What exactly is a caricature?
[Wikipedia] A caricature can refer to a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness.
A variety of styles exist for caricatures, with each artist adding a bit of themselves to a particular style. Ray has a number of different techniques, which can be requested by the organizer or the subject as illustrated by this website. Aside from traditional caricatures, both digital and hand drawn, Ray has developed his own cubist caricature style dubbed Raycasso. This style is an homage to Pablo Picasso’s lesser known caricature period.
Ray graduated from the prestigious Art Center College of Design as an illustrator, and has won numerous awards for his outstanding drawings and paintings! Ray enjoys drawing children and adults of all ages and takes pride in putting a smile on their faces.
Who is Raycasso?
Ray Harris has drawn over a million drawings! It’s no exaggeration because he worked at Walt Disney as an artist for over twenty years, and took part in the “New Golden Years of Animation” contributing to:
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What do you draw with?
For traditional color caricatures, markers are used. Black and white caricatures can also have charcoal or prisma color to add details. The digital setup consists primarily of a tablet PC, and thus enables a wide variety of techniques, palettes, and brushes. To display the images, Ray has a 40″ display that is connected to the PC. If you have a display (such as a projector) of your own, this can also be used for the event.
Can you work from photographs?
Of course! As one would expect though, the better the photograph, the better the caricature. At a normal event, Ray is able to interact with the subject and use personal characteristics to evoke an element of the subject’s personality in the drawing. When sending in photographs, it becomes important to send in shots that capture these elements for Ray.
Work via photographs is an excellent way to develop avatars for online use. These avatars can be used for a variety of corporate and personal web presences.
How many people can you draw at an event?
This really depends on the style and methods used, but in general Ray can draw between 6 and 10 full color drawings per hour. With black and white images, the numbers go up a bit.
Can you draw more than one person in a picture?
No problem! Multiple people can be used to generate group caricatures and high-quality prints can be given to all the members.
Can we provide the paper you draw on?
Certainly! For traditional caricatures you may provide paper with your logo or name. Ray provides 12″x16″ archival bristol paper, and uses a plastic envelop to protect the drawings. Digital prints are given out onsite and provided on 4″x6″ photo stock. At your request, a corporate logo or other watermark can be easily added to the images.
Who owns the rights to copyright?
For personal use the client make as many copies or products as they like, but Ray retains the copyright and should be contacted for commerical use. He also reserves the right to use the images for advertising and marketing purposes.
What about digital caricatures?
Now Raycasso can be hired for digital caricature presentations. They are like regular caricature events, only much cooler!
Some advantages of digital caricatures are:
- Viewers can watch the caricature drawn on a computer and projected onto a 40″ screen.
- Your name or company logo can be added to the caricature at your request.
- Vivid colors are more readily available with digital caricatures.
- The drawing is printed as a 4″x6″ photo for the guest, which is a perfect size to carry with you from the event.
- Soft copies of the caricature file can be downloaded from a private online gallery to phone, PDA, or computer after the event.
- Once downloaded the guest may use the caricature to make larger prints, t-shirts, coffee mugs, and hunderds of other souveniers.
- The file is yours to enjoy forever as a reminder of the party or event you attended.
What about hand drawn caricatures?
Raycasso draws on 9″ x 12″ bristol board and protects them with a fine plastic sleeve. He draws caricatures typically with markers and some portraits in charcoal. He can change styles and works very quickly. It’s best to allow ten minutes for each drawing. Color generally takes an additional few minutes.
