CARICATURE TUTORIALS FEATURING AJ TOONHEADZ JENSEN

AJ TOONHEADZ JENSEN CARICATURES

exaggerated couples

There are some couples who stand in front of me that make me tremble with fear because once they mate, they're going to unleash something visually horri8fying !

iPad caricature of the lady who looks like Bugs Bunny

WHAT'S UP, DOC?

Lately I've been looking over some of my favorite black and white exaggerated caricatures I did in the past, and adding color to them to breathe new life into them. This girl with the "Bugs Bunny" mouth is one of my all time faces!(I know, I know, I have soooo many!)

HIGH UPON GOLGOTTHA'S HILL Easter Sunday Poem

High upon Golgotha’s Hill A Poem For Easter Sunday


High upon Golgotha’s Hill
Upon an old rugged cross you lay so still
As still as the sea that you calmed
Until it did us no harm.
No, None at all…
So How could you , Lord Jesus of Nazareth, Fall?
Submitting to mere flesh and blood
You, the creator from up above!
Rejected by those you dearly loved.

High upon Golgotha’s Hill
The Lamb Of God was Killed!
A holy sacrifice, whose blood ran down,
From furrowed brow adorned with thorns, in matted hair

The Pharisees, The Sadducees, they did not care.
The Sweet Love of Christ They did not share.

But all I could do was stare
And ask,
WHERE?
WHERE was the Love of God?
Was it somehow hard for God to see
That this innocent man should be set free? Instead of a thief?
My soul cries out in mourning because of grief…..But then, God said
My child, Cease and Desist, from thinking thoughts such as this!


This is no tragedy!
He hangs there in glorious transcendent majesty!

It’s because of my Love, that my son is Dead.
Dry thy tears! let another not be shed.

For He was willingly led right to this cross,
Knowing the cost, that at the end none would be lost
My love is HERE hanging upon this cruel, cursed tree!,
Embodied in Christ on Calvary.

He took on this pain, so you would never know the shame
So that you could have power in his Name!
That’s why he was slain. Upon the cross, and will remain
Till every guilty stain is washed away from you

THAT’S what Christ came to do.

And then, I said,
WHO KNEW?
What a brilliant, yet, unorthodox plan!
Which could only have been conceived by the great I AM!
That A GOD would become a child
That a KING would come become a Servant
That a WARRIOR would surrender
And because he did, this Easter Sunday, we all remember.


By El Prophet The Scribe Elgin Bolling copyright 2011

BUBBLY BLOND WITH BIG TEETH

I decided to go back to my party caricature roots" with this drawing on this bubbly blond. I drew this with a Pitt artist brush pen on slick photo gloss paper. Paper like this is fantastic for speed drawing as your pen literally glides across the slick surface f the glossy paper. There is no chance for reading,so your line must be confident and sure. This particular party style is reminiscent of how I first learned how to draw quick sketch party caricatures mimicking my favorite artists.

Big , Bodacious Brunette Businesswoman in Bright Red Dress

She was walking down the street with all the power and authority her size warranted. Move outta this lady's way, she's packing some power! If you wear a red dress, you definitely want to be seen!

EASTER POEM by Elgin bolling

GOOD FRIDAY POEM EASTER ILLUSTRATION

Man on subway with the cool mustache

Struck up a conversation with this man who had a cool mustache while waiting for the train. We spoke fr about forty minutes about the weather, all the real estate going up in The Rocaways, and of course, hs cool mustache, which started the whole conversation to begin with. I drew the understjetch using a red china marker, inked it with a Pitt artist brush pen, threw it in the ole iPad and added the finishing touches in Art studio using the art brush tool.

Long chinned female subway rider.

Saw this feel commuter with a chin sooooo looooooong that she could probably take your eye out if she hit you with it. I've never seen a chin formation quite like that on the female f our species, and it just goes to show you that youllnever know what you'll see in the concrete jungle. Her face was so interesting that I had to draw her face from two angles.

I drew both pictures using a red china marker, inked it wit a black Pitt artists pen, and put the finishing touches with the airbrush tool found in Art Studio for iPad.

iPad caricature of man who resembles a duck

Anybody who thinks God doesn't have a sense of humor, obviously aren't looking at people hard enough. I came across one f the most hilarious faces on the planet recently tat I just HAD to draw.

I call him "DUCK MAN!"

frequently when I'm having trouble getting a likeness I ask myself what particular animal that person resembles, and it usually helps me to get a hilarious likeness, and then there's others where God beat you to the exaggeration. What can I say? The guys lips stuck out like a beak, his eyes were popping outta hs head, he had that angry constipated expression on his face I've seen Donald Duck sporting, and tgat hair looked like a black greased up, frozen title wave!

I drew this initially in my notebook, then colored it in my faithful Art Studio App in the old iPad.

APRIL FOOLS DAY CARTOON

in the world of freelancing you just never know what type of assignment is going to come your way! When I was given the opportunity to draw an April Fools Day picture for a children's ministry, I immediately thought of the nook of Proverbs found in the Old Testament of The Bible.

Proverbs is a wisdom book filled with many practical user friendly teachings applicable to daily life, as well as numerous observations like the one I'm illustrating.
If you've ever had a dog or studied canine behavior, you already know the truth of this verse! A dog vomits up food that is so bad for his stomach that his body can't even digest it, and yet returns to it like it's gourmet cuisine!

How many of us are like that? The woman who stays in an abusive relationship she knows is bad for her, the guy who constantly goes back to the same bar swearing "it'll be different this time!" and a thousand different scenarios that add up to one thing: insanity.
Doing the same idiotic things and expecting a different result.

