Caricature Portrait
Hand it a portrait and it comes back as a caricature that is still unmistakably them — because it only exaggerates what the photograph already had most of, in the order you rank it. Two fields.
We made two examples, from two different photographs: an aquiline nose, and a gap-toothed smile under a head of curls. One face is pushed hard and the other barely at all: the direction of the caricature holds, the strength varies.
The exaggeration follows what the face already had: the aquiline nose grows longer and more hooked rather than wider, and the gap-toothed smile opens wider. You cannot control the strength, and it varies a lot between images. If your top-ranked feature already fills the frame, like very big hair, it has no room to grow: pick one with space around it or crop looser. Also check features you did not name, as they sometimes change too.
Generated for this library
Input
Exaggerate the aquiline nose · the heavy dark brows ·
the deep-set eyes · the high forehead
Drawn as brush and ink with a single wash of colour,
the line varying in weight
Photograph portrait.png (1254 x 1254)
Returned 1 image · 1:1 · a drawing of him
direction held - the nose is longer and more hooked,
not wider; brows heavier, eyes deeper set,
forehead higher
gradient visible - nose hardest, forehead barely
rest hair, parting, expression and age all the
photograph's - but the ears grew, and were
not on the list
likeness unmistakably the same man
words none, in any scriptYou fill in 2 fields — the braced lines at the top. Everything below them is fixed.
- 1What to exaggerate, most prominent first
- 2How it is drawn
Caricature Portrait
What this makes
Hand it a portrait and it comes back as a caricature that is still unmistakably them — because it only exaggerates what the photograph already had most of, in the order you rank it. Two fields.
The whole template, in one piece. The steps below are the entire workflow.
How to use it
- Copy the whole template with the button above.
- Attach the portrait and paste the template in the same message.
- Replace the two FIELDS lines. Rank by how far each feature already departs from an average face, not by how much you want it enlarged.
- Check it against the photograph feature by feature: each one on your list should be further in the direction it already went, and nothing else should have moved.
- If it reads as a generic cartoon, the list named ordinary features — pick the ones a stranger would notice first instead.
- Rank a feature that has room around it. Something already touching the edge of the frame cannot be made bigger, so it gets its prominence from everything else shrinking — which reads as a much milder drawing than you asked for.
What you swap
- What to exaggerate, most prominent first
- the aquiline nose · the heavy dark brows · the deep-set eyes · the high forehead
- How it is drawn
- brush and ink with a single wash of colour, the line varying in weight
Before it runs
- A portrait, attached to the message, with the face clearly visible and lit well enough to read its structure.
- Permission from the person, if it is not you. A caricature is a picture of them and it is unflattering by design, which is a thing to have agreed in advance.
- A ranked list, not a description. The order is the instruction: the first item is pushed hardest and the last barely at all, and that gradient is what keeps it a likeness.
- Features that are actually unusual in the photograph. Exaggerating something average produces a stranger, because the drawing then differs from the person in the one place a viewer is looking.
When to reach for it
When somebody should be drawn rather than photographed: a column head, a leaving card, a programme, a wall of regulars. Templates in this genre ask for an exaggerated caricature and give you a stranger with a big nose — every face pushed toward the same cartoon rather than away from the average in its own direction.
What changes
- One portrait in, one caricature out — drawn, exaggerated, and still recognisably that person.
- Only features the photograph already has more of than average are enlarged, in the order you rank them.
- Everything not on the list is drawn closer to true, which is what makes the exaggerations read.
- The asymmetries are kept and amplified rather than tidied, because they are the cheapest likeness available.
- One drawing, no caption, no signature, no borrowed house style.
Pairs with
- Handmade Collectible FigureHand it a photograph of somebody and it comes back as a small handmade collectible figure of them — you name the few features that have to survive, because a toy face has room for about six. Two fields.
- Studio Portrait PhotoHand it any photograph of somebody and it comes back as a proper studio portrait of them — new light, new background, new styling, and a face that is still theirs down to the features you named. Two fields.
- Stylised Group PortraitHand it a photograph of several people and it comes back as one stylised group portrait — everybody still themselves, because you name what tells each of them apart. Two fields.