Caricatures are usually exaggeration or oversimplification of certain characteristics like eyes,smile,belly,etc etc to potray real-life people in a satirical/complimentary/insulting manner.While caricatures are different from cartoons that potray fictitious characters which may even be an animal at times,the focus of caricature drawing is always real humans.
It is believed that some of the earliest caricatures were found in Leonardo da vinci’s works.
Caricature varies depending on the artist and cannot be captured in a single definition.While there are many softwares which now support automated drawing from photograph feed by comparing the object data with default data thereby deciding the characteristics to be highlighted,manual pencil drawings are still my favorite.
Caricature is not all about fun but there is some science behind it as well.Caricatures have been studied in experimental psychology,with interesting results as well.Drawing caricatures can simply be a form of entertainment and amusement – in which case gentle mockery is in order, or the art can be employed to make a serious social or political point. A caricaturist draws on (1) the natural characteristics of the subject (the big ears, long nose or whatever); (2) the acquired characteristics (stoop, scars, facial lines etc); and (3) the vanities (choice of hair style, spectacles, clothes, expressions and mannerisms).
While most of the caricatures available are copyrighted,you can just go through the display and get to know more about this interesting field.Have fun!!These are a few works..i hope the artists don’t mind me just putting up their work in support of my article!!!
