I imagine cartoonists run into their own version of “writers block” now and again – not able to think up new cartoon jokes every single day. I’ve seen proof of this often in strip cartoons, where an up and coming talent gets his first publication contract with a newspaper (usually after winning a contest with promising originality), but within days his strip’s theme is all about how the artist (himself) has trouble finding something to draw.
How can you give some real personality to your comic character? Cartoon people need this as much as real people if they are going to make their mark and be memorable.
As a cartoonist, you are in the business of entertaining people, on a comedy level, and primarily you’re interested in making them laugh, But a cartoon, whether a single-panel gag or a full-length animated feature, can also serve as a platform for deeper insights and points of view, highlighted through the element of humor.
The best advice I would give to anyone wanting to learn to draw cartoons is this: Stop-Trying-To-Learn!
Can you really influence people by drawing cartoons? Well, that’s debatable, but you can impress them and that’s a start.
I’ve done a lot of browsing on the internet to see what’s on offer in the field of cartoon drawing. There are lots of great cartoon sites and cartoonist’s sites, but as far as inspiring “cartooning” sites go – where you can actually learn the craft – well there’s not much that I could recommend.
How to draw cartoons?.. the simplest answer to this is to draw cartoons anyhow you want! But that probably won’t help you much and you deserve a clearer explanation – so let’s begin with the short one.
