Mentions of Honor

Since this was a tough decision, there are several caricatures, that almost got chosen. Here are the 11 Mentions of Honor:

by hakanarslan

by veve

by Markus Krause

by Tonio

by Otilia Bors

by gomebigge

by Xavi

by Tchavdar

by FARTOON NETWORK

by geomateo

by Tonho

The Winner

Our client decided to buy the portrait by Alex Gumà Bondía AKA Alex gb for 300 Euros. Congratulations!

Bonus Prizes

There are a couple of other works among the mentions of honor that our client would be interested in buying. He will contact the artists over the next few days to talk over details

Thanks to everyone who participated. We hope you enjoyed this contest as much as we did.

the toonpool.com staff

If you would like to participate, post your caricatures until April 15, 2011. Simply upload them to toonpool.com as you would do with your other works but be sure to add the tag “portraitpitch”. We will post all contributions in our blog.

There are no restrictions to color, style, or technique. Portraits can be realistic, cartoon-y, colorful, black-and-white, vectorized, crudely hand-drawn, etc..

Our client will buy the picture he likes best for 300 Euros (all of which will go to the artist). If you have any further questions, please contact us.

Please click on the pictures to enlarge.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

RESULTS SO FAR:

]]> http://blog.toonpool.com/contest/draw-me/feed/ 37 http://blog.toonpool.com/interview/my-toon-has-no-nose/ http://blog.toonpool.com/interview/my-toon-has-no-nose/#comments Sat, 13 Nov 2010 10:10:01 +0000 Paul http://blog.toonpool.com/?p=4889 If you have been surfing toonpool.com in the last three months, you probably stumbled upon Freelah’s weird caricatures. Noseless and milky-eyed they always made me think of some alien invasion force – pod people, those aliens from “They Live!”.. you know the kind. Freelah, whose actual name is Fernando Souza lives on the outskirts of Santo André in the metropolitan area of São Paulo. I just had to ask him about those uncanny portraits…

… so, Fernando, what about those alien characters of yours?

I call them “Toonadas”. My main intention is to simplify the image of a person creating an intermediate stage between realism and an extremely iconic toon like the Toonpool Guy. He also has only outlines for eyes and no nose.

I don’t speak Portuguese or Spanish… Does the Toonada pun refer to “nada” as in “nothing”? To the Armada?

It’s not really a pun. In Portuguese the suffix “-ada” is equivalent to “-ed” in English. When I take a picture of a lady, I say that she has been photographed – fotografada. When I turn a lady into a toon, I say she has been “toonada”. That’s the idea.

Oh, OK.. Back to the caricatures: How did you develop this style?

Starting this project I experimented with the features I would draw “realistically” and the ones I would draw in a more abstract cartoon style. My goal was to keep only the essentials in order for the identity to be recognized. In the end I opted for a result that loses a little in terms of sympathy – I admit that.

Still, I think that this result has two things I admire very much in art: it creates questions and divergence of opinions. I’m very happy when one person calls the toonadas “kind of cute” and another one asks me “Urrrgh … What happened to his eyes?” I am fascinated by this ambiguous property of art, a kind of “not being”.

“Not being”?

An example: You compared my caricatures to aliens. You can only do this because you already knew the image of an “alien” – as usually conceived. Another person who has never seen an alien could not make that comparison. In other words: The toonada image is not an exclamation mark, it is a question mark.

The freedom of interpretation transforms the image into a kind of mirror.. Cute or ugly, similar or weird, funny or boring, eyes without pupils or only the outlines of eyes, zombie, alien, chibi, cartoon, caricature …. you decide.

And I think it works. I have received the most different feedbacks. Some people do not even realize they don’t have noses. They only realize this after reading someone else’s comments. I still surprises me. Of course I am still working on perfecting this model.

What kinds of things did you change over time?

At first I was using only flat colors, then I added shading and reflexes. I also drew the head more in proportion to the body, now I draw it larger. Things like that.

How do you decide on whom to do next?

In my “official” blog, I am filling a grid of sorts. I want to cartoonize one person from each country in the world. This is one criterion of choice. The other criterion is to do a mixture of persons I admire, people who have been in the news recently, historical figures, and suggestions from friends. I hope that after a while, the collection of personalities will be as diverse as the world is.

How many countries did you do, so far?

