Make money with drawing: Caricatures

Believe it or not, a person with mediocre drawing ability, with a little practice, can make money as a caricature artist. I have never made less than $20 an hour doing caricature work... and that was in a less than small town charging $5 a pop... because I was bored. At some other places I have made over $100 an hour. The better you are, the more you can get paid. I know many caricature artists who can regularly make over $100 an hour.

So now that you know you CAN make money, what's a caricature? A caricature is a representation of a person that is exaggerated for comic effect. My personal style tended to make them a very cute comic. Every style is different. Maybe your caricature style won't look like mine... and that's okay. Every art style is different. Even though I can draw I enjoy getting my own caricature sketch done. You might be surprised and come across some new style you can imitate... and make money with.

I have done some caricatures with just ink and paper and others with water color paints. Some I have done completely on the computer, while many I airbrushed. It all depends on what I had on hand and what I was skilled with. Because I liked the smooth computer generated color look I learned how to draw caricatures on computer and also with an airbrush. (Just in case you decide to go the airbrush route- it's lots of fun, but you should work for at least a month with an airbrush before you try to make money using one.)

Here are some places to look at doing caricatures:

Parties (birthdays or company parties. Companies generally pay better)

party supply shops

grand openings

fairs & carnivals

other Local events

amusement parks

Ask the Better Business bureau

Ask the Chamber of Commerce

the local newspaper

These are just some ideas to get you going.

Remember, how much you can make depends on a lot of things. Some of this depends on your location, on your skill, and on your speed. If you live in the middle of nowhere, don't expect to make so much. On the other hand, if you live in a big city or work with some big attractions, then you can charge more. The faster you can pump out high quality work, the more money you can make. At $10 a piece- if you can do 1 every 15 minutes, that's $40 an hour!

If you've never done caricatures before, then you should start. Draw friends and relatives. Draw complete strangers from pictures. Go to your local park and try to give them away for free... just start practicing. Drawing caricatures can be a lucrative income source that shouldn't be overlooked.

As a bonus for you all, I want to offer you an excellent self-study cource on drawing caricatures I have in my Books & Tutorials.