Vector Caricature

[Steph Laberis]

First of all, this post is dedicated to Summer Pudding.

Secondly, I drew some inspiration from Steamcrow (http://steamcrow.com/), Little Golden Books and our own Entdroid.

Lastly, this is a little time killer I did at work to really push shapes and texture with vector art. It's a portrait of this guy here (http://myspace-367.vo.llnwd.net/00725/76/35/725385367_m.jpg), not Mozart! Mr. Puddin' sure knows who he is...

To me it's a lil ambiguous between a painting and a digital paper cut... but I don't know if that bothers me or not. I'd be anxious to hear feedback on the pallette, the likeness and anything else that comes to mind so that the next one can be even better. :D

[I.was.ink]

This is really cool!
I love his expression, his hair, his thin scarf.
But, I dont like the purple around him especially since its gradiating and throws off the whole flatness of the paper cut effect. Also, his pose bothers me, its kind of plain and boring. I dont know what other pose would look better with that expression, but I'm sure that changing that background would at least help. IMO

Hope I wasn't to harsh on ya...:bounce:
-ink

[Ryn]

Maybe this is just me, but the dangly part of the skarf reads a little oddly to me. It looks kinda like a book at first.

It's so stylized that I'm not sure how you would go about fixing it, but I figured it may be helpful to point it out.

Otherwise, very nice, as usual! <3

[daveneale]

i really like it-not a big fan of most the crappy vector stuff out there but this is sweet, as far as the pose goes it doesnt bother me-kind of goes with the style, but I guess if you could get the body twisted towards the piano and on a stool that could be interesting, rock on

[entdroid]

Stepharoo!!!! It brings a tear to my eye to appear among your inspirations, and I see you made good use of my tutorial there too! :groupie1: :groupie1: And I thought no one would even watch it! I'm super happy cause you're a constant inspiration for me too, you and those awesome pugfishes you make! :D :D :D
I love love this illo girly, i really like how the feet are separated from the legs, and his expression is just pure gold!!! The stylization is really good! :star: :star: :star: :star: :star:

[DanJohnCox]

hah! Steph this is a nice one! it has a great feel to it with the paper cutout esque thing to it (i love explaining myself clearly :P). and the style is really spot on!

i agree with inks thoughts on the background, it does pull away from the flatness of the whole thing and doesnt add tons. it'd be interesting to see it with a flatter background, but maybe a light gradient darker near the bottom. like one usually gets when taking photos of images. also, im not QUITE sure about the likeness. youve done a bang up job with it no doubt cause its so styled its piss ass hard to get great likenesses. but maybe if you push his jaw more since hes got a real stong looking jaw (in the photo anyways). and adjust the hair, since his is shorter at the front and longer at the back. these are totally minor but may help that little bit to bring out the likeness,AND may pull the likeness away from mozart (since thats who i thought it was for awhile). but the pose? i think its totally fine, good silouhuette. just maybe pull his hand up from the piano so it becomes even more clear what hes doing and so his hand isnt intersecting the piano as much. but like i said these are totally minor things but its a great piece steph! actually stylistically one of my favorites of yours! i really like the paper effect.

[Summer Pudding]

Charming piccie Steph, but it won't stop me taking your Ipod to the European Court of Human Rights for crimes against musical taste. Who's next on the list, Kenny G? God Almighty, he even looks like someone I hate from school! Wrong, wrong WRONG!!!!

:(

[Steph Laberis]

This is all great feedback guys, thank you!!

Ink: Thanks dude! I was trying to go for a brushy wash effect with the gradient, but looking at it again I can see where it's kind of killing the paper effect. I will tweak it tonight before it goes in the folio, so thank you for the sharp eye :)

Ryn: That's the first I've heard of the scarf, and now I can't stop seeing it as a book. Gah! I will experiment with a slight curve to it, thanks for the feedback and the kind words!

daven: Thanks, I'm really glad you're into the style! I'm curious to hear what you do consider crappy vector art though - to me, it's anything that falls under the auto-traced photo category ;)

Ent: You're one of my muses, what can I say? ^^; Hope I did your technique justice!

Blinky: Hey Dan! Thank you SO much for such an in-depth crit, all of the stuff you mentioned makes sense and is a relatively easy fix. Good call about the silouhuette as well, usually I'm a stickler about clear poses but I totally muddled that hand. Miss you dude!

Pudding: Note to self... leave Ipod at the hostel when visiting Pudd' in a couple weeks... ;) <3

[Brendan N]

dig the subtle texture init, really cool caricature.
feels very 20s/30s to me for reason..
thanks for sharing!

