| |
October 25, 2011
Finding the perfect present at this time of year can be difficult. With Christmas fast approaching there is always that added pressure of finding good quality yet meaningful presents for those you love. If you are in the market for something different, or simply just curious about our range of gifts, then please feel free to have a browse online at our portfolio. Here at Charlie’s Cartoons, we are professionals at bringing to life caricatures from photos. We believe that quality in line and tone gives a personal and meaningful gift. Because of this, all of our caricatures are drawn to the highest standard, and we can ensure that you will be delighted with your cartoon caricature.
We also believe in the old saying, simple but effective. We ensure that our cartoon caricatures are simple and effective, making them personal to you, but not too complicated. This further ensures that your caricature from photo has that professional feeling to it.
Our process for creating caricatures from photos could also not be made simpler. We advise you to firstly browse our extensive online portfolio before making any hasty decisions. After you have had a look around, simply get in touch (contact details are on the website) and we will talk you through the rest. We may ask some questions about what you would like to appear on the cartoon caricature, for example any specific hobbies or sports or personality traits you would like us to portray. Then, simply send us some photographs and we can get started!
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 1, 2011
What does it feel like to make a caricature cartoon? Well it depends on the occasion, really. Last July I was commissioned to create a cartoon for the leaving party of Francis Baron, chairman of the Rugby Football Union, to be presented to him on the day of his departure at Twickenham Stadium. Obviously, it was an important commission for us, and it was of critical importance that I should get it right. I had set aside a week of afternoons (the mornings would be used for administrating the business) to complete it. I had only just received the final bits of information from his secretary, and the deadline was in a week.
It was crucial not to mess this one up. Because of the size (80x60cm), I decided to go for canvas. The tricky thing being, canvas is not the same material as paper, and the medium you use to produce a caricature cartoon on paper is totally different to what you’d use to create a caricature cartoon on canvas… But I did not know this. Instead, I just went ahead with my usual watercolours, which proceeded to fall off the canvas like oil drops off a Teflon pan. I had to bite the bullet and buy some oil colours. Not only had I no experience at all at using oil, but the shop only had three primary colours – blue, yellow and red. I treated myself to some black, white and green, just to be safe. Then, I had to make up every colours (skin included!), from scratch.
Needless to say, it was the most stressful caricature cartoon commission of my life. Still, when a friend called me up 5 days before the deadline, I put the paintbrush between my teeth, wiped the sweat off my brow and answered – Hewwo? She had tickets to Glastonbury festival. Would I work hard and spend the weekend sad and alone, or would I drop everything for the time of my life and almost certain professional ruin? Of course I chose the latter, got back on the Monday hungover, way behind on my deadline, and about to turn thirty the following day. I finished the caricature cartoon in two days, and it was a huge success.
June 28, 2011
When you think of the different circumstances and occasions in which you can give caricature gifts, there really is no limit to this. For example, if you have relatives who live abroad and you want to give them a permanent reminder of you and your family, why not send them family caricatures which capture you and your loved ones perfectly? You probably keep in touch with them on Skype, but they are sure to love this different perspective of their relatives which will adorn the walls of their home.
This is just one way in which cartoon caricatures can be used as a gift, but the options are endless and it’s easy to have your own caricatures drawn. First of all you need to find a talented artist, but seeing as you are here on the Charlies Cartoons website you don’t need to look any further for the talented artist!
Perhaps you have a friend who has a birthday approaching and you are wondering what to buy them to mark the day. If so, why not think about caricature gifts? This makes a real change from the usual present we tend to give to good friends, and you can be sure that they will love this gift when you present it to them on their big day.
Charlie specialises in drawing a caricature from photos, so all you have to do is send a selection of pictures and some information about your friend, and leave the rest to him.
June 17, 2011
When a friend of mine recently sent me an attachment containing a slideshow of different cartoon caricatures, I was less than excited about the prospect of flicking through yet another pointless collection of visual anecdotes, combined by some bored office worker into a “jazzy” pdf. However at the time I had nothing better to do, and although producing cartoon caricatures is what I do for a living, day in day out, I thought: Why not, this might even have a 2% chance of being quite inspiring.
When I opened the attachment however, my entire perspective changed – my expectations had been fundamentally challenged. This was not just some oddball selection of cartoon caricatures, this was a true art gallery, containing some of the finest examples of the genre that I have ever seen.
So what made these cartoon caricatures so good? It was not just the immaculate, photo-real precision with which the artists carved out every character in perfect 3D, nor even the clear technical proficiency each artist showed in their familiarity and mastery of the human physiognomy, but more the ability the artists had to distort feature to such extreme extent, to quadruple a forehead and quarter a nose proportionally, in a way which did not prevent the viewer from recognising the subject.
On the contrary, these cartoon caricatures contained more “reality” and likeness than the best photo ever could. Such is the power of the subjective artistic vision, which is at its best when it communicates with the general psyche in such a way as to make art more real than reality, to make people appear more as themselves through a more contrived medium involving more artistic intervention than the mechanistic processes which produce, say, a photograph.
I realised even more then that making cartoon caricatures is not just a frivolous bit of fun (although it certainly works well as a frivolous bit of fun), but that they sometimes, for all their non-seriousness, are a truly sublime art form. That is, when exaggerations are not gratuitous, but flights of genuine artistic fancy. Those extremes, like in any art form, when sincerely motivated, are most welcome.
March 9, 2011
Family holidays should be celebrated. It’s often those memories that are the most precious. On holiday the whole family is together, enjoying themselves and getting along, seeing new sights and taking part in new and exciting activities. They are the times we look forward to more than any other and the times we remember most fondly when they’ve passed.
