A portrait artist attempts to recreate real-life pictures while a caricature artist focuses on exaggeration. Some over-exaggerate facial features; this is only a matter of style. For example, will the sketches be over-pronounced or will it just be a sized-up original object? To what degree should you combine the thin, thick, and dark lines?

Always start with the shortest subject if you are drawing multiple subjects on a single page. Rather than draw horizontally, stack them vertically on your paper. Art class 101 lessons of drawing circles for the head and then filling the eyes, nose and mouth is reversed. In sketching caricatures draw the insides of the face first and mentally get an idea of where the cheeks and chin will fall on the paper. Lightly sketch some boundaries, but leave finishing touches yet. Begin with the eyes, the top eyelids first. Observe the distance, size and shape.

Next draw the outline of the nose and note the relationship between the eyes and the nose. If your subject has a large nose, use thick lines, here is a good opportunity to exaggerate.

When drawing the mouth, pay attention to the distance from the nose to the mouth. Observe the top lip. Is it thin or pouty? For wide-mouthed subjects, over-exaggeration works well here. Use softer lines.

The face is drawn in a top to bottom order. Next, draw the chin, cheeks, and jaw in that particular order. The chin provides another opportunity to exaggerate. Drawing the chin first also automatically suggest how the jaw line ends.

Remember this while learning how to become a caricature artist – exaggerations do not always have to be up-scaled.

Next, draw the ears and the inside hairline. At this point, the finished caricature will clearly show if or not they have a big forehead.
Round up by drawing in the hair and head. If they have hair, be generous, bear in mind that the outer perimeter of the head is an edge so a thick line is needed.

Next, draw in the bottom eyelid and add the eye bags if present, next, eyeballs and return to finish the bridge of the nose. Next draw the cheeks, take note; some people have more cheek structure than others.

The final steps are to add the minor details such as freckles, scars, and facial hair and your caricature is almost complete. Add finishing touches and now you have successfully mastered how to become a caricature artist!

Cartoons are fun. Well almost. If you are like me you certainly love to watch cartoon figures. But drawing cartoons is another story particularly if you are not aware of the basics. If the thought of creating beautiful cartoon characters gives you high, read on, here you will find some tips that you can readily use to improve your skills and reduce the time taken to create beautiful cartoon characters. There are certain things that are same for every style of drawing, be it realistic drawing or cartoony, now we will go quickly through the basics before getting specific to cartoony style.

Clean your hands before starting your drawing. The paper you use for your work should be of good quality. Low grade, off colored paper will make your drawing look pale. Your first sketch should be made with light lines and for finalizing you should use deep-colored and prominent lines –so choose your pencils carefully. Many times beginners find drawing a smooth line difficult. Remember drawing smooth lines will be easier if you do not support your hand on your wrist like we are used to do while writing. Doodling and drawing some circular shapes just before you start will also help you to draw smoothly.

Learn to draw facial features and hand carefully. Hands are more difficult. Experts often judge a person’s drawing ability from how well he can draw human hands. So practice drawing hands with care. Study about basic forms and proportions of human body. Learn about basics of human anatomy and various ratios of human figures. As a cartoon creator you will have certain liberties, you do not need to bind yourself with strict body proportions rules. You can draw four fingered (Thumb + Three) hand that makes your work a bit easier. But one challenge you will face while drawing cartoons –cartoon characters needs to be more expressive and certainly you have to create this expressiveness with some lines drawn with your pencil.