Exaggerating Big Al Lopez

Meet Big Al Lopez, caricature artist, and National Caricaturist Network member. Exaggerating Big Al is more of a challenge than it first appears. The weight of the exaggeration is around the cheeks and jowls, but the nose and brow also compete for attention. After a couple of discarded loose sketches (being distracted by the nose and brow)...


...I started my third sketch (above) with a few foundation lines and shapes (below), a curved line for the back of the neck, and two circles for the bulk of the face and positioning of the brow.
The curved line at the back of the neck is essential to the exaggeration as it pushes or forces every feature in the main circle into a triangle or pyramid shape, which also allows for exaggeration of the nose.
I didn't draw these lines for my sketch, the ones above are just for demonstration, but I had them in my head when sketching.

The rest is elementary, as the foundation line is doing a lot of the work, one curved line dictating the exaggeration of the features, expression, the lift of his left brow and the extention of the lower lip. You could say I had no part in this exaggeration at all...the lines did it!





Comments

Great tips Paul, what do you use to record the video sequence?
Paul Moyse said…
Thanks Niall. The video is actually just a .gif animation using Photoshop and layers. If anyone knows how to do it at better quality, let me know, I can't seem to get rid of the grainy compressed effect!
SEILER said…
Pretty cool man, love the extreme shapes, lots of fun! Also, your Timothy Spall is sweet, great job!
Vincenzo said…
Great job on this Paul (as always)...and as far as the graininess of the .gif it's just the nature of the file. You can probably experiment with the compression settings to tweak it a bit but it will never look as good as a .jpg.
Paul Moyse said…
Thanks Jason.

Thanks for that Vin. I guess I'll either have to live with the graininess or make it a small .wmv file.
Unknown said…
Fantastic cartoon! Thanks to put your work step by step. It's very important to learn of you.
And you allow me to know Big Al Lopez. Great caricatoonist.

Greetings.
Chris said…
Thanks for the little lesson! It's fun to see science and the surreal come together. Great job!
Kev Levell said…
Nice posting - it's always really informative to see how other artists get their results, and this is a result!
Amok said…
Hi Moyse

Been visiting your blog a lot lately, and i love your work... looking at great work like yours keeps me going after a long day of unsuccessful theme park caricatures..haha

keep it up!
Nelson Santos said…
you have a funny brain!
Unknown said…
You've made a lovely job on Big Al, Paul, and a great tutorial too. Nice work.
Big AL said…
Oh boy Paul ... do I really look like that much of a thug? No, this is awesome. Thanks.
Aaronphilby said…
pretty amazing
Aaronphilby said…
this is nate, sorry
Paul Moyse said…
Thanks for the great comments guys, glad you enjoyed it. And sorry Big Al, I'm sure you're not a thug at all!
Emily Byrne said…
Amazing as usual!
jmborot said…
Hi Moyse,
great demonstration of your method. Very intersting, and great result.
(and, I'm just making a link to your blog too)
Anonymous said…
Sorry , i not speak english ...

Good job is great , super

Ton travail est super génial , j'aime beaucoup ce que tu fais bravo ... Clap clap clap ..
Welly said…
Beautiful work Paul. It's great to get a glimpse into how your genius mind works.
Anonymous said…
Super, great job. Your info and video is very informative. Thanks!!
Bãpp said…
Hi Paul,
great demonstration of your method. Very interestig,thanks for sharing that,
jan
Bowie said…
This one is so cool! Love the way how you did his cheeks and his nose and the shape of his head. Also like the colors you used
very much, it looks so real, awesome!!

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