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September 18, 2011
Sometimes grandparents are hard to buy for. So, why not get a personalized gift that will show your affection as well as your sense of humour?
Caricatures make great gifts for people of all ages. But perhaps grandparents will most enjoy seeing happy memories from their lives transposed into cartoon form. After all, what better way to remember the past in an uplifting light than to do it while smiling or laughing?
A cartoon caricature specifically for your grandparents could be a picture of your grandfather and grandmother in a familiar scene or from a favourite memory—like their wedding day, a perfect vacation, or sitting in lawn chairs in front of their house.
Or, you could order a caricature from photos that featured your grandparents in the forefront with their grandchildren in the background.
Send us some information about your grandparents along with the photos. Tell us who they are and what they like to do. You may even want to collaborate with some of your cousins to get more perspective on what your grand parents are like, and how the picture should look.
Once you have some photos and ideas, send them off to us via the contact form found under the Order Your Cartoon tab. Prices start at only £90 for A4 caricatures from photos. Please place your order well in advance of the day it’s required.
September 14, 2011
Looking for a unique and fun birthday gift for a friend or relative? How about a humorous caricature? Cartoon caricatures of the people you know and love make wonderful, amusing gifts that are sure to be treasured for years to come. Here’s how you can order a caricature from us for a birthday gift.
We love humor, so the more you can tell us about the person’s hobbies, interests, work, and family life, the more we can incorporate into the drawing. Tell us what makes this person tick.
Some ideas you might want to include are favourite leisure activities, memorable vacations, pets, life accomplishments, and goals for the future.
For a birthday specific caricature from photos, you could also tell us a bit about what kind of party they are having. What will the cake look like? Is there a theme for the party, and who else will be there?
Once you have some ideas put together and have chosen some photos of the person (two or three will suffice,) click on the Order Your Cartoon tab at the top of our web site, and then fill in the contact form.
After we receive your information and photos, we’ll brainstorm to get a basic concept for the cartoon we plan to draw. We’ll then get back to you with our ideas within 24 hours. You’ll have the chance to let us know what you think and make any suggestions for changes.
The finished caricature from a photo is sure to be a delightfully amusing gift for anyone’s birthday.
September 9, 2011
Looking for a gift for an animal lover in your life? How about caricature cartoons of their pets? This is a fun way to give a piece of original artwork that will have special meaning to the recipient.
Pets offer lots of fun and humorous potential for a caricature cartoon as they are often doing funny things, acting mischievous, and posing cutely. Caricatures from photos of pets make good Christmas and birthday gifts. But they would also make a good tribute gift for someone who has recently lost a beloved pet.
For an adult pet portrait, why not consider sending us some photos that span the pet’s lifetime? For instance, if your friend or relative has a cat, send us a picture or two from when the cat was a kitten, and then one of it as an adult.
Or, you could send photos of the pet in some favourite activities or positions. Is this a dog who loves to sleep on his owner’s bed? Or perhaps it’s a rabbit who loves to be cuddled like a baby? Send us these great shots so we can incorporate them into our caricature from photos.
Tell us a little bit about the pet’s personality too. What is his or her name, what are their favourite foods, favourite toys, and who is his or her carer? Once you have chosen your photos, just send them to us via the contact form under the Order Your Cartoon tab. Then we can get started on your caricature pet portrait!
August 5, 2011
When I last surveyed my customers to find out how much they’d be happy to spend on leaving gifts for colleagues – provided those colleagues were very, very important and appreciated and liked, mind – the answer came in at around £5 to £10 per person. Oops, I thought. I’ve set out to create leaving gifts with an average retail price of around £120, and aimed them squarely at the corporate market I’m now surveying, and turns out I’m ten times too expensive. Time to close up shop.
Thankfully, another logic prevailed: Team logic. We’ve worked as a team, so we’ll buy as a team. Indeed, in most companies, leaving gifts are bought together, by a group for an individual. So people chip in. £5 or £10 usually. Make that twelve people, and you’ve got yourself a Charlie’s Cartoon!
