Creative & ArtBeginnerPreview
Caricature
A hands-on caricature course that teaches you to read a face like a caricaturist, measure how each feature deviates from the norm, rank those deviations into an exaggeration hierarchy, and push them while keeping a recognizable likeness. You will work both traditional pencil and digital tools and learn the fast quick-sketch workflow used by live theme-park and event artists.
Beginning artists, portrait hobbyists, and aspiring event or theme-park caricaturists who can draw a basic head and want to capture likeness and exaggerate it with real control.
Course content
Workbook & downloads
Put the course into practice — a printable workbook plus editable templates you can fill in and reuse.
Preview the workbook
This workbook turns the Caricature course into drawing reps built on the analytical method. Each section maps to one course module and mixes hands-on analysis and drawing exercises, fill-in worksheets, and checklists. Work through it with a sketchbook or tablet and a stack of clear face references, and finish by carrying one real subject all the way from rapid feature analysis to a controlled, recognizable, finished caricature and a timed live quick-sketch.
Reading the Face: Analysis and the Average
Drill the analytical eye: comparing every feature against the average face, mapping a real face onto the rule of thirds, and building it on solid construction.
Exercise: Five Faces, Three Deviations Each
Take five clear photos of different people and, for each, write three sentences describing only how that face deviates from the average, using the five comparisons (size, proportion, placement, shape, angle). Do not draw. This trains the comparative eye every later step depends on.
- For each face, name one size deviation (a feature larger or smaller than average).
- Name one placement or spacing deviation (eyes close or wide-set, ears high or low, a long or short philtrum).
- Name one shape or angle deviation (a triangular face, a down-turned eye, a jutting or receding chin).
Worksheet: Average-Face Mapping Sheet
Print or load a reference of your chosen main subject and measure it against the canon. Fill in each comparison in relative units (eye-widths and head-fractions), noting whether it is average, more, or less, so your exaggeration shortlist falls out of the analysis.
- Are the three vertical thirds (hairline-brow, brow-nose, nose-chin) equal, or which is long or short
- Eye position relative to the head's midline (on it, above, or below)
- Eye spacing in eye-widths (average 1.0, close-set under 1.0, wide-set over 1.0)
- Nose-base width vs one eye-width (wider or narrower)
- Mouth width vs nose, and where the corners fall relative to the irises
- Ear position vs the nose-base and brow lines (high, low, or sticking out)
- The single biggest deviation from average on this face
Exercise: Construct the Head in Three Tilts
Take one reference face and draw it three times, straight on, tilted down, and turned three-quarter, building each on the Loomis ball-and-plane with wrapped centerlines. Lightly exaggerate the same one feature in all three to feel it stay anchored as the head rotates.
- Build the sphere and side planes and wrap the curving vertical centerline and brow line for each tilt.
- Hang the jaw and chin from the brow line and block the eye sockets, nose, and mouth on the wrapped lines.
- Push the same one feature in every view and confirm it sits on its plane and obeys the centerline in all three.
Checklist: Analysis Soundness Check
- I compared each feature against a clear mental model of the average face, not just drew what I saw.
- I measured in relative units (eye-widths and head-fractions) so the analysis works at any size.
- I placed the eyes at the head's midline rather than too high (the most common beginner error).
- Every exaggeration on my shortlist rides on a true, measured deviation, not a random distortion.
- I built the head on ball-and-plane construction with wrapped centerlines before pushing any feature.
The Exaggeration Hierarchy
Practice ranking a face's deviations, finding the hook, exaggerating relationships and negative space, and holding the likeness with anchors and the squint, flip, and thumbnail tests.
Exercise: Rank the Hierarchy, No Drawing
For five analyzed faces, write the ranked exaggeration hierarchy only. Name the hook, then rank the remaining deviations and assign each a one-to-ten intensity. Practice committing to a single hook per face even when the choice is hard.
- Name the hook (the one feature a stranger would mention first) and set it near a 10.
- List the secondary deviations at intensities of 5 to 7 and the minor ones at 2 to 3.
- Decide the direction of each push (bigger, smaller, higher, lower, closer, wider, more angled).
Exercise: Caricature the Gaps, Not the Features
Take one face and produce two caricatures that exaggerate only spacing and placement, never feature size. In the first, crowd all features into the center of the face; in the second, spread them toward the edges. Confirm both still read as the same person.
- Push the negative space: eye spacing, the nose-to-lip philtrum, the brow-to-eye gap, the forehead and jaw expanses.
- When you shift one feature, move a neighbor the opposite way to multiply the contrast.
- Check the negative shapes between and around the features as deliberately as the features themselves.
Worksheet: Exaggeration Hierarchy Planner
Plan the controlled exaggeration of your main subject before committing to a finished drawing, so the hook leads and everything supports it.
- The hook (most dominant deviation) and its intensity (near 10)
- Direction the hook distorts (bigger / smaller / higher / lower / closer / wider / more angled)
- Secondary deviations and their intensities (5 to 7), and how they support the hook
- Minor deviations kept near accurate (the neutral background for the hook)
- Relational moves: which gap or spacing I will exaggerate alongside the hook
- Likeness anchors I will NOT betray (usually eyes, brows, configuration, asymmetry)
Checklist: Likeness-Holding Check
- One hook clearly dominates; the drawing does not have two equal subjects fighting for attention.
- I exaggerated relationships and negative space, not only feature size.
- I kept the recognition anchors (eyes, brows, configuration) accurate in shape while pushing size and placement.
