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.

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.

Learn How to Draw People - By Drawing Cartoon People

Have you ever wondered why learning to draw is believed to be difficult? Here's why... it's because everyone tells you so.

Those who can't draw tell you it's hard, those who can draw tell you it's hard, and, most of all, those who teach you to draw tell you it's hard.If you want to learn to draw you already hold the belief that you are going to have to put in a lot of work to learn, practice and master all the special techniques that "gifted" people get for free at birth.

So lets change that belief. Let's say you want to learn how to draw people... Now you could get a book on drawing people - study the anatomy of the human body, learn the general measurements of the head, where the eyes and ears are positioned relative to nose and mouth, how to divide the face up, where all the muscles lie and what happens to those muscles with expression change. You can learn about posture and balance, body proportions, movement, clothing,perspective, and so on, including special study of eyes, hands, feet, hair and other details.

And then there's the really difficult part - learning about shading technique and how to draw a portrait with likeness.

With all these instructions, it's not surprising anyone would give up trying to learn to draw people. But there is another way, an easier way, a quicker way - and that's by drawing cartoon people.

It's funny, but many instructions on drawing cartoon people begin by saying you should first understand drawing real people - but in my view it's better to work the other way round. Why? Because drawing cartoons is fun and easy, and because of this you are motivated and inspired to draw more and often - and the more you draw, the more you improve your observation skills and your drawing ability.

Here's how to go about it in practice. Put all the instruction books, rules and techniques away and start anew. Spend lots of time just looking at people, but look with your sense of humor. See the funny ways people stand, sit walk and talk, how they scrunch up their faces with expressions, the ridiculous ways they have their hair fixed, their personal fashion statements as they promote their individuality and personality to the world.

Viewing people with a perspective of humor will impress all their characteristics much more firmly into your mind, and you'll notice subtle details that you wouldn't have seen otherwise. People are funny, often ridiculous, more often stereotypes of themselves... understanding and recognizing this will help in drawing them.

The next step is to draw. Begin with sketching these characters and their characteristics - quick and easy sketching just for you, for reference (you're not drawing to impress anyone, you're sketching to build up and train your visual vocabulary).

Then start cartooning them. Don't try to draw "cartoons"- just draw the characters as you can remember them, or imagine them, using your reference sketches. Keep them simple, they'll be funny enough and cartoonish enough without any help from standard cartoon-drawing techniques or style.

Learning anything is often a process of practice - the more you do something, the better you get. The trick is to stick at something long enough to get good at it. If something is fun to do, you'll stick at it, and that is the reason cartooning will help you learn to draw. With hours of "fun drawing" instead of laborious "drawing practice", and the deep level of observation and interest you achieve by looking at people through humor-colored glasses, learning to draw will never feel difficult again.

Drawing is easy and cartooning is easy, if you want it to be, and my website http://www.drawingcartoon.net is there to show you how you can become an original cartoon artist.

Or watch me in action on http://www.youtube.com/user/MonaghanMike and be inspired to unleash your own unique drawing talent.

Getting Started in Drawing Cartoon Characters

If you're interested in drawing cartoon characters for fun or for profit, there are some important things you need to know before you begin. Just follow these five tips to get yourself started successfully drawing cartoon characters for yourself or others.

1. FUNDAMENTALS

An important factor when you first start drawing cartoon characters is in making sure that you develop some fundamental skills such as: anatomy, which helps tremendously when breaking things down to more simpler cartoon shapes, as well as proportion, and depth. The reason why this is important is because it will give you a solid foundation to build upon when drawing characters. If you don't develop the fundamental skills necessary, then you run the risk of not developing a well thought out and visually solid character that may lack appeal.

2. OBSERVATION

Another important consideration for drawing cartoon characters is observation. It's critical that you observe the world around you and record it on or into something such as a sketchbook because it will help develop your fundamental skills and develop your own personal style of cartoon characters. By looking towards other artists to learn how they do it and observing the culture, people and things around you, you'll develop a great set of skills in creating great cartoon characters.

3. PRACTICE

You don't have to be a Van Gogh or complete several years of school in order to draw either. All you need to do is have passion and make sure that you practice your techniques daily whether in a sketchbook or on a computer.

4. START SMALL

Instead of complicating illustration and design efforts by buying expensive equipment or supplies and software, try it this way: start out with just regular white copy paper and a pencil or pen. I've even used crayons, brown paper bags and cardboard! Your technique will improve, so by the time you are ready to learn about and invest in more expensive equipment, and supplies your skills will already be ahead of the curve. If you are using a computer, you can get a free trial or totally free software to hone your skills. In fact, if you use the advice mentioned above, then you will find that you will be able to become proficient in drawing cartoon characters with little or no money needed.

5. Add Dimension

Have you considered creating your own graphic novel or manga, television or animated series? Or how about commercially licensing a cartoon character you created to others. It's not as difficult as you might think. What you need to do when drawing characters that are appealing and awe-inspiring, is create a back-story or history of your cartoon character. The back-story is the world and environment that your character lives and breathes in. This will enhance your character's image and engage the audience in which it will be presented.

