Painting people with acrylic or watercolor paint is easy, but can take patience and practice. The first and in my opinion, the most important step is drawing the subjects features and head shape correctly. It does not matter how you master this, just get the features correct. One method is to use a grid. Place a grid over the photo then draw grid lines on the canvas and simply copy what you see onto the canvas square by square. You may even be talented enough to freehand the drawing. If you have the photo on your computer, just enlarge it, reverse or mirror image it, then trace with tracing paper. Now just put the tracing paper on the canvas and reproduce the exact image without knowing a thing about drawing.

Now create a skin color and block in the entire skin area. Using white, yellow, reds, and burnt sienna creates most skin color. Obviously adjust the amounts of each color depending on the actual colors and tones. The paint should be very thin like a watercolor. Use some of this color and add burnt sienna to paint in the outline of the eyes, nose and mouth. Make sure that you use a very fine, thin brush so that the lines will be thin. Add some burnt sienna and crimson or other red to the skin color where you want the shadows to be. Study the photo or model and see where they are. Add more thin layers and blend them into the flesh color until the shadows are distinct. Add details of the eyes, nostrils, lip color and eyebrows. Final details can be added by using pure white. Such details may be upon the eyelids, on the nose, upper lip or anyplace you want to look moist or where the light is catching it. Painting people does take practice. Do not get disappointed if do it yourself portraits are not perfect. If you have a desire to paint people you will get it with enough practice.

There is little doubt you’ve seen them at some point in your life; they reside at carnivals, fairs, amusement parks, and anywhere there is general happiness abound. They are what society refers to as caricature artists, and there is a reason they remain so widespread and popular. Going beyond the traditional aspect of simply drawing a portrait of a person, They add the unexpected and make it fun and lively. But it’s not as easy as you might assume it is. Drawing a caricature takes a lot of practice and hard work to achieve. But do not get discouraged and throw in the towel just yet. If you follow the bellow tips you will see that you can do it too, if you put in the effort.

It is very important that you take the time to know your model. Go over their face and observe anything that you could use and exaggerate in the caricature. Perhaps they have a gap between their two front teeth, or they appear to have an excessive number of freckles. On top of this, take the time to notice also how they react and what their mannerisms are. How do they smile? How do they laugh? Do they do anything with their hands or other parts of their body?

Do not be hasty and simply begin drawing without planning out the layout of the page first. No matter how nice your caricature may be, if it is not centered, and instead located at the bottom, top, or far sides of the paper, it won’t look right and might appear sloppy and unbalanced. Think about how the picture will and should appear on the piece of paper and plan accordingly. If this is not done you might have to start over, and the customer probably will not appreciate having to wait and sit for even longer than they wanted to.

The only way you can improve and get better is through practice, so this can’t be skipped no matter how good you think you are. Always carry a notebook or other kind of pad of paper with you, whether you’re on vacation or sitting in a waiting room, so that whenever inspiration hits you can work on it right away. If you keep it up you’ll become so accustomed to the steps you’ll be able to come up with the perfect caricature drawing no matter who your model is.