Modern Family Sketch

posted 2.19.10 at 2:00 am
Caricature is a strange animal.  In a nutshell, it requires the artist take a mental snapshot of the first impression the subject projects, keep it in mind, and to translate that first impression on to paper.   To create something that conveys what the subject 'says' about itself to the artist and not necessarily only what the artist sees in front of him is something that some artists take too very naturally.  However, most really have to really work at and hone their (innate) ability to really be able to translate what the subject 'says' and 'means' to them.  I know that was the case for me, and still is.

I've always been drawn to (heh heh) caricature and humor, but have had to devote years and years of continually drawing to 'get it right', and frankly am no where near where I want to be.  However, I have gotten to a point where I can now jump into a caricature with confidence, and more often then not, produce something relatively close to what I had in mind, which in this case would be that mental snapshot.  I've learned how to dive into the character of the subject, as well as knowing decent facial anatomy so I can manipulate and play with features and actually pretty much stay in control of a likeness.  Not to toot my own horn, mind you; indeed after close to 20 years, if you haven't at least become competent at what you do, you may have chosen the wrong path.

9 times of 10 when I look at a face, as most experienced caricature artists can attest to as well, I can instantly (instinctively!) picture how I would draw that subject's caricature.  Head shape, posture, and demeanor are things that just pop into my head.  Then things like, would it prudent to draw with elegant, flowing lines, or choppy harsh lines, are then part of the fun of unlocking the puzzle of a subject's individuality.  Knowing that each new subject provides an empty canvas with which I'm being trusted to tell my unique story of their character is an awesome thing, and provides a never ending stream of possibilities to take caricature to places it's never been.  (The actual execution is the hard part!  Thank God for my electric eraser!)

With that said, here's the fly in the ointment:
I don't know about other artists, but once I see a caricature, say of a celebrity (or more notably, someone I see all the time and would recognize but don't have a personal connection with), that is exactly what I would want the image to say about the subject, that is so technically well done and thorough in it's thought process and execution, and looks so much like the person that the phrase "that drawing looks more like you than YOU do" comes to mind, often times that image will linger in my head, and eventually overshadow the true image of the character, at least in my small, pea sized brain.  This can be a real  pain in the ass. 

Case in point:   Jamie Lee Curtis by the great German painter Sebastian Kruger:


This is one of my favorite caricatures of anyone, by anyone.  When I think of Jame Lee Curtis, this is what I think of.  Even when I see a picture of her now, my mind always goes back to this image.
To counter that, in order for me do a caricature of her, I'd have to reroute my thought process and consciously try to avoid the lingering impression I have in my head.  To think about the subject in a new, objective (or actually, a newer, more objective-er) light.
I'm dreading the day I get called to draw something with her in it, because it would be easy to make it an exercise in futility for me.  I don't want to draw somebody the same as someone else did, even if that someone else already nailed it.  I hope that makes sense.
(as a side note, In a conversation about this with a pal of mine, Sam Viviano, he noted that the opposite is true of political cartoonists.  Once one of them 'gets it right', the rest seem to follow suit.  Think of any politial cartoon of Nixon.  By now it's probably real close to the caricature of him anyone else would think of, since pretty much all the political cartoonists of the day drew pretty much the same caricature.)

The reason I got to thinking about this is that I was drawing in the sketchbook today from a magazine shot of one of my favorite current shows, Modern Family.   This is one of the cleverest, well written sitcoms in a long time, and it's one on a very short list of DVRed shows in the Steckley household.  It's super funny, and hopefully will be around for a long time.
One of the cast members is Ed "Al Bundy" O'Niell.   He should be the easiest one in this group to draw:  big nose, close together eyes, goofy expressions, all the makings for a relatively easy, funny caricature.    
The problem is, I've seen more caricatures of this guy than I could count.  Not only does Kruger have one (which I can't find online right now to back up my point), but ever since I started drawing caricatures at theme parks way back in college, my buddy Tom has had various versions of this on the wall as a sample:

draw time       

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