So if you are really interested in creating the next hit television or comic book series or see your character idea on greeting cards or made into children's toys, follow these tips and start enjoying or profiting from drawing your own cartoon characters.

Andre "Dre" Saunders attended Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland as an art major. He started freelancing as a designer and illustrator and has worked on projects for such clients as Dupont and the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children as well as creating several covers for a small book publisher. He is married with four children (two boys and two girls) and is currently working on several projects including a comic book series, a short film, a stage and screen play, a graphic T-shirt line and preparing several characters for licensing and merchandising.

Drawing Cartoon Characters [http://www.drawingcartooncharacters.com/]

Getting Started in Drawing Cartoon Characters [http://www.drawingcartooncharacters.com/drawing-cartoon-characters/getting-started-in-drawing-cartoon-characters]

Cartoon House Drawing Techniques

Drawing cartoons is actually harder than you might expect. Whether you are trying to draw a person, an animal, an inanimate object, or even a cartoon house you need to expect to have a little bit of difficulty if you never drawn a cartoon before. Though most people underestimate the cartoon medium and leave it is relatively easy to do, the fact of the matter is that cartooning is a complicated art form.

When drawing cartoons, you need to be able to utilize shapes. While this in itself sounds easy enough, there is difference between knowing what shapes are, and knowing what to do with them. Most amateur cartoons use simple shapes and lines structure in order to convey relatively simple images.

Also knowing the angle at which you intend to draw is important as well. You can be drawing full frontal, or you could be doing a three fourths angle, or any other angle you decide to use. However, the more complicated angle that the image will be focused on, the more difficult is going to be for you to draw. For this reason, if you intend to do something that is not a straight on look at what you are drawing, you need to be fully aware of how different shapes look from different angles in order to get good results.

Exaggeration is also a big part of cartooning. The whole point of drawing cartoons is to take something realistic and make it larger than life. We could do this by large lines, soft edges, or just certain aspects of what you're drawing be larger. For example, if you're drawing a cartoon house, then you would want circular edges instead of hard edges in order to make it more friendly looking. You would also most likely keep details and a minimum in order to make it seem more like a cartoon unless like something from real life.

Also in drawing cartoon house, any details around the house should be certified as well. The focus should be on the house, and not on its surroundings. While in animation, pay attention to the background is important, and regular cartoons it is not so much a big deal. You can portray what you are trying to draw relatively easily without putting too much detail on things that do not matter. This also accounts for things on outside of the home, for example things like house damage. The house is damaged, do not draw in unless you are trying to make it look the dilapidated or scary. Cartoons are very simple, and a simple thing like a crack in the wall could make it seem intimidating. A cartoon house is only one example what you could draw, but these rules apply no matter what you are trying to portray.

Cartooning and animation have both been widely overlooked by the mass public because they seem simplistic. To find out more about the history of and the techniques used in drawing a cartoon house [http://cartoonhouse.org] and other subjects, please visit our site.

Cartoon Books and Collectors

An extraordinary relationship between word and image is developed within the pages of cartoon books. For some people cartoon books teach history lessons, for others, they are simple ways of relaxation and amusement, a way of access to fantasy, adventure and horror stories.

Nowadays, cartoon books became a widely accessible commercial way of expression in the form of visual narratives. They are tailored to specific loyal audiences. These can exchange views on the latest editions or simply talk about them.

People have also access to more technically sophisticated cartoon books. Better printing techniques and paper of higher quality are currently increasing these books' value.

More and more cartoon fans amuse themselves searching for cartoon books for their collections. They go to stores or they surf online for the best cartoon books related to subjects they know or they want to discover. Usually they look for old cartoon books, limited editions, no longer available on the market, so popular decades ago. For them, the period in which these cartoons were conceived is very important and they evoke their childhood.

Many of these cartoon books were transposed into television cartoons and characters became more and more popular. Some of the old characters are still very popular and producers are struggling in making new episodes.

Where can a cartoon collector find books? One can find them in the flea markets, other collectors that sell their collections, book stores, antique stores, auctions and online sources.

Nowadays, more and more collectors find what they look for surfing online and in this manner they choose what kind of cartoon books to buy. Payment methods are simpler, by credit cards or bank transfer.

Cartoon Bank is an online store that offers many different cartoon books in additional to many New Yorker editions, prints and covers available for sale.

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How to Draw Cartoon Faces - And Be Original With It

Are you happy with the way your cartoon characters are turning out, or are they lacking that touch of originality that makes them stand out, and makes your personal style and talent recognizable?

If you've learned to draw cartoons by following the standard, established rules and techniques of cartooning, then it's not surprising if your characters look much like those of other cartoonists who've learned the same way. But there is another way, a more exciting way, to create cartoon faces with complete originality - using a method I call: Spontaneous Cartooning.

With this method, you doodle a shape onto your drawing paper - freely, spontaneously, without forethought. It's actually more a sort of scribbling.

