To: (Recipient list suppressed)
Subject: Your YouCanDraw.com every other week caricature...Osama who?

November 7th, 2001


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Your YouCanDraw.com every other week caricature

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Hi everybody,

well everybody else in the free world has drawn this guy, just thought
I'd jump on the band wagon. Ok, if you haven't already figured it out it's
the world's most wanted man: Osama Bin Laden. I was tempted to be
cruel, but I was having something of a wrestling match with myself just
trying to figure out what it was that makes this guy look like he does.
(Plus I didn't want any hate mail from New Jersey.)

I also have this strange conflict running in me flipping between "clinical appraisal
of his face as a face" and the repulsion of what this guy has done. Plus the
fact that after looking at his face for quite some time realizing how much
he could pass for "the guy next door". Some mother's son. (Don't forget, I
live in Los Angeles and he really does look like the guy next door.) Where
did it all go wrong with this guy? But that's an altogether different topic.
Here we go...


What's going on here?

Besides the obvious beard and turban, what is most notable I think are the lips, the
"Cupid's bow" of the lips,  the heavy upper eyelids with dark eyelash lines and
"palpebral folds". (Cupid's Bow is the middle most part of the upper lip that juts
down a little more than the rest of the upper lip; the  "palpebral folds" are the
grooves in the upper eyelids where the eyelids fold under themselves)

The nose

The nose is also notable for the way it comes to fine point but not before it fans
way out and after it descends in a big drop straight down from the nasal root (the part
of the nose that pops out of the forehead). It also points down into the mustache
at it's very tip.


The overall shape of the head

From a broad forehead to even wider cheekbones then on to a relatively narrow
mouth and an invisible chin somewhere hid  in all that hair, you can surmise the
overall shape of the face is that is of a "v".

Those are the most general things I think, and for the most part I kept things
fairly realistic - with the exception of the big ears, a slightly enlarged nose, a
huge turban and an elongated beard. To really exaggerate this drawing the nose
could be stretched in all directions  - as long as it's kept in a tear drop shape -
to ridiculous proportions, the lips could be thickened, the overall shape
of the head could be tripled in length or narrowed in width. If you want to take
a stab at it, send me your results and I'll post them.

Take care, stay safe, stay healthy, peace, and keep on drawing :-)


Warmly,

Jeff


Jeffrey O. Kasbohm
Executive Director

(310) 676-2998
4702-C West 130th Street
Los Angeles CA,  90250
http://www.YouCanDraw.com

"Once and for all  getting you drawing faces and caricatures"
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