Drawing Real life people as Cartoon Characters

Hmm, it may be helpfull, but I believe, the only way for learning it is to go on a beautiful sunny day, armed with your sketchbook and a couple of pencils, to a busy place, a market, the doorstap of some touristic building... and just draw the people that pass there, it doesn't have to be detailled, but just to learn the essence of the body movements, to learn to see how differend kind of people move and act, to learn to find the right line of action in there body, how does a child moves, how does an old man move...

for realistic portretting you just have to practise, practise and practise, you ask your mom, dad, grandfather, girlfriend, brother, ... to sit before you and you slowly study how theire face looks like and why it looks like that, the bones and muscular structur.

Like eric larson (I believe) once said: "when cinderella laugs, her eyes move, here mouth moves, even her ears"... you need to learn why and how a face works before you can starting to draw it.

Try this book by Lenn Redman. It's older and more experienced than your choice.

Another good choice would be this Bruce Blitz book. There's a section on caricature that's simpler & easier to understand.

Check those two out.

When I try to draw a real person as a cartoon character, it never comes out looking like him/her. I can draw regular "doesn't look like anyone in real life" characters ok, but wen I try to draw someone, it just doesnt work.

Yep, it's difficult alright. Last year I had a bugger of a time turning Tom Cruise into a monkey. First I had to get a handle on drawing Tom Cruise accurately. Then I had to apply his features onto that of a monkey. It's somewhat easier if that person happens to resemble that animal in a way. But if he doesn't then it's much more of an uphill battle. I personally think I did an OK job considering the obstacles I went through.

I guess my advice would be just to keep plugging away at it and don't stop until you get it right. And then keep going until it's better than "right". No matter what, never stop drawing.

(Incidently, I finally got to use this monkey in my latest comic). :cool:

I've actually got a video tutorial all about this topic on my site. It shows how you can look at the real person and choose which features to expand and which to shrink in order to get a fun likeness:
http://www.cartoonsolutions.com/store/catalog/Drawing-Male-Caricatures-Video-Tutorial-p-16523.html

I use Flash to do the drawings in the tutorial, but it really doesn't matter because the principles apply to whatever medium you choose to use.

This reminds me of all those holliwood episodes in looney tunes with all those cartoon versions of actors and stuff with all the impressions.