Turning over a new leaf…Spring brings color to this blog :)

My dear valued visitor,

If you have been here before, you might be wondering whether you’ve arrived at the right address. I assure you that  you have. While I’ve made a few changes to its look, but underneath it’s still the same. Nothing has changed, except that I’ve tried to make it easier for you to find my caricatures (new ones are coming…) and that I’ve taken off a few other pages from the menu.

 

A Snapshot of the Changes…

“Cool Caricaturists” will return on the sidebar, “The Evolution of the Caricaturist” can be accessed from the sidebar even now, and a couple of other pages have been renamed. My eBooks (sadly only two so far) are primarily satire and so they find a place under “Satire“. “The Time Machine” page is no longer there on the top menu but it’s available through the side-bar (yep! the avuncular looking gentleman with those soda-cap glasses.) The Gallery remains open 24×7 – accessible from the top- and the side-bars.

I’ve also updated the “About” page. This page used to be about a paragraph long earlier, and it led some of my visitors to share the observation that I am pretty stingy about sharing who I am. That isn’t true anymore for almost every important bit about this crazy caricaturist can now be found on the page. If your curiosity is piqued enough, check it out !

I’ve made some really cool caricatures (Hey, don’t give me that look. Every artist thinks that every squiggly that he’s ever drawn is cool.) I’ll soon share them here. (Now you know why I’ve renovated the site – it’s to welcome those brand-new caricatures!)

Bye then…I’ll see you again and soon 🙂

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A POA for the New Year…and some Birthday Wishes – A Personal Post…

…and so you may want to skip it. I heartily recommend that you check out the Caricature Gallery and if you are the reader-type you may also want to checkout my Verbal Caricatures (the eBooks.)

The first week of January is a wonderful time. It’s filled with fresh hopes and new energy, and for me it’s doubly so, as my Birthday too falls in the first week of January. I thought it’s time for me to reflect upon the journey of this blog and also to share my blogging plans for the year 2012.

The Journey so far…

I had started this blog on a foggy December morning. It’s only goal was to bring me some happiness, as I wasn’t really doing well – neither financially nor physically. The act of drawing had always brought me happiness and peace but I had almost never done art commercially…and caricatures – I had never done caricatures before I started this blog. In December, this blog turned two. It now has about 80 caricatures of different personalities supported by this caricaturist’s take on their lives, and it attracts a good number of visitors too.

I made some wonderful friends through this blog. I’d like them to know that I’ll always cherish their friendship. I am also working with two clients now – earning through art had always been my dream and I am now inching closer to my goal.

This past year, I also wrote a book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” which I published on Google Knol (a Platform that’d be put to sleep April this year), and which got about 55,000 views, earned me a Top Knol Author badge, and was appreciated by its readers.

Another addition to this blog was the Interactive Art Tutorial Section, which didn’t really get sufficient attention from me, as my job kept me busier than usual – yet, the these interactive tutorials were downloaded 2000 times in the last six months and I am hopeful that people liked them.

The Plan for 2012

• The plan is actually that this blog will retain its organic format. I will try not be tardy in posting to this blog and I will try to make at least two posts a week.
• In 2012, this blog will see more of color-caricatures and I may also do some political caricatures and cartoons.
• I am planning to do some How-to Posts that have been planned on the basis of some feedback that I received on the “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” book – for instance, how to do shading in caricatures, how to establish volumes in drawings…etc. I hope that my readers will find these posts helpful.
• I also hope to find a publisher for an expanded, more detailed, and more richly illustrated version of the book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist.” I was approached for it last year, but things didn’t work out. However, if you are a publisher who’s interested in publishing the book, please let me know.
• And finally, I want to become a more active blogger. I’d like to visit more blogs, find bloggers who I’d like to read, and make some new friends in the New Year.

I guess that’s all 🙂

Once again, I’d like to wish everyone a VERY HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR.

 

 

The Final Chapter of the Book “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” has been Written!

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

Hello Readers and Visitors,

I’ve posted the final chapter of the book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist“. This chapter is titled, “The Final Note – Weaving a Story around your Caricature,” and it’s about increasing the “stickiness” of your caricature by adding a visual story to it.

With this chapter, the book ends on Knol. As I mentioned earlier, I would love to get it published through the print route and I’ve been trying to figure out how. I’ve been weighing the option of self-publishing but I am not sure if I should go for it…especially as there’ve been a couple of inquiries from some cybernetic well-wishers. I’m going to swim along with the current and so if you want to send any inquiries/information, or even good wishes my way – you are welcome!

