The sister of a friend recently graduated from the International Baccalaureate programme at S:t John’s International School in Brussels. I was asked to make some kind of caricature/portrait of her that her sister could wave at her upon graduation day. The sister apparently suffers from something called vanity, so the instructions were not to overdo the caricature aspect. That was tricky, and I think I ended up with a “comic babe” instead of a funny caricature. Anyway, I’m still quite happy with the result.

I wanted to color it digitally, and since the picture had to be quite large I needed the assistence of someone who knows printing better than I do. I turned to my friend Emma Agering at Basquer (http://www.basquer.com/) and talked her into making the portrait with me. Thus I have made my first ever “collaborative portrait”.

Emma also happens to know the graduating sister, so the choice was perfect. The flags in the background was my idea, but she was the one who made it work. And more importantly, Emma printed the picture on canvas. Let me tell you, canvas is the shit! The print is so rich in colors and the black is mega black! The screen doesn’t really do it justice. So in the end my friend got this really luxury print that her sister can hang on her wall (unlike the average tacky grad-pics that are usually shoved away in the basement or the like).

If you’re into cool bags you should check out Basquer’s laptop bags. The first edition was released recently. I was at the release party and it was like going to an art gallery, but with bags on the wall instead of pictures. The bags looked awesome! As a matter of fact I have designed the print for one of the bags of the second edition to be released this fall. Keep you’re eyes open, and check out the Basquer website every now and then!

I just completed this caricature course that I’ve been attending the last two months or so. Our teacher, Iraqi artist Abdulilah Al-Le’by, looked approximately like this:

In spite of me being brainwashed from making children’s comics for too long, almost having lost in the process the ability to make drawings representing reality, he actually managed to teach me some stuff:

1) Using the right drawing tools is important. Cretacolor’s Nero lead crayons (soft) and a pad of heavy smoothly surfaced A3 paper (NOT light paper or ruffly surfaced paper) will facilitate your chances of making better portraits quicker.

2) The most important features of a face is its eyes. If you don’t get the eyes right, it doesn’t matter how well you draw the rest of the face. The lookalikeness won’t be there. This goes for both traditional portraits and caricature portraits.

3) I really suck at shading. However, Abdulilah taught me what to look for, how to follow the muscles and shapes of the face to make it more “3D”. I have yet to master this, but I’ll definately hear Abdulilah’s words echoing in my mind the next time I make a portrait.