I’m sure you’ve seen a caricature artist at a theme park or fair—they’re the folks creating on-the-spot illustrations of their customers—no pressure.
I gained an appreciation for this skill sometime in my early teens when my mother (always my biggest promoter) got me a gig doing a portrait of someone from our church for a professional use of some kind. I remember to this day sitting in the subject’s home on their couch sketching him and wondering what the heck I was doing there. I was attempting a realistic depiction but it may just as well have been a caricature because I was unprepared and equipped to do either.
I am reminded of all this by my son Rob (who spent summers at Kings Dominion in Virginia as a caricaturist) who pointed me to a link for a new movie on the subject titled, American Caricature—”a showcase of not only the art of caricature, but the subculture surrounding it.”
It’s quite interesting and I recommend it highly. A preview:
Here are a few of the artists featured in the film…
Tom Richmond…
Joe Bluhm…
Ali R. Thome…
Jason Seiler…
Kosuke Miyagi…
And let’s not forget the work of some great caricature illustrators from the past such as…
Or the late, great Mort Drucker Mad Magazine. Here’s a spontaneous tribute by comic artist and illustrator Richard Friend on the occasion of Drucker’s passing in April 2020…
American Caricature is available through the movie’s website and on Amazon Prime…
The American Caricature website…
The ISCA, the caricature artist’s trade association, is mentioned throughout American Caricature.
The International Society of Caricaturist Artists (ISCA)…
The image shown above, is a corona-commentary piece created by Mike Graessle for the cover of the Spring 2020 issue of the ISCA’s magazine, Exaggerated Features and is used with the permission of the artist.
Thanks to Rob Green for pointing us to it.
Images used with permission: Mike Graessle, michaelgraessle.com
Posted in SEPTEMBER 2020 / Chuck Green is the principal of Logic Arts, a design and marketing firm, a contributor to numerous magazines and websites, and the author of books published by Random House, Peachpit Press, and Rockport Publishers. All rights reserved. Copyright 2007-2020 Chuck Green/Logic Arts Corporation. Contact.
Thoughts?