Next, you look at what you've drawn, turning the image around to see it from different angles, and you try to pick out specific elements that could be recognizable as facial features - it's not hard to see a curve as an ear, or chin, or nose. But the real trick is to construct a complete cartoon face from the lines on the paper.

You can add new lines of course, and ignore others that don't seem to fit. Retracing the most defining lines and adding shading help to isolate the recognizable features.

Start simple, using basic shapes, and increase the complexity of your squiggles as you become more adept.

This method of cartoon drawing has distinct and unique advantages:

1) It increases your ability to see form and shape in abstract compositions,

2) It develops your talent for caricaturing, by freeing you from the restraints of standardized cartoon-drawing techniques,

3) It encourages you to be more daring and adventurous in your creativity,

4) The results cannot be anything but original - since they have been created without planning, and using the unique dexterity of your own finger movements.

Rules can be followed, used, abused or ignored, including the rules of cartooning. Spontaneous cartooning is the "free-jazz-improvisation" of cartoon drawing.

As with any activity, the more you do something, the better you become at it. To be a great, original cartoonist, requires you to draw lots, and often. An activity as fun as spontaneous cartooning will give you many hours of stimulating drawing practice - without ever becoming repetitive, or boring.

Cartooning is easy, and my website http://www.drawingcartoon.net
is there to show you how you can become an original cartoon artist. Or see me in action on http://www.youtube.com/user/MonaghanMike and be inspired to unleash your own cartooning talents.

How to Draw Your Favorite Heroes and Cartoon Characters

Drawing and art is a passion for many people but the good news is that this art is not only restricted to a paintbrush or an art pencil only. There is technological breakthrough in this field as well like in other fields and now you can draw online. You can draw your favorite heroes and cartoon charters which excite you and make you feel good about so many things.

Cartoon heroes have special place in everyone's heart. Obviously kids and teenagers are the main target audience for cartoons but adults also have their own passion for such heroes. When it comes to drawing your favorite cartoon characters or heroes, it certainly becomes a task that you look forward to. The feel of being able to draw your favorite hero really makes you look forward to the whole idea of how to do it online. This does not only become an involving idea for children but also for adults who might be able to add some level of perfection to their drawing as compared to kids.

The cartoon characters are stylish, funny, reflecting so many emotions and full of zeal and excitement. No wonder that they just put the adults along with the kids to look forward to some great entertainment that they provide every day. When it comes to drawing these characters, you have so much technology and advanced online tools available now, that without exaggerating you can come up with so many ideas to draw your favorite heroes.

Different online websites offer this fun activity. For example, you can draw these cartoon characters with certain tools and techniques that are specifically designed for the purpose. In that, you can shade the drawing or the sketch in the way you want to. You can enhance and develop various colors in the cartoon character that you may be drawing. Moreover, you can give a variety of expressions to the cartoons and sketches that suits your mood and behavior. The sketches can be made to look vibrant, energetic, funny, excited, sad and happy or horrific. Once you draw the choice of drawing and the technique applied over it is totally yours.

In short, drawing techniques online can be considered as the latest trend today that keeps on well entertained and employ the use of your imagination and creativity. All what you would need to do is use some knowledge of yours and some drawing skills. You just need to be creative so that you can find your drawings graceful and enjoyable at the same time.

Here you will learn about sketch heroes and how to draw

Cartoon Pencil Drawing - Why It Is So Important

If you want to be a top ranked cartoon maker, then the art of mastering cartoon pencil drawing is a must for you. All good piece of cartoon begins with the pencil drawing.

Even master illustrators like Charles Schultz and Stan Lee, the creators of Peanuts and Spider-man respectively began with cartoon pencil drawings. Therefore, it is important to learn the basic of this technique. Here we will begin to prepare you on your journey to becoming a great pencil artist.

First and foremost, you must have all the right materials. Choosing the right tools can be very important as different drawings need different tool. Understanding the difference between a hard lead and soft lead can make your task easier when you are starting out.

Second, learn and observe how the past masters have done their work. Looking at the newspaper comics section and manga comics can be extremely enlightening for the techniques they used in rendering their storyboard.

Third, practise the most basic items first. Learn how to draw a straight line with a pencil and perfect your technique before moving to other shapes such as circles, squares, rectangles and the like.

Most cartoon elements are derived from basic shapes and unless you master the basics like simple lines, you will not have a great cartoon pencil drawing. And never forget however sophisticated and complex your drawing may be it consists of numerous lines and strokes only.

Once you are done with the basic shapes, combine the elements to make a sketch of your first cartoon character. Learn how to best combine the shapes to get the best composition. Continue to build this with the other elements such as shading and more advance body structures.

The best part about cartoon pencil drawing is that if you do not like what you have drawn, just erase it and start over. Nobody ever gets the first attempt perfectly right and it is only through hours of practise that you will begin to find your zone in cartoon pencil drawings.

However, tedious the task may be, having a solid foundation in cartoon pencil drawing will ultimately be the difference between a bad or good artist. So put in the hard work now and reap the benefits later.