- d.

[emily g]

Very cool! I love the expression on his face, especially the way you did the lips.
Nice. :)

[masque]

heya, Steph! i really like the caricature, it has a lot of personality (though i don't know how well the subject is depicted, being unfamiliar with him) and quirky charm. some comments and suggestions on the evolution of your faux cut paper technique:

the use of the "inclusions" in the paper texture is a nice stroke but one that i think should be used with utmost discretion. in this piece, it does well in the BG but may be overstated in the figure -- imo it competes with your applied textures and tones. it also has a slight tendency to make the entire image look more "painted" because of the common texture patterns on all apparent levels of depth. perhaps if you think of the various components of the picture each being cut from a different material? also, if you make sure the textures aren't contiguous from one plane to the next, i think it would increase the sense of actual cutouts.

it's good to see more applied modeling tones and more variable shadows -- this can really sell the sense of space between cutout elments, and i think you could push it even farther, for example creating soft-edge cast shadows under the wavy hair elements to have them "lift" off the main mass of hair. in similar fashion, you could assume a lighting source and do some subtle modeling of the overall shapes to imply other than flat forms, like some subtle curving to some of the pieces. it need not be obvious to be effective.

these are just suggestions for further exploration rather than crits of the posted image, which i find delightful, and a solid progression from other work i've seen you do in this vein.

[sve]

Hello, Steph. I'm very glad that you are aware how attractive this new style is and you're exploring it and working at its variations and refinement. I hope to see series of images in this style with different themes and objects from you in the near future. I think it is a real catch on so many levels. First of all imitation of paper application with velvety materials is witty on its on, it already brings a smile... I think you can exploit it even farther making it look like some pieces of other materials added, like piece of silky fabric or some natural material, a leaf from a real tree or a pine cone or cardboard or wool.. all this will be funny if texture done well. Of course if you manage to do it simplified and laconic it will be a double bonus and will add to wittiness and style...

New image itself I think is wonderful except that it is some toss up between application imitation and painting. I would prefer you to be stricter and make it look more like combination of different pieces cut off from paper.
Particularly I think the shadow from the hair mane on my right on his cheek should be sharper and less blended with the skin, darker... because it is sort of clued above to layer beneath it. The same to spiral of light colored hair, I would prefer effect of them being placed above the rest of the hair.

I like the self absorbed expression of his face, and irony in his figure and how you showed his huge hair and feeling of pleasure and occupation on his face.. I really appreciate this expression, because musician do really often have it on their faces in moment of their extreme involvement with a melody.
Just look at this portrait of composer Anton Rubinstein by Repin... the same distancing, alienated face, look going inside the person, denying any outside contacts. It is truthful.
http://www.abcgallery.com/R/repin/repin52.html



Like the subdued color of this figure and BG, they add to the same idea... he is an introvert..

Now about similarity... I'm afraid you depicted two different types of faces, IMO... I think when you do a portrait or especially when you do a caricature you need to catch the most prominent, uniques feature, the ones which make this face unforgettable... there are faces which have a little of it, they are harder to depict, but there are faces that have a lot of bright features that just jumps into your eye in the first moments you look at them...

In the case of this person(I'm very ashamed but i don't know who he is, I would appreciated to know), from looking at his photo he has different shape, outline of the head... in your image it is a rectangle which stands on the narrow side of it, in the photo it is rectangular which is stands on the wider side of it...
His nose and forehead don't do this smooth line, it is not a Roman profile you depicted in your drawing... in the photo the nose dives inwards near eyebrows and curved inward instead of outward (like in a hawk) below the forehead....
His eyes are deep placed on the photo, it is one of the features of his face.
He has a resemblance to a lion, ha has deep shadow under eyebrows. His eyebrows are bushy. His chin is much more fragile than the one you depicted,,, resolute but nit that massive and bony as you painted, IMO. His lower lip is very prominent and juicy, not that tiny like in your image. The whole outline, shape of his head is different form your image's, IMO. That's why the resemblance is very light. It does have some resemblance though, mostly in the area of lips and eyes.

But overall it is a wonderful image and not empty, it tell a story about devoted musician. blind to his surroundings... Devoted to ridiculous level.

One of the best thing that your image is better than this photo, your ref, much more meaningful, enriched with your attitude and humor and story telling... I gave the highest rating to your image, although I think it is very subjective, unfair thing, rating in art...