Freddie Mercury of Queen would have been 67 today. He is still missed by many, including me.
Two weeks ago, he was the subject for Traditional Caricature Art Contest on Facebook. The only rule is that artists may not use digital media. It was the week I was drawing on the boardwalk, so on one early afternoon before it got busy, I did a little marker drawing with the implements shown. My entry got a healthy number of likes, but the one I was really enthralled with belonged to an artist from Spain, Joaquin Aldeguer. It' s a little gem. Most artists chose to depict Freddie in the mustache phase of his career (early to mid 80's), but Joaquin nailed his mid 70's glam image.
In my humble opinion, even though Freddie seems like he should be easy to caricature, what with the crooked teeth/overbite, iconic mustache, aquiline nose, exotic eyes, and interesting head shape, he really is not. The main problem I saw was that so many entries went overboard on beefing him up, because he was such a compelling presence on stage. Very few entries (again, IMHO) caught his essence...that of a campy yet elegant, slender, charismatic powerhouse of a singer. (those links go to other drawings I found amazing :-)
I really like drawing him because his face is so intriguing. Here are a few of my not-always-caricature (and not-always-successful) attempts:
Above: This was the start of my ink sketch. you can still see the pencil lines.
Below: If you check out my Vines, there are several starring Freddie.
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