While I am all for student artists of any type learning their craft and temporarily asking for commensurately less in compensation, my philosophy is that the artists themselves (and now I particularly mean caricaturists) should choose their beneficiaries. When I was starting out, I did free caricatures for my children's schools and friends and branched off into paying work from there. That way, one's inexperience is not detracting from the whole profession, since your family and friends know that you are just starting out. The downside to working for next to nothing for real clients is that it causes an expectation that all caricaturists be in that pay range...
That being said, I still post ads on Craigslist and have gotten some gigs from it.
My most recent one is reminding people that summer parties and caricatures go together perfectly!































