Since I haven’t gotten back to the BSG President Rosalyn caricature to show how that is going I’ll show you the progress steps on this commissioned piece I just finished. This will give anyone reading this that is contemplating commissioning a caricature an idea of the working process.
This is the first communication from the client (names have been replaced with **** for privacy sake);
Hi Paul,
You actually made me a caricature for my boss last year for his birthday. It was a picture of my boss lying down with the two girls; the one was sitting in his lap and the other playing with his hair. It was such a hit last year that I thought I would come back for some more. This is what I have in mind. ****’s favorite television show is the Twilight Zone particularly the episode “A Stop at Willoughby”. It is an older show but if you haven’t seen it here is the synopsis of the episode.
(We don’t need to read all the synopsis)
So Willoughby is this fantasy place, a dream come true. I want to make **** his Willoughby. A place of all his favorite things. So here is a list of some of his favorite things.
Casino-**** loves Vegas. He is all about playing roulette.
Bar-**** loves to have a good time including a drink in hand. He is the owner of * lounge and restaurant.
Tommy’s-**** is from Cali. He is a fan of Tommy’s which is a hamburger chain, known for its chili-cheeseburgers
Ferrari-**** owns a couple Ferraris…he is absolutely obsessed.
Young beautiful girls-like before he is a fan of the girls.
Pet turtles-in-side joke that I would like to include.
Converse Shoes-**** loves his converse shoes, and feels that everyone should own a pair
Baxter the bobcat-**** loves the AZ mascot…again a inside joke
This is the way I described the drawing based on what she had conveyed;
Foreground, to the left side, caricature of Rod Serling. - B/W tone caricature
Behind Serling, filling the rest of the image area, **** standing under an arching sign saying “Welcome to Willoughby.” - Full color caricature
**** will be standing next to a roulette wheel (Vegas style lighted signs behind that area), wearing Converse shoes, holding a drink in one hand, a chili-cheeseburger in the other (one of the Vegas signs can be a Tommy’s sign), turtle(s) on the roulette table, other people around the roulette table will be scantily clad girls and Baxter, Ferrari.
Then I sent this initial sketch just for placement of the elements.
That was approved so I proceeded with this succession of progress images emailed to the client.
The next step was to define the facial drawing of the subject and that of Rod Serling.
I got caught up in Serling so I finished him then went on to place the less interesting elements of the roulette table and the cars to get them out of the way. The drawing of the girls was firmed up as well in this stage. This project had a fast turnaround so I designed it in a way that I didn’t have to draw and paint faces for all the girls.
Color for the background and rendering the Tommy’s Hamburger Hut and car stage.
Fully rendered subject and the girl on his arm.
I sketched and painted this in Corel Painter X. At this stage you can see how I start out each figure. I draw an outline with the selection tool, using the line drawing as a guide, then drop in a base flesh tone. Then using the oil painting brushes I render the modeling of the form. Then I release the selection and paint in the clothing and hair. There was a time I would have had each figure on a separate layer but I’ve learned that Painter can start to slow down and the risk of a program crash increases the more layers you have in a file. Since I was fairly confident that I wouldn’t have to move any of the figures around beyond the original design I painted all the girls on a single layer. For safety I painted all the figures in a separate file without the background, cars and Tommy’s hut then copied and pasted the finished piece into the main file.
Everything finished.
This is an element from a studio commission caricature I’m working at the moment. The rest will be in color.
Three hours drawing on the north side of town.
The birthday boy on the left, the props were their idea.
The young man in the center was laying down the entire time, hence the up-the-nose-shot.
The prettiest girls from Brazil, IN.
Friday night at the Hyatt Downtown.
I had some time while waiting for feedback on a job to do some
more work on Adama and Baltar’s hand and “bony little butt up in the
air.” Adama’s face will get craggier with the coloring.
