Guide

Caricature Styles: What They Are And Which To Offer At Each Event

By Lucía Ferrer, Product Specialist at PictiaX® · 3 November 2026 · 7 min read

Search for caricature styles and you mostly find lists of drawing techniques. This article is for someone else: the event operator who has a caricature robot, or is thinking about one, and has to decide which styles to offer at a wedding, a Christmas party or a trade show. Every image here comes from PictiaX®: the same face run through the system in each style.

What Caricature Styles Are There?

Three families work at events. The portrait keeps the real proportions of the face and draws it with a clean line. The caricature plays with the features and loosens the line. Themed styles put the guest's face, larger than life, on a small body with a costume and a scene behind it.

Drawing has plenty more techniques, with colour, watercolour or shading. But a robot that draws with a pen works in line, so for an operator only the styles a pen can trace really count.

Which Caricature Styles Does PictiaX® Draw?

Nine come with the system, and the catalogue grows with each version of the portal. All of them keep the guest's face, which is what makes people recognise themselves on paper:

• PictiaX® Portrait: a clean, recognisable line. The one that works at any event.
• Caricature: the same features with a looser line.
• Full Body: head to toe, in the guest's own pose.
• Footballer: kit, ball and the pitch behind.
• Superhero: cape, mid flight, city below.
• Astronaut: spacesuit, rocket and planets.
• Chef: hat, spoon and a full kitchen.
• Skater: board, ramp and graffiti behind.
• Surfer: board, wave and a palm tree.

Here is the same face in each of the nine, exactly as the system draws it:

To watch the robot drawing live, with photos and videos from PBX Europe in Amsterdam, go to the gallery.

Can The Robot Draw A Comic Starring The Guest?

Yes. On top of the portrait styles, the arm draws a four-panel comic with the guest's face in every panel, as recognisable as the portrait. It's drawn on paper with the same pen, and the guest takes it home.

You choose the story: the wedding, the birthday or your brand launch. Here's a wedding example:

A portrait gets looked at. A comic gets shared and retold, and it's what people show off the next day. That's why it works so well at a wedding with a story or on a stand where the brand wants to be talked about. It uses two PICTICOINS per guest, twice a portrait.

What Is The Future Card?

It's a game. The guest types their name and the arm draws their future: the caricature and a line with their name, on the same sheet. The arm writes the name and the prediction with the same pen, not a printer.

There are ten futures, like fortune, travel, love, success or fame, and you switch on the ones that suit each event. It goes on and off event by event: when it's off, the same QR shows the usual kiosk. It runs in English, Spanish, German or Portuguese, one language per event. Here are four cards for the same guest:

It costs the same as a portrait, one PICTICOIN per guest. It imagines, it doesn't predict, which is why it works at any party: switch on love at a wedding and success at a company dinner.

How Do Guests Pick A Style At The Event?

When you create an event in the portal, every style in the catalogue is switched on. If you leave it that way, guests choose from all nine. If you keep only one, everybody gets that one.

The guest scans the QR code, takes the photo with their own phone, picks a style from the ones you switched on and sees a preview on screen. If they don't recognise themselves, they retake it right there, before the robot picks up the pen.

Paper size is set separately, for example 10 × 15 cm. A margin at the bottom holds the logo, the couple's names or the campaign line, and the robot draws the portrait above it.

Which Styles To Switch On For Weddings, Corporate Events And Trade Shows

Switching on all nine at every event makes the choice longer in front of the phone, and nobody at a wedding needs the astronaut. This is what we recommend by event type:

With two or three styles on, guests decide fast and the queue keeps moving. One thing we heard from the field: an operator who ran the system at real events in summer 2026 told us guests ask for caricatures far more often than portraits. If in doubt, keep Caricature on.

How Do You Create Your Own Caricature Style?

If none of the nine fits your client, you write your own in the portal: a name, a description of the theme and, if you want, the background. It could be a greengrocer, a bouncy castle company or a football club.

You can create it at the event if you need to, you don't have to ask anyone for it and there is no extra charge. It stays in your account for that client's next event.

It's what the client notices most: a style built on their theme makes the drawing feel made for their event. What you charge for setting it up is up to you.

Does One Style Cost More Than Another?

No. One PICTICOIN is used each time a new caricature is generated from a new photo, and it covers the face analysis, the line, the style and the brand layer. It starts at €0.10 excl. VAT and goes down with volume. The future card costs the same, one PICTICOIN per guest. The four-panel comic uses two PICTICOINS.

Drawing the same caricature again doesn't use another one: if a drawing comes out wrong, you resend it to the robot from the queue. For 100 guests, PICTICOINS cost you between €12.00 and €17.00 excl. VAT.

The pace is about 60 seconds per portrait, 50 to 60 an hour per arm. When the queue grows you lower the detail and raise the speed, and when it's quiet the detail goes up and the line comes out finer.

What To Check In The Styles Before You Buy A Robot

Ask to see your own face drawn in several styles, on paper and in front of you. Everything looks good on a screen. On paper you see whether the line is continuous or dotted, and whether people still recognise themselves under a costume.

Ask too whether you can create styles yourself or depend on the manufacturer, and whether the style changes what you pay per portrait. The rest of the checklist is on what matters before you buy and in our AI caricature booth guide.

The complete PictiaX® system costs €3,500 excl. VAT, in a single payment: the arm, the software for life, the two bases and 500 portraits included, with a three-year warranty. It's all on the system page, and the numbers of running it alongside a photo booth are in how a second revenue line pays back.

Frequently Asked Questions