The artists who practice the unique art form of caricature are known as caricaturists. This involves drawing the portrait of a real human being by exaggerating his unique facial features so as to create a grotesque or comical representation of him or her. Simply put, it involves drawing cartoons of real people.
Simply put, caricaturists are cartoonists. Right from sighting the cartoons of politicians in the newspapers everyday to a one off instance where in a kid’s birthday party an artist drew your son as a cartoon character, the examples of caricature are almost everywhere to find.
A clarification in this regard must be made at this point that mere drawing of a cartoon of any fictional character is never caricature. Caricature involves the drawing of a portrait where exaggeration or distortion is made on the picture of a real individual.
Caricature is an exclusive and inimitable art form, and the caricaturist possesses an individual talent that is quite superior to the ordinary drawing skills of other artists. In order to become a successful caricaturist, one must have the instinctive aptitude and dexterity required to recognise sophisticated shapes and patterns.
Do not forget that the brain of an average person possesses quite remarkable skills. Every single human being is capable of construing the things he sees around him, as different patterns and shapes. But, this resides in the subconscious self of man, and to be a caricaturist, one must bring this out to the normal world.
Simply put, one must possess a highly sophisticated notion of various forms, shapes and patterns, and the relations that exist between them. In order to make the process of forming a caricature easier, the caricaturist must have a large amount of supremacy over the figures and shapes.
The satisfaction for a caricaturist lies in the power of having strength and belief in one’s abilities; the ability being, to create a whole new appearance of a person after processing that person’s physical features and using it as a raw material to churn out his art form, thereby drawing much amusement.
The skills that a caricaturist needs therefore is primarily shape recognition ability and secondly the usual technical drawing ability that any artist needs to hone. Without these two nobody can become a successful caricaturist.
Apart from these, a caricaturist needs to practice a lot, because the more one practices, the more skilled he becomes. Keeping a sketchbook at hand and having the attitude to draw anything and everything, anywhere and everywhere works well.
Speaking of digital painting software, which make a caricaturist’s work easier at the same time providing him with greater creative avenues, it can be said that there is no one best technology for caricature. A caricaturist needs to explore different software and choose the one whose interface he likes best.
As a caricaturist, one has the scope to work as a full time, as in an advertisement company or even as a part time freelancer getting hired to do one off events or projects. Whatever be the mode, caricature is primarily done to insult or compliment someone and therefore attain some bigger purpose like propagating a political message or just for mere entertainment.
Recent times have also seen wedding caricaturist being used at weddings, birthday parties and all such events. Not only do they keep the guests amused but are also very good fillers between functions.
The evident outcome of this is that the victim’s group of friends would squeal with laughter and the guests will end up taking back from the event a great memento.
