The November 2013 Challenge
The November 2013 Commuter Challenge is to draw (or paint, or sculpt, or photoshop, etc) an extreme caricature a la Ralph Steadman or Gerald Scarfe. You do not have to copy the style of Steadman or Scarfe, but you should make the caricature so extreme that the subject is nearly unrecognizable (or even completely unrecognizable). The subject of the caricature should be a specific person, but it can be anyone: politician, celebrity, fictional character, historical figure, or even yourself, or a friend or family member.
The Results
Ryan Finholm
Brian Raiter
Brian and I started November participating in National Novel Writing Month. Neither of us kept up with our word counts very well throughout the first three-quarters of the month, and I had given up by the final week of November. Giving up on Nanowrimo gave me a little extra time to work on the Commuter Challenge, but I still ended up with an unsteadmanlike submission. The submission is better than my first several attempts, which looked more like creepy fan art. My submission is supposed to be John Linnell and John Flansburg from They Might Be Giants. It’s mostly fountain pen, with a little bit of watercolor for shading. I think my big problem was that with each attempt, I figured I’d start with recognizable faces then add weird flourishes and ink spatters a la Steadman, but when I got around to the spatter and flourish part I lost my nerve. It would be easy to irretrievably ruin an illustration that way, and I couldn’t bring myself to do that.
Brian, on the other hand, stuck to it and won Nanowrimo. Again. So he probably had less time for the CC, yet completely true to the spirit of the challenge, he still came up with that unflattering portrait of John Lennon. Or Grandma Moses? Maybe Ben Franklin.
by RyanF — 1 December 2013 @ 11:48
This is probably my least interesting Commuter Challenge submission of all time. It is definitely the least amount of time I have spent on one. I was scrambling to finish my Nanowrimo novel up until the last day in November, after which I celebrated with some needed relaxing. I created my sketch in the final minutes of the month. After seeing Ryan’s entry, I really wish I had planned ahead and just set aside some time to forget about writing and make a proper submission. I really like drawing.
I wish I could say that my caricature was intended to be of Grandma Moses. If anyone asks, that’s probably what I’m going to tell them.
by Brian — 1 December 2013 @ 22:23