Understanding Caricature offers a lively guide to an old and respected art form. A great caricature is one that not only captures the subject's look and personality but amplifies them significantly. They are almost always funny and very often (but not always) mean spirited.
A truly comprehensive and laser-focused examination of a really wonderful, expressive art form. Understanding Caricature offers artists, aspiring artists, students, journalists, bloggers, etc. a lively guide to an old and respected art form. A great caricature is one that not only captures the subject's look and personality but amplifies them significantly. They are almost always funny and very often (but not always) mean spirited.
Caricature is a form of portraiture and, while they share the same goal to tell the viewer something about the subject, a standard portrait is essentially reportage or a recitation of facts where the caricature is a wacky story. The portrait tends to depict the reality of the subject where the caricature exaggerates those details to heighten the appearance and (very often) to make a statement or point about the subject. Understanding Caricature takes an in-depth look at this specific sub-specialty of illustration using artwork from the author and as well dozens of practicing illustrators working today, with insights into the art and business of the genre.
“Greg Houston . . . explains how to crank up the amps when depicting a subject . . . . His book includes a historical overview of the art form [and] generous samples of his own and other artists’ work add to the fun.”
—Artists Magazine
