Hi all

I'm after honest opinions on something i've been asked to look at where i work.
I work for a large photo processing lab in the uk, we develop camera film/digital images and make photo gifts.
We currently pay an outside company alot of money to create caricatures of customers images, and in an effort to save money i've been asked to look into how we can make them ourselves in house.
Well i've never tried to do caricatures before and i'm after honest opinions from you guys (and gals) on how you think i'm doing so far.
So the picture attached is one i tried earlier today, it took about half an hour to do.
Please be honest.

Thanks.

It's a neat pic, but I think caricatures have been pretty much standardized as to EXACTLY what works, and does
not for a long time.
I needed to do some a while back, and learned all I needed to know in a very short time.
Just make use of 'how to draw caricature' searches on Youtube.
Good Luck...it'll be easy once ya see the basic formula. nothin' to it.

looks great

Thanks Scion, i only need to manipulate the photo images they send in and not draw them, but i'll look on youtube as it might give me some pointer.
The images will eventually have a cartoon body and only the head will be used.#

Thanks for your input

Yes it is a cool looking image but a character is supposed to exaggerate certain characteristics of a person that stands out. You gave her a large head on a skinny little neck. In the pick, she almost looks like she has no neck. It almost continues from her jaws. I would include that. I would also slide that bottom jaw way over to exaggerate that look on her face. Almost making her head an "S" shape.
You seemed to have lost the look of the person. You created a cool new person but I am not sure that I would recognize it as that person.
I made a couple changes to show you what I mean. (It's not great, but just to give you an idea)


Keep it "true" to the person

Your right Rey, the image i made looks ok but it does lose something of the person.
The skinny neck i'm not too bothered about as the cartoon body it will have in the final image will be a standard template which they choose.
But yes as for the S shape head it would look much better that way.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated

Mick Jagger's sister!

well done on this pic. had to draw caricatures by hand from the staff of a small company, and made an important experience on that job:
the more people look "normal" the harder it is to make a caricature of it. subject has a big nose, or strange eyes, of making a funny face: EASY.
subject is pretty/handsom, looking regular, having nothing special: HARD.
maybe you should try another one with a regular face, and look, where inspiration comes from. best luck!

True

If you really want to test yourself. Make a characature of a famous person and place it here. (nobody too obvious, nobody like Micheal Jackson. Too easy) Don't tell us who it is. We will see if we know who it is first and then we can critique it.

NEW FORUM GAME!

I think it looks pretty good Glen

But more importantly than what we think, is what your work thinks about it...
Is it what they're looking for?

To be honest i think its better than what my work were looking for, they want to mass produce caricatures for customers who send in there photos and either print them as a large poster print or on canvas.
I think its a good idea to have a go at a different image and i like the idea of doing someone famous.
I also like the possible idea of this kind of thing turning into a game on here, could be fun.

One thing tho is that i'm not looking to draw or paint a caricature, but to manipulate a photo into one.
Still i'll find a photo of someone famous and post it here soon.


Oh and thanks everyone for your input on this so far

what will happen, if customers send crappy, low-res, blurry, etc. photos to make caricatures out of it? I see a lot of troubles here. Anyway, keep a backdoor open, to refuse impossible photos from your customers, and inform them about inquiries before, especially when you are planning to print it in large poster-size.

Customers are told what resolution images are acceptable before they order any product, most of our business is done online and there are strict guidlines for customers.
But yes it is a possible problem, only today i done one for a friend at work and the image was not very good, the result was ok for her but not sure what a customer who is paying good money would think.
Its an idea that the company i work for are really just looking to see if its possible to bring it in house or not.
The outside contractors are charging alot of money for a product that looks no better than what i have already done and they pay people in India to do it for them. So they are making alot of money out of us a month.

Its all things which our company will look into if we do decide to do them ourselves. We have been in the business for many years and are owned by one of the largest photo processing companies in the states.