Drawing Cartoon.net presents:

How to Become A Cartoonist

A  unique cartooning ebook

Hi there – In case you’ve reached this page from a different source than my site, let me first introduce myself…

My name is Mike Monaghan and I’m the owner of DrawingCartoon.net . My goal for this site is to help you to become an original and productive cartoon-artist. I have a very personal view on how to achieve this, and I believe that I’ve created a resource that is different from other sites, books and courses that you may find to learn how to draw cartoons.

I also believe that cartoon drawing – indeed all drawing – is actually a simple process to learn and practise, and I try to inspire that belief within my tutorials. All the drawing instruction on the site is free and you are welcome to check it out here, and read my welcome message which explains my personal view on drawing, cartooning, and learning to draw cartoons.

.

How To Become A Cartoonist          

Now let me tell you about this ebook.

I wrote this as a supplement to all the drawing lessons on my site. It approaches cartooning from a very different angle – but in my opinion, a more important angle. In fact the main content of the book has very little to do with “drawing” cartoons at all, yet I believe it holds the key to what cartooning is all about; and throughout, it promotes the realization that you don’t even have to be able to draw well to become a successful cartoonist.

.

Cartoon artist – or Cartoonist

There is a distinct and important difference in being a cartoon-artist and being a cartoonist. It’s important that you make that distinction, because if you just want to be a cartoon-artist, then this book is not for you. If you want to be a “cartoonist” – a maker of cartoons – your head is going to be as important as your hand. Let me explain further.

A cartoon-artist is someone who draws cartoon pictures: characters, places, objects, people and animals… These pictures can be used for a variety of purposes, such as comic illustration, book illustration, film animation, greeting cards and calenders, to illustrate advertisements or instruction folders and booklets. Cartoon pictures are  a very popular and appealing way of getting a message across and so they are extremely successful, and becoming more so on the internet.

These cartoon pictures can also be used to illustrate cartoons! And by cartoons I mean the “single-panel” or “strip-” cartoons that brighten up the pages of our newspapers and magazines… and, again, the comics, cards, calenders, folders, booklets and advertisements I mentioned above. So what is the difference?

A cartoonist is the creator of the idea – he (or she) may be the artist as well, and in most cases he is, but he is more than just an artist. His true talent lies in the ability to visualize a humorous angle on his subject matter and communicate that humor to others in a way that they can identify with. And for this he uses the elements of text, image, association, exaggeration, caricaturization, expression, and timing.

It is a subtle difference between cartoon-artist and cartoonist, and in most cases they are one and the same;  but you don’t need to be a cartoonist to draw funny pictures, and you don’t need to be a great drawer of funny pictures to be a cartoonist.

.

From artist to Cartoonist

I developed my DrawingCartoon site as an alternative route to learning how to draw humorous pictures – stimulating the development of personal observation and drawing style, as opposed to the study and practice of the typically fixed, standardized and over-used techniques of  “cartoon drawing”. But drawing is only one part of cartooning.

The main part is the communication of an idea, a thought, an observation, a viewpoint. This can be achieved in drawing alone, but more often it includes the use of words to explain the circumstances of the cartoon scene, and to provide our cartoon characters with their own voice and their own personality, so we can more easily identify with them. It’s what a cartoon character thinks and says that gives us insight into what they do and why they do it – and it’s what they say and do that ultimately makes us laugh.

The well-known comedian adage of   “It’s not what you say but the way that you say it!”  applies so well to the craft of cartooning, and this is the hidden power of a good cartoonist – even more so than his ability to draw. If his “humorous idea” is strong enough, then the drawing can be minimal.

.

Why draw cartoons?

So why do you want to draw cartoons? This is the question you should be asking yourself now, so you can decide the best way to go about learning.

