Caricature

Caricature is a form of drawing that basically exaggerates the features of the subject to make them appear comical while still retaining the ‘look’ of the subject. As an example, if a person has a larger than average nose, the caricature would exaggerate the nose to a much larger proportion in order to make the drawing look funny.

In essence, cartooning is all caricature and arguably, so is all drawing and painting, as it is a form of visual interpretation. Photography could also fall under the realm of caricature. A pose or setup could be manipulated in such a way as to exaggerate the staging or focal point of the image and in so doing, alter the viewer’s perception of what is really being shown.

By simply changing a camera angle to a lower horizon line can alter the viewer’s perception of the subject to make them appear to be much larger and thus a threat. By raising the horizon line above the character can make the subject appear to be less of a threat and even an object of distain.

If we look at it from the point of view of stereotyping, you begin to understand the full range of possibilities available to you as a character designer. You can control the viewer’s mental attitude towards your character simply by the way the character looks or even stands.

Another exercise is to draw charicatures of your friends and family based upon the principles we’ve covered so far. See how far you can take your charicatures and try to exxagerate them even more. See if you can retain the ‘look’ of your subject at the same time and recognize when you’ve gone ‘too far’ with it.
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