Drawing Cartoons

I've often been asked how do I go about drawing one of my cartoons. For a bit of background, I've always doodled. But when I was around age 11 I came across a cartoonist and TV show called, "The Draw Squad" with Commander Mark. I was hooked, I suddenly wanted to become a cartoonist not an artist (as if it were an either or choice). Soon after becoming a young-and-angry teen I vented my anger into political cartoons. I was on my high school paper as a cartoonist, with many of my political cartoons getting rejected for being too political. But over time the desire to be an artist crept back into my life so cartooning went back to being just a hobby (although a good friend of mind would like me to do an online comic with him). Now onto the drawings (which is really why you are all here and enough with my bad ramblings).



When I start just about every cartoon I start with a loosely drawn circle. I the case of this drawing I started with two. One for the Dragon's body and one for the lower part of the dress for the princess. Then I just stitch together the rest of the drawing with really loose lines and very basic shapes. As I am doing this I can see for the most part already in my mind how the finished drawing will look plus I can also start to see it on the paper too.



As you can see I further pencil in more details, but still very rough. The pencil lines are just guides to the pen and ink part. The next step after I'm confident I've got enough general pencil guides down, is to start inking. The amount of pencil by the way just comes through practice, it really can't be taught, it's a feeling kind of thing for me. Now with inking first a side note on the kind of pens I use. I've used all kinds over the years. From simple ball point pens to the higher end Koh-I-Noor Rapidograph pens that come in various sized and have their own inkwells that require refilling often and are $40 a pen, they also require a lot of hand holding in the way of they leak and they need to be taken completely a part and cleaned in an ultra sound cleaner every hundred miles or so. But lately I've been using the 99 cent fine sharpie pens. They are cheep and easy to use and they are cheep. Did I mention they are cheep? Also if they get moody I just simple throw them away.
Now when I'm inking in a drawing I try to work from the front to the back, that is I draw in the objects that are in front that will be over lapping the objects in back so I know where to end my lines for those things in back.



So that is why the dragon was drawn in first, then the top part of the princess. Now a short message on mistakes. This drawing like all of my drawings are full of them. Norman Rockwell once said, "if you're ever in the presence of a mistake, you should get down on your knees and thank God for it". One of the reasons he said this is that a mistake is a challenge that pushes you to over come it or in most of my cases I use it. I make slight adjustments in my plans with the drawing and continue going forward. Also they hep you see you drawing in a new light or in a direction you never would have considered before. Plus no one except you knows what your original plans were so no one is going to see your mistakes.



Here is the finished drawing, just before I erase the pencil and thus leaving only the ink. At this point I may just leave it or in the case of this drawing. I can scan it into my computer and color it using Photoshop. I know there are easier and cheaper programs for doing this coloring part, but I've just got old version laying around so I use what I've got. and the finished drawing colored looks like this.