25 August 2000

Hi all, 


Two from the Archives

This week I pulled 2 caricatures out of the archives, both from about 12 
years ago, both of people still very much in the news today: Eddie Murphy 
and George Bush II. George during his early governorship of Texas, and 
Eddie during his Harlem Nights promotion. 


All in the little things

I think what's most notable about both pictures - even if they're not the 
greatest caricatures (even if they're not even recognizable), is the shading.
Look at Eddie's eyelids. They still pop out at me, his right brow shadowed 
on one side, highlighted on the other. It has a good deal of "relief" to it. 
And believe it or not, all the shadowing was done with my fingertip with a 
Kleenex over it. That's it! Simple shading has an amazing effect on the 3-d 
appeal of any picture. Still, the challenge is to observe and record 
accurately the shape of those shadows. (See Lesson 9 for in-depth shadowing 
techniques.)


Two minor flaws

Can you find the flaw in both Eddies and George's noses? I'll tell you about 
those in a second. First, since the last communique dealt indirectly with 
lips, what can you say about Eddie's? First, it's a little stereotypical (an 
easy excuse for lazy observation - and I'm guilty of it here), but more than 
that, I forgot the "Cupid's bow". Cupid's Bow is the little "v" shape 
right in the middle of upper lip. 


Where did I go wrong?

So what was the flaw around the noses? Very little shadowing! They lose all 
sense of depth. (somehow they manage to work...well for me any way ;-) In 
fact in George junior's nose, he doesn't even seem to have a nose if you 
look close! The nostrils look almost like they lay on an outline of a nose, 
but the nose is pretty much non-existent...Ya know, when I go back and look 
again, I don't see these mistakes as any big deal. The picture's pretty much 
work. (My excuse is these were timed drawings - done in 15-20 minutes a 
piece - which ain't half bad!) No reason to get down on these - I'm actually
quite proud of them :-)


Sum greater than it's parts

Other than outlined features with shading, there's not a whole lot more to 
the pictures and you can see how YOU (and I mean YOU), can learn how to pump 
these out at a pretty rapid rate. And that's purely a practice thing again. 
A little bit of shading here and there and the overall illusion can be really 
satisfying.


That's all for today! Please send any and all questions - all are welcome. 
Hope you new subscribers are getting into the program without a problem. 
(Please email me if you have any hassles at all.)

Keep on Drawing!

Warmly, 

Jeff