Sketching Dubya

[avram]

I’ve been trying to develop a caricature of G.W. Bush. I’ve got a particular cartoon in mind, though as I was scanning these in I realized that a generic Uncle Sam figure would work better than one of Bush. But hey, it’s good practice, and who knows what ideas I might come up with in the future. This pencil sketch on the left was the first one I did, and I think the most successful.

I’ve started to get a feel for the characteristics that make Bush’s face recognizable — he’s got his father’s arrow-like nose, thin lips, and that long distance between his nose and mouth. He’s also got pretty fuzzily-bounded eyebrows, and his eyes are close together. Still, this second pencil sketch on the right looks a bit too much like David Letterman.

I also tried using a brush marker, figuring that being forced to work more broadly might help. I didn’t quite get his hair lines up with the rest of his face, and he looks like Ollie North here.

This last one started out well, but at some point started morphing into — damn, I can’t remember that newscaster’s name. I first thought Sam Donaldson, but no, he’s the one who looks like a Vulcan secret agent. Damn, who the hell am I thinking of? I’ll suddenly remember at 4 AM.

Ah, Tom Brokaw! Google Sets to the rescue! I entered dan rather, sam donaldson, and david brinkley, and Brokaw turned up in the resulting set.

Comments

[volund.livejournal.com]

The first one, upper left, nails it.

The lower right pic, while coming close in some respects, depicts somebody who looks much too thoughtful to be Dubya.