Did you know drawing celebrity caricatures is also a great way to
expand all your drawing skills, and fire up your
very own art business?

Drawing celebrity caricatures... 1) ...is a great litmus test: people can agree if your drawing really looks like who you're trying to draw. They don't even have to know you (say for instance if you're involved in an on-line sketch or drawing discussion group)... 2) ...and celebrity / people-in-the-news types of art work is in high demand. Every newspaper, magazine, or periodical at some time or another - if not in every issue - has used some kind of caricature or celebrity cartoon to add humor or express an opinion. Many businesses and corporate newsletters employ them too, in fact many more would use them in their in house publications if only they had someone in house who could draw them.

3) ...are ubiquitous on the net - they seem like they're everywhere! So you have a constant
pool of good, not so good, excellent and even awe-inspiring caricatures out there on the
web - you can see for yourself all the different ways people have drawn the same person.

Like I said there's an amazing amount of duplication out there on the web: the pool of people
being caricatured is amazingly consistent. Follow the late night comedians or the pulp / gossip
magazines: it seems like once someone has been in the news, they keep popping back in.

Jay Leno
Conan Obrien
David Letterman
The National Enquirer
See Entertainment Weekly for
lots of Celebrity caricatures

Point? You have time to practice the same person over and over until you really come up with a
whole new, all original, wild and crazy version of that celebrity your local newspaper (or
celebrity) will drool to get their hands on. And if they don't, you have yet another addition
to your showcase...which leads to the next good reason.


4) ...Celebrity caricatures are great for promoting your own state fair or local mall "kiosk" / boutique drawing business. Next time you walk by a caricaturist at the mall or at your state fair,
notice the array of drawing samples he/she has: the majority are always of celebs.

Why? Consciously or unconsciously you judge the level of their work by two things:
how hilariously they exaggerate their celebrity subjects or by 2) the artistic quality of the
artwork (for example, they're really good at air brush, or their mastery of the pencil
grabs you, or their watercolors just plain glow). But even if you admire their technical
skill, how much the picture actually looks like the person being caricatured registers
most markedly. And marketably.


5) Finding Celebrity caricatures is made even easier since the web is full of celebrity photos. You thought there was a lot of celebrity caricatures out there? The sheer volume of celebrity photos absolutely dwarfs the number of drawings! Which only underscores the relative shortage of caricaturists: it's much easier to snap a picture than it is to draw a likeness. Point here is, with all those photos, you'll never run out of material to draw. It's literally right at your fingertips.


6) Not on the web all the time?

Magazines are loaded with glossy, professional, beautiful celebrity photos. Go to the library,
the corner store, the drug store, the barber shop, the hairdresser, Starbucks, your family
doctor's office - publications and advertisements loaded with celebrity shots are everywhere.
(It's almost dizzying, almost too much - way too much if you think about it). I mention this
again so you never have to be without material to draw - so in a free moment you can quiz
yourself "what makes this face work?".

7) Second to last reason...

it's safer drawing celebrities. Drawing celebrity caricatures can keep you out of trouble with your family and friends :-) Yes, I've heard of even accomplished caricaturists who've alienated their own family members and friends by drawing caricatures that - though everyone else loves - the person being drawn is unhappy. Want to avoid strife and malcontent? Stick with "third person" caricatures everyone can agree on or criticize without feeling like they're in the hot seat (still, the vast majority of people enjoy being caricatured :-)


8) Last but not least caricaturing people in the news, celebs, politicians....

is your way to get even! Love 'em or leave 'em be, caricaturing all these folks can be
your defense: a little healthy rebellion. Or it can be a way to make you feel like you're
at some kind of par with all these folks who're "famous for being well known". It can be
your way of getting your opinion some air time. And that in itself can be a small antidote
to the celebrity obsessed time we live in. It can keep you sane...and who knows, maybe
your caricaturing will make you a celebrity yourself...and we'll have to caricature you:-)

Click here to see a giant in-depth celebrity caricature evaluation of Governors Gray Davis and Arnold Schwartzenegger.

Click here to see a caricature drawing exercise using actor Kevin Spacey

Click here for a pretty dang concise glimpse into drawing the facial features (mouth and lips), adding shadows and applying the effect of foreshortening.