When I started this whole thing I was pretty worried about how much extra work this whole sale process would be.  I’ve never created any kind of CD course for purchase before, and there has been some issues getting the people the course as quickly as possible.  I had planned for the course to take up to 3 weeks to be delivered, so in most cases we should hit that mark, but there are a few people overseas I know who are going to have to wait an extra week.

I was absolutely stunned with how many orders came in to this course, but the downside of that is that it was just so much work dealing with all those orders and I wasn’t able to get the courses in the mail as quickly as I would have liked.   So, I just wanted to ask you to please bear with me here while I get all of the orders out the door.

Although I’d like to think I’m Superman, really I’m just one guy trying to help the world enjoy art a little bit more, and I’m doing the best I can to get you your course as soon as humanly possible.

Anyone who has ordered on June 29th or 30th – your course is in the mail today.

All other orders will be processed today and in the mail tomorrow.

Thanks for your support and patience.

Mitch

Just a quick note that you can get your very own copy of the Caricature Secrets course right now.  I’ve been taking orders for a few hours now, and while it is selling fast as I write this there is still an opportunity to be one of the first 100 people to get the course and get the opportunity to get free coaching from me.

Click Here to Order Caricature Secrets

It’s been a hectic last few days, and I’m going to take this opportunity to get to bed before midnight!

Speak soon!

Mitch

I will however tell you a bit more about what’s included in the course because there is one special bonus that is only going to be available to the first 100 buyers of the course, so if you want it, you’re going to have to be quick…

Because this bonus involves personal training from me I have to limit the total number of people that will get this particular bonus. Even though I can’t help absolutely everyone I thought it was a good way to let those people who need a little bit of extra assistance get some personal coaching at no extra cost to them.  Once the first 100 copies are sold I will be removing this bonus from the course.

More information about this bonus click on the image below to check a quick video that I may show you exactly what you’re going to get if you’re one of the lucky 100 to get the personal training bonus. There’s also some very useful tips in the second part of the video that you won’t want to miss.

COURSE UPDATE:

We’re only about 24 hours countdown from the course going live for sale and I can literally feel the clock ticking over my head as I’m wrapping up a lot of little details to make sure everything goes as smooth as possible.

Just one last reminder that I am only going to be selling 300 copies total of the course at this low, low price and the course is going to be on sale for just two weeks before I pull it off the market so that I can take a breather from being your Drawing Coach and focus on enjoying the summer and my regular 9-5 job.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day to be sure!  Set your watches for 6pm Pacific.

Cheers!

You probably never heard someone say to you that you’re making life hard on yourself with the way that you’re drawing, but there is actually a lot of truth in that statement and it applies to so many people that are struggling with drawing the face. So what can you do about that?

The answer is that you can do things smarter and take the easy way by simplifying the features that you want to draw. This applies to absolutely everything involved with the face: eyes, nose, ears, hair, mouth it’s all the same — there is an easier way to draw all of these.

This way of thinking is not really unique as it applies to all aspects of life matter what you would like to do. There’s really an easy and the hard way with everything, unfortunately most of us are led to believe that the only way to become successful at anything is through a time of hard work and putting in time, but to me that doesn’t sound very smart at all and am always looking for a way to simplify everything in my life.

You can also take the easy road when it comes to learning how to draw the features of the face. Instead of punishing yourself or try to draw everything perfect, why not look at what you’re trying to draw and then ask yourself this question:

What is the very simplest way
that I can draw this part of the face?

Let me explain a little bit about what I mean without question. When I say “simplest way” I really mean what is the absolute bare minimum amount of pencil strokes that you can put on the page that will give you a representation of whatever you’re trying to draw and still have it look like that object or feature of the face.

Once you determine how to draw the feature in its most simple terms will help unlock an amazing potential in yourself. Your drawings look better because they are easier, we’ll have more confidence because you’ll know exactly what to draw because you won’t be concerned with all the fine little details, your skills will improve more quickly because you’ll enjoy drawing a lot more, you’ll become increasingly familiar with the face in a very short amount of time because you’re just focusing on the basics and this will give you a chance to train your eye to notice some of the more important elements of the face like establishing personality and drawing expressions and likeness.