I have plans of including a lot of other stuff in the printed/formally published version, but I believe that if you want to truly develop the ability to caricature, the online version of it should be sufficient to put you on the fast track.

 

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
• Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair
• Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears
• Chapter 11 – Caricaturing the Nose
• Chapter 12 – The Final Note – Weaving a Story around your Caricature!

With this chapter, one of my projects come to an end. I had hoped to complete it last year, but with food-on-the-table work occupying about 90% of my waking moments, I just didn’t find the time. I hope that the regular readers of this book will forgive this lapse and enjoy the final chapter 🙂

A Request:

If you’ve read this book, I’d like to ask you what you’d like to see included in its printed version. Please send me an email at my email id, which is DrawToSmile[at]gmail[dot]com.

And a Note of Thanks too 🙂

The book “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” was visited more than 30,000 times in 2010. Some readers left comments, some sent me emails, and a few sent me the caricatures that they had drawn using the methods that were discussed in the book.

I would like to thank you all – for your visits, your comments, your emails, and your drawings. You were there watching me. Whenever I felt tired and wanted to give up, you did something to inspire me. You don’t remember it – but you were there, telling me that if I wrote another chapter it’ll help you DRAW TO SMILE 🙂

So…

A BIG THANK YOU!

Coming up…Caricatures of Oprah Winfrey, Angelina Jolie, and Sachin Tendulkar!

Caricatures almost ready to roll off the line…

• Oprah Winfrey (World’s only true Black Billionaire and the Famous Talk Show Host, who went to the doctor and complained of pain in her earlobes, which mysteriously vanished the moment she removed her emerald earrings, )
• Angelina Jolie (The Hollywood Actress who boycotted Thanksgiving for reasons given here,) and
• Sachin Tendulkar (One of the greatest batsmen in the World Cricket History, who holds world records in a whole lot of categories, both in test matches as wells as ODIs (One Day Internationals))!

Until then, then:)

While I help my caricatures dress up, you might want to do one or more or all of the following.

• Visit the Caricature Gallery here.
• Download a few Celebrity Calendars for 2010 (sigh!) here.
• Learn how to draw caricatures by reading “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” here.
• Write a story for the November 2010 Blog Carnival “Tell-the-Story-in-the-Caricature” and post the link of your fine story here:)

That should keep you busy until I return!

 

 

 

Chapter 11 – Caricaturing the Nose – Published!

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

Hello Friends,

I am pleased to present the 11th chapter “Caricaturing the Nose” of “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist“. This chapter focuses on the human nose, which for a caricaturist, is the most interesting feature of the human face.  This chapter has been posted after a hiatus – a break of about 2.5 months, which I believe is a long wait for a sincere reader. I apologize to my readers.

I should also tell you that the book is now about to end – at least on the Knol.  A more detailed and slightly expanded version of the book will become available in the market soon. Nevertheless, I am striving to include all the essentials in this book – so we would be seeing at least one more chapter before I write its conclusion.

 

Here’s a list of all the chapters in the book so far.

 

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

 

 

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

 

 

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
• Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair
• Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears
• Chapter 11 – Caricaturing the Nose

I hope you find this book useful.

All the Best and Thank You!

And remember…you should…

DRAW to SMILE!

Licensing Caricatures, Free Book, and Some Straight Talk!

Every once in a while, I feel like slowing down, taking stock, and talking:) This is one of those once-in-a-whiles.

The Beginnings of this Caricature Blog

I started this blog about 9 months ago – hoping that it would help me smile.  I began my art-journey as a traditional portrait artist, then I freelanced with a book publisher,  and then I did some work in the fantasy art genre for a couple of American RPG publishers – so there was a time when I managed to sell some stray bits of art,  but that was a long time ago – and it isn’t something that I truly relished.  The only good part was that I never had to do what makes every artist, every writer cringe – I wasn’t ever asked to do rework , except once – when after a couple of non-productive rework rounds, I chose to give up. Then for many years I decided not to publish my art – there was a phase when I’d refuse work, when I stripped away all my artwork from the web – in a nutshell, when I decided to give up.

Drawing is my Passion NOT my Profession!

