Cartoonist Idol shortlist announced

The Surreal McCoy and Rob Murray, both members of the PCO, which runs the Bloghorn, have made the final in the strip cartoon section of the i newspaper’s “Cartoonist Idol” competition.

They feature alongside strips by Phil Merchant, Trumble & Warr, and Geoff Thompson on pages 26 and 27 of the i today.

The PCO also features heavily in the “pocket” cartoons section: you can see The Surreal McCoy, Bill Stott and Rob Murray on pages 7, 11, and 25 respectively, alongside James Whitworth on page 3 and Peter Allwright on page 21.

You can also see the cartoons online and a comment from the editor here. News of the “landscapes”, or editorial cartoons, is promised for tomorrow’s paper, along with more pocket cartoons. The Bloghorn sends congratulations to all those featuring in the finals.

The Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK’s Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

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Cartoonist talent search continues

Congratulations to Steve Bright, one of our members, who has also made the final of Cartoonist Idol at the i newspaper. Steve provides the delightful shark drawing we use in our masthead here from time-to-time. He will be competing against Ben Jennings, Mark Thatcher, John Kennedy, and Chris Shipton for a job with the paper.

There is also a new set of jokes from the pocket cartoonists we named in yesterday’s post. You can still see the cartoons online, whereas today’s batch can be seen here. The Bloghorn sends congratulations to all those featuring in the finals and encourages you to get to know the best cartoonist folios here.

The Bloghorn is made on behalf of the UK’s Professional Cartoonists’ Organisation

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Cartooning for Kids: Three Books That Can Help You Get Started

Most kids I know love to draw at some point. Some of them love it so much, they go on to create video games, comics, cartoons, and graphic novels. If you are looking for some excellent books on cartooning for kids, here are three that can help you get started.

One of the absolute best overall introductions is Big Book of Cartooning by Bruce Blitz. He starred in a public television show for many years, and I was able as a young adult to learn from his techniques.

The book covers everything from basic cartooning skills, like combining different facial shapes, features, and hairstyles, to make various characters. It also shows how to draw human bodies and add motion to them so they are funny and dynamic, and not just standing still.

He does a great job of introducing cartoon effects and accessories. Those are the kinds of things that make cartoons fun and bring them to life, like the wavy lines coming out of a slice of pizza, to show that it smells good. Or the lines on a puddle of water or a mirror, to show they are reflective. And the most fun of all, those little beads of sweat or action lines, like when someone has just thrown a ball.

There is also a lot of mention on how to create comic strips, including how to lay them out, think up jokes, and do your lettering. For kids who want to try their hand at superhero-type comics, he covers different ways to make your man go from dopey to marvelous, from zero to hero. Also included are various poses you might use, like lifting, taking off, flying, and punching.

This all-inclusive work also has a section on cartoon portraiture or caricature. That way you can draw funny pictures of yourself, friends, family, and teachers, and give those away as gifts. You might even end up selling your work!

Another excellent overview is Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Cartooning but Were Afraid to Draw. The author is a Disney-trained artist, so it's a perfect reference if you like that style. But it too covers everything from expressions and drawing action poses, to comic strip layout.

One particular section I like is how to draw your cartoons from different camera angles, like way down low. That way, if you are trying to draw something from the perspective of a very small character, like a mouse looking up at a person, you can get a great funny look to your work.

Art for Kids: Cartooning: The Only Cartooning Book You'll Ever Need to Be the Artist You've Always Wanted to Be encourages kids to experiment with different techniques to get their own styles. The style is loose and open, so it's easy for kids to follow. There is also information on writing jokes and creating panels.

So if you are interested in cartooning for kids, these three books to help you get started are perfect. You will have three completely different styles to study, and you will have lots of ideas on drawing basics, plus details on how to put everything together into your own cartoon creations. Happy cartooning!

Find more great books for kids
Find more kids cartooning books plus books for reluctant readers and recommendations at http://greatbooksforkids.info

How to Draw Cartoons for Kids - Simple Techniques and Methods

If you love to teach kids or you want to draw for them, learning a few basics on how to draw cartoons for kids can be of good help to allow you to draw effective and appealing cartoons. Children do love cartoons, in fact, it has become a good medium to make them learn easily.