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 Cartoon Characters Step by Step

First of all, I can not emphasize adequately the benefit of becoming proficient in how to draw cartoon characters step by step under the guidance of a pro. Investing in your schooling need not be costly and unattainable. Nonetheless, to promptly stand out from the crowd requires learning from the best.

It's so vital in the early stages of learning, to concentrate on exact technique rather than gradually developing a bogus work habit. Therefore, learn how to draw cartoon characters step by step from a credible source and fast-track your leaning in curve in order to make the most from your investment sooner.

Don't get me wrong... you can spend many a happy hour drawing for the enjoyment of it. However, it can become somewhat old if you're only making a gradual improvement or little at all! Just about anybody can draw cartoon characters and caricatures, but only those that have invested the time and right training will rise beyond the masses and indeed impress.

So anyway, let's get started with the following steps:

Step 1: Observation

Careful investigation of your topic is a crucial discipline. Your early sketches ought to be lose - cartoon characters can be developed with primitive shapes, where the progression of a caricature needs to be representative of your subject. The best caricature is one that is fully representational of your subject and indeed the most difficult to perfect. As you can imagine, you'll need to have a thorough understanding of your subjects every feature. Common features are clearly a necessary study such as eyes, ears, noses, mouths and what have you. Do they have big hair or any at all? What shape is their head... round, pair shaped, pointy etc. Search out certain features and qualities that will create interest in the rendering of your theme.

Step 2: Exaggeration (yet simplicity)

Amplify the noticeable with boldness, which is most notably the case when drawing caricature. A caricature is characteristically funny and most memorable when depicted in an exaggerated form. The variation with cartoon characters is only in their simplicity. South Park characters are the ideal example of large as life, while being extremely basic in composition.

Step 3: Stroke Heaviness

Stroke mass is absolutely more focused toward illustrating caricatures, whereas still appropriate to cartoon characters in the sense that you will use a heavier weighted line to magnify certain points and features. Shading using an assortment of approaches such as cross-hatch and similar techniques, will give your illustration a sense of depth and will in the end 'make or break' your labors.

Final Step: Celebrate your successes and continue in your learning

Take my advice and get pleasure from all your development - no matter how small. Most of all, your creativity will wither when you stop enjoying what you are doing. If this turns into your experience, then stop what you are doing and get some fresh air, exercise or what ever you do to revive yourself.

As much fun as it is learning how to draw cartoon characters - it's also a serious art form that is highly regarded and profitable. In fact, for the small cost of a few drawing pens, pencils and pads, you can learn how to become a pro, stun your friends and family and make a good living to boot. For more information check out my blog: http://www.learntodrawthings.com.

Drawing Cartoon Characters Through Animation Techniques

A great way to learn how to draw cartoon characters and add life to them is through studying some classical animation techniques. You don't have to want to be an animator, but you should want to be willing to learn some valuable lessons that can potentially liven up your drawings with animation techniques such as squash and stretch, anticipation and exaggeration. Think of Disney and Pixar as examples. Have you ever seen a poorly developed character from these studios? Even the most grotesque villain or monster had a certain visual appeal. Animators have to draw a character over and over hundreds if not thousands of times to get the movement down just right to show weight and personality. One reason is, to animate a character, it's design had to be able to convey the right message in its movement. If a character was poorly drawn then it would animate poorly, which would be unacceptable. The animators had to be able to animate and move the characters around in as easy and efficient manner as possible to capture the audiences attention. Pretty amazing for something as simple as a line drawing.The importance of a well drawn cartoon character was one of the crucial first steps in achieving their goals.

OK now, step one, learn how to draw basic shapes and turn them into a three dimensional counterpart, for example: a circle to a sphere, a square into a box, etc. Once you are able to do this (with practice), then you can move on to step two which is, manipulating the shape by twisting, squashing and stretching it into various forms and easily create many types of characters by combining shapes together. Next (as always) practice drawing constantly and consistently. You cannot skip this step and expect to grow as an artist and draw appealing characters. Once you are able to draw a basic character shape using the techniques described above you can easily expand and alter the shape(s) to your liking. The world is yours! Always remember to also draw from life as it is the greatest teacher, giving you the ability to draw realistic movement that will transfer into your character.

Visit the world of classical animation to see how you are able to use some of those techniques to enhance your cartoon character drawing. There are plenty of online resources as well as books available to help you, so remember to keep a sketchbook with you at all times. Sometimes, when drawing cartoon characters, you have to look outside your field of interests to help develop a skill and through the fabulous world of classical animation we can gain a lot of valuable inspiration, knowledge and insight.

Andre "Dre" Saunders attended Bowie State University in Bowie, Maryland as an art major. He started freelancing as a designer and illustrator and has worked on projects for such clients as Dupont and the Nemours/Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children as well as creating several covers for a small book publisher.

He is married with four children (two boys and two girls) and is currently working on several projects including a comic book series, a short film, a stage and screen play, a graphic T-shirt line and preparing several characters for licensing and merchandising.

[http://drawingcartooncharacters.com]

How to Develop Professional Level Cartoon Drawing Skill

Drawing cartoons is a great hobby which not only entertains the cartoon maker but also others that watch the drawing. The simple hobby of cartoon making can be turned into a lucrative career also. These days with skyrocketing demand of cartoon makers it is not going to be a too tough task.