I’d still draw almost every day – but I drew because I couldn’t stop myself from picking up a pencil (I have a couple of hundreds of those), until one cold December morning, when I saw this funny man in the newspaper. I dropped my comb and I sketched his caricature, which became the first caricature on this blog.  Creating caricatures for this blog has been fun, mainly because I don’t have to work with time-lines, and also because I can draw whoever I want to.  If I don’t want to draw someone, I just won’t draw him or her – and if I want to, it doesn’t matter whether that person is not a very popular guy. In art, I don’t like to do things that I am asked to do – I prefer to do what I want to. I don’t like to ask people to do things for me for FREE, because I value their independence and their time, and I expect them to value mine.

Do you Want to License my Caricatures for Commercial Use?

I’d like to say that with the growing popularity of your favorite blog, I am beginning to receive requests for free and paid work. I think I am doing enough for free (all the caricatures that appear on this blog are free for people to use in their non-commercial products, and the caricature book too is free, if you want to read it online.) If you want to make a few thousand copies of my caricatures and use them in your “commercial applications” they aren’t free at all. I’d also like to make a recommendation to the serious, well-intentioned people who wish to use the caricatures from this blog commercially, to be upfront about their organization, their intention – and if possible, NOT consider me their “vendor” even before I’ve reviewed their requirement. Be nice if you want to be treated nicely – Drawing is my love, not my profession. If you aren’t happy introducing yourself, you should find other artists – and sadly there’s a glut of out-of-work artists in this part of the world!

This may sound arrogant, but I can’t stop myself from writing this. I never thought to write it earlier but recently my mail-box isn’t entirely happy with the kind of emails that find their way there.

Sharing What I know for those who “Genuinely” want to Learn – My FREE Online Book – “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist”

Sometime  in January 2010, I also started writing “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” – A Book on How to Draw Caricatures. This book is almost complete with 10 out of its 14 chapters online. I’ve received some good feedback on this book and I have received an unofficial offer for its publication. I am still reflecting on how I should go ahead with it – but the fact that the 10 chapters that are currently online for this book have garnered about 22000 views so far (Don’t go by the numbers they show there – Knols have a funny way of updating data), tells me that there are people out there who are finding it useful. A big Thank You to all the readers of this book:) I promise to complete it very soon:)

A Personal Post – for Friends.

Hello Friends,

I am off to watch Avatar in 3D. Though I did this caricature of the Avatar many months ago – I did it from the perspective of a person who hadn’t watched the movie…I intend to another, maybe Neytiri‘s, after I’ve watched the movie:) Let’s see what comes out of it.

I am going to be busy for a few days, but I have Edward Norton‘s caricature stashed away and I think it’s one of my better ones – but I’ll let you be the judge.

I also want to write a Thank You Note to all the visitors to this blog, and all the readers of my book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist“. As I had said in one of my ancient personal posts, I started this blog because it had been a while that I had smiled. This blog gave me an opportunity to do something that I love doing without being under any sort of pressure – and it was fun.

The book helped me demystify caricature-drawing by breaking it down into a process. I believe that if you can draw, you can draw anything. I didn’t do caricatures until last year – I used to do portraits – but then one day I decided to do one – I could do it. So I began to analyze my process as I drew caricatures, and it resulted in this book.

The book has had more than 16000 views, which is an excellent number, especially for a book for something as niche as caricatures! I am happy that people are reading it and suggesting it to their friends:) Keep doing it…the book is free. It’ll be published as a hardcopy with a lot of interesting additions, but this basic version will always remain free:)

——Avatar Movie Interruption ——

Well, I saved the draft of this post, and I am completing it now, after having watched the movie.  I will write about my movie experience when I post Neytiri’s caricature. You might want to checkout my Avatar Caricature here, but I assure you that it isn’t Neytiri’s!

Meanwhile, enjoy Ajay’s story for the Story-in-the-Caricature Blog Carnival, and wonder how a small, apparently insignificant event can change the course of one’s life!

If you haven’t read the other Carnival stories, here they are:

• Dungeons & Dragons by Vivienne Tuffnell
• Crime Never Pays by Dewey Dewster
• Player to Pawn…Player to Pawn – You’ve been Duped by Oorvi

The formal Announcement Post for the August Carnival Participation shall go up on September 1, 2010! So, if there’s a story brewing up there…you’ve still got another day:)

Smile…

Better still…

DRAW to SMILE!

Regards,

Shafali the Caricaturist.

Chapter 10 – How to Draw Caricatures – Caricaturing the Ears- Published!

