The goal with this project was deceptively simple: choose an article and create a recognizable caricature of a famous person. I chose Leonard Nimoy as Spock, the article was titled, "Spock Retires?" Because the article was about Nimoy as Spock, I drew him in uniform with some of his props, to help make him more easily recognizable. Retiring and disassociating with the character was something that Nimoy had long been looking forward to, according to the article, so I drew him smiling, which was also in contrast with the character, who never smiled. Lastly, I took a good hard look at Nimoy's most prominent features, his chin, teeth, nose, and of course, the character's famous pointed ears and hand sign and accentuated them, by bringing them to the foreground and making them larger than life. This project seemed simple going in, but it was actually very hard to look at a picture of a person and draw them differently than what I saw. By using a combination of tracing and distortion in Photoshop I was able to bring forward the traits I wanted and create a more whimsical image before turning to my paints.

This illustration was created as part of a class project.

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