The Face of a Joke on the Body of a Truth

May 15, 2010 3:51 AM

French artist Anthony Geoffrey makes fantastic celebrity caricatures. The site uses flash and is in French but it loads fast and the navigation is simple. The caricatures are in the Portfolio. I particularly enjoyed his Ash from Evil Dead and his House MD. These are not the same as the ones you find in the mall by some poor guy trying to scratch out a living.

A caricature is defined as "a representation, especially pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque effect."

In researching, I learned there exists an International Society of Caricature Artists, as well as a social network for caricaturists. More on caricature history here.

Previously on MeFi.

Note: title is from a quote by Joseph Conrad

posted by bwg (11 comments total)

The Duffy one is spot on...
posted by Chernobyl Bob at 4:09 AM on May 15, 2010

The caricature link (or any of the secondary links) do not work for me in Firefox.
posted by smoke at 4:26 AM on May 15, 2010

smoke: works just fine for me. Are you in the portfolio section?

By the way, I love the Hugh Laurie philtrum depiction. Good stuff.
posted by phunniemee at 4:42 AM on May 15, 2010

That wide-eyed look on Frodo is just a little unsettling. I know Elijah Wood spent just about the entire LOTR trilogy looking like that, it's still unsettling nonetheless.
posted by WalterMitty at 5:09 AM on May 15, 2010

No no no. This guy is clueless. If you're going to lay claim to a caricaturist's insight, you've got to actually be able to correctly identify which features ought to be exaggerated. Otherwise, you're just a wall-eyed portrait artist.

For instance, the Dexter caricature is all wrong. The eyes are too beady and evil looking: what makes Dexter work is Michael C. Hall's expressive and open face. Dexter's "distinctive feature" is the disconnect between an actor very talented at connecting with others and the character who can't connect at all.
posted by anotherpanacea at 5:29 AM on May 15, 2010

These are good in many ways, but as anotherpanacea says, he often chooses features he wants to exaggerate, like chins and jaws, which may or may not fit what needs to be emphasized for each person.

That said, I think the first Hugh Laurie caricature is a dead ringer for The Brain.
posted by maudlin at 6:36 AM on May 15, 2010

I thought the caricatures were pretty mediocre, with garish colors. I prefer, say, Vincent Altamore (even if he leans towards the portrait-y side) or Fernando Vicente.
posted by martinrebas at 6:51 AM on May 15, 2010 [1 favorite]

One of the both energizing and deflating aspects of Internet access is that it makes us aware of how many talented people there are in the world, some of whom are like 20 years old. There is a limited need for caricaturists, so I wouldn't sneer at any of them who do live caricature, at parties or in a mall or on a boardwalk or at a theme park, to make a few bucks. I've seen some who do great finished caricatures who have done event work. See Joe Bluhm for example. I wish I had the guts and the ability to try live drawing. It could be an interesting experience for awhile, and good practice. This guy's work is accomplished, but mostly par for the course for the Kruger influenced European. Maybe a little bug-eyed and glossy on its surfaces for my personal taste to see him as a particularly exceptional caricaturist. Just one more young talented artist I became aware of because he posts on a message board, Dominic Philbert does really impressive work. The textures in his Woody Allen are amazing.
posted by TimTypeZed at 8:04 AM on May 15, 2010 [2 favorites]

For what it's worth, these works seem to be inspired by those of Morchoisne, Mulatier and Ricord (some links NSFW), a trio of caricaturists who were very famous in France in the 70-80s and published best-selling books of caricatures together.
posted by elgilito at 8:46 AM on May 15, 2010

They look like the man went crazy with Photoshop's Distort tool on normal drawings.
posted by Memo at 9:13 AM on May 15, 2010

They look like the man went crazy with Photoshop's Distort tool on normal drawings.

I realize you're being kind of tongue-in-cheek, but I get kind of frustrated by assessments of artistic works as "looks like this guy just took a thing an did photoshop on it". It's so dismissive of the hours that clearly went into the crafting of the final piece.
posted by tuck_nroll at 12:49 PM on May 15, 2010