After being reassured by this, another point came to light which actually appeared to be to my advantage. For £5 or £10 a head, our customers are getting a pretty big bang for their buck. Along with their fiver, everyone in the office can chip in an opinion or an anecdote which makes the leaving gifts that much more personalised, and then see the fruit of their contribution later on when they see the finished caricature cartoons.
Plus everyone can have a copy of these leaving gifts. If you’re not the person the cartoon was made for you’re not likely to put a copy of it up on your wall, but it’ll usually find its way to the bottom of a drawer or folder to be found years later. And when you do find these leaving gifts again, they bring back even more memories than a photo. Remember when so and so did this, then that happened? It’s all in these leaving gifts. Charlie’s Cartoons sum those years right up.
July 25, 2011
Like many people, you may well have seen caricature cartoons. Such images often feature in newspaper sketches and magazines and you might have seen street artists selling the creations when you are out and about.
However, you may never have considered getting caricature pictures, whether as a gift or for yourself, because you simply don’t know how to approach the task.
The good news is, getting your perfect personalised caricatures may be much easier than you think. The web has had a major impact on many areas of modern life and this is yet another example.
Here at Charlie’s Cartoons we specialise in providing superb quality caricatures and the process of ordering through us could not be more straightforward. All you have to do is send us a few images of the subject in question. Meanwhile, details of the individuals or stories that feature them should also be provided.
We will then get back to you within 24 hours detailing some ideas for your custom caricatures and, if you like the sound of them, we will make a start. Of course, you can add to and edit these suggestions as you please.
After the process is completed, you should have the ideal caricature pictures, and all without having to venture out of your house to order or pick them up.
So, if you think you could benefit from creations like this, now could be the perfect time to investigate further. The only tricky part is deciding which photos to use.
July 14, 2011
If you have been on a trip to remember, you may well want to commemorate it. Perhaps you went with colleagues from work, a group of friends, your partner or your family. Whoever was involved, the memories might be something you are eager to hold onto.
The trouble is, in this age of digital photos, many of the images you take may simply be stored on your computer or downloaded onto the web. This can be a great way of sharing pictures, but it is never as good to view them in this way. They don’t seem as real.
Of course, you can choose to print out some of the photos to place around your home or office, or to keep in albums.
However, you can take this one step further and have special caricature cartoons created to celebrate your adventure. Such pictures are fantastic because not only can they be humorous and great to look at, they also tell a story about your trip.
By sending images into us here at Charlie’s Cartoons, along with a number of anecdotes concerning your holiday, you can rest assured the final product will provide a superb reminder of your experiences.
Among the best images to send in are action shots. These make the perfect base for custom caricatures as people’s features already tend to be exaggerated.
Each time you look at the cartoon caricatures you order, you will instantly be transported back to your trip.
Meanwhile, you can also have such caricature pictures created as a present for your fellow holidaymakers.
July 9, 2011
When people you care about move away to far flung destinations, you may feel a deep sense of sadness. Although communications technology is better now than it has ever been in the past, this still cannot make up for the fact that the individuals will no longer be in the same location as you.
Before they leave, you may want to show them you care and provide them with thoughtful gifts. However, it can be hard to know what to buy in such situations. Often, recipients cannot take anything big or heavy with them, as they have to transport it. Also, many of the sentimental presents available look clichéd and even tacky.
But there is one great option that ticks all the boxes and that is personalised caricatures. These pictures can make a fantastic addition to the people’s new homes and should bring a smile to their faces each time they see them.
Of course, you can choose what is included on the caricature gifts. For example, you might want to use a group picture including you, the individual in question and a number of others.
The wonderful thing about caricature pictures is the fact that they can encapsulate people’s personalities and experiences so concisely.
Meanwhile, by using us here at Charlie’s Cartoons to get your caricature portraits, you can ensure the gift is truly personal. We ask you to provide information about the individual or group involved, or a story involving them.
To find out more about how our service operates, simply take a look around our website or get in touch.
