The art of self-caricature

A self-caricature is something every caricature artist should have at least one of, if only for something to use as an avatar on various caricature forums and the like. I have done a self-portrait before, which now has pride of place on my Granny's living room wall, but I've never managed a decent caricature of my own mug. Mostly it's due to my perfectionism. If I'm going to do something, I have to be 100% happy with it before I'll show it to anyone, and that applies even more if it's going to portray my likeness to the world. I've tried to caricature myself before, with results ranging from disatrous to mediocre, thus none of them have ever seen the light of day. There is an inherent difficulty in drawing yourself, and that is that we all have a preconceived idea of what we look like, which will always conflict with what we actually see. It's not easy to draw your own flaws, let alone exaggerate them!

Anyway, I've started working on self-caricature again, and after a few contributions to the waste paper bin, I finally came up with something that actually resembles me. I've forgotten to bring it with me this morning, but I'll post it tomorrow so you can tell me whether I've hit the mark or not. I'm not 100% satisfied with it, but maybe I'll come up with something better in the meantime.

Tags: caricature, drawing