digital caricature montage

Client's brief:-
"...5 different theme combine to 1 page..graduation, soccer session, eating.travelling, holding the robot...."

digital caricature of a meditating Indian man

A very long and detailed brief:-
"...1. Caricature Details for my Dad's 75th Birthday.
a. A3 size
b. Dad likes to meditate - so I have provided the pose that he always uses
c. I have provided pictures of my Dad, they are not very sharp and are of low resolution as I had to crop them from group pictures.
d. What the artist needs to remember is that he has to wear a white full sleeve shirt and the white Dhoti (white sarong) with the golden border ( in the pictures please ignore the bags and the lanyard + camera etc - please do NOT include those). Also to remember - there should be 3 thick white lines on his forehead ( each white line should be proportionately as thick as his index finger, with the red big dot in the center of the bottom white line (this is the religious white ash and red kumkum). This dot should be proportionately as big as the tip of his middle finger.
e. He loves his cars - so I have provided them - his first car is the pic called old car, I do not remember the car number, second one was the white herald and its number was MEV 713, His next car was the Fiat - please use a brown color that is shown in the car seat picture - he had a brown fiat and the number was MET 3737. His current car is the Maruthi white colour - I do not know the Car Number.
f. His profession - he is an engineer and throughout his career he worked on building Radars for the Indian Space Research Organization ( ISRO) - for launch of their rockets - this was his passion and even today he talks proudly of this. So I have pictures of Radars and a picture of a rocker launch from ISRO.
g. He worked his entire career in one company called Bharat Electronics Limited - I have provided you with the logo of this company.
h. I have also provided the Calendar for the month of Oct 18th 1938 ( my dad's birthday), it was a Tuesday that he was born.
I. Will be great if you can have a Birthday wish as a title on the A3 paper - saying "Happy 75th Birthday"....."


The client wanted many items and in A3 size.
I proposed to draw it digitally to get the details out.

The sketch alone takes a lot longer than usual.

Inking not any easier.


I don't have a close skin colour for him if I use my colour markers.
No such issue when I paint digitally as I have millions of colours I can choose from.
I added more details to the face, especially his complexion.
Not possible if I do it with colour markers.
Looks like this is the way to go for the future caricature drawing?!

The painting takes the longest, but the outcome is satisfying!


Client's brief:-
"Very good!"

digital caricature montage for wife as birthday gift

This client received the digital caricature of himself doing the Gangnam style, printed on stretched canvas last Novemeber and he loves it, thinking to do something similar for his wife's birthday too.

The brief:-
"... wondering whether we can do something like :

1. ..... as a banker, dressed up, talking to people and counting money
2. ...... on safari holidays watching animals like lions or sharks
3. ...... exercising Yoga
4. ...... together with me, a happy married couple."


Doing the sketches on Sketchbook Pro....


Digital rendering is not any faster than traditional colouring on paper, butI can vary the size of the brushes and zoom in to paint in the details, the outcome is a lot better. More colours to choose from too, versus my limitation of colour markers set I have.


Completed for printing on stretched canvas

Caricature montage for sister

Client's brief:-
"Dear Jit,
I hope you are fine. I've just tried to call you but the connection was very bad. I would like to order a caricature after I've seen what you've done for my friends and that I liked very very much!!!!
This is the work you've done for them.
I would like to do something similar.
I will need the final version by Wednesday next week (December 15). What is aproximately the price? I would like to have it on the A3 format. I am considering two options:
1 Option: one face and a number of places/things
2 Option: 11 faces...
I've prepared a picture similar as Alex did. This is what I thought:


Main theme in the middle:


1)The picture of the girl (photo) lying on the sofa in front of the TV with the book in one hand: she needs to look really happy and very chilled


