Caricature Art Classes

This Wednesday and last I taught a two-hour long summer art workshop class for kids on the subject of caricatures. The first group was thirteen kids, ranging from kindergarten to third grade, and this last group of eleven was from fourth to eighth grade. Very different groups, I came to realize, but both were pleasant and wanted to draw. So to prepare, I drew a batch of celebrity caricatures, which you can see below.

























This seemed to work out well, since it got me warmed up for the class and provided examples for the kids to see. I also provided them with photographic portraits of anonymous people that I found through Google, so they could start practicing. Then, this would help work them into drawing live figures. (It's useful when trying to break into life drawing because: (1) the image flattens the figure, (2) the subject will stay perfectly still, and (3) they can take as much time as they like drawing, since they don't have the model's needs to consider, like needing breaks.)

It's been my personal experience that a demonstration can be very insightful, so for each class I had a volunteer student sit and pose for a caricature, letting the other kids watch as I drew. I'd like to think it was helpful to them, before they started on their own caricatured life drawings. The kids took turns drawing each other in pairs, as well as drawing those who posed in the center of the classroom, who were sitting primarily for me. After seeing the demonstration caricature, they each wanted their portrait drawn by me. I was more than happy to oblige, though we were limited on time and could only draw a portion of the class. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera on hand with the first class, but I was able to take pictures of those in my second class who volunteered as models (as seen below).