The Abstraction – Reilly Method for Caricature Drawing

Art of Caricature

Fundamental Skills(60 Lessons)
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Abstraction

The Abstraction – Reilly Method for Caricature Drawing

120K
Mark as Completed

The Abstraction – Reilly Method for Caricature Drawing

120K
Mark as Completed

Assignment

Your assignment is to take your rough sketches and apply abstraction to them. As you’re getting familiar with it, use the the step-by-step pdf below to help guide you.

Make sure you’re using the rhythms to improve your rough sketch. Don’t just trace over it. Look for ways you can improve the exaggeration and correct anatomical errors.

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Samuel Lemons
Here is my abstraction of Steven Seagal.
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Peter Haller
Hi, I love this course <3 Here are my first tries with my best thumbnails, rough sketch, and the great abstraction on top. Critiques are welcome.
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Israel Gelman
Ben Shapiro rough sketch and abstraction please critique
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Court Jones
Agreed. Nice use of the abstraction to help place the features in perspective.
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2yr
Hey Court I recently made this caricature of my president in my sketchbook , i really like the likeness but the position of the eyes were off so i made the abstraction . any advice or critique? thank you so much, greetings from colombia.
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Court Jones
Sorry I just now saw this post. In your original drawing it appears that all the facial features line up with each other. But the eye on the left is very close to the nose while the eye on the right is much farther from the nose. In your abstraction, it looks like you moved the eye on the left higher, so it's not aligned with the other features any more. Also, in the abstraction, you did not correct the distance of the eyes from the nose. Look at the muzzle rhythm. On the right side, the eye sits just outside of the muzzle rhythm. Which is good. But the eye on the left is placed well inside the muzzle area. So it doesn't match the placement of the other eye in relation to the center line of the face. Remember to abide by the guide lines you create with the abstraction. Don't draw the rhythm lines and then simply ignore them. Personally, I think it's the eye on the right that's drawn too far out from the nose. The eye on the left should probably stay where it is.
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@myccal
My attempt at an abstraction. Need some practice, but I really like this as a tool.
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Court Jones
Your abstraction lines are pretty solid. However, I don't know what your original sketch looked like before the abstraction. That's an important part of the process because it would tell me how well you used the abstraction to "fix" the original drawing. The construction of the Reilly head feels a little off. So perhaps you simply traced the rhythm lines over your original drawing, just reinforcing the inconsistent structure. The abstraction step is supposed to help you recreate the drawing in a simplistic way that allows you to find and fix minor perspective or construction misalignments. Again, I'm not sure if that was the case here, since there is no original drawing posted. Your final caricature turned out pretty good though. Good likeness. The mustache is kind of distracting though because it's floating in between his mouth and nose. I would move it closer to the mouth. Also, the mustache doesn't seem to follow the forms of the upper lip. The right side of his mouth is upturned so the mustache shape should be turned up on that side as well.
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About instructor
Freelance commercial illustrator and caricature entertainer. He’s done a lot of editorial and product illustration and concept work for film and TV.
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