Caricaturists of the week

Been a little busy recently, I'm currently working on two commissions, one painting and one drawing, I'll post them when they're finished.

In the meantime, I want to share with you a few blogs I have only recently discovered, but which consistently inspire me to draw better caricatures. Some of these guys are professional illustrators or artists, but some are just regular people like me , or even you! I usually find I draw better after browsing these guys' work for a few minutes. So subscribe to their blogs, and be inspired . . .

Single Serving Jack - Caricatures by Neil Davis. Neil never ceases to amaze me with the realism of his paintings and digital art. Check out his Hot Fuzz painting!

ROBOLUS - Sketches and Studies from Roberto Freire. Roberto's pencil sketches are flawless. And he does one (almost) every day! Check out his Eva Longoria caricature.

Rejects - The art, sketches and ramblings of Joe Bluhm. Joe is so good, people are plagiarising his caricatures! He also has some cool videos of him drawing live.

Ken Coogan Caricatures - Another one who constantly inspires me. Check out his Ricky Gervais. Not even finished and it's already amazing!

Jason Seiler - I've mentioned him before, but he deserves another shout out for his exquisite paintings. His Jack Black study is one of my favourites.

Niall O Loughlin - Ireland's finest. Niall's recent Wayne Rooney caricature shows his skill with acrylics. He even shows you how he did it.

Those are the ones that spring to mind, although I know there are countless others out there that I just haven't come across yet. If you know of any good-uns let me know.

Tags: caricature, illustration

Caricature of Tom Welling from Smallville

**Warning** -- Smallville Spoilers below --

I was watching Smallville last night. Lana Lang had just married Lex Luthor to save Clark Kent's life after being blackmailed by Lionel Luthor. They had just got into the wedding car, and Lana turned her head to see Clark standing behind the crowd, looking on in disbelief.

In that shot, I saw the curve of Tom Welling's prominent jaw, and I had to freeze the video and grab my sketchpad. The caricature jumped out at me, and I know that when inspiration hits you like that, you have to stop what you're doing and capture the moment.

So I started with the jawline, which is something I rarely, if ever do (I usually start with the eyes as they tend to hold the key to a good likeness). Then I completed the outline of the head, before filling in the features. I liked where it was going, so I spent some time on shading. Overall, I'm happy with the likeness, but I think I could have made the top part of his face
a bit narrower to accentuate his huge jaw. Also I'm not entirely pleased with the hair, but I just need practice with that. Any feedback is always welcome.

I'm planning to do one of Kristin Kreuk who plays Lana too. She has a beautiful face which may prove quite a challenge to caricature.


Tom Welling as Clark Kent in "Smallville: Superman - the Early Years"

Tags: Tom Welling, Smallville, Clark Kent, Superman, Caricature, Kristin Kreuk

Caricature of Dr. Cox from Scrubs

Here's a quick caricature of John C. McGinley, who has starred in several big movies (Platoon, Any Given Sunday . . . ) but is probably best-known as Dr. Perry Cox in the American hospital sit-com Scrubs. I'm definitely not 100% satisfied with this one, and I almost abandoned it halfway through, but finally stuck it out. It's not terrible, and I think the likeness is there, but there are several flaws:

1. The eyes look funny, giving him a crazed look. I'm having trouble recently drawing matching eyes.

2. The teeth aren't right. He has funny teeth, but I've not quite captured their essence here, it just looks like he's chewing a toffee or something.

3. The cheeks don't match.

I'll definitely revisit this one soon and see if I can iron out these glitches.

Caricature of Jeff Goldblum

Well, I was inspired yesterday by Roberto Freire of Robolus.com, who is still going strong with his New Year's resolution to draw a caricature a day, and his work is of outstanding quality too! So I thought, maybe I should try and do the same. Then I thought, that's never going to happen, how about a caricature a week. I think I can stick to that, so here's the first Sketch of the Week - a young Jeff Goldblum:


Jeff Goldblum

Tags: Jeff Goldblum, caricature