Caricature Commissions II

Well last weeks post on my personal cartoons went down well. People I hardly know---who had found my post on Facelessbook, Twitter, Instagram ect---just came up to me and told me how much they enjoyed it.

Well it's always nice to hear that my work and blog posts are hitting home and getting noticed in places I never even knew they were. And through the power of people sharing my posts, even more are finding our little corner of the web.

Okay, so this week, as promised, I'm going to be showing you some stage sections of a couple of caricatures I've been commissioned to do lately.

I would like to say that I'll make this a regular feature but the nature of caricature commissions is that they are very sporadic; Christmas time being it's most busy. So maybe more around that time..who knows.

But that aside the first one was for a chap called Mark who was having one of those 'landmark Birthdays'---his 60th I believe--- and worked as a JCB digger operator. He loved his job and his little dog, was a tea lover and went away in his caravan whenever possible.

I always ask for as much information as possible when producing these caricature commissions and I work on getting as much detail in as possible. Below are a few of the stages involved in this particular caricature commission.

The first stage is to light-box the accepted rough through to some heavy stock watercolour paper. I trace it through because there are fewer lines to cover over with the water colours later on. This means I'm able to build more subtle layers.

Then it's onto the masking fluid. Normally I will mask the whole image area off and allow the large sky washes to find all their little crevasses and cracks, but in this illustration the sky was fairly high up in the picture so I just spot masked the image.

Next I scrape away the masking fluid---after the sky is put down and it has dried---then I lay the basic colour washes. I always use Windsor & Newton watercolours and sometimes mix it with Windsor & Newton Gouache. Sometimes, and particularly in this caricature commission, I am given colour schemes to work with and with this particular caricature they were largely muted tones. So I chose to pump up the colour by making the JCB lighter.

From this point onwards I build up the layers, one by one; making sure the colours don't clash and have an over all balance.

Finally I start to build up the areas that wont have any pen and ink outlines, like the countryside scene behind.

Although you can't see it in this picture, I placed sheep in the field, simply by dotting them with blobs of white gouache.

Then comes the final stage; the outline finished inks and signature. Then it's packaged up and sent out to my customer. In this case, Mark's wife who commissioned it as a birthday gift idea.

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And now, another caricature tutorial...my God, I spoil you!

Next up came Raymond and another 60th birthday gift.

Raymond loved to wander around Radyr Woods---a local beauty spot to him---mess around on his boat, play the saxophone, dress up as a pirate (oh yes he did) and fish. Oh and he had an unfortunate incident once with a low bridge while not looking where he was going.

Like the previous caricature commission I light boxed the pencils through, masked off the image and laid down the basic washes; once again with Windsor & Newton.

The basic washes in this picture were a lot more involved and needed a little more definition.

Next came the building up of the layers, especially the face. In Raymond's case he had a face for caricaturists to die for.

Once all the layers were down it was time to work on the outline. With my caricatures I like to give the outer lines a bold, thick look and do all the fine details with a dip pen and nib. I use Windsor & Newton black India ink for all my outline work and a Daler Rowney No. 1 Daylon Brush.

Then it's in with the dip pen line work. This is ideal for all the subtle shading, cross-hatching that accentuate the folds in the clothing; it also works well on the distance stuff like the bridge and rocks; the grass and fine tree detail.
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 Then it's the final stage and sign it and dispatch it to the client.

Et voila! Another look over my shoulder at how I work. I hope you enjoyed it.

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It is worth mentioning at this point that I am always open to caricature commissions. All I need is a few good clear and preferably close up photos of the person you would like caricatured and as much information about them as to make their painting as personal as possible
They make ideal Birthday, wedding, anniversary, retirement, Christmas and special occasion gift ideas and are always very well received.
They are produced in high quality watercolour paints and placed onto the best, hardest wearing watercolour paper.
For more details and prices, please feel free to email me from the 'Contact Me' page above where I will be more than happy to answer any of your questions.

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On Friday don't miss the first page of the new Brabbles & Boggitt tale. This, like the Tales from 'Toonsville comic strip, will run every week with snippets of my thoughts on the story and the processes and techniques involved. So please do come back and keep on coming back; and while you're at it, take a look around the site at all the other things on offer.

If you like what you see, and want to see more, then please sign up to my email list and have every blog notification sent direct to your email box and don't miss a single post ever again.

I sincerely hope you enjoyed this post. If you did then please share it like a demented sharing person and keep on coming back for more of the same, and a whole lot besides.

Sporting Opportunity

Over the years I've produced my fair share of caricatures for a variety of people. And where as I wouldn't say it was anything I particularly aspired to, its something that was always supplied a steady flow of cash

I've never been the one who would sit in the corner of a room and do a quick study of the local character; I probably could, but my confidence in this particular field just isn't what it should be, and anyway, I'm more than happy to just sketch away in the peace and tranquility of my studio.

