What You'll Be CreatingCaricatures
are a fun alternative to traditional portraits. The idea is to
comically exaggerate particular features to create a humorous
representation of that person. Adobe Photoshop's transform, warp, and
liquify features are perfect for creating caricatures from a
photographic portrait. This tutorial is part of a larger set of
instructions found in the Tuts+ course, Fluid Photo Manipulation: Transform, Warp, and Liquify.
Tutorial Assets
This tutorial requires two files. Both are available through the Download Attachment link found with this tutorial. The files you will need are:
A portrait photo. Feel free to use one of your own, or use the same one I used.
A textured background. I created this one using the Adobe Texture Paper Pro extension.
1. Basic Photo Preparation
The
essential technique for creating a caricature is to find elements that
are already naturally pronounced, and exaggerate them to a comical
degree. In our starter photo here, the young man's jaw line is rather
large, and his smile is very prominent. The horn-rimmed glasses are
noticeable and the hairline looks like it's beginning to recede. These
are all aspects of his portrait we can have fun with.
Step 1
The
solid white background of the portrait makes it easy to extract the
figure from the background. Use the selection technique of your choice—I
used the Quick Selection Tool (W) to craft the selection—and then go to Layer > New > Layer Via Copy (Control-J) to create a cutout layer of the man.
Step 2
It's
much easier to work with particular features if they are isolated. So
use the same technique to cut out the following individual elements. The
body and clothing layer should follow the neckline of his shirt.
The head/neck layer should fit nicely inside the neckline of the shirt
Keep the selection large and rough when creating the chin layer—we will make it blend in nicely later.
Keep the mouth layer selection outside the lip area so there's room to blend it in later.
Likewise, keep the selection around the nose rough, with plenty of room to spare.
Keep the selection around the glasses nice and tight, and include the eyes.
Keep the selection tight around the outside contour of the ear, but give yourself room to work with on the inner side.
Step 3
Just
to keep things as flexible as possible, lets transform each layer into a
Smart Object. Grab each layer individually and go to Layer > Smart Objects > Convert to Smart Object.
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