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

Dear Readers,

The 10th Chapter of the Free Online Caricature Drawing Book,  “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist” is online now. The book is almost complete. We will be discussing the most important feature (the Nose, what else?) in the 11th chapter. The book is going to have 14 chapters, in all.

This chapter, “Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears” begins by classifying the human ear on the basis of its size, angle, and shape. It then discusses the structure of the human ear from the caricaturist’s viewpoint, enabling you to become comfortable not just with caricaturing the ear, but also drawing it without exaggeration. Finally, the chapter uses two examples to illustrates how the human ear can be caricatured.

If this is the first time that you’ve come across this book, the following links will help you explore it chronologically.

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

 

 

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
• Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair
• Chapter 10 – Caricaturing the Ears

The readership of this book is growing and I am glad that it’s being received well by the young artists who want to venture into this somewhat mysterious field of caricature-drawing.

I’d like to end this note by saying that if you are a regular reader of this book, comment on it and let me know if there’s anything else that you’d like to see in it. I hope to complete the book sometime early next month…this is the time to tell me if you’d like an additional chapter or two, on something that could make this book more useful to you:)

And now, Find a pencil and a paper – and

D R A W      T O      S M I L E   !

– Shafali

Mariah Carey will be flashing her smile on this Caricature Blog soon!

Next in the queue, waiting for her turn, is the pop and hip-hop singer who is also an actress. Sometime today, Mariah Carey will make an appearance on this caricature blog:-)

Stay awake…

PS: She’ll be followed by an Indian celebrity:-) who looks like Paris Hilton, but has more color in her hair and her eyes – Guess who?

I know it isn’t easy to guess for my non-Indian visitors or for my Indian visitors…Alien Visitors, will you try to find who this Paris Hilton look-alike is?

(Hint: The answer is given in the Indian Celebrities post here.)

And yes…

About the How to Draw Caricatures book – The Evolution of a Caricaturist…

I’ve been seeing searches for “Chapter 10 – Evolution of a Caricaturist” happening on this blog. I am sorry for the delay in adding Chapter 10, but thanks for motivating me. If you want to read the tenth chapter, who am I to stop you from reading it:) “Chapter 10 (Caricaturing the Ears)” will be going up sometime this week. Draw…and SPREAD THE SMILE!

Chapter 9 – How to Draw Caricatures – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair – Published.

Some of my readers are closely following the evolution of my Free Online book “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist”. They would be happy to know that the next chapter of this book, “Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair” went online today.

This chapter discusses the different types of foreheads, hairline, and hair (or the absence of it.) It also enables you to identify the elements that should be exaggerated in this higher (hairier?) arena of the human anatomy.

 

If this book is new to you, the following links could help you explore it.

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

 

 

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth
• Chapter 9 – Caricaturing the Forehead, the Hairline, and the Hair

This book has been witnessing a growth in its readership. With more than 10,000 views for a topic of such selective interest, I couldn’t have asked for more:) Thanks!

I hope to soon post Ben Kingsley’s Caricature in his avatar of Gandhi:) And the “soon” could be as early as tomorrow morning. I’ve also created a very interesting caricature that you might want to write a story about…

– Shafali

How to Draw the Caricature of Dr. Albert Einstein – the Greatest Scientist of the Twentieth Century

Dr. Albert Einstein’s caricature is among the easiest to draw. He has features that hanker for the caricaturist’s eyeballs. His hair, his nose, and his quirked-up eyebrows that push the skin of his forehead into those innumerable furrows and lines – all demand your attention. They leap out of his face and grab hold of your hand to make you draw them!

Why? I wonder.

Excellent. So his face isn’t like Jack Nicholson’s (with a signboard that says, “everything you see, you can caricature for 99 cents”,) nor is it like George Clooney’s (a treasure hunt in a Martian desert.) Einstein’s face is somewhere between that of these two. It tempts you to fetch your pencil and your drawing pad as the three prominent features in his face are really, madly prominent!

I discussed the folly of trying to caricature “everything” in the previous tutorial, “How to Draw the Caricature of Jack Nicholson – The Wolf.” Listening to my own advice (yes, unlike many, I trust my own advice,) I decided to exaggerate the following features.

• The Hair
• The forehead with one brow quirked-up
• The Nose

The first step in creating any drawing is to…begin, and so I began. When I draw faces, I draw the eyes first, and those eyes watch me draw. This can be an especially unnerving experience when the person watching you draw is Dr. Albert Einstein! I kept my cool, avoided his assessing glare, and continued to sketch. After drawing in the eyes, I moved to the nose, and then to the lips…his eyes continued to follow my pencil, everywhere.

After a while, I gave up, and looked straight into his eyes, and then I realized that there was more to Einstein than his face. I began to remember what I had read of his life. Einstein was known for his brain. He was thought to have been born with a bigger brain.

Lo and Behold! If the expression sounds archaic, please excuse me – for I am (archaic) too.

So…once again…

Lo and Behold! I decided to exaggerate the size of his forehead!

Here is how the caricature was created.

Caricaturing Einstein’s Eyes and Brows

Check out any picture of Einstein, he’s got a bemused look on his face. He seems to be looking at world and saying, “It can all be explained through the General Principle of Relativity.” So I pushed up his quirky eyebrow a tad more to exaggerate the look.

Caricaturing Einstein’s Nose

Einstein’s nose isn’t one of those razor-sharp, slice-n-dice kind of nose. It’s a soft, round, and bulbous nose – a little longer than the normal. All this makes the nose-bulb(?) look like it’s experiencing the full force of gravity!

(Dear Sir Isaac Newton, I hope that you and Dr. Einstein get along well in heaven, and both of you along with Dr. John Wheeler, use the quantum foam to stay in touch with the scientists of our time. I assure you, they need your help to clean up the BP Oil Spill Mess!)

Oh, the nose! As you can surmise, I wanted the nose to become longer, and its bulb to become more bulbous; so I pulled the lower anchor points out of the feature frame, until the nose overshot the lips. (To understand anchor points and feature frame, read “The Evolution of a Caricaturist“.)

Caricaturing Einstein’s Hair

Einstein’s hair is magnificent. It’s white, long, and fluffy (he used a shampoo that he invented himself – right?) I added the effect of the electric hair blower on the white, long, and fluffy, to make them more prominent.

I also fluffed up Einstein’s mustache and tweaked it a little at the ends:)

Caricaturing Einstein’s Forehead

Inspired by Dr. Einstein’s supervising eyes, I made his forehead and also his head, bigger. Remember that the head is almost hemispherical. I decided to exaggerate not the size of the hemisphere, but its shape! Look at the forehead closely and try to visualize the head – you’ll “see” that the shape tends to be a sphere more than a hemisphere.

Einstein’s forehead has a lot of prominent lines. I exaggerated the lines. Look at the right edge of the forehead – you can even see the folds. When your exaggeration moves out of the facial space (at the edges) it becomes stronger.

That was all I did – and Einstein’s caricature winked at me:) My job was done!

If you are interested in exploring the techniques involved in drawing caricatures further, I recommend the following:

• “How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist”, a Free Online Book on Google Knol.
• “Tuto-tweets by @theCaricaturist

Have fun caricaturing:-) Spread the Smile!

Chapter 8 – How to Draw Caricatures – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth Published

“How to Draw Caricatures – The Evolution of a Caricaturist” grows by another chapter. “Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth“, enables you to classify the lips and helps you understand the process of exaggerating them. It also provides some useful tips that can help you out of some caricaturing lip-locks (oops! I meant deadlocks!)

If you subscribe to this blog’s posts, you must already be receiving your regular updates on the book; but if you aren’t, I invite you to click the Subscribe button at the top right corner of this blog.

Here’s how far the book has progressed.

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

 

 

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

The Evolution of a Caricaturist

• Chapter 1 – How to Draw Caricatures – Getting Down to the Basics
• Chapter 2 – Why Caricaturists Love Celebrities?
• Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective
  
• Chapter 4 – The Psychology of Face Recognition – The Caricaturist’s Secret Weapon!
• Chapter 5 – Caricaturing the Shape of the Face
• Chapter 6 – Caricaturing the Eyes
• Chapter 7 – Caricaturing the Brows and the Brow-ridge
• Chapter 8 – Caricaturing the Lips and the Mouth

The book is more than halfway through (about two-thirds,) and I should say that it wouldn’t have made it this far if it weren’t for your support. When you visit this blog, view the caricatures, read the book, and communicate with me; you inspire me to draw another caricature, or to write another chapter of the book. Thank you my dear visitors, friends, and readers – for helping me make this book happen.

The next two caricatures to appear on this blog are…

Would you care to guess?
Here are the clues:
1. Curious anatomists weighed his brain when he died. Who was he?
2. He explained why we are so down-to-earth! Who was he?

