Sunday, September 1, 2013

Stephen Fry - digital caricature

I was sitting at the computer lazily flipping through blog posts from a range of people on a range of topics and got bored.

Somewhere in that bunch of blogs was a picture of Stephen Fry, described on Wikipedia as an English actor, screenwriter, author, playwright, journalist, poet, comedian, television and radio presenter, film director, activist, and board member of Norwich City Football Club.

Stephen has a face that might best be described as "a gift for cartoonists", so I decided to accept the gift and do a caricature. I searched for a few more images, to get a better feel for his features, and then spent about two hours doodling around in Photoshop until I got this...

Digital caricature - Stephen Fry by Andy Dolphin
Stephen Fry
Digital caricature. 800x1200px
© 2013, Andy Dolphin

I wanted to go for more distortion that I usually do and I think I've managed it. I also wanted to keep it sketchy instead of going for the "airbrushed realism" I normally aim for.

Ultimately, I'd like to be able to do one of those caricatures that barely looks human and yet, somehow, looks exactly like the subject. Something like Russ Cook's astonishingly lifelike drawing of Hugh Laurie. It's a skill that's going to take some developing though.

UPDATE:

I kept fidgeting, to see if I could push this a little further by cutting and shifting and distorting and reshaping and ended up with a "sack of potatoes"...

Stephen Fry 2
Digital caricature. 800x1200px
© 2013, Andy Dolphin

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