So far I have 39. Since I do not complete the countries in sequence, it will probably take years until I am done. But I have no hurry. I seek only to ensure that I’m having fun while working on it every day.

There are a few other illustrations of yours on toonpool.com. Have you stopped doing those in favor of the toonadas?

I am glad you mention them! Normally I do this kind of work for publicity purposes. These three were made for art contests. I spent so much time using this kind of paintings for “serious” topics like commerce, horror and fantasy art, but I’m still getting used to using them for humor. In fact, I’m currently working on one of those. I have not stopped because I know I need to improve so much.

Thanks for your time!

Paul Hellmich

“Superwahljahr 2009 – der Politikbetrieb braucht einen flotten Strich: In Kooperation mit “toonpool.com” sucht stern.de die schärfsten Politikercartoons. Neben Ruhm und Ehre winken tolle Preise.

Wer zeichnet den schönsten Steinmeier, die stärkste Angie? Zum Superwahljahr 2009 sucht stern.de in Kooperation mit dem weltgrößten Cartoonportal “toonpool.com” die besten Cartoons und politischen Karikaturen. Egal, ob Politiker-Porträts, szenische Motive oder Situationskomik – Hobbyzeichner, Profimaler und Nachwuchscartoonisten sind aufgerufen, ihre Werke ab dem 22. Juni einzureichen, Einsendeschluss ist der 14. August 2009.

Dazu gehen Sie auf die Startseite von www.toonpool.com und laden dort die Werke einfach hoch. Wie das genau funktioniert, ist Schritt für Schritt erklärt.

Aus den Einsendungen trifft eine Jury eine Vorauswahl. Die Jury besteht aus Bernd Pohlenz, Mitbegründer von toonpool.com, sowie Tobias Schülert, Humorredakteur von stern.de. Die ausgewählten Werke werden sowohl auf toonpool.com, stern.de sowie auf den Monitoren des Berliner U-Bahn-Fernsehens zu sehen sein. Die endgültigen Sieger bestimmen die stern.de-User selbst.”

Mehr Informationen, auch zu den Preisen, findet ihr in unserem Forums-Thread

—–

Election year 2009. Politicians from the cartoonists point of view

Election year 2009 – political handling needs a breezy stroke: In cooperation with www.toonpool.com, stern.de is looking for the greatest political cartoon / caricature.  Next to glory and fame some great prizes up for grabs.

Who draws the most beautiful Franz-Walter-Steinmeier, the strongest  Angela Merkel?

In this Election Year stern.de is searching for the best political cartoon / caricature in cooperation with the worldwide biggest Cartoon plattform www.toonpool.com. It doesn´t matter, if it´s a portrait, scenic motives or slapstick – hobby artist, professional artist, young cartoonist talents are all called to join this contest.

You can start to submit your work from June 22nd. Entry deadline is August the 14th 2009.

To do this you, you go to  www.toonpool.com and just upload you work.

From all submissions a Jury will make a preselection. Members of the Jury are Bernd Pohlenz (co-founder of toonpool.com), Tobias Schülert ( Editor of Humour of stern.de). The preselection will be viewable on stern.de, toonpool.com and on Berlins underground television. The final winner will be selected by the stern.de users.

More Informations, also concerning the pizes, you´ll find on our forum right here

—-

Edited
23.04.09, 14:07

—

And here another submission from artist Witch:

—

Another great one! By Xavier Salvador

Carolina’s portrait by Quel:

—

by Hezz

—–

By creative jones

I know it’s not a traditional caricature that’s why I call it a character drawing. I like how it came out.
-David

—

By Ed Hall:

Here is my submission. I hope it’s in keeping with the spirit of the project.

—

Work by Tonio:

—

Coming from Split/Croatia – grand cartoonist zed drew Carolina:

—

Just received by legendary Dario Zapata from Colombia:

—

A Carolina sketch by artist Jesse Ribeiro from Brazil:

—

Artwork by Dario Zapata from Colombia, a visison:

—–

Portrait by famous artist fubu

—

Carolina by marvelous Marcelo Rampazzo, artist from Brazil:

—

THXXX, fubu

————

By ZED

—

Artwork from Romania with love by artist Marian Avramescu:

—

Wonderful portrait coming from Argentina by artist Adrian Palmas:

—–

Entry by Marvelous Menekse from Izmir/Turkey:

—-

another awesome contribution by salnavarro

—

Another wonderful contribution by KARKA