Magician Derren Brown's Amazing Caricature Paintings. | Cartooning & Illustration Blog: Coghillustration

I am a big fan of illusionist Derren Brown. For those not in the know, he’s a magician / mentalist in the UK with a pretty big following over there. His television series Mind Control has aired in the U.S. on the Sci-Fi Channel.

Derren’s main celebrity is based on his television and stage performances which revolve around a blend of magic, hypnotism and mentalism (or NLP). His shows are very interactive with the audience and great fun. Brown is a bit of a smart-ass and doesn’t take himself too seriously, which I think adds to his appeal.

Brown also likes to do James Randi style exposés on psychics, faith healers and the like (his UK Channel 4 special “Messiah” is amazing). It’s very interesting to me to see how he is able to replicate these so-called paranormal effects using his blend of psychology, misdirection, NLP, hypnosis and other techniques.

But did you know he was a talented caricature artist as well?

I have recently been reading his book Tricks Of The Mind which is fascinating so far. It goes into some of the background on how he does his illusions (to some degree). Right now I am really enjoying his mnemonic techniques for memory enhancement.

In the chapter on memorization techniques, he off-handedly made a mention about his being a caricature artist; this was something I was not aware of. I headed over to his website and sure enough, he had an “Artwork” section which I had assumed was poster art from his performances or something.

Upon entering the portfolio, I was amazed to find that Brown is a very talented caricaturist and painter. While the image I chose to include with this post is a caricature of a lesser-known actor (James Mardsen from the X-Men films), I loved the sense of lighting, exaggeration and detail in this artwork and decided to include it to demonstrate his artistic talents. There are plenty of über-famous celebrities in his full gallery.

At this point in time Brown only paints celebrity caricatures, his reasoning being the caricatured aspect of celebrity — how the public is shown this distorted version of celebrities, filtered through marketing and PR to create a “brand” for the actor. In his mind, it’s a caricature of who the real person actually is.

If you are a fan of Derren Brown but weren’t aware of his painting prowess, be sure to visit his website and check out his art. If you aren’t a fan, you can enjoy Brown’s art without knowing who he is. I would however suggest doing a YouTube search for Derren Brown and checking out some of the television bits he’s done, if you’ve never seen him before.

Personally I am a bit more open to the idea that some of these paranormal talents may in fact be real in some people (I have had some personal experiences that I can’t explain), but I would have to agree with Brown, Randi and the rest of the skeptics that most likely a big percentage of those claming otherworldy skills are either misrepresenting or deluding themselves as to the real cause. Brown’s demonstrations are pretty mind-blowing and present a strong case for mundane explanations. He shows how these so-called paranormal events could in fact be replicated with readily available tools and techniques.

I am a big fan of learning about both sides of any argument, and giving each side it’s time to defend their stance. While I may have a healthy curiosity in the paranormal, I also make sure I spend time with the skeptics and the debunkers. Derren Brown has a clever blend of debunking (by performing the feats himself) while at the same time allowing you to enjoy the effects of “believing” in them — at least for a short while.

by George Coghill -
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