| Draw your own cartoons |
| This is your chance to learn how to draw cartoons!
You might think this sounds too hard for you. You might think, "I’m not an artist!" But, you don’t have to be an artist to come up with funny cartoons. All you need is a pencil and some paper. You don’t even need any special talents to go with them! Just keep in mind these simple guidelines, and you will be fine.
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1. You can draw cartoon animals and people by reducing them to simple shapes and designs like circles for heads, dots for eyes, etc. Copy the faces at right. Then look around you and start drawing objects and figures by simplifying the most important traits that distinguish them.
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| a. Draw a circle |
b. Draw eyes, eyebrows and a mouth |
c. Draw round ears and you've got a bear |
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| a. Draw a circle. Draw eyes and eyebrows |
b. Draw a mouth. The nose can be a smaller version of a smiling mouth, turned upside down. |
c. Add messy hair |
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2. Some great cartoons depend solely on the facial expressions of the figures. Think about how you can make one of your cartoon figures look happy, sad, worried, frustrated, angry, or embarrassed. It’s easy! Use the figures at right and below as a guide.
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| Watch the eyebrows and the mouth |
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| 3. Some great cartoons depend solely on the facial expressions of the figures. Think about how you can make one of your cartoon figures look happy, sad, worried, frustrated, angry, or embarrassed. It’s easy! Use the figures at right as a guide.
Drawing bodies for your characters is easier than you think. Animals and people can share a simple, easy-to-draw body with small changes to each one. Notice how the same basic body is used for all of the figures at right. To show figures in different positions, use people and photographs for examples.
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Bored or Asleep
Close the eyes and add Zs |
Sad
Teardrops fall straight down |
Bad
These eyes look sneaky, shifty and evil |
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Glad
Big Smile!
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Mad
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| 4. Now you are ready to write and draw your own Do’s and Don'ts. Just look around you while you’re out on the slope and notice what works and what doesn’t work. I bet you can come up with some really funny ones!
Benjamin, Carol Lea. Cartooning for Kids. NY: Thomas Y. Crowell; 1982.
Now that you know how to draw cartoons, you'll need to have captions for them. Practice by writing a caption for our snowmen cartoon.
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