3 Make funny caricatures using crumpled portraits

Simeon Meinema shows how shooting and printing out some simple face shots can help you see your family and friends in a whole new light…

This is a fun project for all the family – I will show you how to create a playful scene using just printed-out portraits crumpled up into paper balls. We often only view images in the digital world these days, so it is good to get back to handling prints and distorting them in clever and unusual ways.

Similar to the caricatures that you might pay for from a local artist, this project looks to highlight and emphasise certain facial features, but in a humorous way. A cheesy smile, a bulbous nose, an obvious frown… these are the many features you can use to give a character its appeal. Like the emojis you see on social media, there are plenty of expressions to copy and pose. If you are a smaller household, you can still create plenty of characters with the same person, pulling multiple different expressions to build up a group of portraits. All you need is a camera to take photographs of each other, and a printer that will allow you to print in full colour and at least A4 in size. The last part of the project will require you to scan prints using a scanner. Think about areas in the house you want to photograph with your printed paper characters, as you’ll place them in different amusing scenes.

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Digital camera and standard lens Printer Scanner (for extension project) Time: One hour (minimum)

3 Crumple the paper into balls

Next, you want to crumple your print-out into a ball or a mould. Look where the key expression is on the face and try to crumple the paper so that the feature is emphasised. For example, the character I’m using here is pouting, therefore I want to make this part of the print more visible at the front, so that the expression is more apparent.

Try crumpling, folding and pinching various parts of the paper print to create the effect required.

4 Dress the scene

Now that you have all the paper characters set up, you want to put them in various locations around the house. Look for locations where the characters can fit in among similar-sized items. This could be within kitchen cupboards, wardrobes or TV units, for example. Be as open-minded as possible and use multiple characters within the shot. I chose to use a bookshelf where I had to either prop up the paper balls by leaning them on a surface, or crumple them at the bottom so they were able to stand up.