But to really make professional quality cartoons one should learn this art well. This is not to say that you should be doing a four-year course in some foreign university to learn the art properly. What I want to say here is that you may have great talents but without some training in basics of cartoon drawing your talent may not get chance to become visible.

True it's very easy to get started with cartoon drawing. Just have a pencil and a piece of paper and you are ready to go. But behind this apparent simplicity there is a hidden universe! There is a lot to learn and practice. And if you are not guided properly from the outset there is every chance you will be lost in this amazing world.

So what is important here is

Get your basics right: there are some basic techniques. And you need to get them right. Things like: perspective, use of shadows etc are backbone of any kind of drawing. And as an aspiring artist you have to be master of his drawing techniques.

Once you have strong basic skills build upon that: once you have the basic skills you need to build upon that. Learn how to draw expressive characters, how to make your composition convey a message and other similar high-level techniques.

Choose your style of drawing: there are in fact various styles and schools of drawing to choose from. You may want to draw cartoons in Japanese manga style, or maybe traditional European style of cartoon making is your favorite. Whatever it is select your style and stick to that.

Learn from the works of masters: watch and study the works of great masters and try to learn from their art. But do not copy their individual style because your goal should be creating your own signature style.

Never stop learning: this is very important never stop learning. Actually in this exciting world of cartooning there are so many things to learn and to tell the truth the art of cartoon making is evolving every day, so if you snooze you will get behind.

So, are you ready, grab your pencil and get started.

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

3 Top Cartoon Drawing Tips For Beginners

Cartooning is not about drawing it is about telling stories. Yes, even when you are drawing a single illustration you are telling a story. Cartooning is about expressing your thoughts. And it is your thoughts expressed beautifully through your cartoon characters that make you different from other average cartoon makers.

But as in every other field of life here also you must learn to walk first before you try running. To express your thoughts and ideas through your cartoon characters, you need to master the skill of cartoon drawing first. Then of course you can use your cartoon drawing skills to tell story to your liking.

To be skilled in cartoon drawing you have to face a learning curve. You just can't decide to be a cartoonist then copy some popular cartoon figures and become an accomplished cartoonist who is rich and famous. If you are lucky and talented with keen sense of observation you may pickup one or two tricks by making copy of popular cartoon figures. But that is too inadequate to be of any use.

There are various ways that you can take to learn cartoon drawing --you can join cartooning school or take a home study course or follow a book of an expert cartoonist -- the bottom line is you have to follow the steps. Like you should first teach yourself drawing 3d shapes, then learn to stretch, squash those 3d shapes in your drawing. Next you need to practice things like drawing hands and head before moving on to motion and emotion and advanced things like that.

If it sounds like lot of work, you are right. But what you achieve at the end is worth working for. If you are smart however you can use the tips you are going to discover here to make the whole learning process fast and painless.

1. ==> Do not start with computers. I agree I run the risk of sounding backdated. But here I am not opposing usage of computer altogether, no sane person can do that. But for beginners there is no alternative to using paper and pencil.

There are various software that help you so much that you can go ahead even without learning how to draw a smooth line. This kind of over dependency on computers from the very beginning always backfires down the road.

2. ==> Nail the fact in your mind that construction of human, animal, cars and most of the things that that we see around us are complex 3d structures though we draw them on paper which is 2D. So when drawing you must mentally analyze your model in terms of 3d shapes like spheres and boxes and not in terms of 2d shapes like circles and rectangles.

Also when you draw something from paper (i.e. 2D), look for and find out the 3d shapes that make up the character.

3. ==> Most of the cartoon drawing or figure drawing tutorials always start with some basic 3d shapes and after a number of steps end up in a complete and beautiful figure. This technique is very effective in learning how we can draw complex figures starting with simple shapes. But what I am going to tell you will make your pace of learning even faster. It is in fact very simple way of using the same tutorial. Just a lot more effective.

What you need to do is start where the tutorial ends and go backward from there. See the completed figure and try to recognize the ingredient basic shapes. And compare your analysis with the exact shapes that are used in the tutorial.

This will give you a very through exercise in recognizing the basic shapes. And after some time you will be analyzing the real life around you like an expert. Just take your time and practice this technique, and see how fast it will improve your skill in cartoon drawing.

Cartoon drawing is pure fun both for professionals who earn their living through cartooning and hobbyists who draw cartoon only for personal pleasure. I do not know what you goal is but hope the tips here will be helpful for you. Never stop learning: there are a whole lot to learn and even more fun to have in the process. Happy journey!

Do you know what the beginners find most difficult in cartoon drawing? It is drawing the head and face. Check this simple

tutorial on head drawing and never be nervous again.

