I'm posting these here today because I'm trying to make sense out of it. To make sense out of Caricature - is it better than dull direct portraiture ~

I thought that if I saw them all together, I could judge it clearly.

First I made a direct simple Caricature of this lady. Easy to do - Nothing too exaggerated.

Then I exaggerated it a little. Something that I could still do in a first pass.

Then I let loose. Really blew out the nose:

Haha - yeah, like very funny. Nonsense. The first one, which would have been preferred by the woman - that one was the best one.

Looking at that 3rd picture - like, why was it so stupid? I realized that it could have been a lot better - if I had the feeling of the movement in it. Just shapes? That's dull. But it's funny to think how she could scrunch up that nose, squinking the eyes. I just want to try it. And Voila! The best picture of them all. Now this 4th picture has feeling, action, energy, Person-Al-ity. Yes, Caricature is better than Portraiture. If you want to look into the mirror, then do that. But if you can enjoy the Artist's interpretation, if you want to have fun.....

As usual, my pen was moving while I was chatting. Today I was thinking of making 'sxy' girls - sometimes the people I draw ask me for that. A sxy face, um, here's what I came up with today:

These would work. But I look at them, and it makes me wonder. What makes these so called 'sxy' faces? They both have big eyes. One has big hair and the other has big lips. Is big 'sxy'? If so, then the one with the small lips would not be considered 'sxy', but it is.

So is it personality? Attitude? The first one looks smug. And the second one looks scared...

Seems like any features can be 'sxy'. And any attitude can be 'sxy'. So what is it that people are asking for when they ask for 'sxy'?

BTW, what makes the picture look 'scared'? And what makes the picture look 'smug'? But that's another question.

I'm at it again. Before going to Yoga, I revisited the picture from 08/06/08. After Yoga, I drew it yet again:

Now I'm trying to relax more while drawing. Beautiful approach for beautiful drawings. Relax - now, that doesn't mean to sleep!

I'm fluctuating between two approaches. I guess I'll work on both of them, and use whichever one is appropriate at the time when I'm drawing.

The first approach - 3-d shapes. Like wedge, egg, pyramid, book, dish-detergent-bottle. That sort of stuff. Definite decisions in the predraw instead of wild scribbling. Here are 2 pictures (just the line-art) using that approach. I was able to sit back and relax. I like the results. Even before putting in any shading, it looks real solid:

Until I do maaaaannyyy of those though, I think the second approach will work better at parties. It's much faster. NO predraw at all this time. Just basic knowledge and simple shapes

• drawing from the inside out. As you can see in the following sample, though, this approach usually grows too big for the page.

But when I try things like limited predraw of outsides before doing insides with marker it gets stiff and boring to me. So now I'm thinking of trying athird approach - no predraw - outside-in. Stay tuned - I hope to post those studies soon.

Meanwhile, here's the picture drawn from the inside out - with no predraw: