There’s something magical about cartoons that just seems to transport us back in time to our childhoods.
Cartoons are great because they can be innocent, humorous, dramatic, educational, insightful, or downright hilarious. Cartoon drawing is a skill that few people seem to possess, yet if you’re a cartoon fan and wish to try your hand at creating your own, there are a number of easy cartoon drawing tips for you to follow.
People think that in order to draw cartoons you need to be working for Walt Disney or be a professional artist or designer. The truth of the matter is that all you need to do is have cartoon drawing ideas in your head, and be able to follow basic instructions online.
From lion cartoon drawing to educational infographics, here are 7 fun and easy cartoon drawing tips for you to follow.
Begin with simple shapes
If you’re looking to get into cartoon drawing for the first time, one of the first things you need to do is start off nice and simple.
Begin with simple shapes rather than overly complex shapes and designs and progress from there. For cartoon cat drawing for example, rather than trying to draw a complex image of a cat, start off with two simple circles, one to represent the cat’s body, and one to represent its head. Next, for the ears you can add two triangles, two small ovals for eyes, a triangle for the nose, a mouth, whiskers, and a tail.
Remember, it’s far simpler to begin with basic shapes and to then add to them later on as time goes by.
Get your proportions right
If you’re looking to create realistic cartoon drawings, another great pencil drawing cartoon tip for you to follow is to get your proportions correct.
When drawing a person for example, you want to ensure that their head, hands, arms, legs, and fingers are in proportion to the rest of their body, otherwise the image will look odd. This may sound simple, but it’s actually much harder than it sounds.
If you watch a lot of cartoons, you’ll notice that people only have 3 fingers and 1 thumb, rather than 4 fingers and 1 thumb. That’s because it is easier drawing hands in this way, to get them into proportion and have them looking realistic.
Unless you’re drawing something or someone that is deliberately needing to be out of proportions.
Look at other cartoonists for inspiration
Another very handy tip for anybody getting into cartoon drawing for the first time, is to simply look for inspiration from other cartoonists.
Cartoons are everywhere. We watch them on the TV, we read them in comics and newspapers, we read them in magazines, we watch and read them online, and much more besides. Because of this, finding inspiration for your cartoon drawing ideas is not difficult.
Look at different examples of cartoons from different artists and animators and then compare their work and see what you like, and what you don’t. From there, try to emulate your favourites. Remember, getting inspiration is one thing, but copying is a whole other thing entirely. You should never copy another artist’s work unless it is solely for practice purposes.
Start with black and white
When you’re just starting out with cartoon drawing and animation, simplicity is most definitely the key.
Instead of drawing a complex and elaborate image and then having to colour it in, start off with pencil cartoon drawing so you can design your images in black and white.
People often associate cartoons with bright, bold, and vibrant colours because they’re often aimed at children and need to catch their attention and imagination. The truth of the matter however, is that black and white cartoon drawing ideas can be equally as engaging and exciting.
Another great thing about black and white drawings for your cartoons is the fact that pencil cartoons often look artistic and dramatic. If you want your cartoons to have more of an artistic feel to them, black and white is the way to go.
Try to keep your lines clean
Now, unless you are deliberately going for a messy cartoon drawing style, like the one used by legendary artist Quentin Blake, who used to draw the illustrations for Roald Dahl’s children’s books, you should try to keep your lines clean and even.
When drawing your images, ensure that the lines flow and join together flawlessly. If you would prefer you can always sketch out messy lines to begin with as practice, but be sure to join them up and smooth them out for the final image.
Watch and read more cartoons
As if you needed an excuse to watch and read more cartoons, now you have it.
If you’re serious about getting into cartoon drawing, you’re going to need to get inspiration and cartoon drawing ideas from somewhere, and what better place than other cartoons?
If you can, watch as many cartoons as possible, going back many decades and compare them. You could go with old classics like Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck etc, and then progress forwards over the decades.
Look at the colours and drawing styles and designed used decades ago and compare them with how cartoons are drawn and animated now. A lion cartoon drawing from the 1960s for example, will likely look very different to a lion cartoon drawing from the 2010s and 2020s.
Use a cartoon drawing template PDF
Finally, to really help bring your cartoons to life, why not go with a cartoon drawing template PDF?
Technology has advanced massively over the decades, and thanks to PDF software such as SwifDoo PDF, you can now use PDFs and templates in a variety of different ways to create all manner of different images.
Cartoon drawing templates are ideal for digital artists as you can use them as the basis of your images, and then expand upon them as you wish. As the templates are in PDF format, you are going to need PDF software which is where Swifdoo PDF enters the fold.
SwifDoo PDF is very simple to use and is packed full of useful features for digital artists and cartoonists alike. You can use the software to download and open the templates, and then print them out at you leisure.
