Artist Wouter Tulp Portfolio Reel - Digital Artist & illustrator

Wouter is a Guest Artist in New Caricature Drawing Book by Anthony Geoffroy.

There are people who have to sing, some can't sit still, and they have to dance... Wouter Tulp is someone who just has to draw. In high school his teachers tore out every page of his notebooks that had a drawing on it. (Often caricatures of the teachers...) This didn't keep him from attending the art academy, where he studied illustration. Even there his caricatures were not always appreciated, being considered a low form of art.

After graduating Wouter started his professional career as an illustrator, finally having the chance to freely explore the possibilities in caricature art. Since then his caricatures have been published in many authoritative magazines, on their covers, on books, in commercials and more. Lately Wouters caricature art has been published in the Dutch edition of MAD magazine, for which he is also the cover artist.Wouter's work includes more than just caricatures. Over the years he has made many children's books, editorial illustrations, and recently he is drawn towards animation, creating character designs and visual development art for feature animation films.

Tip 1: When I draw a caricature, I like to give the drawing personality, character. I want to distinguish my drawing from every other drawing I make, and tell a specific story with it. You can compare it with music. If you hear the guitar riff of 'Satisfaction' by the Rolling Stones, you immediately know which song this is... It is like the fingerprint of the song. I want my drawing to be just as clear and recognizable as the Rolling Stones' guitar riff. This can be done in endless ways, for instance by use of color, or lack of it, contrasts, angle, material, highlighting only one area etc. One example: When I was looking at my photo reference for my caricature of Danny Trejo, the thing that stood out for me was the roughness of his face, and personality. I chose a red background, and a rough brush, placing only rough brushstrokes. This treatment was perfect for what I wanted to express in portraying Danny Trejo, and gave the drawing it's visual "riff". The choices I mad derived from the things I noticed studying my reference.

Tip 2: This is a bit more technical advice. When drawing a caricature, try to focus on the big shapes for as long as possible. Postpone putting in details like eyes or wrinkles. If you get the basic shapes really tight, those details will fall into place almost by themselves.

Wouter is available for commissions. Please contact him via the following points of contact.
http://woutertulp.nl 
http://www.woutertulp.blogspot.com 
http://twitter.com/woutertulp