I shall await your answers:)

Warm Regards,
Shafali

Caricatures of Abraham Lincoln & Shakespeare, Sandra Bullock’s Marriage, and a Busy Schedule!

About the Caricatures of Abraham Lincoln and Shakespeare

I’ve begun work on Abraham Lincoln’s caricature and I hope he won’t frown at it from his comfortable den in heaven when he looks at it. I’ve also begun studying some representations of Shakespeare. I don’t know how much likeness they bear to the great writer, but as photography wasn’t as keenly pursued in his time as it is now, these representations however ridiculous they might seem, will have to do.

About Ms. Sandra Bullock’s Marriage in the danger of being Tattooed-out!

I think I know the reason behind Mr. Jesse James’ indiscretion, which has rocked his marriage with Ms. Bullock. I guess Ms. Bullock’s husband was inspired by this caricature of the tattooed and the pierced one, and he decided to sample a tattooed beauty. I guess Ms. Bullock was busy collecting her numerous awards, and so she never had the time to get herself tattooed or Mr. Jesse James wouldn’t have experienced the need to check out the beauty of tattoos outside his marriage.

About my Busy Schedule

Hah! A caricaturist busy? Doing what? Well…remember that this caricaturist doesn’t earn through her caricatures, so she has to work some more to put bread on the table and to put chicken in her dog’s bowl! This week’s going to be real busy. Among other things, I plan to add two caricatures to your favorite caricature blog and a new chapter (the 7th) to the knolbook on How to Draw Caricatures – “Evolution of a Caricaturist.”

So, stay tuned…and Spread the Smile!

A Personal Note, News, and A Huge Thank you!

Connecting with the regular visitors to this blog with some Personal News from the caricaturist’s rather untidy and disorganized desk…

1. After two weeks our Internet Service Provider finally caved in and allowed us a connection. I am now wired…again!
2. The George Clooney Caricature is ready. It shall be unveiled shortly. So remember to check again:)
3. My dog has been threatening to bite me if I don’t start to work on her project immediately – now that the shifting process is over (so she thinks!) I’ll shortly introduce the project at your own Caricature Blog as well.
4. I am adding the 6th Chapter to the book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist,” this weekend. This chapter will discuss how we should draw the eyes while creating caricatures. The book has been performing rather well on Knol, and the chapters have totaled more than 1100 views in less than two months. I am happy with the overall feedback, but would love some more:) Feel free to add a comment/drop me a line at drawToSmile {at where else but} gmail.com!

I want to close this note with a BIG, HUGE, THANK YOU!

for visiting…

for leaving comments…

for writing to me…

for inspiring me…

for downloading the celebrity caricature calendars…

for clicking the images to view their bigger versions…

for not feeling bad upon not finding the bigger versions…

for occasionally using the caricatures from this blog on yours…

and finally…

for SPREADING THE SMILE!

I love you for being there and touching my life in so many ways! Be Happy and be Safe…ALWAYS!

Learn How to Draw Caricatures – Read “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” – Chapter 5 Up!

Dear Readers: Please note that the KNOL Platform stopped functioning in 2012, so the following links won’t work. An enriched and expanded “Evolution of a Caricaturist – How to Draw Caricatures” is now available as a Kindle eBook from Amazon. ‘

 

 

It has about 150 pages, more than 70 illustrations, and discusses about 3 dozen celebrity faces. The Content Outline of Evolution of a Caricaturist can be downloaded as a FREE pdf here.

The 5th Chapter of the book, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist” is up!

The keen readers of this book would be happy to know that with Chapter 5, we’ve taken our first concrete step towards becoming a caricaturist.  The first four chapters of this book focused on the essential preparatory concepts that helped you gear up for the real work ahead. “Chapter 5 – Caricaturizing the Shape of the Face” enables you to classify the shape of the human face into three main categories, and then explains two Exaggeration methods for each of the categories.

In “Chapter 3 – The Human Face – Observing it from the Caricaturist’s Perspective”,  we had discussed 10 such elements that make a human face unique.  In chapter 5 and other upcoming chapters, we will discuss and practice the methods of exaggerating each of these elements. By the time you reach the end of this book, you should’ve mastered the skill of identifying, classifying, and exaggerating human facial features in order to express humor and/or ridicule!

So, if you like to sketch, favorite this blog and also the knolbook, “The Evolution of a Caricaturist,” buy an un-ruled notebook, a few pencils, an eraser, and…if you wish, a false tattoo – and we’d be on our way!

Spread the Smile!