I drew a guy last night who wanted to look "sexy." "Sexy," he kept saying, "make me look sexy." Aside from the fact that he was really drunk, I also thought that was rather egotistical of him. But, I set out to make him look sexy because I thought it would make him happy, and that would make my agent happy, which would in turn get me more gigs.
When I turned the drawing around for him to see, he said, "Oh! You made me look... smug."
Yeah, I guess that was what I was looking for. Sexy and Smug. I laughed and said "Yeah, well, you want to look sexy, that's kind of smug of you." He laughed too and it was all good.
People throughout the years have told me that I really can capture a likeness well. It's not that I'm a great artist. It's a secret I'm more than happy to share. Here's my secret:
As soon as a person sits down, I think of ONE WORD that describes them. Sometimes, the word is "smug." Sometimes, "Drunk." Sometimes its wallflower, or hippy, or happy, or intense, or sadsack, or even Irish or Italian. Sometimes its cutesy, sometimes it's twinkly-eyed or troublemaker (my personal favorite). But I always think of one (sometimes more than one) word that describes them to a "T."
Once I figure out that ONE WORD that describes the person, I set out to give them an EXPRESSION that exemplifies this.
As soon as I figure out how to post pictures to my blog, I'll post some examples.
I remember a few years ago I was at a seminar where Joe Bluhm was talking about caricature. He said that the person's personality has nothing at all to do with the exaggerations in his drawings. While I am nowhere NEAR the artist that Joe is, I respectfully disagree. Years of studying people's features, expressions, gestures and body language have enabled me to peg a person the second I meet them (or the second they sit to be drawn). And this is what has enabled me to catch that likeness almost every time.
It doesn't cost anything and it's worth a try!
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