The Record Newspapers - Hometown News For Orange County, Texas

Micah Enard, 30, has always been drawn to the life of an artist.

The Orange native started drawing when he was about three years old. He would draw on everything from coloring books to the back of his father’s checkbook. As time passed, he loved to go to the local library and check out “how to” books on how to draw eveerything from animals to people.However, he would skip the steps and go to the finished drawing while making up his own journey to reach the final destination.

“I’d have these delusions of grandeur of being this famous Disney animator with my own cartoon series and a theme park named after me,” Enard said of his dreams of becoming like Walt Disney.

However, as an intern at Disney Studios and themeparks, he picked up on caricature art. This type of art is taking someone’s face and infusing their personality into it which has always interested Enard.

“I think caricature art is fun because it doesn’t take itself too seriously, “ he said. “I think it’s okay to laugh at yourself sometimes.”

Over the years, the 2001 Little Cypress-Maurieville High School graduate has gotten to the point where he can’t look at someone without wondering how they would look “cartooned.”

There’s this widespread belief that if someone has their caricature drawn the artist is going to make them look absolutely ridiculous and highlight all of their flaws. It is true caricature is all about exaggeration, but it is meant to entertain not to insult. However on occasion, people will run into an artist who will completely ignore what their subject actually looks like and give them all big horse teeth, a gigantic forehead and a cave man brow. But, this isn’t the case with every caricature artist, according to Enard.

“It’s supposed to be fun and make us laugh at ourselves, not to damage our self esteem,” Enard said.

Enard tells the story of a women whom he was about to draw. But, first she said he had better not make her nose big because she hated her nose. But, her nose was a dominate feature and he felt her nose had character, Besides he thought it went well with the shape of her head. However, he fulfilled her request and in the drawing gave her a nice slim nose when Mother Nature could not.

“Being a caricature artist isn’t a way to just make fun of people, it’s a way to capture someone’s personality in a brief moment,” Enard said. “Everyone’s more then just big chins and beady eyes. “

His 8-year-old niece also asked him about his work and wondered why he drew people with big heads and little bodies. He told her it was caricature art. He further explained caricature is an art form in which you exaggerate a person’s physical traits or personality through a cartoon. She liked cartoons, so for her the explanation would suffice but he often gets asked the same question. His reasoning for such a large head is that it is foremost a portrait, although exaggerated, the face is the most important part of the drawing which gives it dominance over everything else.

“The body is like the whipped cream on top of an already perfect frappuccino, it just finishes off something that was wonderful to begin with, he said with a chuckle. “That is unless your head is already three times the size of your body, which would make my job a whole lot easier.”

Enard often finds himself doing caricatures for people and is usually greeted with the phrase, “That’s amazing. I can’t even draw a stick figure.”

He has heard this phrase countless times, and often thinks if those individuals knew how important drawing a stick figure really is to an artist. When an artist learns how to draw the human anatomy, a figure commonly starts out as a few lines or “sticks” in order to capture the correct proportion and measurement. It is sort of like a road map showing where each limb and gesture should be placed and provide a rather sound foundation for any type of modeling of the human figure. As an artist progresses the need to use the sticks as a guide lessens and almost becomes more instinctual. The point is at least in this artist opinion, “is if you can draw sticks then you can draw anything.”

But, for caricature artists, the hardest people to draw are the “pretty people.” The reason is because it can be difficult to make a funny drawing using someone’s facial features when they are really not that funny.

An exmaple of this is, Beyoncé, a rhythm and blues and pop singer, is one of the hardest people to caricature because if an artist changes any features on her face then she no longer looks like the famous diva. Sometimes an effective caricature isn’t about exaggerating the face at all. Sometimes the life of the drawing comes in the expression of the body language or a particular gesture. In the case of Beyoncé, an effective caricature artist would barely exaggerate her face to maintain likeness of the subject and by contrast exaggerate only her hips and legs but, still be flattering of course, he said.

This isn’t to say that attractive people can’t be cartooned. Angelina Jolie and Tom Cruise have been the successful subjects of caricature artists for several years. But, there are certain features on some people which are often related to their face and are attractive but not overly exaggerated which makes them look pretty but boring to a caricature artist. according to Enard.

With nothing interesting on the face to exaggerate the end result may look more of portrait then a caricature.

“Which is okay, but not fun,” Enard said.”A caricaturist is not a comedian and a skilled artist can caricature anyone. It does help however if you can get them to make a funny face that matches their personality.”

Since graduating from Lamar University with a degree in graphic design, Enard’s life has taken him into different professions. But, mostly in the field for which he has worked hard to achieve.

Micah Enard, 30, of Orange draws caricatures at a wedding.

He has been married for five years and has a four-month-old daughter.

Enard and his wife have worked weddings together. She is a photographer and Enard says he is the “entertainment.” He sets up a table and draws caricatures of the guests. At first he is not as busy, but when people discover the fun, a crowd gathers. Each drawing takes about three to four minutes to complete.

‘It’s so easy,” Enard said.

Enard also does digital carcatures which are hand drawn and then digitally colored.

For more information on booking Enard for a wedding or party or having a caricature done, he can be contacted at 409-549-8704

or by email at [email protected].

Micah Enard, 30, of Orange draws caricatures at a wedding.