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The London CartoonistSimon Ellinas (275)    Simon Ellinas   Cartoons and Caricatures The day I met the Great Britain Olympics teamPosted Monday, August 18, 2008 (1 year 82 days ago.) Viewed 28 times. The current success of Great Britain in the Beijing Olympics reminds me of the time I met Team GB. Amazingly, it is already four years since I was hired to entertain our Olympic athletes by drawing caricatures at the coming home party after the Games in Athens in 2004.It was an exhilarating event held in the toy store, Hamleys, in London. Big names such as Tim Henman, Kelly Holmes and Paula Radcliffe were absent, but I had the honour meeting many of the events top rowers, yachtswomen and Amir Khan, the champion boxing prodigy. 
My research team is still out there trying to hunt down the name of this Olympic runner! Do check back later! 
A group of Olympic rowers towering above me. From left to right: Tom Stallard,Phil Simmons, Jonno Devlin and Christian Cormack. They had HUGE handshakes! 
Rowers, Frances Houghton and Deborah Flood looking as if they could easily make mincemeat of me! 
Gold Medallist yachtswoman (2004 AND 2008!) Sarah Webb 
Olympic boxer Amir Khan meets his match! 
Permalink Comments (0) How to Draw a Complex Group Caricature, Part 1.Posted Saturday, May 03, 2008 (1 year 189 days ago.) Viewed 180 times. I had to delay the completion of this particular blog until after the finished framed caricature was delivered to the client, which I did last Tuesday - he was, of course, delighted. Now, I am happy to reveal the stage by stage method of creating a complex group caricature: The client contacts me and eventually sends me what seems to be hundreds of photos of all the people involved in the caricature . I like to streamline the process, so rather than print out each photo individually, I use Photoshop to crop them all down to the margins of the face and lay them all out together on sheets of A4. This produces 'contact sheets' of all the faces I am going to have to draw. 
I make sure I don't forget who's who by typesetting names in as I go. Then the client sends me a list of each person with details of what they should be doing in the caricature . They often send me their own thumbnail sketch which is always a very handy starting point for any artist . 
Next: to start drawing all those faces!
Permalink Comments (0) How To Draw A Caricature - by A Professional CaricaturistPosted Monday, January 14, 2008 (1 year 299 days ago.) Viewed 1,357 times. I'm de-mystifying my craft now, but you might like to see some of the processes involved in drawing a caricature: Here's the incredibly lovely, talented and shy and retiring Victoria Beckham: The first stage is to LOOK at the basic shapes within the head. Then sketch these down as faithfully as you can. But, bearing in mind that we're looking for a caricature, not a portrait, decide which key features need to be bigger or smaller than normal. Here, we can emphasize the pout and tip of the nose to great effect.  The next stage is a refinement of these quick pencil lines. The eyes become more defined and an idea of where tonal cross hatching will be effective is already indicated:  Then we go into these quick sketchy lines and continue to refine them to a much more finished stage. now we are clear about where the ink has to go.  The first ink stage is mainly outlines and at this stage we pause to check that the likeness is there. It is sometimes the case that what looked good at rough stage just doesn't translate over when it is inked. Ink is such a definite medium that it can rob a drawing of immediacy which it nearly always has as a rough.  Fortunately, I think this one succeeds and we are now ready to add the finishing touches by way of cross hatching which adds depth and brings a face to life. And there we have a finished caricature.  I will often go over this in Photoshop adding colour, but a pure black and white caricature is always satisfying by itself.I now fully expect to have a lot of competition! Get your pencils out and start practising!
Permalink Comments (2) The Meanings of DreamsPosted Thursday, April 26, 2007 (2 years 197 days ago.) Viewed 374 times. Nightmare At Primark!  YOU'RE WALKING down a crowded street and to your horror, you notice people looking at you, laughing. They're pointing at your nether regions and when you look down, you notice that you're wearing nothing but a skimpy sleeveless vest.For a hapless few this is reality, but for most of us it happens only in our night time imaginings. Is this a harmless dream or evidence of a damaged psyche? Certainly, the fact that you are walking may be evidence that you possess a damaged cycle. You should always carry a spare inner tube. In fact, going to bed with a full bicycle repair kit and a bicycle pump can do wonders for your sense of security. Besides which, there is an increased opportunity for fun. If you are truly bothered by this dream, why not try to reverse it? Actually go out for the next few days half-naked. After a few days of nonchalant shopping trips, and not just a few narrow escapes from the police, you will find yourself dreaming of a half-naked multitude giggling fit to bust at you as you walk through them dressed in a double-breasted suit from Burton or a twin set from Dorothy Perkins (depending on your sex or inclination). But just changing the dream scenario has not rid you of that feeling of insecurity. Dreams change subtly as one matures. I used to have the old classic as frequently as repeats of old classics on TV, but I must be feeling more secure, because now, as a man, I occasionally dream of walking into town just wearing striped pyjamas. No socks or slippers. Just pyjamas. If this gradual increase in emotional security is to follow a logical pattern, then the dream scenarios for the average, gradually maturing dreamer are easy to predict. At the age of forty-five, the patient can expect to wear pyjamas and a pair of checked slippers. By fifty-five, the somnolent one will be in pyjamas, slippers and cord dressing gown while puffing a pipe just like one of those terrible drawings from a mail order advert. And so it goes, until the most cocksure dreamer marches through Oxford Street in full nocturnal regalia including nightcap, a hot water bottle and a cup of cocoa. However, is nakedness the only evidence of insecurity in dreams? Naturists must be assaulted by visions of themselves walking down a street fully-clothed. I'm often jerked awake by visions in which I am buying a sports jacket at Primark, OF MY OWN ACCORD! Neckties are a phallic symbol but you dream of bow ties? A vasectomy is on the way. Either that, or a very nasty accident. Page Three Girls dream that they have been turned into the financial pages. Mike Tyson leaves the perspiration-drenched sheets after night visions have turned him into Chris Eubank. A gut-churning drama involving a speck of dust falling onto one of her cakes causes Jane Asher to put a small crease in that perfectly arranged duvet. The nightmare that constantly harasses Sooty and Sweep consists of Matthew Corbett growing long fingernails. John Prescott wakes up in a cold sweat after a dream that he is, in fact, John Prescott. Most people experience the common nightmare of going into an exam without having done any revision. The trouble is that many of them are simply reliving the terrible truth. And, unless it was a bicycle repair exam, no amount of rubber tubing, glue or spanners would be sufficient to rebuild your battered subconscious.
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