You’re an artist, and I know that words can only go so far, so please take a look at the three features below and see how I have simplify each of them into the most basic parts.

Don’t feel bad if you’ve never drawn the features of the face this way. Most of the drawing books and teaching materials out there really gloss over this simple yet extremely important idea of simplifying things first to build confidence. With confidence comes enjoyment and would enjoyment comes experience and experience comes mastery — this is the way to become successful at anything.

Announcement:

As many of you already know, the course is going live on Moday at 6pm Pacific time.  If you’re on the East Coast – that’s 9PM Eastern.  The course is generating a lot of buzz lately, and my email box has been getting flooded the last few days since I realeased the sneak peak and photo of the course.  Thanks to everyone that has emailed with kind remarks!

While all the attention is great, it’s also making me a little nervous.  I’m just a one man operation, and I want to make sure that I can handle all of the orders in a timely fashion and address any problems that may arise during the sale.

It’s because of this that I’m going to limit this sale to just 300 copies of the course over the a period of 2 weeks.  Once all of the copies are sold or the 2 weeks is up I will be taking the course off the market.

There’s one other HUGE reason that I need to keep things limited, and I’ll fill you in on that in a future post.  To give you a hint – for those people who are first in line (like the people on the mailing list below) there’s going to be a chance to get some real hands on personalized training from me.

Best wishes for your Artistic Success!

Mitch

Hot off the Presses - the first Caricature Secrets Course!

This course has been a long time coming – I’ve been working on it for over a year now, and it’s finally almost time to put it in  your hands on Monday at 6pm Pacific time.

Limited Availability.

The head is broken up into 5 basic components and each and every one of them is important.  The parts of the head that you need to focus on and pay attention to are:  The nose, the eyes, the mouth, the hair and the general shape of the head.  Notice that I didn’t include ears in this list, and to be sure there are some wacky looking ears out there, but for the most part an ear is an ear, and unless the person you are drawing has something especially strange going on in the ear department, you’ll be fine with just concentrating with the five categories I listed above.

What you are going to need to do, and in the course you will learn a whole lot more about this, is first of all know how to draw these parts of the head – and they’re not that hard, but once you know how to draw their basic shape and placement on the face in relation to each other, you really need to tailor the details to that specific person.

Have you heard of this book called ‘Blink’ by Malcolm Gladwell?  It’s a book about human nature and to put it in a nutshell it’s all about trusting your first instinct, like when you see someone for the first time, you immediately, either consciously or subconsciously form some kind of opinion about that person.  The same holds true for almost everything in life.  There’s this quick judgment that happens in just seconds, and to a point this is the first place to start with your caricatures.  When you first look at the person’s face that you want to draw, what strikes you first?

This process happens so fast that you may not even realize what is happening.  Take a second and look at the following faces and see what kind of thought comes immediately in your head about this person.  You can have an opinion about the features, such as ‘Wow, that’s a HUGE nose on that guy,’ or ‘She has very kind eyes,’ or ‘He looks like trouble.’  What you are looking for is your quick ‘gut feeling’ for that person – something about their face that almost immediately jumps out at you.  Try looking at the next 4 faces and see what you notice in the first 3 seconds of looking at each face… And if you don’t happen to see anything – well don’t worry about that, there’s a lot more you can notice about a face beyond what happens in the first 3 seconds.  Ready?  Go…

Were you able to notice something about these faces?  Did you notice a particular feature, or did you find yourself having some kind of emotional reaction to the person?  These are really good things to notice, because chances are that other people will notice the same thing about that particular person, and when you are able to bring out those characteristics in your drawing you will be a whole lot closer to getting the likeness that you are going for.

Practice noticing what your quick reaction is to things in your everyday life.  There’s literally thousands of situations where you can train up this skill like when meeting new people, selecting a restaurant, ordering food a la carte, watching movies, looking at magazines, furniture shopping, buying a car, grocery shopping.  Start taking an extra second to realize what your initial reactions are to these moments in life.

