) are the tools used to convey how the subject appeals to us, both positively or negatively, and to what extent.  What does the subject mean to us?  The trick is to bring these emotional responses into the conscious and use them in the creation of your artwork.  This is where experience, persistence and careful observation become crucial to growing as an artist.  

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