As you can tell from this lopsided sketch of my Dad, I haven’t had much time to soak up the knowledge contained in Tom Richmond’s “The Mad Art of Caricature,” but hey, it just showed up in my mailbox tonight. On first skim, however, it’s clear that it’s really going to help me step up my game.

Besides being packed with all sorts of caricature drawing theory, it tackles the fundamentals of anatomy–obviously the subject of countless books, but presented here with cartooning specifically in mind. For instance, you might not intend to ever realistically render a caruncula, but its existence should certainly influence the shape of your character’s eye.

Likewise, in eight colorful pages, Richmond manages to impart a ton of useful observations about hands, including why they’re such a challenge to draw, even for pros.

Anyway, I’m hoping to really dive into the book this weekend, so cross your complicated fingers that you’ll witness some improvement on the recognizable caricature front.