• If you just want to be able to draw familiar cartoon characters – Donald Duck, Bart Simpson, SpongeBob, etc. – for whatever reason, then there are plenty of instruction sources on the internet to show you how to do this. Go check them out.
• If you want to be a Manga comic artist, you should follow a course of instruction that teaches you the very specific techniques that apply.
• If you want to be an original cartoon artist and illustrator, developing your own original cartoon characters, created from scratch using your own observations, then I recommend the free resources on my own site to get you started.
• If you want to be a political cartoonist, or specialize in caricature drawing, then it’s best to follow a course specifically designed for these fields of cartooning. Or keep checking in on my site, because these topics are planned for future tutorials.
• However… if  you want to be recognized and appreciated for your unique and original ability to be humorous, for your unique vision of the world and everything in it, and for being able to precisely communicate your uniqueness, originality and humor, then you have to follow a different route than that offered by typical “Learn-Cartooning” books and courses. You have to begin from yourself, within yourself, acknowledge your uniqueness, cultivate your originality, and develop your ability to consistently see a funny side to everything.

In other words, if you want to be a cartoonist, you need to develop the mind of a cartoonist.

.

The Mind Of A Cartoonist

I don’t consider myself a particularly funny person. I’m not the life and soul of a party, and I’m apt to be quiet in a large group. There’s always  characters in such a group  who always seem to have something funny to say on every subject – they make people laugh, they entertain us, we envy their quick wit and their ease at being the center of attention. You know these people too, hey you may be one of them – born comedians!

But we all have this ability to find a funny association in a subject, though we may not be quick enough to display it in an instant, and we may not have the type of personality that can comfortably play the entertainer. That’s ok, we can’t all be comedians, and we don’t all want to be comedians.

But just think for a minute about all the funny things you’ve come up with from time to time, think about your own sense of humor, of all the things you could have said but didn’t, of all the times you did say something funny and people laughed. It makes you feel good to make people laugh doesn’t it?

So you have a sense of humor, and you have wit, and you feel good sharing it, and you make others feel good when you share it. Our humor is a powerful part of our character, and a powerful communicator. Being able to view every aspect of life from a perspective of humor is one of our most important human traits, without which we’d be doomed to misery. That’s why we love cartoons so much -  and cartoonists, like comedians are admired for their witty renditions of our life experiences, and portrayals of our less-than-perfect personality traits.

Cartoonists and comedians have the developed knack of viewing the world from even more absurd angles than the rest of us…and the ability to do this consistently. Their minds are tuned to continually create associations between subjects, associations so fine and distant that they don’t occur to the normal mind. Give them a simple word like “cat”, and their minds can link the word to hundreds of other words, situations, references, memories and fantasies in  a fraction of a second, and then further link these associations to others, and so on, creating images that surprise us and delight us in their freshness and absurdity.

But this is not really anything special, not for the brain. This is how the brain works anyway – but the cartoonist’s (and comedian’s) brain is tuned to the frequency of humor, and that frequency becomes clearer and stronger, the more it is used. Every brain, every mind – your mind -  can be tuned to this frequency too, and trained for clear and consistent reception.

.

Train your brain to think “Funny”.

I created “How To Be A Cartoonist” to help you to do just that – and I know it works, because I developed it also for myself, and then filled it with original cartoons using the techniques laid out in the book.

I’m not a comedian, but I am a cartoonist. And what’s great about being a cartoonist is that you can display and share your wit in your own time, on your favorite subjects, and without having to play the entertainer. And just as importantly, your humor is created in a form that doesn’t dissipate, or disappear after the first telling, or is forgotten after a conversation – it is tangible, it has a visual existence, and it has a permanent presence as an abstract thought drawn for posterity.

.

AWAKEN THE CARTOONIST WITHIN

This may sound like a corny title, but that is exactly what you are doing when you use the techniques of  “How To Become A Cartoonist” – you are training your mind to find the funny side of everything, and that’s what a cartoonist does. Below I’ve listed a few of the benefits this ebook can offer you, and how it can help you overcome some of the stumbling blocks you may face when you’re trying to learn to draw cartoons and be a cartoonist:

1) You can become a cartoonist now, immediately – you don’t have to wait until you are a master cartoon-artist, you don’t have to even learn to draw any better than you draw right now. By keeping your drawings simple but focussing on the content of your cartoon – what you want to show or say in your cartoon – then you can begin immediately to create images from your wittiest ideas.

2) You’ll learn how to generate ideas for cartoons quickly and easily. The more you do it the easier it gets. I discovered my self that it didn’t take long before I was seeing potential cartoon material all over the place, and I literally had to stop thinking about finding ideas because they were coming to me so fast, I had more ideas noted down than I could find the time to draw. And there’s no point in having the ideas if you’re not going to complete them.