So once you have some idea of the feeling of the person then you can start into the details.  In the course you will learn how to draw the details of the face so easily that you’ll literally amaze yourself at how well you can draw, but once you know how to draw these features the easy way you’re still going to need to start developing a more trained eye for evaluating the people around you.

Let’s take a look at some examples of different eyes and point out the differences between them.

Can you understand this idea now that even though you will be drawing the same features of the face, that these features come in all different shapes and sizes and that they are all unique to the face that you are drawing.  This is one of the essential keys to getting a good likeness in your drawing.

Anyone can draw an eye, but it takes a bit more skill to draw an eye that looks like the person you are trying to draw.  In the course you will go over many, many different examples and you’ll learn how to quickly see exactly what you should be exaggerating and focusing on to create a good likeness.

Awesome update and announcement coming tomorrow afternoon – look for it in your email if you have signed up for the insider’s newsletter below.

I have just loaded a quick one minute Sneak Preview of the Caricature Secrets course.  You can watch this preview video right now here:

Watch the Sneak Peak Video HERE

On another note, I have been getting lots and lots of questions and comments about Caricature Secrets.  In the next few days I will be sending more information to answer those questions.  The top three questions/concerns are:

QUESTION: How do you create a caricature that will resemble the person?

SHORT ANSWER: There are 5 key elements to the face, and if you get these right then there will be no doubt that the person you are drawing will be instantly recognizable.  Be sure to check out the latest blog post here: 

QUESTION: How do you draw the features of the face like the eyes, nose, mouth, hair and ears?

SHORT ANSWER: There are tricks to drawing all of these features really easily and the course will cover each feature in depth, giving you the inside knowledge that you need to draw any face with confidence.

CONCERN: How to choose what to exaggerate?

SHORT ANSWER: You will learn how to break down the face into its key parts, and look at each one in relation to the other to find which feature you should focus on for exaggeration.  Once you know this then you will have the tools that you need to pinpoint exactly what you should exaggerate and how to exaggerate those features.

Of course, the “short answers” above are just that – short answers.  I will be filling you in on all of these questions/concerns in the coming days.

Happy Drawing!

- Mitch

PS – You can leave a comment for me below and let me know what you think!

…but the more I thought about these questions I began to realize that there was a bigger problem that needed attention.  

Have you ever looked at someone else’s drawing and thought that they must be so lucky to have been born with such a natural artistic ability?  I mean, it doesn’t seem fair that art comes so easy for some people while it is so hard for you.  

It wasn’t so long ago that I had those exact same thoughts.  I wanted to be one of those people who could easily draw anything they wanted to.  I felt that if only I had been born with more talent that things would be so much easier for me.  But…

The more I drew and studied drawing and other artists, not only was I able to become a successful artist myself, I also came to realize that this whole idea of being born with natural talent is one of the biggest things that was holding me back for years and years.  

And if you are one of the millions of people who also believes in natural ability, then…

…this idea is likely holding you back as well!

So, to address this issue directly I’ve prepared a special 12 page report all about the truth behind natural ability, the secrets of those who ’seem’ to have natural ability, and how everyone (and their mother!) can learn to draw and be successful at it.  

The secrets revealed in this special report could literally make all the difference in you ability as an artist, and I’m happy to give it away to you for free when you sign up for the First in Line list below to receive the insider information for the Caricature Secrets Course.

Sign up below to learn how you can break free of this old myth

and unlock the hidden talent that has always been inside of you.

Standard and Caricature Proportions

One thing that you will need to consider in your caricature drawings is the proportions of your caricature’s head. The above image shows the breakdown of a ’standard’ male head on the left and a caricatured head on the right.  Don’t worry if you are not totally familiar with standard human head proportions… give yourself a little test here:  

Can you spot the differences between the two heads without having them pointed out for you? 

Well for starters obviously one head looks a lot more cartoony, but that is a style difference.  You should look at the different parts of the head and how they relate to each other.  You will learn a lot about this in the full course, but for starters look at the following areas:

• How do the heads compare in width?
• Are the noses the same size? 
• What is the height of the chin?
• Where is the ear placed in relation to the shape of the whole head? 
• What other differences can you see?  

