Sean Leong - Public blog » Caricatures

Caricature of Barack Obama mid 2011

admin — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:45:27 +0000

Image of Barack Obama that I started in my sketchbook with color pencil and finished off in Photoshop. I think I’m going to have to draw another one, this one got so overworked. Photoshop helped with some seriously bad color choices I had in places, but couldn’t make the piece more loose. The Photoshop file has about a dozen layers, and I built out the volumes of his head in monotone overlaid on top of the original color.

Below is a combination of some of the the tonal and color correction layers from the Photoshop file for comparison. It felt like building up layers of paint in an oil painting, but unfortunately, a digital image doesn’t have that great tactile physicality that a painting does. I don’t have a pressure sensitive tablet to apply the “paint” either, so building up tone did seem to take quite a while.

The original pencil sketch is below for comparison. It was kinda hard to know when to stop, and the layers and layers of color pencil made it harder and harder to make corrections. Most of the pencils were also kind of “waxy,” so in addition for it to be hard to add additional color overlays after a while, it was also hard to physically erase the marks. So after a while I decided it would be easier to pull it all together with Photoshop. It didn’t end up being 100% successful, but unfortunately it ended up not as “loose” as the pencil sketch.

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Qi People 4

admin — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:01:14 +0000

This is the last set of Qi sketches I could find:

Allison Farese:

Bethany :

I think that’s it! If I find any more pix I’ll post them.

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Qi People 3

admin — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:42:30 +0000

Here’s another batch of the sketches I had from Qi, been procrastinating over this for too long.

This was Mark (above), and also below. They’re quite different because I always thought Mark had a really interesting head and face shape and I wanted to make that as geometric as possible and take it as far out of realism as possible. The drawing above is more “heroic” and the one below is more “goofy”.

Below is Dan (?). He was Amy’s direct supervisor in Altum and came to a few meetings with us and Biologic Matters.com.

Below are pix of Ruby, or at least Ruby’s hair in one case. The hair stayed in one place long enough to draw it, that one time and I should have tried to make it more finished even if it was just a sketch. P.S. Ruby – sorry! I know you don’t like the picture below, but I don’t think it’s that bad or unflattering.

Ah, the joys of long meetings…

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Qi People 2

admin — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 01:32:58 +0000

Here’s another series of sketches I did at CommonHealth’s Qi Interactive division. Most of these were done during Monday all-hands PM-priority meetings with the lead developers or Art Directors, QA also had representatives at those meetings.

Below is a sketch of Shusheel, one of the QA engineers, asleep at a priority meeting. His direct supervisor Sam always got a kick out of this sketch, it always made his day:

It’s not always easy to draw some people, Stacey below should have been really easy, but I could never get her right, I think this was the closest I ever got:

Below is the first of a few sketches I did of Esther, another PM:

…and this the last sketch I did of her, I think that’s my best of her, a good likeness:

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Qi People: 1

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 05:46:52 +0000

I’ve been working contract for about 2 months now for a pharma agency in New Jersey, CommonHealth. It feels a like I’ve been here for a lot longer. There are LOTS of meetings, and if they’re large enough, perfect opportunities to sketch your colleagues. Here are a few:

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Obama version 0.2

admin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 16:47:56 +0000

Still trying to figure out how to draw Obama. With so many caricatures of him all over the place now, it’s hard to not be influcnced. I stayed away from political cartoons for a couple of weeks and only used picture reference for this sketch.

I’m struggling with his hairline and his eyes, I need to find a bigger picture of his eyes, and I just have to figure out how to physically represent his hair/hair-line in a drawing. Surprisingly, I’m having a hard time with his hair-line, invariably, with his high forehead, I either make him look like he has a receding hairline, or else he’s not as closely cropped as the real person. Well, I think at least this is better than my first attempt. I should get better as long as I don’t procrastinate too much.

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Caricature practice

admin — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 17:44:19 +0000

I’ve found that there’s no need to hire models, or get your friends or relatives to pose for you all the time in order to get practice drawing caricatures. Here are a few pictures of some ladies I drew in a waiting room. They were waiting to be called up to see the counselors for PSE&G to see if they qualified for a subsidy on their their energy bills.

Woman waiting for PSE&G bill assistance

Another woman waiting for PSE&G subsidy assistance

2 other ladies waiting for PSE&G subsidy assistance

The great thing about waiting rooms is that people usually don’t move that much, so you’ve got fairly compliant subjects. But as low key as you can get, people will often notice you drawing them and get a little self conscious. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, and sometimes I’d show them my work afterwords, but it can make it difficult to draw strangers if you’re shy.

It’s also a lot easier to draw women than men in these situations. Without being sexist, it’s a lot scarier trying to draw a big guy, than a smaller woman in public, you just never know how someone is going to take a caricature drawing done of them. I’ve never had any problems myself, the worst that usually happens is that the person you are drawing moves too much, or leaves altogether – this forces you to draw quicker and make better decisions when drawing – working in ballpoint pen also forces you to commit to the decisions you do make.

I wish I was as prolific as Robert Crumb, the ultimate sketch artist, who’s sketch books you can buy at Fantagraphics books, I have 2 myself, and he has some great ideas on types of things to draw when your head is empty. I love his drawings of old cars and buildings, he can make them have a life you wouldn’t see without his eyes.

Enjoy! I’ll figure out what I’m going to do with this blog once I start writing with more regularity…

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