Chris Grieb

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Chris Grieb

by Victor Pross

 

[Victor Pross]

Yikes. What the hell did I do? A tad exaggerated? Man, I hope you still like me, Chris. :twitch:

[BAMF]

Great job, Victor! Chris gives off good vibes.

[Chris Grieb]

Victor & Kori; I am going to see if my friends recognize me. Victor; Thanks again! Kori; Good vibes!

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

I put this thread in Articles for a couple of days so it can be on the front page. I will move it back t Victor's corner later.

Good work, Victor. Very good work.

Michael

[Victor Pross]

I put this thread in Articles for a couple of days so it can be on the front page. I will move it back t Victor's corner later.

Good work, Victor. Very good work.

Michael

Michael,

Thank you. It was a pleasure.

Caricature art, I have said, can honor an individual in a good-natured humorous manner or it can skewer that individual with the poison pen of contempt. It depends on the intentions of the artist. There is nothing “intrinsic” to caricature that it must be one thing or the other. It can pay tribute or it can sting. It can be the dark or the light.

When it comes to Chris—it is to honor this good man. Kori is right: he gives off good vibes.

I like the subtle humor in this caricature (I think it’s subtle anyway): There’s Chris, in a distinguished library, with classic literature just behind him, and he is able to retain the heart and innocence of a child as conveyed by his reading a DC Bat Man comic. His beaming smile was really fun to draw. Hey Chris, the photo that I was working from was not the greatest, but your spirit came right out at me very clearly.

-Victor

[John Dailey]

Vic:

~ You had him holding the right book! Guess he's not so bad, after all.

LLAP

J:D

Edited February 13, 2007 by John Dailey

[CNA]

Honey, you did a good job on Chris and captured his fun natured loving side. Chris does give off many good vibes !! He truly is a sweet man and you captured it well. His zest for life shines through.

[Barbara Branden]

I really like this one, Victor. You captured something important and valuable abut Chris.

Barbara

[Brant Gaede]

Good job. Very good job.

--Brant

[BAMF]

His beaming smile was really fun to draw.

That was my favorite part. Smiles tell so much about people.

[Victor Pross]

I really like this one, Victor. You captured something important and valuable abut Chris.

Barbara

Barbara, thank you! Caricature can pay tribute--and if it never has before, I'm breaking tradition. Hey, maybe you'll be next. ;]

[Charles R. Anderson]

Victor,

It works, but how did you make the artistic decision that Chris' smile would not stretch from ear to ear?

[Victor Pross]

Victor,

It works, but how did you make the artistic decision that Chris' smile would not stretch from ear to ear?

Hi Charles,

When it comes to caricaturing, it is the inside that I'm more interested--the "abstraction" of caricature. I come across inspired artists who are interested in exploring caricature and who often proceed to capriciously plunge in with little or no understanding of the art form. As a result, one will witness drawing after drawing of enlarged noses, lips, ears, foreheads, eyes, chins and heads—all the variable caricature clichés. Too often I see interchangeable drawings from different artists who bend themselves out of shape in the attempt to bend their subject out of shape, as if caricature was nothing more than enlarging and distorting every extremity. It all becomes so boring.

After much thinking trial and error, I discovered the main idea is to capture the soul of your subject. This is much more important than merely distorting features or resorting to exhausted formula. Like a shallow aging narcissistic model, too many caricaturists are obsessed with the outside at the expense of the inside. Now when I say “capturing the soul” of the subject, I find that a quote from Leonardo da Vinci very instructive to communicate my meaning:

“Faces display in part the nature of men, their vices and temperaments.”

With this quote in mind, I set out to capture my subject’s nature and temperament. In other words, I seek to capture their souls. There is much more to caricature than capturing features. It’s also about capturing the subtle (or not so subtle) nuances of a person—little highly individual touches that breathe life into the work.

But to answer your question: I very well could have made Chris’s mouth stretch ear to ear, but I chose not to, and for a reason. As a general rule—and strictly speaking in terms of physiognomy—a caricature artist should not make everything BIG, he should also deliberately make some of the features smaller (depending on the subject). It is the contrast of big and small that makes a striking caricature. If you make everything BIG—like big nose, big ears, big smile, big head, big eyes, etc, you no longer have a caricature. You simply have a big drawing.

:turned:

Victor

[Mikee]

Victor,

This caricature does work. I don't know how but it does capture the pleasant and intelligent fellow that Chris has proven himself to be by his writings.

I owe you an apology for my criticisms of your art on another thread. So, I apologize.

I've recently found another website, posted by Bob Palin on RoR, with a pertinent article that you may like:

http://www.drkenner.com/articles.htm

[Victor Pross]

Victor,

This caricature does work. I don't know how but it does capture the pleasant and intelligent fellow that Chris has proven himself to be by his writings.

I owe you an apology for my criticisms of your art on another thread. So, I apologize.

I've recently found another website, posted by Bob Palin on RoR, with a pertinent article that you may like:

http://www.drkenner.com/articles.htm

Mikee,

Apologies accepted. This might be hard to believe, but I’m not really a fan of adversarial situations and I would prefer intelligent and friendly interaction. Thank you for linking that article, it was very interesting and I encourage others to read it.

You know, I think I may very be the only caricaturist who has a “philosophy of caricature.” I’m serious. Thanks to Rand, I practice a certain epistemology even towards this underrated art form: I searched my mind coming up with a definition and identified its essential characteristics, and the results can be read on OL -- or seen in the art itself. :turned:

-Victor