The look
- An oversized head on a much smaller body.
- One or two features pushed well past life size while the others shrink.
- A loose, varied ink line with visible speed in it.
- Light color washes laid inside the line rather than blended.
- A blank or minimal background so the exaggeration is not competing.
Where it comes from
The word comes from the Italian caricare, to load or to surcharge, as with exaggerated detail. Britannica dates its first printed use to the mid seventeenth century and its arrival in France to a visiting Italian sculptor and architect in 1665. Tate defines caricature as a painting, or more usually a drawing, in which the features and form have been distorted and exaggerated in order to mock or satirize the subject, a practice with a long history in printed satire. The form has stayed recognizable across centuries because the method is simple: take whatever is already distinctive in a face, push it, and leave everything else plain.
What it suits
- A leaving gift or office farewell card
- Birthday and retirement cards
- Team pages that want headshots with personality
- Printed party favors
How to shoot for it
- Face the camera straight on so both sides of the face can be compared.
- Use flat even light; deep shadows hide the features being exaggerated.
- Smile if you smile, because a caricature pushes expression as well as shape.
- Keep the background empty so the enlarged head has room.
This look is not in Toonsta today. It is described here so you can recognize it; the closest Toonsta styles are listed below.
Related styles
- Retro cartoon filter: A retro cartoon filter flattens your photo into the look of television animation: a heavy black outline, a small set of flat colors filled inside it, and almost no shading.
- Pencil sketch filter: A pencil sketch filter reduces your photo to graphite on paper.
- Comic book filter: A comic book filter gives your photo an inked contour, flat printed color inside it, and dot texture through the mid tones.