Drawn as a cartoon

Drawing cartoon is similar to any object or draw characters of pen or brush. The important point imagine or draw a cartoon is that the artist should have a sense of humor or comic expression into the character. Although drawing cartoon is one in quality, but be achieved by a professional training program. Creativity can be reached also experiences and often work in this area.
Interested students can go for short guides for cartoon teaching drawing materials, the creative process, simple tips and techniques for a session. You can the principle, tricks and techniques while drawing cartoons. There are many ready-made cartoons, students follow and try a replica can do the same. There are instructions in the cartooning Kit available with the kit, or can be downloaded form Internet for manipulating cartoon images.
Cartooning Kit
The quickest way to start drawing cartoon is a ready to use Kit where the drawing material and accessories available. The tool may be a hard Pack or within a drawing software in the computer. The same tools are available for make cartoon drawings. A tutorial or help guide or illustration book can for the cartoon Maker help. A cartoon library offers to make many ideas and cartoon characters option. Can run a cartoon graphics complete the step by step procedure.
Digital cartoon-making
For creating digital cartoon images, you need a range of materials such as computers, software tool (drawing software graphics and text processing), a theme or concept as humor formats, such as riddles, puns, Limericks, cartoons, jokes, and comic strips. You can think humor about topics such as making about general topic people laugh, to make the different types of humor and its cultural dimension, the cartoon. The students should plan their comic strips on paper and then go for digital graphic form should be.
Creating comics
The aspiring cartoonist can article, go to instructional resources for published caricatures etc.,. An easy way of drawing a cartoon face when below specified:
The drawing on paper as the same as on computer screen.
Start with a new page with white background art area size approximately: 500 x 500 pixels.
Create a newsletter (using the ellipse select and hold shift in the computer tool) color or black (drag & drop) in the Panel.
You can delete the region of eraser.
Each curve (see) create the curve draw, then stroke the path this image serves as guidelines: the circle is the shape of the head, while the curves that result in drawing of the face, where the intersection is the location of the nose.
Draw sketch: use of the guidelines, your cartoon with the pencil. You can delete and edit, if it had been chaotic.
Draw curved outline for the production of roughly shaped objects (face, eyes, mouth, etc.)
Code colors: With various pencil / brushes for draw select contiguous regions, or color box software tool. Drawing requires eyes, nose may refer to: areas of the body, mouth, hair, etc.
Light effect on lips, eyes it is necessary, for the reality. Set grey color layer, that want to show shading.
Select the range outside of the nose for making glowing nose.
Choose for the production of glossy hair, the entire colored region.
You use for the design of the inner ear, you choose wiping finger tool and the blur effect the region for the inner ear, you just off to mitigate the shading.
For drop shadow shading, the option is available in software tool or manually specify an effect shade, to the object.



Shakir a is a freelance writer on interactive marketing, animation movies, cartoons and other related issues for Internet marketing, PPC, SEO, SEM, online marketing. Currently write more for http://www.aniboom.com/?ad=articleyedoll

Adobe Photoshop Cartoon

Using Adobe Photoshop to make cartoons is probably one of the best ways to make your cartoons. There are definite advantages of using this medium, but are you stuck on using it? There are many different techniques and everyone should make sure to try something new because it might be useful in your way to finding your way.

Digital medium is the way to go because it is easy to replicate, so that you can sell your artwork. Even if it is just a hobby, would it be nice to see your Adobe Photoshop cartoon in a public place or in a magazine? It would be one of the best ways to know that you have succeeded.

Just using Adobe Photoshop is such a versatile product that you can definitely use other techniques from other programs the same way as most of the art programs really work in a similar fashion. There is a great review out there on such a technique that can be easily translated.

There are many techniques out there. Using Adobe Photoshop is probably one of the best ways to do this, but there are so many different ways to use it. There are people out there that have mastered their own way and they are willing to show you so that you can make your own technique.

Hope this article has helped someone in figuring out a small part of a bigger puzzle and good luck in all your endeavors! Check them out! http://www.squidoo.com/cartoonpaintreview

There is a great review out there on such a technique that can be easily translated.

Hope this article has helped someone in figuring out a small part of a bigger puzzle and good luck in all your endeavors!

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Creating a Cartoon of Yourself

One of the really neat things that new technology allows us to do is to have fun. And one of the things that is extremely fun and easy to do is to create a cartoon of yourself.

The other day I was on Facebook and I received a message from a good friend of mine. The meaning of the message was trivial but I was fascinated by the picture that sat along side the message.

It was a picture of my friend Jeremy but as a cartoon.

Knowing Jeremy, who is not too technically adept, I figured this might not be too difficult to do. After all, I already found a way to put your face on a dancing body so this could not be that hard to do either.

I immediately began searching about how to create cartoon pictures of yourself. It turns out that there are many sites that allow you to make cartoon pictures of yourself. Obviously, though, some are better than others.

There are a few things that you need before you can create cartoon pictures of yourself.

The first thing that you need to make these photos is a good photo of yourself. The way that these sites work is that you upload a photo and then the site can work its magic tricks to turn your photo into a cartoon.

However, not just any photo will do. To create a truly great animated picture of yourself, you will need a good picture of just you without anybody else in the photo. Ideally, this picture will be very clear and up-close. If it is not, the photo may blur too much.

