Caricature Masterclass: Nailing Jelly to a Wall

Pinning Down Tricky Likenesses

I’m currently working on a painting of Jack Nicholson as the Joker. The canvas is about 32 inches tall, which is larger than my usual efforts. What you see above represents about three hours of work, after priming the canvas with a purple ground.

A quick Google Image search will present you with countless very bad caricatures of this veteran actor. Nicholson has one of those faces that should be easy to capture. But it isn’t, and I’ll get to why I think this is the case shortly. When he’s covered in prostheses and white make-up he’s even trickier, but I feel like I am capturing him OK in this new piece. It probably helps that, a few weeks ago, I painted him in his role in The Shining (below), so his face is fresh in my mind.

Given that caricaturing certain people can sometimes feel like nailing jelly to a wall, I thought I would talk you through how I approach the really difficult ones.