Can you caricaturize animals?

A visit to the Comic Con this weekend made me want to do art. So many different styles and weird pictures to inspire, but at the same time make me tired of my own stuff. I got a sketch of me from Mr. John Kricfalusi. I like watching how different artists work. He took off his glasses and looked very intently at his subjects with the most serious expression. Then he suddenly got a huge smile and started drawing really quickly; he must've found what he wanted to exaggerate in the drawing.

I do like Stimpy but he seems to have lost his arms in a horrible accident. At least he's happy to see me! His pictures were all so funny, and I'm impressed by the speed and artistic confidence (all done with Sharpie, with no timid sketchiness or pencil underdrawings.) I also got an adorable sketch from Kali Fontecchio; look how cute I am with my favorite duck friend!

Since I still have a hard time drawing people, I wondered if animals can be caricatured in the same way. I think of lot of regular caricature has to do with expression, which some animals don't seem to have. Many of them look dignified or majestic all the time, with straight lines for mouths and big dark eyes with no eyebrows. Or they already look funny to us so they seem to be a naturally-occurring caricature.

Animals are turned into cartoons, but that's more of a representation of every member of that species, not a certain individual. Gao Gao is a giant panda at the San Diego Zoo. He's cute like all pandas, but has a tiny ear that I thought might give me something to work with. He also seems to have big paws. Is this a caricature or just a slightly stylized panda? I don't know but at least I made a picture!

Pretty Kitty

A failed color/style test for another picture that I probably will never make that ended up looking like everything I always draw. I thought the pen was waterproof but it turned out not to be. Whoops. Her siamese points also weren't as purple when I mixed the color, which separated as the paint dried. Kind of cool I suppose.