3) Unlimited ideas – literally, every word in a dictionary, every topic in an encyclopedia, every event of your day could be the subject of a cartoon. They are just waiting to be developed by you.

4) You’ll be able to cartoon any subject – even those you might think are not suited to cartoons, or that have no humor in them. There definitely is a funny side to everything, and you’ll be able to find it. If you’ll want to share it is a different matter. Remember – even death is funny if you look at it from the right angle.

5) Cartooning gives an extra purpose to your drawing activity.  Why do you draw, why do you want to draw, why do you want to draw cartoons? How many of your drawings do you hang on the wall, share with others, submit for publication, use as a practical illustration? Do you draw only to hide the drawing away afterwards. There is nothing wrong with just drawing for the immediate pleasure it gives you, but cartooning gives you a purpose and reason to draw: to create a cartoon, and to give life and posterity to an otherwise fleeting moment of humor and insight.

6) Learn to draw. If you want to be able to draw, cartooning is one of the most pleasurable ways to learn. Look, learning in itself is not much fun – having the knowledge or capacity to do something after the learning, and then doing it… that is actually what we desire. The simple reason most people fail to learn what they want to do is that they don’t stick with it long enough for it to become one of their natural abilities.

Cartooning is a fun past-time, especially when you’re creating work you can share, and because it’s so much fun you’ll keep at it. Drawing because you love to draw, not because you want to learn. And through the natural process of regular drawing activity, your ability will improve greatly and consistently. People will look at your work and say things like: “I wish I could draw like you”, or “You must have a natural talent”. You may feel a long way from that now, and have trouble drawing a satisfying cartoon face; but it’s a small step from drawing cartoon faces to drawing realistic faces, and that is considered the pinnacle of drawing mastery.

7) You’ll never have “Artists Block” – not knowing what to draw. With so many subjects to choose from, and so many ideas of how you can draw them, you’ll have more things to draw than time to draw them.

You’ll have a visual journal of your personal, unique experience of life. Cartooning gives you the chance to portray something that is impossible to capture with a camera, and difficult to recreate with words – it gives you the means to materialize and archive events that never happened, moments of hilarity that only existed as a potential; you are putting your imagination onto paper for others to see. Your cartoons are not illustrations of the world around us, they are the records of your personal observation and perception of the world around you – they are embedded with your identity.

9) Proof of your talent and ability… and of your humor, your creativeness and your communication prowess. If you have doubt in any of these abilities then you’re only fooling yourself. It’s all too easy to fool yourself; to tell yourself and others that you have no talent or that you can’t learn anything new. All that separates people with a particular talent and people without, is an unquestionable desire just to “do” what they do. If you want to do something badly enough, you don’t even consider whether you have the talent or not… you just do it. By “doing”, you increase your skill, and continually provide yourself with proof of your ability. Create one cartoon, and you have the immediate proof that you can create one cartoon. Create a hundred cartoons and you have the proof that you are a cartoonist.

10) This book will open you up to a world of possible “professional” creativity. The internet has given us a portal to an immense audience. Share your work with that audience and it could very possibly lead to a career move. Selling cartoons, making cartoons on demand, illustrating websites, and then books, self-publishing… areas of potential income-generating creativity that you may only have dreamed of. The world really is your playground, and your stage. You can again “dare to dream”.

11) Acquire status. Do you already know what it’s like to possess an ability that impresses almost everyone you come into contact with? How many people do you know who would really love to be able to sing; to be able to read music; to play the piano or any musical instrument; to speak a second language; or… to be able to draw?

I work daily with 60 to 70 educated individuals, and over 90% of them admit to cherishing one or more of the above desires. Can you imagine how I feel amongst them, as someone who can do all of these things. Now I can’t do what they do, but it’s my abilities that are coveted; my talents that are admired. They give me a prominent status among my peers and help me to maintain the balance over my weaker traits. We all need to have something that we are good at, and being able to draw makes a specifically strong impression on people… being able to draw cartoons, and to make people laugh has an even stronger effect.