I have grouped around some pictures with significance
2) The picture of the house needs to be placed into snow covered Mountain View. Pic of mountains just for reference and maybe you put some people on skis there. No faces needed
3) Some geographical places with significance for her: Brandenburger Gate from Berlin, Barcelona (I've taken the dome, but please feel free, to exchange if you want)
4) Right corner: this is a picture of Masada in Israel, it would be great if you could show some people climbing up there, and they need to look very tired. Please put an Israeli flag on top
5) Her Wespa can be put anywhere, maybe she is driving up to Masada?
6) Tango dancers, again just for reference you can choose some different pose as well and could you please put her face in. You can take the same face as on the large view in the middle.
7) Stretch limo, it would be great if you could put it somewhere in NY, e.g. Times Square and have her face look out
8) Beach with some drinks and bottle of Champagne
9) The picture with the green Logo (same as on the work you did for Alex) you can just copy paste and put anywhere..."


The draft done in Powerpoint format, by the client.


Due to the budget constraints, the client cut down the number of caricatures appear in this montage.
Took me quite a long time (during my short holiday) to put everything together.

Caricature theme - Pirates of The Caribbean

An urgent oversea order from Shanghai, China.

This client saw one of my digital caricatures done for his wife's colleague in P&G, and wanted to do something similar.

But, due to the tight timeline of less than 2 days, and the amount of little details to be included in the drawing, I can only do it in colour markers with pen and brush.

Client's draft in Powerpoint format.


Translating the Powerpoint draft into drawing.
This original drawing was scanned into digital copy and send electronically to them for printing in Germany.... Wonder of the current technology......

Caricature montage for Attorney-General Singapore

Another job for Attorney-General Chambers.
Some communication error.
Initially, I thought what they wanted was not to post the brief on this blog, in text form.
In fact, even the captions can't appear on the artwork itself, as they think that these captions were too sensitive.
Above image was the edited version.

Caricature montage

This client saw my work:-
http://www.caricature.com.sg/2008/10/caricature-montage.html
and wanted a similar one for her brother-in-law.
(Didn't realise that I have done so many caricature montages until I search through my blog)
The brief:-
"4 scenarios:

drinking a pine of gusiness
golfing
playing tennis
arsenal fans

suggests to write '50' somewhere but again i leave it to your expertise."


Photos provided are not ideal, but thank goodness that the subject has some distinctive features, which made my job easier.

Caricature montage of Viggo

Client's brief:-
"Hi;
I have attached the sketch I sent you for the one you did for me last year. Unfortunately I can’t find a copy of the original finished product.....

I have gone through the whole concept and I think I have it as I want it. Please find the basic concept with 4 attachments as part of this mail. I have labeled all the scenes from I to IX as I am commenting on each scene below. I have also put numbers next to where I want you to look at the attachment for ‘inspiration’. Obviously the numbers I to IX and 1 to 15 shall not be in on the finished product.

See my comments below.

Scene I:
My brother runs a football academy for kids 10-15 years old. This is meant to show him giving a theory lesson at the academy to the kids. He is teaching the boys tactics. Attachment 1 is the logo for the academy which I want in the drawing. Attachment 2 are samples of the cola my brothers always drinks and I want him seen holding a bottle of TaB while talking.

Scene II:
My brother and his wife often go hiking in the mountain. I want them to be seen in the mountain with back packs on (like the one in attachment G). They recently climbed the mountain in attachment 3 and if you can fit that in it is fine, if not, any mountain will do.

Scene III:
My brother has 3 kids, 2 boys and 1 girl. They used to go on all sorts of sporting holidays in their blue Volkswagen Caravelle (see attachment 4 for sample but colour should be blue). My brother and his wife in front, the three kids in the back. The kids don’t need faces as long as they look like kids with blond hair. I want skis, ski poles, snow boards, footballs and hand balls (same as football only smaller) sticking out of the car (as it did from my boss’ Volvo last year). I want bicycles to be hanging from the back of the car.

