Tips for Drawing Great Cartoons

You don’t have to be a skilled artist to draw cartoons. Most cartoons are simplified versions of things that we see every day in real life. Once you learn to think about things from the point of view of a cartoonist, it’s easy to create compelling and interesting images.

Break Your image Into Its Simplest Elements

If you need to draw a tree, start with a rectangle, and add a triangle or a circle to the top. Make the rectangle brown, and the circle green, and there you go – you have the beginnings of a tree. You can add detail (roots, shadows) later if you wish.
Making a car is just as easy – two circles for the wheels, and a rectangle for the body. Gradually add details from there.

Use Layers When Working on Your Computer

10-Tips-for-Drawing-Great-CartoonsIf you are making your illustrations or cartoons on the computer, use an application like PhotoShop, which supports vector images and layers. Always work in vectors, rather than bitmaps (vectors can be resized easily, which is important if you want to print your images out). Layers are useful because they allow you to break the image down into several parts, and if something goes wrong you can just remove one layer rather than have to re-do the whole image.

Choose a Bold Colour Pallet

Cartoons are not supposed to be realistic. They’re bold, bright and simple. Don’t worry about finding the perfect shade of red or brown for your bricks, and don’t worry about fine details. Stick to a small range of bright colors, and don’t worry about making things completely realistic. When you’re creating a cartoon, you can sacrifice detail (and even, to a certain extent, scale) if it makes things look more interesting.
Use your imagination, and let people fill in the blanks – and above all, have fun with your images.

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