Like I've just said, I have produced plenty of caricatures in the past but they've always been as gifts or commissioned by other people as gifts for their partners, parents or work colleagues; one of which I featured as a tutorial on this blog and it can be found here .

But today I decided to have a go at drawing a caricature straight down. That's no preliminary sketches, just look at the picture, pencil it, ink and then Photoshop it.

And you know what? I actually think it went rather well. I picked three random photos of footballers I've never heard of and never seen--- so I wouldn't have an unfair advantage--- I chose Fulham FC players not because I support them---I don't, I don't even like football---I chose them because they were the first team that came into my head

Anyway, here they are, with their photo next to them and in the classic 'cigarette picture card' look. Who knows, if I keep this up perhaps I will offer myself up as a venue caricaturist and make a bit of money at it.

That would be nice

In the mean time, I will be putting up a caricature page and taking commissions for anyone who would like one done as a gift or leaving present or for whatever purpose they desire. All will be explained when the page is completed and you can be sure that I will announce it...oh yes, I do announcing very well. But until then, I hope you enjoy what I produced today in a few idle moments while my lunch was burning.

Cheers

If you like my blog and the things that I say and do, please tell your friends; mention me on Facebook, Twitter and any of the other fine social media networking sites you use. I would love to have my work reach a much larger audience and although I could no doubt eventually get there under my own steam, I'll get there a lot quicker with your help, so please, please spread the word.

Thank you

Colouring the Caricature

First off you're gonna get two posts this week..BLAM, BLAM! That's two; not one...TWO. One's going to be a tutorial and the other isn't.

The one that isn't is this one. Its not a tutorial but then it could be seen as a tutorial. It shows you how I did a caricature, or the process I went through to colour it.

It's not about how to do a caricature as to be honest, I don't know how I do it; To be absolutely and brutally honest, I just look at peoples' faces and think: Big nose, fat lips, big ears, weird hair, etc. But if you do glean anything from this piece then it will be---for you at least---a tutorial. If you can also understand any of the above drivel then please award yourself a beverage of your choice and sit back and enjoy the nice free pretty pictures from a blog post I called 'Colouring the Caricature'

Pretty uninspiring I know but it was 1:30 in the morning and I was very tired.

1.First thing your going to need is watercolours...lots of them (well it is a watercolour picture and if you were thinking of bringing oils, well quite frankly you're probably enough of  a worry to your family and shouldn't be allowed objects that you could poke yourself in the eye with)

I use Daler Rowney Gouache and water colour tubes and daylon brushes. The mixing dishes below are for the large background washes

 2. Now I add the rubber based masking fluid to the images. I do this as I still can't be trusted to paint around the lines. That and the fact that the next stage is to wet the whole page with a natural artist sponge (not to be confused with the one you use in the bath for your hands knees and private bits)

3. The reason why I dampen the paper is when I place the background layer---in this case blue--- it covers the page a lot more evenly and you can get some pretty terrific gradient effects...not that I used any here, but take my word for it, you can

4. When the background is well and truly dry, peel off the masking fluid.

From here I usually work on the face first as this is the obvious focal point to the picture. I start with a basic flesh tone and build up the layers; in this case I used Naples Yellow and darkened it with a bit of blue and red mix for a nice shade of wine.

*A good point. When producing shadows, most people just use a darker version of the colour they are using, but a top tip is this: Mix a nice wash of ultramarine blue and red to make a soft wine pigment and place this over any colour you care to name and it will automatically look like the natural shade of that colour. Its an amazing fact and the chameleon like qualities of these two colours never ceases to amaze me.

5. After working on the flesh I normally put a base washes down for all the colours I'm going to use. This gives me a good look and sense of how the colours are going to balance off against each other.

6. Having laid down the washes I begin to build up the layers. Always decide where the light is coming from at the very beginning of the painting and adhere to it with every colour you lay down.

7. Once all the shading is completed and the paint fully dry, I go around the outer edges of the character with a No.1 Brush. I do this because when I go in later with the much thinner dip pen, there will be a noticeable contrast in the lines and this gives the final picture a pleasing effect.

8. The point I made above should now be very evident, as I render the rest of the painting with my Gelliot 303 nib and Windsor and Newton Black India Ink.

9. I then sign it, remove the masking tape and the caricature is now completed.

Hope you enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look into my working methods. If you did, come back for more, and don't forget tomorrows video tutorial on how to draw a cartoon vulture.

If you like my blog and the things that I say and do, please tell your friends, mention me on Facebook, Twitter and any of the other fine social media networking sites. I would love to have my work reach a much larger audience and although I could no doubt eventually get there under my own steam, I'll get there a lot quicker with your help, so please, please spread the word.

Thank you

Karl