The Art of Caricature

INSTRUCTOR
Jason Seiler
EXPERTISE LEVEL
Beginner
Intermediate
LESSONS
9 Lessons (20h 3m)
COURSE LENGTH
9 Week(s)

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Course Description


By the end of this course, master caricaturist, Jason Seiler, will have you looking at people in a whole new way! Over nine lessons, Jason will teach you through streaming lectures and one-on-one correspondence most of his personal techniques on how to maximize the effects of exaggeration and distortion when drawing faces and more importantly, how to push the truth of a subject's features without losing his or her likeness. In this course, you will draw a LOT because that is the best way to learn the importance of constant practice and to understand your subject. Your assignments will involve drawing lots of thumbnails, sketching lots of average, everyday people, and finally, doing full-color caricatures of public figures. For illustrators seeking to add high-end caricaturing to their repertoire, this course is a must!


➡︎ For the ‘Critiqued Sessions’, students will meet up with Jason Seiler LIVE on Zoom once per week on Fridays at 10am PT / 1pm ET.

MATERIALS LIST
  • Adobe Photoshop

Lesson Plan

Welcome to The Art of Caricature with Jason Seiler! In this first lesson artist Jason Seiler talks about the art of caricature, covering shape, weight, width and depth while sharing artwork of some of the greats! Jason draws Tony Soprano from start to finish and then shares his thought process step by step with another sketch of a civilian named Gary. Homework for this assignment will be five citizen sketches as well as a final pencil drawing of Kim Jong-Un. Photo reference will be provided.

I will spend this lecture mainly discussing shapes and their importance in caricaturing. My shapes demos will be based on regular people and a sketch of John Kerry. For the assignment, you will explore the head shapes of three people and do at least one sketch of each citizen that is provided. You will also finish a final pencil drawing of Jesse Jackson.

Understanding values are one of he most important principles in my work. This lesson starts right off with a value painting of "Civilian Gary" who I first sketched in lesson one. This lesson will cover my techniques for starting a painting and finishing a painting in photoshop as well as tips and tricks and new ideas to think about as you approach painting and drawing. For the assignment, you will use my sketch of "Gary" and after watching me paint him, you will then paint a black and white value painting of Gary.

This lecture will again focus on values as well as exaggeration and drawing choices that need to be made while working out a caricature. I start the lesson off with a sketch of a civilian and then continue with another sketch as well as a monochromatic painting of a friend of mine Don Yang. For the assignment, you will pick a citizen which I have provided and do a few sketches of them. Pick the sketch that you feel is your best and then follow the steps in the video and paint either a monochromatic or a value painting.

In this lesson, I share two different painting techniques that I use for my illustration work when painting digitally. I'll go over using a limited palette to better create harmony as well a split complementary palette, and explain what that is and why I enjoy using it. For the assignment you will do at least three citizen warm up sketches as well as sketch and paint a caricature of Bruce Willis. You will need to choose one of the two painting techniques discussed and paint Bruce by using a Split Complementary Palette. Hand in sketches and painting.

This lecture will focus on my technique for painting hair as well as understanding how important it is to see the skull within a person's face. In this lesson I sketch a citizen, as well as draw skulls over some of my drawings to better illustrate the importance the skull has in my own work. For the assignment, you will think about the skull as you sketch citizens and then after your drawings are complete, you will need to draw the citizens skull. Seeing what we are made up of is very important, but more important, is to know what it is that we are seeing.

Using my painting of Napoleon Dynamite as an example, I will discuss my techniques for illustrating a cover or senerio for a magazine. I will take you through every step of the job, from the Art Director's phone call to the final illustration. For the assignment you will pick any celebrity and do three to five sketches. You will also need to be thinking about a senerio in which to place your celebrity.

Using my painting of Tiger Woods as an example, I will continue to discuss my techniques for illustrating a concept or senerio for magazine articles. For the assignment, you will choose your best celebrity sketch for the final, you'll have to take photo reference and then sketch a full body.

Using my paintings of Bruce Springsteen and Hillary Clinton as an example, I will continue to discuss my techniques for illustrating a concept or senerio for a magazine article. I end this lesson with some marketing tips and ideas. The final assignment for this course is to take your final pencil rendering of your "celebrity" full body senerio and complete a final painting using any or all the techniques discussed during this course.

MEET YOUR INSTRUCTOR

Jason Seiler


Jason Seiler began his professional career in a rather unorthodox way. After getting in trouble for drawing parodies of his history teacher in high school, Jason's quick-thinking principal hired him to draw caricatures of different faculty members.

A professional artist was born. Jason went on to study fine art illustration at the American Academy of Art in Chicago for two years before beginning his professional work in earnest. Jason's humorous illustrations have been featured as covers and interior pieces for TIME, Business Week, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Weekly Standard, MAD magazine, GOLF magazine, KING magazine, Revolver, Guitar Player, The Village Voice, Penguin Group, Disney, The New York Observer, D Magazine, The Bloomberg Market,

New Line Cinema, Universal Pictures, Aardman Animation, and Sony Image, among others. Jason also worked with Imaginism Studios as a character designer on Tim Burton's, Alice In Wonderland, helping to create such characters as the Red Queen, the Tweedles, the Bandersnatch and more.

Jason's work has been exhibited several times at the Society of Illustrators in New York as well as at the Society of Illustrators West, where Jason was awarded the silver medal for his portrait of Elvis Costello. His work has also been exhibited in Communication Arts Magazine, American Illustration 29 annual, Taschen Illustration Now! 3, and the book, Digital Art Masters Volume 5.