Introduction

Bobble head caricatures are cartoon portraits of people depicting large heads and small bodies. This should remind you of those novelty toys often placed on car dashboards, where the head "bobs" or "bobbles" with every movement.

 

In regards to this tutorial, I will not cover basic drawing techniques, but rather just give you the tips and process on making a bobble head caricature. This tutorial will also not depict highly stylized or exaggerated caricatures, but instead, will try to be as accurate as possible to the photo reference. Photo reference for this tutorial is of myself.

1. Start by drawing the head shape.

No need to draw the body just yet. Let's focus on getting that head shape done. It also does not have to be accurate to the photo reference just yet, but do make sure that the angle is correct.

2. Draw the eyes.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul. For my caricature, I am emphasizing the eyes by making them a bit larger than the photo reference. Make sure to properly depict the eye shape. No two eyes are the same so you need to also check for the differences between the two eyes.

3. Draw the eyebrows.

Eyebrows can also make your caricature more accurate to your reference. Make sure to depict the thickness of the eyebrows as well as the shape in your drawing.

4. Draw the nose.

Some caricature artists will actually draw the nose larger depending on how distinguishable the nose is but since we're not doing a stylized or exaggerated caricature, we'll stick to making it as accurate as possible.

5. Add the lower eyelids.

Adding lower eyelids are not really necessary to the caricature, but we're adding it here to match the photo reference. One technique I've learned is to draw the lower eyelids towards the bottom corners of the eyes. Do not draw the eyelids towards the center unless you are drawing an older person.

6. Draw the mouth.

You can exaggerate the mouth size a little in your caricature to depict the width of the smile of your photo reference.

7. Draw the creases at the sides of the mouth.

Since our photo reference has me smiling, let's draw the creases at the sides of the mouth. Try and make it subtle if you're drawing a younger person. Try to avoid drawing the creases all the way through unless you are drawing an older person.

8. Draw the rest of the head.

Do your best to accurately draw the shape of the face. Draw a good depiction of the hair as well. This is also the best time to make corrections to the facial features of your drawing, since once you add the face shape, you will be able to better recognize certain discrepancies and differences from your photo reference.

9. Start drawing the body.

We start with a wireframe or simple shapes (whichever your prefer) as a guide on where to draw the body parts. Since this is a bobble head caricature, make sure the body is smaller than the head. The body shape does not have to be proportioned either. This is the time to break the rules when it comes to anatomy.

10. Draw the details of the body.

You can add more personality to your caricature by adding some props to show a hobby or a trait. In this case, I am drawing myself as an artist, so I have a sketchbook and a pencil with me.

11. Ink and color your drawing in whatever style you choose.

In my case, I am just coloring it in a simple cartoon style.

And with that, we are done! I hope you learned a thing or two from this tutorial. Thanks for reading and happy drawing!