Caricature Flaws

Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of knowing the 'Dougie' featured on the cover of this homemade birthday card (presented above) would have to agree with me, that - for maybe the first and only time in my drawing life - I have somehow managed to capture here, in cartoon form, the exact facial likeness of our dear old friend from the block, circa 1980s.

Of course, more than 25 years later, Dougie looks more like he does in this recent picture (below) but that's not the point.

Success in the fine art of 'caricature' is almost impossible. At least for me. Over the years, I've been asked a number of times to supply cartoons for someone's retirement card or an upcoming wedding or a going-away party, but I've always turned them down. Because I knew it would require that my drawing must resemble the person being saluted, at least a little bit. Nope; I know my limitations. My efforts to bring real people into the cartoon world have always been less than satisfying. As was certainly the case back in 1978 when I attempted to transfer the very pleasant face of Sandy L. (posing against the backdrop of Gunn Lake) onto the pages of my sketchbook - while at the same time her dear mother waited nearby to survey the final results. That setup had failure written all over it from the start.

Here's another poor attempt at caricature drawing (below). My postal softball team from the mid-80s, without a single character resembling their real life counterpart in any way. Except for maybe the dog. And okay, maybe the poor guy in shadow, half hidden behind the chubby girl waving at us.

It's not just OTHER people's faces that I have this difficulty with. No sir. I can't even draw MYSELF in cartoon form. And I get to study my face nearly every other day!

This is a drawing done many years ago. That's ME out in the snow delivering all the bleedin' xmas cards. But if I didn't just go and TELL you that it was me out in the snow delivering all the bleedin' xmas cards, you'd have never known. Admit it.