Food for thought, no? ...er... That is , of course, if you consider vomit...food.

Indian man on the subway with the rock star hair

The challenge of drawing from life on the trains like I do, is that there's no guarantee how long your subject is going to be there. They can exit the train at the next stop, move to anither seat, start reading a newspaper, or have anther passenger stand in front f them, obstructing your view!(all of which happen to my dismay) it's for this reason that I have to train myself not only to draw fast, but also to "see fast" and to remember what I see. Often, the initial sketch like this one, is so incredibly sloppy that you wonder if it's ever going to become a good drawing. But "good drawing" should ever be the focus wen doing the initial sketch. Most importantly, I try to get the major details (the "headlines") of te face down on paper first, and worry about the smaller stuff Katerina. It's here in this initial stage where I clearly identify the arts of the face I want to maximize and minimize. I love drawing people from India and the mid east mst f all, because I find so much variety, contrast and humor in their faces.
I frequently draw on colored recycled notebook paper because fr subway sketching, I don't want to alert my subject to what I'm doing. If I have a notebook they think I'm just another student or writer.

Once I'm satisfied with the sketch, I take a picture of it ane email it to myself, and then open it up in the iPad app, "Art Studio" since getting the iPad device I've abandoned Photoshop altogether, finding that Art Studio does pretty much the sae thing, and as the added benefit of the touch sensitive screen. I put down the base colors on one ayer then use a separate one to shade the picture using the airbrush tool.

I find that because of my subjects complexion he appears to be blending into the background a bit much, and I want him to pop off the page. After a couple of minutes experimenting I decide to go with this greenish color that does the trick. I also decide that I don't really like the harsh outlines on the inner features of the face and use the smudge to to eliminate tem and to blend so I have a mire realistic look. I also use the smudge tool to get rd if the rash cartoony edges of the hair, deciding on a more feathery look. It works perfectly. Finally I add whisps of white hair to the dark strands which adds to the drama of the face.

TOO ANGRY TO SIT DOWN

It appears tat this lady was a little too angry to sit down in the two available seats. Or maybe she became aware that I was drawing her and didn't want to give e a front view! At any rate, she made for a great caricature regardless f the angle.

Drawing The boy with the stinky drawers....

One of the great things about keeping a sketchbook is occasionally finding artistic ges that you totally missed. Since I'm constantly drawing from life on the streets and trains of NYC, a lot of my stuff gets literally buried between the pages of my sketchbooks. For me, it's like Christmas to find a really great caricature/cartoon like this one, which causes e to literally laugh out loud and say to myself,"did I do that?". I drew this last summer on the train. I'm sitting there in my seat, and along comes this hip hopper in "full swagger" wearing his summer braids, wife beater tee shirt to show off is scrawny yet muscular physique, smoking an illegal cigarette in defiance of the no smoking subway ban, and sporting a youthful urban fashion that I will never understand....the swung low pants. Usually these pants are purchased a size or two, bigger, held loosely with a belt so that the underwear is exposed. Not only is this unsightly looking, not only is it a prison style that indicates you're "one for business" but it's...kinda unsanitary. I decided to draw him in a more urban setting, hence the sidewalk, and also to create more visual balance, have him "smoking"from both ends. The final picture was done in the Art Studio app on the iPad.

Crazy Looney Tunes Caricature

One of the great things and least understood things about caricature is tgat you not only can caricature facial features, but also personality , body language and mannerisms. These are the essential qualities that make personalities recognizable to us. Warner Brothers artists and writers in the fifties did a masterful job demonstrating this in this Bugs Bunny cartoon, co staring the hilarious "Pete Puma"character, who was based on the live action comic character, "Crazy Guggenheim" from the Jackie Gleason Show.

I can't take the credit for finding out this info, the thanks goes to Google! What a great technological age we live in that we can find out even the most obscure bits of information just by typing in a request!

I've said it once, and I'll say it again...when drawing caricature "forget"about drawing the likeness! Draw the PERSONALITY and you'll GET te likeness!

WHERE GOOD IDEAS COME FROM

Contrary to popular belief, the so called "great idea" dent come to us "out of nowhere" in a sudden "AhHa!""Eureka! Moment". According to Steve Johnson. Instead, they're more of a collaborative effort, akin to stew cooking slowly in a crock pot. Listen on to this thought provoking seminar, you WILL learn something, and feel better about the creative process.

Giving Personality to your Cartoons

A good cartoon in my opinion should be able to "be read" by any person regardless of what language they speak. In order to achieve this, in toons involving two or more characters, the personalities of each character should be so distinct that the reader should be able to not only make up their own dialogue that fits the visual situation, but also clearly identify the subtie nuance of personality. Study any Disney film and freeze frame a scene. You will always see the intangible nuance of personality, intention, and character displayed in the body language or facial expression. You develop this ability to capture this by exploring your own emotions, and getting into yourself" without a doubt, all goid animators and character designers are great actors and actresses as well.

REAL life Drawing by subwaysurfer

I've said it once, and I'll say it again, there is no substitute fr REAL life drawing. By this I mean drawing that is taken out of the sanitized environment of the professional classroom or studio, where a nude man or woman contorts themselves in unnatural positions, or poses". The real drawing takes place in the unpredictable real world, on the subways, in the parks, in the coffee shops where people are moving, gesturing and reacting in natural ways. Your ability to do character design or caricature will sharpen to a razors edge if you make this part of your daily practice.