My New Passion: Caricatures

About two years ago, I was asked to draw a caricature of President Obama. My boss at the time, was thinking of creating a political blog and wanted to see what I could come up with. I spent an hour researching other caricatures online to see what other artist were exaggerating in their depictions. I then spent the next hour sketching different ideas until I came up with the fun likeness below.

President Obama Caricature

A couple of years passed, but I had been bitten by the caricature bug! I started paying more attention to other caricature artists, like Jason Seiler, Thomas Richmond, Mort Drucker, Sebastian Kruger, Serge Birault, Russ Cook, and Greg Halbert. When I had some spare time to devote to a personal project, I decided to practice on a caricature of myself.

Steve Ollice Caricature

I posted my likeness above as my profile pic on Facebook and got encouraging feedback. I tried a friend’s caricature and a few celebrities. Soon, I was getting requests for other celebrities and people wanting their portraits painted. I have a long list of friends, family, and celebrities that I want to experiment with.

Charlie Sheen Caricature

I had a tons of fun working on this caricature of Charlie Sheen. His lifestyle is making him age beyond his years. I wanted to exaggerate this, and I thought of the likeness of an old family friend, who has a good twenty years on Charlie.

Keith Richards Caricature

This caricature was a request that I couldn’t resist. Keith Richards has a face for caricature! After finding a great reference, it took me a solid 4 hours to paint this from start to finish, no breaks! Inspiration drove me to sprint through to the finish, but I was sore and exhausted at the end. Next time, when inspiration hits, I will take a few breaks!

Keith Richards Caricature

2009 Camaro

2009 Camaro

I just finished my first illustration using my new Wacom Cintiq 12wx tablet. I was amazed at how quickly I became accustomed to this new way of working. Drawing on screen is so natural! Now, this illustration is very tight and not expressive, but I plan for this tablet to help break this habit. My father used to have a ’68 Camaro and I remember sitting in the front seat, playing with the AM radio. I love the movement in car design that pays homage to old classic cars. I would love to have one of these new Camaros, but without the funds (I spend it all on computer equipment), I’ll have to settle for drawing my own.

Chistmas Card

Accordion Christmas Card

This assignment was to create a Christmas accordion card that would allow a customer to place their photos on any fold without disrupting the design. I came up with some different approaches, but this was the easiest to start with. This approach allowed the customer to use any set of icons and place their photos in any order they chose.