Whether you are a teacher, or someone finding a way to teach your kids in a creative and appealing way, here are a few things that you might find helpful on how to draw cartoons for kids and also pique their interest

Start with basic shapes. Especially if you are drawing with the kids and they are observing your actions, you can make it simpler and easy for them to follow if you start with basic shapes. This will help them associate your drawings to basic shapes that are easy to learn and familiar for kids as well.

Among the easiest ways on how to draw for kids is to use the stick method. By looking at it alone, drawing stick figures is quite easy to learn, for both you and the kids. If you intend to also teach the kids while showing them how to make cartoons, stick figures can be a good method.

Aside from being an easy method to draw cartoons, it is also easy to make a comic strip out of stick figures, thus you can actually tell a story out of it. You can also add more details to your stick figures to make an original character and add attitude to your figures. Although you can leave the stick figure with just the stick body and the head, you can also add clothes, or put in big eyes, hair, as well as some accessories that you may want to add to make your character.

To learn how to draw cartoons for kids, you don't need to make your cartoons look perfect. In fact, professional cartoonists are even making their cartoons look like being drawn by a child.

Another method that you can use in learning how to draw cartoons for kids is to use a combination of sticks and ovals. Of course, you can use ovals for the head, the hands and the feet and use sticks on the body and the arms and legs. You can also use oval for the body as well and use sticks for the arms and legs - there are actually a lot of options.

If you have mastered to draw your character and you have piqued the interests of the kids, you can then move on into learning how you make your cartoons walk, move, run and many other actions that you will use. Keep in mind that there are also techniques being used in making your drawings look like they are moving while keeping their balance.

Although there are just people who are born with such a great talent on drawing, it is not however impossible for someone to learn how to draw. With the use of just sticks or straight lines and ovals, you can already entertain kids with drawings and teach them to learn as well.

For a detailed guide on how to draw cartoons for both kids and adults, check out the guide How To Draw Cartoons. Also check out Creating 3D Cartoons, another great resource to you can use to learn how to create three-dimensional cartoons.

How to Draw Cartoon Characters - The Easy Way

Learning how to draw a cartoon character is like making a picture with your mind. That's it. In the cartoon universe, there are no boundaries, except those imposed by the borders of your mind. Therefore it is extremely easy to draw a cartoon character. It would be best, if you leave all your real world biasness before starting to draw. Just let your imagination flow.

In this guide, we will be exploring how easy drawing a cartoon person can be, be it a male or female, young boy or an old man.

Usually drawing a cartoon person begins with either "ovals' or "sticks". In ovals, the cartoon's main body are made up of different oval sizes. There will be an oval for the head, body, torso, hands and feet.

There make up the outline of the character and all you have to do in finishing the cartoon is to just add in the distinguishing elements such as hair, eyes, ears, nose, mouth, fingers, and finally ending with the clothing on the character. Once that is done, all you have to do is color it.

In sticks, used by beginners, the main body structure of the cartoon character is made up of different length sticks. Generally seen mainly in comics, these "stick men" make the easiest cartoon character you can possibly draw. Just draw an oval for the head and fill in the body, hand and legs with sticks at the right places, and you'll have a cartoon character in no time. The stick method has the added advantage of being close to the actual human body structure and allow for a better representation of poses, when put into the actual storyboard.

These two techniques are used almost by all budding illustrators to begin their adventure into cartoon drawing. Some beginners also use a combination of these two techniques to get the idea that they want in representing the cartoon character.

What's most important is adopting whatever technique you are comfortable with. These techniques, provide the methodology an easy way for your to begin drawing your cartoon characters.

Do you know most beginners find face drawing to be the most difficult part? Learn simple cartoony face drawing techniques from this tutorial and do not forget to check this popular cartoon drawing course.

How to Draw 3D Cartoons - Tips and Techniques

Three-dimensional cartoons are great cartoons to learn these days. Yes, stick figures and simple cartoons are still appealing but if you want to go beyond stick figures, you can also explore and learn how to draw 3D cartoons.

