Cartoon drawings are fun. There’s something about cartoons that is magical. At least I think so.
When I was a child, I used to watch cartoons. I remember that sometimes my parents made us watch children movies that had real actors instead of cartoons. How I hated them! I was bored to death and I just wished they could let me watch cartoons instead.
As I grew, so did my love for cartoons. I eventually learned to draw. Although my cartoons drawings aren’t impressive, with time and practice, I have learned to make some good ones (not good enough that somebody would pay for them, unfortunately).
If you’re a beginner, I can suggest to you the following tips.
Start with the form of the whole body. Cartoon drawings are much easier when you have a reference frame and then work up the details from it. Draw a circle for the head, and then a line that will be the body. Four lines will do for the two arms and two legs. If you want to include objects on the scene’s first plane, then outline them as well. You don’t have to include details, for example, you can use a square for a book or a circle and two lines for a table.
When dealing with cartoon drawings, feel free to experiment. Since cartoons aren’t necessarily subject to the laws of physics, then you can create situations, movements, and body parts that defy them. In fact there’s really not much point in being realistic with cartoon drawings.
However, this depends on every person and author. For example, some authorsÂ’ cartoon drawings tent to be realistic, like Archie. Others tend to exaggerate only a little, like Doonesbury, and Peanuts. And finally, some cartoon drawings are out of human proportion, like the Powerpuff girls.
In any case, for your cartoon drawings to look consistent, you have to keep a scale. Realistic cartoon drawings have a scale of 7 heads. That means that the height of a character is 7 times what his head measures. Changing this scale will make the characters less realistic, according to what you want. The bigger or smaller this scale is from 7, the more cartoonish your cartoon drawings will be. For example, the Powerpuff girls scale is about 2, which makes their heads length almost half of their bodies height.
Lastly, making cartoon drawings requires some work from your part. But as you practice and experiment, you will be able to gain more skill and hone a personal style.