The Ink Stained Wretch #178 3/26/25

Carson, Body Language, Baseball, and Wondercon!

It's time for another of the egregious, excruciating, and eminently embarrassing epistles that are these newsletters! This week we stay up late to sketch the king of late night, dissect exaggerating the figure in caricature, play ball on starting day, and get ready to Wondercon in Anaheim!...on with the 'Wretch!

Sketch o'the Week: Johnny Carson!

Click here if you are interested in this original sketch.

A received an email from subscriber Stu Miller asking if I had ever drawn the late king of late night Johnny Carson before.

After thinking about it, I released I had not. That was a situation that had to be rectified.

Johnny was the undisputed ruler of late night TV. I remember my parents never missed "The Tonight Show" after the local news, and as an adult I would often watch it as well, although I was a bigger fan of David Letterman. Dave was more irascible and often had some friction with his guests, whereas Johnny was a master of making his guests comfortable and yet milking laughs out of every unforeseen moment while staying eminently likable and approachable. A true legend of entertainment.

The video of me doing this sketch is available at the bottom of this newsletter for Premium subscribers.

Exaggerated Posturing

One of the things I like to talk about when I teach caricature is exaggerating elements of the subject that is not part of the face. Things like posture, body type and body language, gestures... what I call physicality. Those are parts of the person's "presence” that are ripe for exaggeration and can play a big part in capturing that presence.

This week's sketch of Johnny Carson is a great example of that. When delivering his opening monologue for "The Tonight Show", Carson has this way of standing and moving that are an indelible part of his identity. He would put his hands into the pockets of his pants, but keep his suit coat buttoned so the sides of the coat hung over his wrists on each side. Then he would lean sideways and backwards, often rocking back and forth as he told his jokes. He would also remove one hand from his pants pocket and put one finger up to his lips or chin, then gesture open handed to the audience, then look to his band and his side crew as if addressing them. For me, that body movement is so synonymous with him as a performer no caricature of him would be complete without including it. I exaggerated that lean in my sketch. Anyone familiar with Carson and "The Tonight Show" would fail to recognized those moments in the drawing. The great (and late) comedian Tommy Smothers bore more than a passing resemblance to Johnny, and would do a pantomime impression of Carson by mimicking those body movements and facial expressions. No voice, but the mannerisms and movement were all that was needed for anyone to recognize he was doing Johnny.

Recognizing and exaggerating physicality in your caricature subjects can be a powerful tool in describing them. I use this caricature of Slash from "Guns 'n Roses" as an example of how exaggerating elements other than the facial features can still create an instantly recognizable caricature:

"Likeness" plays no part in this caricature since it has no face. However, exaggerating the other elements of Slash's "persona" result in an instantly recognizable image. Yes, the hat and the hair and the mirrored shades are a big part of what makes this work, but his body language here is an important element. I exaggerated the way he has his guitar slung way down low as he leans back to play, and that is caricaturing his physicality.

This caricature of Conan O'Brien really emphasizes his body type in the exaggeration. Conan is a really tall, lanky guy with long legs. The exaggeration of how much of his total height is legs, along with making those legs really thin, is part of what makes this caricature work.

A caricature need not be a full body image for elements of the posture or body type to be a factor. This caricature of Javier Bardem from "No Country for Old Men" is another good example of how physicality can be important to caricaturing "presence":

Bardem doesn't have a particularly thick neck, but in his role as Anton Chigurh in this film he holds himself in this rigid, upright posture that makes his neck seem heavy and thick. I exaggerated that posture by giving him a much thicker neck that seems to slope directly to his shoulders. I would probably not do that if I was drawing him as a different character or just him out of any character. That exaggerated neck helps describe the presence of Anton Chigurh.

The exaggeration of the physicality in this caricature of Iggy Pop needs no explanation:

Obvious body exaggerations like giving Arnold Schwarzenegger big muscles is only a small part of exaggerating physicality. People who stand very square shouldered and erect look different than ones that are slumped over. There is so much more to notice and exaggerate in a subject that just the facial features.

Play Ball!

Tomorrow is Opening Day for Major League Baseball! I've done a lot of illustrations for the Minnesota Twins over the years, but I also did a few spot illustrations for the San Francisco Giants magazine WAY back before I started doing my work using digital color. I ran across these sadly low res images recently. All were done mainly with watercolor and some airbrush or colored pencil touches:

Wonderful Wondercon!

If you are attending Wondercon this weekend in Anaheim CA you'll find me at the National Cartoonists Society booth (#2000), doing the convention thing. Stop by and say hello!

Thank you for being a subscriber! As always, if you liked what you saw please share it with others. Remember I'm always looking for feedback, questions for the mailbag, and suggestions for future Sketch o'the Week subjects. Just reply to this email with any of the above! And always remember... it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide!