News

Chris Wahl’s talent for caricature is literally busting out of its skin

Apr 20 2011

Lou Ferrigno is best known for playing one of his own childhood heroes, the Incredible Hulk, in 1977. When the challenge went out to the illustration community to draw a caricature of Lou Ferrigno, Chris resisted the temptation to depict him as “The Hulk” as he felt that a true depiction of the man would be best achieved without hiding his subject behind all the make up. However if you look beneath the bestial eyebrows and pectoral muscles you can see a deliberate tint of green in homage to this aspect of Lou’s life.

If you google Lou Ferrigno you will see the photo that Chris based this depiction on, but more importantly you’ll appreciate how Chris used all the creative license illustration allows for in order to portray the character of the man more potently than the photograph.

When an illustrator plays to their strengths they get under the skin of the subject and pump up everything that is going on beneath the surface in order to create a deeper sense of character or in this case a more humorous parody than reality affords. As an example of this consider the contortion of the muscles and the face with the composition that crops so close around Lou that he appears to be literally too big to squeeze into a picture. A very apt portrayal of the man who first became Mr Universe at only 21 years old.

And we’re obviously not the only ones who appreciated all this. The caricature was one of 90 entries in this week’s Caricaturama Showdown and was crowned the winner.

If you’d like to know more about the weekly illustration event just click the winner’s banner we’ve placed at the end of this article.

Click here or any image below to see Chris Wahl’s full portfolio.