Caricature Gifts

Caricature gifts make a big impact and are truly cherished.

Many people like to give commissioned caricature art as gifts for birthdays, weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, retirement parties, etc.

Commissioned caricature art or gift caricature, as we artists call it, is very popular.

Unlike live party caricature, where the artist creates quick caricature drawings onsite as entertainment at a party or event, caricature for gifts or gift caricature is created in the studio from photos or occasionally from a live sitter.

Gift caricature is original fine art created to your order. Because of its nature, higher quality materials are used to produce gift caricature art than for the quick sketch caricatures produced at parties.

It also takes far more time to create a gift caricature, than say a quick drawing at a party or a theme park. So it is reasonable to expect to pay accordingly.

Cost depends on many variables, including the complexity of your project and the amount of lead time. Therefore, fees are generally negotiated on a case by case basis.

Each artist will have preferred media or combinations of media they like to work with. For some it may be pen and ink with water color. Others like chalks and pastels. And many now work digitally.

When commissioning a caricature gift from photographs it is important to have clear, well focused photographs for your artist to work from. Since your artist has never met the subject, his or her only reference is the photographs you make available to him. So, if cousin Kenny is now fifteen years old, but your photographs are five years old ... you get the picture (pun intended:)

Ideally there should be more than one, they should be relatively recent, and shot from different angles, ie., full face, three quarter, and profile.

Locating an Artist to create your Caricature Gift

The best method is to use the services of someone whose work you've seen and like. Word of mouth is also good.

I know of no one who does gift caricature exclusively. But gift caricature occupies a niche between commercial illustration, retail and party work. So you might look to caricature artists in these areas.

Although most party artists, for example, prefer NOT to take on gift caricature commissions, ... they prefer the immediacy of live work, they can often refer you to someone who does want this work. As a live party caricature artist myself, I find time constraints prevent me from taking that business on and giving it the proper attention it deserves.

With today's technology, you are no longer restricted to working with artists from your local geographical area.

In any case, you'll want to see samples of their work, so you can determine if you are happy with their skill level and style. These days many artists have websites containing samples to making the viewing of samples easy.

A Referral from Us

At Faces & Fortunes, we get a fair number of requests to commission caricature gifts, and so we have asked Chicago artist, Marlene Goodman, a gifted artist and illustrator to handle our gift caricature requests for us.

Below is a recent drawing she created for one of my clients. (Please note that the client approved the drawing before it was fully executed:)

The photo inset was placed here to show the artist's likeness of the subject; it is not a part of the actual piece.

Click here to see more of her work for yourself.

And if you'd like to receive a quote from Marlene, click here, then fill out the form on the bottom of the page.

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