Let’s Review the Proportions of a ‘Standard’ Head

Now that you’ve spotted the differences, let’s look one more time at the ’standard’ head and see how we can break it down into different parts. Notice the large circle that is drawn inside the head and also the lines to the left of the head. This circle forms the base of the head and is divided into 4 equal parts by drawing a line straight down the middle and straight across. 

If you look at the lines to the left, you can count and see that the circle is divided up into 8 equal parts from top to bottom. Now, because the head is not a perfect circle, we need to add 2 more equal parts to the lower part of the head for the chin, giving us a total of 10 equal parts that make up the height of the head.  

If you take those 10 parts and divide them in the middle at the 5th section you can find the marker where you should draw the eyes. If you then move down 2 more parts you can get the marker for the bottom of the nose.  Move down one more part and you get the Mouth.  Those are the markers where you can draw in the main features of the face (the eyes, nose, and mouth) so that they will look correct in relation to each other and to the head.

How to Place the Ear on a Standard Head

When the circle guide was drawn and divided into 4 equal parts you will have marked the middle of the circle very accurately.  This center point is useful because just below the middle and just to the left is where you can draw your ear.  The ear is attached to the head roughly at the same point where the eye is, and then curves up to the brow line, and then finally curves down to approximately the line that defines the base of the nose. Following these simple guides will give you a fairly realistic ear. 

Now that you have had a quick refresher of the proportions of the standard head, take a look again at the caricature head and see what differences you can notice and now things have been squashed, stretched, or placed in a different location.  

Want More Tips?

All of these proportions will be covered in detail in the course, but if you are interested in a free sneak-peak video right away, sign up below to get access to the behind the scenes info only for First-in-Line subscribers:

Drawing caricatures isn’t that different than many other things in life in that if you take a complex thing and begin to break it down into its basic elements, it suddenly becomes manageable and easy to understand.  Let me show you a clearer example of what I am talking about here so you can start to visualize this in your head  I promise this will be much easier than you could ever dream it would be.

 
The real heart of any caricature is all about the face and naturally this is where we are going to start. 

First of all you will want to break the face up into its basic parts:  Eyes, Nose, Mouth, Jaw, Forehead and Hair. OK, so Ive listed out the parts of the head, and right about now you’re probably saying, “So what?”

Well, you’re totally right to say that, but just pause for a second and instead of thinking of these things all together as the features of the face, lets just take a look at one item and consider it all by itself, without any relation to the other parts of the head.  Think about just the nose and the different shapes that come together to create it.  OK, so you’re thinking about JUST THE NOSE right?  Stop thinking about the eyes on top of it, and the lips below it and how the nose sits in the middle of the face and then try to come up with a good description of what that nose shape is.  

Really, take a moment and try to come up with a description.

 
How did it go?  For me, I would describe the nose as a series of 3 circles on the bottom of a large rectangle.  Alright, now you’re probably saying, “So what! Get to the Point!” and I hear you! Just stay with me for a sentence or two longer, you just might learn something profound!

Now that youre thinking of the nose just all by itself, do you think you could easily draw it?  Forget about the other parts of the face and how they all fit together, right now the only shape in the world that exists for you is the nose.
Alright, the next step is to imagine going through this whole process for each part of the face, looking at them as individual parts instead of as a collection of everything that makes up the face.

Understanding each part of the face on its own is the first step.  This is really the beginning of learning the easiest way you can get started this whole process doesnt have to take long and I’ll personally walk you through each part of the face and how they can all be stretched, squashed and exaggerated to create a stunning caricature even if you have never tried drawing one before  even if you are a complete beginner. 

I hope you got something out of this – In the coming weeks Im going to be blowing the lid off of the easiest and most effective, no-holds-barred way to learn how to draw caricatures ever released.  I know thats a bold claim, but I know youre going to be floored when you see how simple this is once we get down to the real art and science of drawing caricatures.    

If you’re really interested in learning more about caricatures why not join the ‘First in Line’ notification list by entering your name an email address below to get the inside scoop on the easiest way to draw great looking caricatures.