If you hear the word “caricature” or the term “caricature artist” today, what comes to mind? Is it the one on your vacation on the beach or some other tourist spot? Or, did you meet one at a fair?
Nowadays, caricature has become a type of live performance, where the artist draws you in just a few minutes. Aside from those mentioned above, you’ll typically find caricature artists in museums, beach parties, boardwalks, weddings, or other events. In fact, many Americans have made it their livelihood doing live event caricature art.
If you’ve been to multiple events with caricature artists doing their thing for the guests, you may have noticed that different artists have different styles when they create caricatures. But, caricature doesn’t just vary from artist to artist, the artform has adapted several styles that are becoming trendy recently.
Anime Cartoon Caricature Style
Anime is a type of animation that’s unique to the Japanese. You could think of it as Japanese-style cartoon. Anime is typically characterized by the large eyes and long hair of its characters and their exaggerated but visually appealing expressions.
Since anime is still a cartoon style, it also features mostly a fun, casual and easy-going vibe. It can instantly catch the attention of children and children at heart, evoking nostalgia for carefree childhood years in the latter. Early English dubbed animes, such as Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball which were popular in the 90s, along with Final Fantasy and other classic video games, have contributed to the anime art style’s wide appeal today. In addition, it has the ability to connect people and culture together, which is always a plus.
There are certainly different anime styles that cater to a wide variety of audiences, but perhaps the Japanese cartoon style that perfectly matches caricature is the Chibi style. Imagine huge heads with simplified faces atop tiny bodies with small arms and legs, but the overall effect is cuteness overload. This style suits caricature well as it is great for light-hearted content and the characters are easy to read.
Pop Art Caricature Style
Pop Art emerged during the mid-20th century as a movement that aimed to blur the lines between low art (appealing to the masses) and high art (appealing to the society’s elite). It took inspiration from popular culture and mass media, embracing everyday objects, comics, and advertising and incorporated them into fine art.
Pop art is famous for its use of bold, bright (often primary) colors and repetition of images. Noteworthy examples include Andy Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Can 1 (1968) and Marilyn Diptych (1962), and Roy Lichtenstein’s Drowning Girl (1962) and M-Maybe (1965).
In Warhol’s words: “Pop artists did images that anybody walking down Broadway could recognize in a split second—comics, picnic tables, men’s trousers, celebrities, shower curtains, refrigerators, Coke bottles—all the great modern things that the Abstract Expressionists tried so hard not to notice at all.”
Pop Art’s ability to engage its audience by weaving together nostalgia, witty humor, and thought-provoking commentary makes it a good fit for caricature.
Realistic Caricature Style
Realism and caricature, at first glance, appear to clash. On the one hand, realism aims to produce an artwork that is a faithful depiction of its subject. With attention to detail and through the use of realistic proportions and subtle expressions, realism artists capture the essence and personality of a subject. Meanwhile, caricature uses exaggeration and distortion for comedic or satirical effect. One is a truthful representation of a subject, while the other is a humorous exaggerated likeness.
So, how can there be a realistic caricature style? And, why is it trending today?
The answer is balance. The resulting image should be recognizable but also contain subtle distortions to stroke interest and/or humor in the viewer. Artists working on creating realistic caricature style don’t want to create a realistic portrait nor an unrecognizable exaggerated caricature.
Today, artists working on realistic caricature can use new digital techniques to create hyper-realistic characters. Realistic detail plus the emotional appeal of cartoons really bring these caricatures to life.
AI Portrait Caricature Style
With the advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI), caricature has also taken a new form. For instance, Midjourney’s Extreme Caricature prompt can create exaggerated or distorted characters with a humorous or grotesque effect. Midjourney is a generative artificial intelligence program that creates images from text descriptions (or prompts).
Midjourney’s Extreme Caricature style uses exaggerated facial features and bold, vivid colors to create close-up portraits with dynamic poses. The focus or emphasis is still on the expressive and humorous facial expressions of the characters. In addition, the caricatures appear lively and engaging, thanks to bright hues and contrasting colors that evoke a playful and energetic mood. Combined with a whimsical and surreal atmosphere, the resulting caricature is cartoonish and hyperbolic.
By working with AI, a caricature artist can streamline their workflow. AI can also assist them in generating ideas. With the help of AI, they can create complex compositions faster than if they had to do it themselves manually. AI is a tool that caricature artists—and in fact, any type of artist—can use to complement their process and push boundaries. The tool still relies on the artist’s creativity.
Themed Caricatures
Caricatures are often bought as a special gift. Sometimes, you already have a theme in mind, and caricature artists can work on this. Themed caricatures can be hand drawn or created digitally.
Either way, the resulting artwork includes one or more caricatures with themed bodies with no background or your normal caricatures with a themed background. For instance, the caricature could have your head but the body of your favorite character. Or, it could be a caricature of a married couple on the beach, etc.
Creating Caricature from Photos
Recently, there has also been a frenzy for taking photos and turning them into caricatures. In fact, several apps have become popular tools to do just that, including Caricature Maker, PhotoDirector, and ToonMe. These apps use filters or artificial intelligence to create exaggerated versions of people from their photos.
Of course, nothing beats caricature artists who take your photo and manually turn them into works of art without the use of AI. Unlike apps or other online tools, professional caricature artists don’t use templates, so the result is a unique artwork.