All content © Ward Jenkins unless otherwise noted.

Drawing a celebrity, no matter how popular, is never an easy task. Trying to find the right balance of likeness and cartoony-caricature, all the while making sure that they like what you’ve drawn, is a tall order.

Well, then, how did I draw Michael Phelps? Scroll down and you’ll see just how difficult the journey was!

All images © Simon and Schuster, Ward Jenkins.

DRAWING MICHAEL PHELPS - HOW DID I DO IT?

PART 1: Getting Started

First thing I did was find images and photos of Michael, which wasn’t a hard thing to do. After his phenomenal Olympics accomplishments in 2008, his face was everywhere! I started sketching off of these photos I found online, just seeing where it would take me.

As you can see above, it was hit or miss. I’m not even close.

PART 2: More research

After many pages of drawing a not-quite-sure Michael, I decided to do more research on the guy and eventually found some great photos of him as he accepted each of his 8 gold medals. I then did a search for other artists’ caricatures of Michael. That way, I could see what features they were exaggerating.

PART 3: Almost there

I think I got him! After finding the right look, I started to play around with it, creating more expressions with these proportions and features. It’s kind of like an actor when he/she gets into character, I keep drawing the guy until I feel that it’s “just right.” Above, notice the different ways I drew his eyes and nose.

PART 4: Getting into character

I still was playing around with this caricature of Michael, making sure that I got the right feel. I know that he’s got a distinctive mouth and jaw, but I didn’t want to take it too far and end up making fun of the guy. Like I said, I had to find the right balance.

PART 5: Showtime!

Okay! I finally got it! At this point, started to draw Michael Phelps, the children’s book character, into the story, to see how he looked. Above, you can see the rough sketches I did of Michael for pages 28-29.

And here are the rough sketches and final pencil line for pages 4-5.

Hope you enjoyed following along on this journey! Now, go out and draw somebody famous!