Of course, they are more realistic and in these times, three dimensional cartoons are also the latest. If you want to try your hand on 3D drawing, especially on if you love to draw cartoons.

- Learn from the basic shapes. Spheres, cylinders, pyramids, hexagons and other basic shapes are your foundation in learning how to draw 3D cartoons. Practicing your three-dimensional drawing actually involves parallel lines to create a 3D effect.

- Shading or darkening is another technique that you can use to draw three dimensional cartoons. From a simple sketch of an object, you can actually apply shading to help bring out the 3D effect of your drawing. There are also techniques that you can use to do your shading. One technique is to use parallel lines for your shading, also termed hatching. Aside from parallel lines, you can also add lines crossing your parallel lines to create shading. You can also draw very faint lines to create shading on your drawings as well.

- Learn perspective. To learn how to draw 3D cartoons, it is also important to understand perspective. This is an important element for you to be able to draw in 3D. Learning how to get the perspective of your subject may be difficult at first, but if you are used to looking at something based on its perspective, you will also learn how to draw 3D quite easily. Take note that objects farther from you may appear smaller or shorter than those nearer than you. If you can train your eyes to look at objects in their perspective, you will eventually find it easy to draw in 3D as well.

- Practice with the usual things you see around. You can draw a bottle on top of the table or something that you find easy to draw. You just have to look at the lines and practice drawing it like it appeared in reality.

- Learn and hone your skills through practice. Mistakes are inevitable in any endeavor you want to undertake or skills you want to learn, just continue practicing and learn from your mistakes. Later, you can discover new things, learn new things and you can find it easy to draw in three dimensions.

There are a lot of techniques and tips that you can follow to learn how to draw 3D cartoons. It helps a lot to observe and learn from those who are masters of this skill as well. With constant practice, you can eventually hone your drawing skills and work on your own as well.

For a great resource that you can find helpful in learning how to draw, check out Creating 3D Cartoons Using Layers. Also check out How To Draw Cartoons, where you can easy tips to help you learn how to draw cartoons.

Make A Cartoon With The Best Animation Software

Do you enjoy cartoon animation? I know I do. When I was growing up in the 70's, everyone knew that Saturday was cartoon day. We would sit and watch our favorite characters: Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Elmer Fudd, Tweety Pie...and the list goes on. I was amused for hours by their antics. But I always wondered how they could create these tickle you funny animations.

I even attempted to make my own cartoons with little flip books. I would draw a cannon on one side of the page. And each following page I made the same cannon but with a cannon ball a little further from the mouth of the barrel. On the last page there would be the word boom written in a cloud of smoke. I would amuse myself by watching that cannon ball mysteriously move across the page as I flipped those tiny pages.

That was my first experience with the idea of stop motion animation. That little animation technique would be considered old school for today's budding animation maker. Computer technology has turned child's play into an amazing growing art form. If you have ever dreamed of how to make a cartoon, it couldn't be easier with today's 3d animation software. Computer animation has made it easier than ever, for the animation maker in all of us.

Where does one begin today if they want to make a cartoon? I have a simple philosophy that I apply to most situations. We grow from what we know. In other words, it is really difficult to understand calculus if you don't have adding and subtracting down. Too often people want to jump in where they can't swim yet. And as an adult we can become quiet discouraged at our ever so slow learning pace. If cartoon animation really interest you, my suggestion would be to start with some basic animation program to get your feet wet...so to speak. There are plenty on the market.

Most basic cartoon software will use an animation technique that is similar to my cannon ball illustration. It is known as key-framing. An animator will make a simple representation of a character. It can be as basic as a stick figure. They will draw this figure repositioning legs, arms, and body with slight variable changes. The animator will then set these changing figures at different points on the screen. The animation software will work its magic by interpolating the movement. The end result is the seamless movement of the animation much like my cannon ball flip book and the big boom.

So stop dreaming and make a cartoon just like an animation master. Technology has brought us a long way from my childish cartoon flip book. Release your imagination and make your own animation.

Go here if you want to learn more about how to make a cartoon. You can also check out the best animation software for the money.