12) No more drawing frustrations. How do you deal with the frustration of trying to draw something and messing it up? Do you scrunch up the paper and start again? Or maybe you give up right away and fall back into the belief that you have no talent. Well you don’t need to feel frustrated about drawing cartoons. As I mentioned earlier, this book is not about drawing, it’s about being a cartoonist – and one of the main points the book makes consistently is that you can draw as badly as a 6year old and still be a successful cartoonist. Because the “IDEA” is what it’s all about, not the drawing. Focus on the idea, busy yourself with the message you want to communicate, and stop wanting to be able to draw a perfect Disney character or Manga hero. Save yourself the trouble of having to learn to draw, focus on being a cartoonist, and the drawing part will take care of itself in time, without any study, without any practice and without the frustrations.

13) No more comparisons. You know the situation: you make a drawing you’re proud of , and then you see a better drawing that makes yours look pathetic in comparison, and you are immediately demotivated. Or you think up a funny gag for a cartoon, and someone else has made a funnier one on the same subject. Comparing yourself to others is demoralizing, unless you compare yourself to those who have less ability than you – but then those comparisons don’t give you any motivation to improve. A tennis player pitches himself against a better sportsman so he can get better himself, but he knows before he starts that he’s not the best. If you want to be the best cartoonist you’re asking for problems.

This ebook inspires you to find and develop your own voice, your own vision, and to deliver it in your own style. Because then you are focussing on originality, and you can’t compare that – you can’t say that one person’s originality is better than another’s… original is original! And anyway, you’ll be too busy enjoying cartooning to compare yourself with others.

14) No more dissapointments. How can there be when you are creating originality?

15) A unique route to becoming a cartoonist. There are literally thousands of books and courses available on cartooning. You owe it to yourself to find the right one for you. The fact that you are still looking might be a sign that you haven’t found the right one yet. Or maybe you can’t decide which is the right one out of the immense choice on offer.

Do you get the impression  that all these thousands of books are teaching the same thing, and most often in the same way?  That’s my impression, and that’s why I’ve never bought one of them. I’ve seen some great cartoons in my life, but what made them great was not the artistry – although that can sometimes be wonderful. No, what made them great was how powerful the humor was, how deep the insight, how perfect the timing, how recognizable the folly, how surprising the association. That is what I wanted to emulate – that is what cartooning meant to me. And that is what I never could find in the cartooning books and courses I searched through.

So I’ve had to develop it for myself, as countless top-cartoonists have probably done for their selves too. And just as you could do for yourself… if you didn’t have this book. You don’t necessarily need a book to help you learn something, a book is a mere substitute for a real teacher. But it can be a short-cut, and it can be an inspirator, and a support when you’re trying to learn something alone.

But I believe the real benefit of this book is that it opens your mind to the potential that already lies within you; frees you from the standard path of learning, and stimulates you to create your own route to becoming a cartoonist, riding on the belief in your own originality, your unique personality, and your own special sense of humor.

————————————————————————————————–

.

Content Review.

  “How To Become A Cartoonist” is illustrated with over 100   original cartoons, all specially drawn by me for this book, and all created using the same method I share with you in the book – among them:

• 26 subject cartoons, from A to Z, along with many more subject examples,
•  25 Association-themes, found as the basis of many successful, professional, published cartoons,
•   10 special case studies that give you an insight into the work-process of the cartooning mind,
• and, 10 alternative idea sources, with examples on how to use them.

And once you’ve tapped into these sources,  I’ll be helping you to alter your perception on the role of drawing, by explaining:

* Why drawing is easy,

*Why cartoon-drawing is very easy

*Why you don’t need to draw well to be a great cartoonist,

and lots of tips on creative, original cartooning technique so your ideas and your work is always uniquely you – ensuring you become a cartoonist and not just a predictable copy-artist of one, over-used style.

Cartooning is one of the most enjoyable past-times and occupations there is – and one of the best ways to communicate your observations, your beliefs, your unique vision on life, and to share your vision, and humor, with the world.   If you really want to be a cartoonist, then you need ideas… all-the-time.

 “How To Become A Cartoonist” is your “fast-train” to those ideas… That’s why it is a unique book – and I’m offering it to you now for  just …………………

$ 29,95 USD

 

Click here to purchase