For example, if you want to create a Facebook cartoon photo, you will want an up-close face picture similar to that which you would find on a passport photo. This is not difficult to achieve. In fact, with today's best digital cameras, it can be accomplished in a snap.

To accomplish this feat, you will also require a computer and Internet connection.

The computer does not have to be super powerful. If you have the ability to view and modify photos already, this computer will be powerful enough to use on these websites.

Finally, you will want an Internet connection that is suitable. Though a dial-up service might suffice, I would suggest some sort of broadband connection. That way, you're photos can be uploaded without waiting forever.

Once you have all of these things in place, you are ready to create great cartoon photos of yourself.

For more on this topic, visit the page entitled Create Your Own Cartoon Character and you will learn how to make your own cartoon character in a matter of minutes. The author, Richard Tyler, is a technologist, writer, and generally curious bloke!

Name One Black African Cartoon Series

'Transformers', 'Voltron', 'Super Ted', 'Fun Factory', 'Thundercats', 'Battle of the Planets', the list goes on.Most of us adults who grew up in Africa remember watching those programs when we were children. Those programs helped teach us everything from arithmetic and English, right through to we could defeat a very powerful decepticon robot in case the need arose. In fact, programs such as Sesame Street taught us general life skills.

Now fast forward a few years. You now have your own young family and you want to watch cartoons with your young children. The current crop of cartoons such as Dora the Explorer and Peppa Pig are great. But what if you want to watch a cartoon or animation that reflects some part of your black and African heritage? How about one that's available in major African languages so children can learn their mother tongue? Can you name one truly international children's program that was conceived and produced in Africa? It's difficult right?

This leads us to the next question. Why? There are many reasons for this.

These include;

Lack of financial support from the public and private sectors: Banks for example, see animation as a risky venture. In fact in countries like Nigeria banks have traditionally steered clear from supporting the entertainment sector with financial products. They are now talking with the creative sector to see how they can collaborate in the future. Also institutions like the World Bank have pledged funds to help industries such as Nigeria's Nollywood so things are looking up. As animation is a sub sector of this, there should be a trickledown effect in the future.
Lack of support and belief from local broadcasters: Many television networks don't commission such programs. In fact they prefer to import foreign children cartoons. To some degree this situation is understandable.
Lack of artists and technicians in fields such as animation production.
Lack of support from government: In some countries such as France, companies that produce animations are given encouragement in the form of incentives and funding. Unfortunately this isn't the case in the majority of African countries.

So it is easy to see why there are no cartoon series from Africa that have had global success. However, African animators have decided to tackle this challenge head on. In regions as diverse as Kenya, Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa and in Diaspora things are changing. Using the internet and new digital production technologies, African artists and companies are producing their own content for the world to see. The future for African animation is very bright.

Adamu Waziri is a lover of all things animation. As is common with most animators, he was drawing comics and cartoons from a young age. An architect originally, he further trained and worked as a 3D animator in London. He proceeded to set up EVCL http://www.evcl.tv/, a creative studio in Abuja Nigeria. EVCL is now producing a new children's series called Bino and Fino http://binoandfino.wordpress.com/.

Make Me a Cartoon! How to Quickly Cartoon Yourself For Free

Turning your photo into a cartoon web face is one of the hottest online trends throughout the social networking world today. Cartoon avatars serve as a unique way of branding your personal identity in a variety of online communities like Facebook, MySpace and many others. There are many different ways of creating a cartoon picture by digitally manipulating a photograph of your face. Methods range from professional graphic image editing techniques using Photoshop or Illustrator to fully automated online website systems.

Since most people do not have access to professional image editing software like Photoshop nor the skills to use such a complex program, we will just look at some of the automated cartoon yourself for free methods available. So if you're still wondering how to make me a cartoon then keep reading.

Perhaps the quickest way to make a cartoonize photo of yourself is to use an online image editor like Lunapic. It's really simple...first I just go to the Lunapic website, then I choose an image file for my web face and click "upload now". After the image has uploaded to their server, I can create the cartoon picture of myself by going to the "effects" drop down menu at the top and then click on "cartoon". Right after the effect is applied, I always save my web face cartoon by clicking on one of the "save to" links below the image.

Similar cartoonize photo results can be obtained by using Google's online image editing tool at Picasaweb. This service is a little more complicated than the Lunapic method above but it can produce similar results. One of the difficulties with Picasa is that Google will insist that you have an account with them before you can use the service but they do have more options available in their interface.

While these 2 methods above may be quick way to make me a cartoon, the results that they produce are extremely poor in quality...probably not something you're going to want to use on your profile!

So you wanna know the best method to cartoon yourself for free?

CHECK THIS OUT!

For the absolute best free method to cartoon yourself for free you really need to click below to learn more about the quickest and easiest solution that I have found to make me a cartoon:

MY WEB FACE.

Multiple Streams of Income With Your Cartoon Characters

Record labels do not make their money solely on album sales. Albums are primarily marketing mediums to make the artiste known to the world and propel him/her to fame. Once famous, multiple avenues of income become available - such as product endorsements, advertisements, concerts, movie deals, etc.

