This document provides an overview of a unit on caricatures and cartoons. It defines caricature as a rendered image that simplifies or exaggerates a subject's features. Cartoons are typically non-realistic or semi-realistic drawings intended for satire, caricature, or humor. The objectives are to continue understanding facial features and portraiture, and to build skills in character development and cartooning. Students are asked to take notes, complete a practice activity copying cartoon faces and celebrity caricatures, and understand the principles of caricatures.

1. home page
objectives and overview: unit 3
•
•
caricature: a caricature is a
rendered image showing the
features of its subject in a
simplified or exaggerated
way.
cartoon: A cartoon is a form
of two-dimensional illustrated
visual art. While the specific
definition has changed over
time, modern usage refers to
a typically non-realistic or
semi-realistic drawing or
painting intended for satire,
caricature, or humor, or to
the artistic style of such
works. An artist who creates
cartoons is called a
cartoonist.
this project is intended to help you understand how to
continue your understanding of facial features and
portraiture. however, we are now building towards
the idea of character development and cartooning.
1. please take notes on each page  including the
vocab! In the margins of each page
2. please complete the practice activity.
next page

2. caricatures
An Article about Al Hirschfield:
Albert "Al" Hirschfeld (June 21, 1903 – January 20, 2003) was an American caricaturist best known for
his black and white portraits of celebrities and Broadway stars.. In 1924, Al Hirschfeld traveled to Paris
and London, where he studied painting, drawing and sculpture. When he returned to the United States,
a friend, fabled Broadway press agent, Richard Maney, showed one of Hirschfeld's drawings to an
editor at the New York Herald Tribune, which got Hirschfeld commissions for that newspaper and then,
later, The New York Times.
•
caricature: a caricature is a
rendered image showing the
features of its subject in a
simplified or exaggerated
way.
•
cartoon: A cartoon is a form
of two-dimensional illustrated
visual art. While the specific
definition has changed over
time, modern usage refers to
a typically non-realistic or
semi-realistic drawing or
painting intended for
satire, caricature, or
humor, or to the artistic style
of such works. An artist who
creates cartoons is called a
cartoonist.
Hirschfeld's style is unique, and he is considered to be one of the most important figures in
contemporary drawing and caricature, having influenced countless artists, illustrators, and cartoonists.
His caricatures are almost always drawings of pure line in black ink, into which Hirschfeld dipped not a
pen but a genuine crow’s quill.
Hirschfeld’s 1999 portrait of Liza Minnelli is an example of Hirschfeld’s work in color. It is also a fine
example of how Hirschfeld achieved what he often sought: to capture a perfect likeness using a
minimum number of lines. Hirschfeld achieved the uncanny likeness to Minnelli’s stance with only one
line; Hirschfeld’s pen never left the page.
Hirschfeld himself found nothing interesting about caricatures that exaggerate and distort its subjects'
faces. In fact Hirschfeld eschewed the designation of caricaturist altogether, calling himself a “characterist” instead. Nonetheless he did face some complaints from his editors over the years; in a late-1990s
interview with The Comics Journal Hirschfeld recounted how one editor told him his drawings of
Broadway's "beautiful people" looked like "a bunch of animals".
From Al Hirschfield Biography: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Hirschfield

3. development of
caricatures
History of Caricatures
•
•
•
•
caricature: a caricature is a
rendered image showing the
features of its subject in a
simplified or exaggerated
way.
cartoon: A cartoon is a form
of two-dimensional illustrated
visual art. While the specific
definition has changed over
time, modern usage refers to
a typically non-realistic or
semi-realistic drawing or
painting intended for satire,
caricature, or humor, or to
the artistic style of such
works. An artist who creates
cartoons is called a
cartoonist.
The word "caricature" essentially means a "loaded portrait".
According to School of Visual Arts caricature instructor Sam Viviano,
the term refers only to depictions of real-life people, and not to
cartoon fabrications of fictional characters. Walt Disney, on the other
hand, equated his animation to caricature, saying the hardest thing
to do was find the caricature of an animal that worked best as a
human-like character.[
Some of the earliest caricatures are found in the works of Leonardo
da Vinci, who actively sought people with deformities to use as
models. The point was to offer an impression of the original which
was more striking than a portrait.
•
Caricature experienced its first successes in the closed aristocratic
circles of France and Italy, where such portraits could be passed
about for mutual enjoyment.
•
While the first book on caricature drawing to be published in England
was Mary Darly's A Book of Caricaturas (c. 1762), the first known
North American caricatures were drawn in 1759 during the battle for
Quebec.
•
In a lecture titled The History and Art of Caricature (September 2007,
Queen Mary 2 Lecture theatre), the British caricaturist Ted Harrison
said that the caricaturist can choose to either mock or wound the
subject with an effective caricature.
•
Drawing caricatures can simply be a form of entertainment and
amusement – in which case gentle mockery is in order – or the art
can be employed to make a serious social or political point.

4. why is it important?
understanding the principles of caricatures
Practice Drawing
1. First copy at least fifteen of the cartoon faces.
2. Then copy one of the “celebrity caricatures.”
•
caricature: a caricature is a
rendered image showing the
features of its subject in a
simplified or exaggerated
way.
•
cartoon: A cartoon is a form
of two-dimensional illustrated
visual art. While the specific
definition has changed over
time, modern usage refers to
a typically non-realistic or
semi-realistic drawing or
painting intended for satire,
caricature, or humor, or to
the artistic style of such
works. An artist who creates
cartoons is called a
cartoonist.