They easily make us laugh, but caricature design is a tough form to master. Here, one has to feel the expression and manifest it through the use of colours and exaggerations. Keya Mahata dwells on these to bring characters to life. Below, she takes us through a demonstration for caricature design of Steven Tyler.
At first, various high resolution reference images of the subject are selected which are then arranged on a layer in Photoshop. A jpeg file of the reference is created as well.
This is followed by using a white page Photoshop as a canvas. Then, using a 19 pt brush, started drawing. While drawing a caricature, it’s important to retain the basic form and character of the Steven Tyler and simultaneously exaggerating what is necessary.
This way, full drawing of the subject is completed. While doing so, focus on the expression and never deviate from it.
The layer is then copied and coloured in. A de-saturated colour is used to make it soft.
Once coloured in, the opacity of the brush is reduced and the colours are merged. The teeth are made yellow with some bits of grayish colour to resemble the real person.
Once the facial colours are set, detailing of the face is carried out. This includes wrinkles of the eye to making his singing posture. One thing to take note of is the filling in of a darker shade in one side of the character’s face in order to give it 3D feel.
In this step, some off white colour on nose, tongue and check is also used to give a highlight.
Once, the colouring in of the face is completed, the body is started off with.
For the body, once again a desaturated colour tone is used. It’s important to maintain wrinkles to maintain his aged body.
Once the body is finished, the focus is on the hair. Gentle brushes are used to soften this area. Various shades of browns and blondes are used to define volume and depth.
Dark brown and shade of gray is used for the dark part of the hair.
This particular shade makes the hair appear soft and effortless.
After careful finish of the hair, additional detailing is carried out using a brush on shape dynamic mode. A brush on colour dodge mode is also used to add highlight.
Once hair is completed, a little bit of highlight is added on the whole figure.
After fully finishing hair and body, the background is coloured in with semi-violet. Some yellow is also added to establish lighting, giving the overall design a bright look. A large brush is used for this step.
The lemon yellow colour is softened and then blended with the violet background.
A spotlight is then created using off white colour and a round brush.
Once the whole body, hair and background is finished, selected areas are infused with shadows using brushes on multiply mode.
Finally, the caricature design is finished with the addition of slight brushing and leveling.
Published in Issue 27
This issue explores one of the widely discussed product design and automobile #design which is very close to our heart. We spoke to few leading names to find out the future of product design and understand the Indian designer sensibilities and practices. Everyone believe that it’s not just functionality but also the visual appeal of the product which plays a crucial in the success of a product. This issue is a bundle of inspirations and insights from the well know product and automobile designers. A must read which you will enjoy for sure.
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