Artistic Expression A.J. Jensen opens up on the art of the caricature

By Grace Huseth

If you’ve been to a recent festival in Piedmont Park or at Stone Mountain, you’ve probably seen caricature artist A.J. Jensen at work.

His gift as a cartoonist dovetails neatly into what has become a fulltime business called The Toon Headz, the only official business devoted to caricature art in Atlanta.

According to Jensen, the definition of caricature is morphing a subject using exaggeration while retaining a likeness. Exaggeration can mean stretching and pulling features or even to simplifying them. The main goal of his crazy renditions is to make them humorous, but to all maintain the essence of his subject.

“Understanding likeness is generally based upon someone’s artistic experience,” Jensen said. “The majority of people expect likeness to come from what’s in front of their eye.

Yet, one subject is in a vast realm of having comparisons to millions of shapes, forms or even textures. Identifying theses comparisons allows one to broaden their experience of the humor of caricature.”

Through years of practice, Jensen has learned to be fast – from cracking a few jokes to get genuine smiles to quickly picking up on prominent facial features. Some people are nervous about getting their caricature done in fear that they will turn out ugly or fat, but seeing a caricature allows people to embrace their human side, not their best side.

“I respect everyone who sits down to get a caricature from me. They are putting all of those insecurities on the back burner to laugh. When I show them the drawing and they laugh at it, I know that they lifted themselves and lifted their spirits from not worrying about their looks," Jensen said. Just as caricature art saves people