July 8, 2011
There’s a number of great sites out there doing caricatures from photos. Some of them are more digital based, using sophisticated photoshop methods to achieve brilliant creative results in a minimum time. Often the results are neat, high-impact and clear. In addition, due to the short time it takes a well trained photoshop artist to create such a caricature, the products are often quite affordable too. So why pay more for one of our hand-made cartoons?
Well there’s no straightforward answer to that. After all, I guess we just make the same basic product: Caricatures from photos that customers supply. Except ours take longer and cost more. So why bother? Well, let me paint you a picture (as it were): Your granny gets two pictures for her 80th birthday: One is a digital cartoon, very slick and well made, slightly reminiscent of the kind of illustration you might get in a glossy magazine. The other is a hand-made cartoon, made with ink and paint, containing details that the cartoonist pored over for days to produce. Which of these two caricatures from photos do you think she’s more likely to keep for a long time? If you’ve gone for the hand made caricatures from photos (that’s what I was angling for…) then you’re right: These are really enduring gifts. They will be kept for years to come and raise a smile on a regular basis. So they’re worth the investment, don’t you think?
At the far end of the digital spectrum, you even get programmes online that will use complex algorithms to transform your photo into a cartoon. As this is fully mechanised and doesn’t take a second of artistic intervention, the service can be free (the sites get money from advertising only). Once again, a great idea for some type of occasion: An e-invite to a birthday party, for example. But if you’re looking for long-lasting caricatures from photos, go the hand-made route. It’ll be something that’s kept forever.
July 5, 2011
Raising a family is not always easy, as you will know if you have one yourself. However, it can be one of the most rewarding things people can do in their lives and is therefore something that should be marked.
The incredible thing is how quickly times change. Youngsters seem to transform from babies to children, to adolescents and then fully-fledged adults within the blink of an eye. It is therefore vital to preserve each stage for posterity.
This is where family caricatures come into their own. Not only are they a great way of marking points in time and reflecting events that have happened, they also encapsulate something of the personalities of those included. Meanwhile, they look great hanging on walls and often get plenty of positive attention from guests.
Also, there is another advantage of having caricature portraits of your family. Because the end results are humorous, they provide a great opportunity to bond with your loved ones. Laughing together is one of the best ways to strengthen your relationships.
The great news is, getting caricature cartoons has never been easier. For example, you can use our website here at Charlie’s Cartoons. All you have to do is send us a few pictures and some details of the individuals in the snaps, or information about an experience you want to be reflected.
Regardless of the type of group caricatures you are seeking, we should be able to help and, because you get to edit or add to our ideas part way through the process, you are bound to be more than happy with the results.
June 24, 2011
When it comes to corporate gifts or company mementos, caricatures from photo documentation of a particular event can really keep the buzz from a team building exercise or field trip buzzing on throughout the year. Just pick the best photo from the endless folder-fulls of funny snapshots that colleagues tend to e-mail each other after such an event, and send it to your caricature artist. You’d be amazed by how much caricatures from photo 2124 (or whichever it was…) will bring an office to life, hanging from the wall of the coffee room in a nice wooden frame – just think of that!
Recently a group of colleagues sent me a photo of a rafting field trip in Canada – they were a group of young management consultants from Vancouver who had just been on a trip that sounded about as exhilarating as they get. Camping for two days, trekking to the starting point way up in the rockies, hours away from the nearest hospital, about to do one of the most dangerous sports there is! Clearly when they put their inflatable dinghies in the churning water, upstream of 8 miles of rushing white water rapids, caricatures from photo snapshots from other colleagues was probably the last thing on their mind. I had seen thei r website mugshots. Serious confident, neat – miles away from the looks of utter out-of-control exhilaration (veering in some cases to blind panic) that I saw in the photo they sent me when they returned from their adventure. Some of them couldn’t even believe that their expressions had been that extreme when I showed them the final article. But when I showed them the snapshot they had to admit it: These are caricatures from photo evidence, I told them. There was no denying that that was them, at their best!
So if you’re wondering whether caricatures from photo recordings of your most exhilarating adventures are a good idea, the answer is usually yes… provided someone had the presence of mind to take a photo at the time!
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