Personalised caricatures are a great way of recording a holiday. A photo will only show one moment (and one person will almost always be behind the camera, not taking part in the fun) but cartoons and caricatures can capture all the best bits of the whole holiday and combine them into one picture.
Perhaps the youngest son found a crab in a rockpool while the eldest took a windsurfing lesson. If you ask mum, the highlight of the holiday might have been the fancy restaurant dinner on the last night, while dad could have preferred reading the paper in his deck chair and having a relaxed snooze in the sun. All those elements and many more can be combined into a single picture through the magic of personalised caricatures.
We love creating family caricatures from holiday pictures and the stories that go along with them. The process is a lot of fun for us and at the end, you’ll get the perfect record of all your favourite holiday moments. Being able to put that special cartoon on the wall will make sure nobody in the family can forget what a great time they had together.
November 15, 2010
Personalised caricatures will mean much more to a person than yet another bottle of perfume or T-shirt. It is worth considering that your daughter may much prefer custom caricatures of her in a favourite dress with her favourite toys around her. In the same way, your wife might enjoy receiving a present which is less predictable. While it can be nice to know what you are likely to receive at Christmas and birthdays, having a pleasant surprise once in while can be fantastic.
Choosing caricature cartoons show you have put a lot of thought in to picking the right present, as well as being unique. There is no way anyone else will have custom caricatures as they will be personally tailored to your daughter’s face shape, right down to tiny details such as her favourite dress. These are some things you simply cannot buy in the shops, which can only be found by getting an artist to create impressive personalised caricatures.
Unlike a bottle of perfume, a caricature will not need to be replaced when it runs out. This is a gift that the recipient can cherish for the rest of their lives, as they will always be able to look at it and recall many happy times.
Likewise, as many artists can work from photographs and other details you give them, there is no need to tell the recipient about the picture they are going to receive. This makes cartoons and caricatures the perfect surprise when they tear back the wrapping paper on their birthday.
November 10, 2010
There is a good chance that many of us have seen an artist drawing cartoons and caricatures at a shopping centre or amusement park. Perhaps the person is sitting directly in front of them, or maybe the artist is drawing the caricature from photos. In all these cases it is natural to stop and watch the master at work as he puts the finishing strokes to the caricatures. In history classes, we may even have looked at propaganda posters from the Second World War with caricatures on them.
These days caricatures are even found in magazines and newspapers, so when did this whole phenomenon begin? It seems that they have always been a part of our lives, and the evidence would also seem to suggest this. In fact, they actually date back a few centuries. These pictures were originally introduced by a group of Italian artists called the Carracis. In fact, this is where the word ‘caricature’ actually originates from. They wanted to capture a piece of the subject’s personality while making them laugh.
Just like today, these drawings were also used as a tool to make a comment about politics or other serious issues. By making the issues more simplified more and more people can understand and enjoy them. In the same way, they were also used to mock political figures and to carry hidden meanings. So rather than simply drawing something that was plainly mocking somebody, the cartoons were much more clever with their hidden layers of meaning. It is popular now for people to give caricature gifts on special occasions.
September 23, 2010
Caricature cartoons and personalised caricatures have long been considered as the connoisseur’s choice for bespoke personalised gifts. Indeed, perhaps no other art form is as flexible and diverse; from caricature gifts for loved ones to political cartoons in international newspapers to magazines such as MAD, the art of caricature is ageless and subject to constant transmogrification.
An entire culture and global industry has grown around cartoons and caricatures, with a prestigious International Society of caricature Artists, international expositions and conferences, industry magazines and guides, websites and merchandising all paying homage to the art and history of caricature. Furthermore, there are international awards ceremonies which are dedicated to the recognition of the finest exponents of this amazing art form. Charlie has been an artist since he was a child, and his lifelong passion for artistic impression is now focused on the production of cartoons and caricatures. Therefore if you have always wanted your own caricatures to treasure forever, please look no further than Charlie’s cartoons. Discerning customers from all walks of life have chosen caricature gifts for those whom they love and admire for centuries now, because these portraits just have a certain je ne sais quoi which makes them that little bit special.
The art of caricature constantly reinvents itself and the very nature of its production involves an inherent explosive energy and intellectuality which ensures that a stunning caricature portrait will never go out of fashion. We sincerely hope that you will trust Charlie for all of your caricature needs – as Charlie’s Cartoons are most definitely the connoisseur’s choice.
September 8, 2010
It couldn’t be simpler to order a unique gift for a loved one than it is with Charlie’s Cartoons. The process of creating personalised caricatures is simple yet fascinating and by choosing Charlie for your caricature portraits, you can be sure of a gift unlike any other.
The first step in the process is to get in touch with Charlie by using the ‘order your cartoon’ online form on our website, then simply supply two or three photographs of the subject along with a few anecdotes and details which reflect the subject’s personal history, sense of humour, personal tastes, or achievements . Do not worry if you think you may struggle with this part of the process, because Charlie will be glad to help you by prompting you with questions, making comments and suggestions about the information which will best help him compose the piece.
The next step in the caricature from photos process then subsequently occurs, as within twenty four hours, Charlie will get in contact with you in order to discuss his unique, quirky and innovative suggestion for the composition. This is where the magic of caricature gifts is evident, as well as the artistic vision and imaginative capacity of Charlie. You will be amazed by the fact that, using a relatively small amount of information; a few photographs and stories, a person’s life journey, achievements, personality, loves and passions are all stylishly blended to create a beautiful gift.
For examples of cartoons and caricatures which Charlie has created to celebrate milestones, celebrations, occasions and even simply to reflect the individuality of a loved one, please take a look at the portfolio, which provides an online gallery of Charlie’s work. It is evident that humour, warmth, personality are injected into every Charlie’s Cartoon with a unique twist of style and panache.
Older Posts »
|
|