Scene IV:
This is supposed to show my father (shirt number 9 with name TÆTT on the back), VIGGO (shirt number 6) and GUNNAR (shirt number 10) standing in a Copthorne Hotel bar (attachment 5) drinking Guiness (attachment 6). The 2 boys (THOMAS with number 4 on the back) and CHRIS with number 7 on the back) are not allowed in to the bar and must stand outside. I leave it to you how to draw this. No faces needed in this scene.

Scene V:
This is the main feature and shows my brother playing football. He is wearing his team’s black and yellow striped shirt with black shorts and yellow socks (attachment 11). Note that there should be a Diadora logo (attachment 7), a club emblem (attachment 8) and two sponsor logos (attachment 9 and 10) on the shirt.

Scene VI:
Here my brother is stealing strawberry jam in my mother’s basement store room. There are two small windows above his head and he was caught when my aunt spotted him from across the street. I have tried to draw some jam glasses and a couple of potato sacks. Strawberry Is JORDBÆR and potato is POTET in Norwegian.

Scene VII:
My brother was central in having this indoor football field made. The idea is to show a man (no face needed) standing in a ladder hammering away to finish this thing. The stadium is called SEAWORKS-HALLEN and there is also a club emblem (attachment 8) on the wall. The building is pictured in attachment 12. Next to the ladder I want included four cans of TaB (as in attachment 2).

Scene VIII:
When in school my brother was very lazy. This is meant to show his school bag with all the books – and home work in it standing outside the entrance door. He could normally not be bothered with bringing it in before he went playing football.

Scene IX:
In his youth my brother served in the UN peace keeping forces in Lebanon. I just want this to be in but no face needed here, a soldier with the hat as in attachment 13 will do and the two flags as in attachment 14 (Lebanon) and 15 (UN).

Attachment A to I are pictures of my brother. In attachment G, H and I you can also see his wife who I would want to be in scene II and III – if possible. You have to judge if you can make the face big enough for her to be seen clearly.

As for the allocation of space I leave that to you but scenes VI, VIII and IX can be done smaller than the rest.

As you can see it is quite a big job but I was very impressed last year so I want to have a go at it again.....

Please find attached a few more photos of my brother. These are from when he was younger. He was 23 in the top one, 19 in the one on the right side below and 14 in the left below. I have found nothing from when he was younger than this, but I think he was around 14-15 when he stole the jam from the food cellar.

I have also realized that I have missed out on one major incident in my basic sketch. If you think it is possible I would like to add one scene. When he was 26 he broke his leg bone pretty badly in a football match. They operated a metal plate on to the leg with 9 bolts. He managed to break this plate by falling over (rumor has it it happened while dancing on a table…) They then had to operate in an even bigger metal piece (36 cm!). He came back on the football field playing with this latter piece in his leg. The attached newspaper article is from this incident. I was hoping that you could draw him dancing on a table in a disco with his crutches over his head. Let me know if you think there will be room enough for an additional scene in the drawing...."


Understanding the brief took me a long time.
The client gave me a long time, which also stressed me a lot.
I know I have this 'big' project which I need to complete.
It was left in my schedule tray, until 3-4 weeks before the due date, I took it out and started working on it.

One problem with this job was that the client has limited numbers of photos of the subject at his young age. Most of the photos provided are quite current. Therefore, you will notice that he looks rather old in some of the scene, whereby he is supposed to look young.

The inking tool is all done in G-pen. The details are just too small for the brush to come into this process.


Come to the colouring stage, usually it shouldn't take up so much of my time.
This one is an exception. Perhaps due to the amount of tiny details.
Did I draw in too much little stuff? :D
No joke, it took me 2 weeks+ to complete this job, but on and off.
Quite a torture to me, psychologically. I seldom spend so much time on 1 job.


One big problem here - I missed out this attachment in the client's email.
He has everything planned out, as previous job.
The feedback from him is that I did not follow what he has requested.
As such, the overall impression of the subject's favourite - soccer, was not shown in this drawing.
The lucky part was that my layout was more or less conincides with what he has drafted out.


