Artistic Insights
- The AI Threat: While AI-generated caricatures are popular, they rely on data theft and pose significant cybersecurity risks to personal biometrics.
- Windows to the Soul: For a portrait artist, the eyes are the primary tool for revealing the "person beneath the façade".
- Technical Priority: The artist starts with the eyes because all other facial features diminish in importance as you move away from them.
- The Mirror Trap: Humans often dislike photos of themselves because they show reality, whereas we are only accustomed to our reversed mirror images.
- Asymmetry of Self: Because the two hemispheres of the human head are unequal, seeing ourselves "the right way around" in photos can feel "wrong".
- Honest Art: Unlike filtered digital avatars, live caricature relies on raw trust and honesty between the subject and the artist.
“To thee I do commend my watchful soul, Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes.”
William Shakespeare, King Richard III Act V, Sc.3, Line 117
The recent spate of AI-generated caricatures popping up on social media feeds has prompted a lot of people to ask whether my career as a caricaturist is in danger. I don’t believe so.
Artificial Intelligence relies on theft. These AI-generated likenesses might appear to be just a bit of free fun, but there is a huge hidden cost: namely, giving away your personal information and biometrics, almost certainly leaving users open to data and identity theft or misuse, leaving cybersecurity experts very worried. Sadly, most people are only waking up to this threat after having given all their data to these chatbots.
While William Shakespeare almost certainly did not originate the idea that one’s eyes are the key to our identity, he is often credited with it. Given that the prime objective of any portrait artist or caricaturist is to capture the essence of a person, you can only imagine how frequently the modern equivalent of the phrase, “the eyes are the windows to the soul”, is parroted back at me.
Most hackneyed sayings get a lot of use simply because they bear nuggets of truth. A person’s eyes tell us everything the mouth won’t, or can’t, tell us. In seeking to capture the essence of a person, the eyes are the artist’s best ally in revealing the person beneath the façade.
And that’s why, in part, I usually start drawing the eyes first: everything hinges on getting the eyes right. All the other features, as prominent as they are, diminish in importance the further we move away from the eyes.
When I am asked to draw caricatures of people from photographs, I am often sent someone’s favourite photos as reference, which is rarely helpful.
Generally, someone’s favourite photo is the one that looks the least like them!
The only impression some of us have of ourselves is the reverse version we see in the mirror. Since photos show us the right way around, they can often look “wrong” to us if we’re only used to seeing our mirror image.
The reason for this is that the two hemispheres of the human head are not equal. While we’re used to seeing other people the right way around, we are rarely used to looking at ourselves the same way. And the myriad filters on our modern smartphones don’t help the situation – the person we see on our social media feeds rarely reflects reality.
Drawing caricatures in a live situation – on cruise ships, at weddings or at corporate events – can be confronting for people. There’s no hiding behind sunglasses or hats (for the most part) and the finished artwork relies on rapidly-earned trust between the artist and subject. It is, at the very least, honest art, something that AI-generated caricatures can never be.
See more of Steve’s work www.thecartoonfactory.com.au