- I preserved the face's real asymmetry rather than straightening it into a tidy mirror image.
- The likeness survives the squint test, the flip test, and the thumbnail test.
Rendering: Pencil and Digital Tools
Take an analyzed, exaggerated caricature to a finish: graphite rendering from construction to value, a non-destructive digital pipeline in Procreate or Photoshop, and color, style, and tool choice.
Exercise: Pencil Caricature, Light to Dark
Render one analyzed caricature in graphite from rough construction to finished tones. Use a hard pencil for construction, soft pencils for darks, and a kneaded eraser to lift highlights, letting line weight and value support the exaggeration.
- Construct lightly (ball-and-plane, centerlines), block the exaggerated features in hierarchy order, and check anchors before darkening.
- Commit the contour with heavier line on the outer and shadow-side edges, lighter line for interior detail.
- Set one clear light source, build core shadows with soft pencils, and lift highlights on the nose, forehead, and cheekbones.
Exercise: Liquify the Exaggeration Digitally
In Procreate or Photoshop, block a roughly accurate head, then use Transform and Liquify to test push the hook and secondary features non-destructively, dialing back anything that kills the likeness.
- Set a 300 dpi canvas around 3000 px short edge, import the reference on its own layer, and block the head on a construction layer.
- Select and stretch or warp the hook (for example lengthen a jaw or scale a nose), watching the read appear in real time.
- Run the flip command, repaint any drifted asymmetry into the anchors, then ink clean weighted line on a new layer.
Worksheet: Tool and Finish Decision Sheet
For a specific caricature deliverable, decide the medium and finish deliberately by matching the tool to the job and the time you have.
- Deliverable (printed gift / social post / live event / personal study)
- Chosen tool (pencil / Procreate / Photoshop / marker over ink) and why it fits
- Time budget for the piece
- Color plan: skin zones (warm cheeks-nose-ears, cooler forehead and jaw) and any color exaggeration
- Output files needed (layered master, web PNG, 300 dpi print file, or physical original)
Checklist: Finished Render Quality Check
- Construction was kept light and the exaggeration locked before any dark line or value went down.
- Line weight is heavier on the outer contour and shadow side, lighter on interior detail.
- One clear light source makes the exaggerated planes of the head read as solid.
- Digital work keeps construction, line, color, and shading on separate layers, with shading clipped to the flats.
- Skin uses warm and cool color zones rather than a flat single tone, and color choices serve the likeness.
The Live Quick-Sketch Workflow
Build the fast, high-pressure live skill: reading a real face in seconds, executing a staged caricature inside a five-to-ten-minute limit, and handling etiquette, practice, and the business of caricature.
Exercise: The Ten-Second Read
In a cafe or public place, give yourself ten seconds to study each of ten different people, then look away and write only the hook and two supporting deviations for each from memory. Train the instant read without the safety of a photo.
- Lock the hook from your first strong impression, the feature a stranger would name first.
- Catch two supporting deviations and note the likeness anchors (eyes, brows, configuration).
- Resist studying longer than ten seconds; trust the first impression and move on.
Exercise: Timed Staged Quick-Sketch
Set a timer for ten minutes and draw a willing live subject through the five staged stages, then repeat with the timer cut to seven, then five minutes. Train your process to compress without losing the structure-first order, and do not erase.
- Spend the early minutes on structure: head shape, jaw, tilt, the hook, and the eye and brow anchors.
- Use the middle stretch to place the remaining features in hierarchy order, supporting the hook.
- Finish with line weight, key details, and a quick accent or marker pass, and present with a flourish exactly on time.
Worksheet: Live Session Plan
Plan how you will run a real live caricature session, the drawing process and the social performance together, before you sit your first subject.
- Time limit per subject and rough split (structure-and-hook portion vs features-and-finish portion)
- Target expression I will fix and hold (pleasant neutral or light smile)
- Default flattering pose I will ask for (often a slight three-quarter turn)
- Medium and minimal kit for speed (pencil, marker, or tablet) and the price tier it matches
- Conversation and presentation plan to keep the subject relaxed and engaged
Checklist: Respectful Live Caricature Check
- I exaggerated the bone structure and proportions, not the things a subject would feel hurt to see amplified.
- I left near-accurate or omitted sensitive features (acne, weight, a disliked feature) while still pushing the architecture.
- I committed lines confidently and did not erase, keeping the performance and the clock on track.
- I worked big to small and general to specific, so the drawing read as finished and I could stop on time.
- The subject laughed and recognized themselves; the result is bold, flattering-but-true, and affectionate.
Your Action Plan
- Choose one willing real subject to carry through the entire workbook, with at least one clear reference photo.
- Analyze the face against the average on the Mapping Sheet and write the deviation shortlist.
- Construct the head on the ball-and-plane framework with wrapped centerlines before pushing anything.
- Build the Exaggeration Hierarchy Planner: name the hook, rank the rest, and assign intensities.
- Exaggerate relationships and negative space, not just feature size, keeping the hook dominant.
- Identify the likeness anchors (eyes, brows, configuration, asymmetry) and commit to not betraying them.
- Test the exaggeration with the squint, flip, and thumbnail tests, correcting the anchors after each.
- Render the caricature to a finish in your chosen medium, pencil or Procreate or Photoshop, honoring skin color zones.
- Run a rapid ten-second read drill in public to build the live analytical eye without a photo.
- Draw the same subject as a timed staged quick-sketch under ten, then seven, then five minutes, exaggerating respectfully and never erasing.
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