No choice. Since it was my mistake, I have to make the necessary amendments.
I scanned this A2 artwork into digital copy, redraw the door and scholbag scene, rearranged the scenarios, shrunk some of them down, and made the soccer theme in the centre of the artwork. Added in the subject's name and age.
Next is to send this for printing into A2 hardcopy.

Upon seeing this revised artworked, the client said:-
"Very good! Fantastic! This is exactly what I want!"

Caricature montage

Client's brief:-
"I would like to have a caricature done of the subject doing his different hobbies (4 of them - see below) but I'm not sure if it's better to have all done in the same piece or 4 different pieces. Please advise.

1. fishing
2. playing mahjong
3. taking a walk @ the forest
4. driving his jaguar with a bluetooth in his ear"


Seems like this type of different themes of a single person on one drawing is getting popular here. I added in a label of "caricature montage" today. Have done quite a number of them and posted up in this blog, but no time to search/look back. I will just add on along the way. Same for those labels like"wedding caricatures", "couple caricatures" etc




I like the fish most in this caricature. This is the satisfaction when drawing comics - you get the message (or sometimes comical effect) conveyed through with the creation of a character + its expression.

Caricatures for Affinity Equity Partners (S) Pte Ltd

Client's brief:-
"I would need to do a caricature with the following requirements:
It traces the life history of a person from age 21 t0 46:
1) Coming from Malaysia as a student on scholarship
2) Graduation from university with top honours
3) First job as an auditor
4) Next job as a banker
5) Becoming a Private Equity specialist – buying companies
6) Retiring as a FORMULA ONE race driver! – racing in a Porsche or Aston martin "




Mainly putting all 6 scenarios into 1 drawing.


This acrylic frame was the client's idea.
Instead of 2 transparent acrylic frame, she wanted a black acrylic at the back.

Can't really show how good it looks in these photos.
But it looks real cool when you see the actual frame.
Hmmmm..... can propose to future interested clients.

Caricatures for Attorney-General Chambers

A gift for this gentleman's retirement.
Another collage/montage style of caricatures, about what he has done.
Promised the client not to put the content of these caricatures online, as they were quite sensitive. In the way, the search engine spiders/robots will not index these sensitive issues.
They will just viewed it as a graphic.

Surprisingly, the pencil sketches were done quite fast, as compared to the job for DBS one.
Perhaps, he has unique features, and I strike it in first round of sketch.
The themes were easy to be drawn, and straight-forward too, unlike the DBS building, percussion drum etc.

Inking was easier too.


So were the colouring part.


Looked especially good when framed up.
The clients were quite excited when they collected this framed artwork.
Their comments were "so cute" and "look so much like him"
Glad to hear that.

Caricatures for DBS

A farewell and retirement gift.Just like the OCBC jobs, another group from DBS came to me, wanted to have a caricature done for this gentleman.
Told them that there's another similar order for the same person.
They dropped the idea. If I wanted more business, shouldn't have told the latter. Hahaha..... Anyway, can't finish in time.


Took a long time sketching this draft, as compared to the inking and colour.
Surprised?
Ya. Need to compose the layout and getting the features right, at this scale.
The paper was A2 size. Sounds large but looking at the amount of details to be included, space for the caricatures were rather limited. Thus, have to pay more attention to the features especially.

Inking and colouring were hard too, given that this was a portrait format. Have to reached the top part when drawing, and yet not crumbling the paper below.

Clearer now with the colours put in.
Mainly to show his lifestyle.
1) Working in DBS, with the DBS building in the background.
2) His hobby - tennis.
3) Another hobby - playing with the percussion drum (this was what the other party had in mine for their order too).
4) always longing to watch "The Spiderman" movie, but didn't have the time. Now enjoying the movie with popcorn in his hand.
5) Leaving for United States for his retirement, with the landmark - Statue of Liberty in the background.

Though it took longer than my usual time to complete such collage/montage style of drawing, but I think the effort I put in was worth it. The outcome was good too! Got satisfaction too.