3D Printing the Royal Family: The Prince Charles Caricature, Grotesque & Unique

Caricatures have been around for centuries. In fact, some of the earliest were created by Leonardo da Vinci who commonly sought out individuals who had deformities, in order to use them for models. Over the years, caricatures have evolved, and have been used most prominently by street artists who make a living drawing exaggerated features on random passers-by and famous celebrities.

Traditionally, caricatures have been limited to 2-dimensional paintings, drawings and other forms of art. However, one 21 year old designer from Porto, Portugal, named Ricardo Alves has taken the classic art form and modernized it through the process of 3D printing. To get started, Alves decided to start off creating 3D caricatures of the entire British Royal Family, and who better to start with than the man with the most intriguing features of them all, Prince Charles.

“He has such distinctive features it was hard to resist,” Alves told 3DPrint.com. “But this particular model was inspired by The Prince Charles character from the 1980’s TV show – ‘Spitting Image’.”

To create the 7cm x 9.5cm x 12cm 3D printed caricature, Alves started out modeling it in Zbrush. “I made it from scratch,” he explained. “I started with a basic sphere, and just sculpted it freehand, pushing/stretching the polygons until I got the desired result.”

And that desired result is both interesting and intriguing to look at. Upon first sight, anyone familiar with the Royal Family would quickly be able to determine that it is a caricature of the one and only Prince Charles.

It was fairly easy for Alves to decide which of Prince Charles’ features he wanted to display most prominently on the caricature. “The big nose of course! And then the “wealthy” looking smile,” Alves told us. “I thought these would be good choices as it identifies him as Prince Charles immediately.”

Once Alves finished modeling the caricature, he decided to 3D print it on his UP! Plus 2 3D printer with 0.2mm layers. After the print was finished, he proceeded to paint it, and now has made the design file available for free download on MyMiniFactory, for anyone with a 3D printer to download, print and paint themselves.

Alves has quite the experience when it comes to character design. He studied Interactive Imagery at Instituto das Artes e da Imagem, and specialized in character design for 3D printing. He moved to London after his studies were complete, and now works for iMakr and MyMiniFactory, creating 3D models full time.

It should be interesting to see how Alves’ other caricatures of the Royal Family end up turning out. Once he completes the Royal Family, Alves tells us he will then create caricatures of other celebrities. “John Travolta maybe! Anyone with particularly exaggerated features usually works great – especially when 3D printing.”

What do you think of this unique caricature? Discuss in the 3D Printed Prince Charles Caricature Forum thread on 3DPB.com.