A fairly average face. Click to enlarge
Draw this woman 20 times.
The proportions of a woman’s face and a man’s are almost exactly the same. The difference lies in how you render it.
How to Draw Caricatures
Lesson Four: Variety
Each eye is different, but can be drawn in the same technique
Here are a whole lot of eyes.
I’m still following the formula. Every eye I draw has that thick line on top, the thin one on the bottom, and the shadow under the eyelashes.The variety comes out of line thickness and shape. The drawing method stays the same.
Lesson Three: What Not To Do
The Mouth: Smile Lines
Don’t do this:
These smile lines are too heavy.
Do this:
This is a better way to show smile lines
If you lay in those smile lines so dark, you’re going to end up with a pretty weird-looking face. Just about everybody has these lines, from babies to seniors, but I find it best to add them during the coloring process, not here.
Lesson Two: Formulas
The Eye, Step-by-step. Click to enlarge.
“But I don’t want to learn formulas! I want to learn to draw.”
Drawing with a marker requires you to make a lot of very fast decisions. If you’re new to this, you can be overwhelmed and disheartened very quickly. This stuff is hard to learn.
Learning formulas to quickly draw features will remove one task from your crowded brain. You’ll be more able to focus on placement, line weight, shapes, planes, and carrying on a conversation.
Once learned, these formulas can be adapted to any face, changed, or forgotten. The important thing is that they make your task more endurable now.
Lesson One: The Basics
If you’re going to learn how to draw caricatures and cartoons, you need to start by drawing this, the Most Average Guy In The World:
An average guy... click to enlarge
Grab a marker and paper.
- No pencil
- No eraser
- No underdrawing.
Draw this guy exactly as he appears. If you can do it, skip ahead to the advanced lessons. If you can’t, do it nineteen more times. I make all Cartoon Vegas employees go through this exact exercise.