On Monday I was in Irish Life in Dublin giving a caricature class as part of a week-long teambuilding programme of fun events for staff. We got lucky with the weather and were able to do it outside, albeit in slightly breezy conditions! I started off with a quick presentation of some of my work, followed by a demonstration of how I draw a live caricature (I have it down to about 3 minutes but that’s taken me about 20 years!) I then gave the participants a handout on what to look for and what to exaggerate when drawing a caricature which I went through with them.
Then the fun began!
I had them sit opposite each other, bearing in mind what I’d demonstrated. They then had to draw the person opposite in the time allocated. The process involved capturing a simple likeness in pencil, then using Big Brush Tip Pitt Pens
to commit the likeness to ink! Pitt pens are great. They have a brush tip which means you can vary the width of the line depending on the pressure you apply.
The standard was really very high, I was very impressed with the results.
I took a couple of shots hoping the breeze would let us see all of them eventually!
They’re good, right? 🙂 And no-one took offence during this teambuilding task!
Things get competitive!
The competition began next. Sean, one of the Irish Life managers, sat for the artists.
The rest of the staff came out to see the progress, ice-creams in hand!
Of course I had a go myself! Myself and Sean then judged the results, giving 1st 2nd and 3rd places. Points were then allocated to each team represented by the winners. These go to a total based on all the other teambuilding events they’re running in there this week. A lot of fun, and nice to get a bit of sun!