In the Art Funshops, I  teach the basics of art through the colorful and crazy world of cartooning.  You can draw cartoons from basic shapes and squiggles.  Also, I teach the fun of writing as well as illustrating.  Comic Strips are a blast to create.  Coming up with your very own unique character, and building a cast to go with it.  Writing comics, is kinda like telling jokes, but you tell it by a drawing or a series of drawings.  I usually teach cartoons and comics to all my students in some way, shape or form, but when it comes to caricature art, it's a bit different.

The older and more experienced students are the ones who usually get to work in caricatures.  These are the students who've had basic figure drawing too.  When I first teach caricatures, I have the students try a few different sketches.  Take a look...

1. DRAW YOURSELF ( WHICH CAN BE ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT THINGS TO DRAW ) YOU CAN USE A PHOTO OR A MIRROR.  There's more struggling and straining on this exercise than many others.  Do you make yourself look pretty or pretty ugly?  It's funny to hear the students say, "I can't draw myself!"  Then I tell them, draw yourself partaking in one of your favorite hobbies.  This eases the tension, a little.  When drawing a caricature of yourself think about this...'IF YOU CAN'T LAUGH AT YOURSELF, THEN WHO CAN YOU LAUGH AT?" Oops, ended a sentence with a preposition.  Hey, I'm an artist , not an English major.

2. DRAW A CELEBRITY FROM A MAGAZINE.  This is a good way to learn how to look at something and drawing it.  You can also draw from imagination.  If I'm drawing a caricature of Groucho Marx, of course I will emphasize his eye brows, cigar and moustache, but maybe I draw some extra stuff in the background that I know relates to Groucho. For instance, I would probaby draw little cartoons of Chico playing the piano, and Harpo plucking away at the harp.

A good example here is the one I drew of Cos. In the full drawing, I had Fat Albert and the gang in the background with a little bit of HEY, HEY, HEY!

3. DRAW YOUR FRIEND OR FOE. Drawing from a photo is a great way to practice, because your subject doesn't move.  But now, try this.  Have 2 students push their desks face to face, and have them draw each other. This is always fun to watch.  But you will see the artist looking at their paper more than their subject.  So, here's what you do...ha ha ha.  Have the students look at each other, put the pencil to the paper, BUT!  they can not look at the paper!  It's sometimes called Contour Drawing and usually done by finding an inanimate object someplace in the room. You'll see lots of laughter and struggling at this exercise.  It gets the student to look, listen and laugh.  Plus, if the contour drawing looks a bit Picasso, that's okay!  Abstract is a good step towards caricature art!