If you are in the business of character licensing, you should consider looking upon the management of your stable of digital characters just like the management of real-life artistes as described above in the case of the record labels.

Character Licensing

Licensing your characters is a good way to generate extra income out of your characters. If your game is about to or has already hit the shelves, you should consider getting a licensing agent to manage the rights of your characters. Good licensing agents are often well-connected and able to look for suitable partners who may be willing to license your characters for their merchandise. Such licensing deals can result in anything from plush or clothes to books or even credit cards!

The publication Total Licensing is a good resource for learning more about the latest trends in licensing and merchandising and also looking for licensing agents.

Producing and Selling Your Own Merchandise

Previously the concept of producing and selling your own merchandise can be daunting due to the prohibitive costs of production and distribution. Now it is entirely possible to do this at an almost negligible cost. Websites like Café Press and Zazzle provide the opportunity for you to upload your own designs, match them with a range of products, set your own prices and sell it off their website for just a few dollars per month! You don't even have to worry about production and logistics because Café Press does it all for you!

I have also compiled a short list of great industry resources you should check out if you are interested in this area.

The Licensing Business Handbook is a comprehensive introduction to licensing for property owners, product manufacturers and agents. It is jam-packed full of information on how to get started and what to look out for in the complex business of licensing.

Total Licensing Limited is an independent publishing company dedicated to the licensing, merchandising and intellectual property market. It is the only publishing house to cover this massive industry on a truly worldwide basis. You can find a huge listing of potential licensees and licensors in the Total Licensing publications.

LIMA is the grand-daddy association for companies and individuals engaged in the business of licensing - both as agents and as property owners. There is a wealth of resources and help available here and you should always refer back here.

You can visit the Mediafreaks blog to pick up more tips on anime character design

This article was contributed by Aldric Chang - a creative businessman who is active in music composing and production, internet marketing, casual games production, animation production, cartoon production and character licensing. His 3d animation studio - Mediafreaks - is focused on producing high-end animation work for documentary producers, advertising houses and cartoon animated series - with projects ranging from the animation of dinosaurs to the visualization of natural disasters and something as chic as 3d jewelry animations [http://www.media-freaks.com/animated-commercials.html]

Google's 8 Awesome Free Cartoon Logos That Caused Sensation Over Media

There is no doubt about the sensation that Google doodle causes all over the world.

Maybe it's their way to pay homage to the legends of the world, maybe it just serves to attract traffic to their search engine or maybe they are only trying to make up for lack of an interesting brand mark; either way their free cartoon logos for the day make quite a stir.

Let's have a look at some of the famous Google doodles that have caused sensation over media:

1. Les Paul 96th birthday- June 9, 2011:

The logo for guitar legend Les Paul's birthday was so popular that it was extended for another day. The interactive digital guitar could be played with mouse clicks. The recording option in the emblem made it one of the best symbols of the year.

2. Edvard Munch's birthday - December 12, 2006:

To mark the birthday of this famous Norwegian painter, homage was paid to him by using his famous painting 'the scream'. The shades of orange, brown, blue and red and the slightly blurry effect of the text made this monogram more appealing and eye catching than the usual white base of the website.

3. Martha Graham's Birthday - May 11, 2011:

To celebrate the 117th birthday of this famous American dancer and choreographer, an animated design was created that featured all the different characters she had played on stage throughout her life.

4. Total Lunar Eclipse - June 15, 2011:

If you missed the real lunar eclipse, the doodle for the day gave you a glimpse of it. To celebrate the most beautiful and longest lunar eclipse of the decade, this symbol demonstrated the entire transformation of the colors and sighting of the moon making the emblem as popular as the event.

5. The Flintstones' 50th Anniversary - September 30, 2010:

For the most popular Stone Age based cartoon show, they created the entire setting of the day by taking us to a visit to Bedrock. You can view all the characters of the show, from the Flintstone and Rubble family to their household pets in the image.

6. Agatha Christie's Birthday - September 15, 2010:

For the 120th birthday of the queen of crime fiction, an elaborate scene from one of her novels was set on the home page of this renowned search engine. Each letter was illustrated to depict a famous fictional character from her novels.

7. PAC-MAN's 30th Anniversary - May 21, 2010:

This was the first time Google had changed its design to a playable emblem which made this arcade game even more popular than it already was. The game could be controlled by the arrow keys and mouse clicks. The black background with blue, red and yellow colored dots and lines added to its appeal.

8. San Diego Comic-Con '09 - July 23, 2009:

DC Comics' Jim Lee created this Batman cartoon logo for Google to celebrate the comic convention 2009. Just as the convention encourages all comic book fans and writers, the emblem did the same. You can see characters like Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Batman, Robin and Plastic Man adorning the page.

Google has found a really interesting way to keep the audience engaged. The anticipation of the next celebratory emblem will always keep us on the edge of our seats.

Beverly Houston works as a Senior Design Consultant at a Professional Logo Design Company. For more information on free cartoon logos find her competitive rates at Logo Design Consultant.