How To Draw Cartoons The Easy Way

Learning how to draw cartoons is fairly easy if you are keen to do a little practice with your pencil and paper. Cartoons are not really complicated if you start with these basics. All drawings are based on simple shapes like an oval, square, cylinder, rectangle, or triangle/cone.

Follow these simple steps and you will soon be turning out cartoons that look professional. If you can draw these basic four shapes as mention here, you can draw any cartoon type from Spiderman to a Barbie Doll or even your favorite politician!

You can't imagine a newspaper or magazine like the New Yorker without cartoons, a kids TV channel with animated cartoons or trade journals without gag cartoons. And do you know, children make the best cartoonists simply because they are completely uninhibited. They draw with complete abandonment without any thought about ?Does it look right?? This is a natural flair that almost all children have.

Okay, so let's look a bit deeper into cartooning. First of all before being too creative you have draw things as you see them. Sorry, but there are NO shortcuts. If you do not have a burning passion to create wonderful cartoons then please do not start—unless of course you only wish to dabble in it.

You have to observe the basic structure of the object you are drawing and all the basic forms (the four major ones at least) must be able to fit into the object whether that be a human figure or any object. The EXACT likeness of the form is not necessary otherwise get yourself a digital camera. Obviously your interpretation or handwriting comes into play. No two people see the images the same way. The major key is to draw things realistically in your own handwriting.

The square or rectangle can be the start to drawing a box; the sphere can be an apple or the cone can be the basis for an ice cream. Remember you are drawing in two dimensions but the objects are three dimensions. See how these basics fit into any of these four basic forms. See how a cone atop a sphere can become a clown without any other form added--these would be the basics to start off with.

So our first exercise is to draw a box using a square. First of all draw a square as shown here and add perspective lines as in the dashes. Perspective means any object, animal, human or whatever has what is called a vanishing point. If you see a picture of a railway line you'll see the rails disappear into a single point. And so it is with anything you draw.

First Steps in Learning How To Draw Cartoons

Step One
These are the basic shapes which you must become familiar with. These are the very basics in ALL types of drawings so get to know them well and you will begin to "see" them in everything you draw.

It is better to start off drawing with a pencil rather than crayons or charcoal (these will come later.) A number 2 pencil is about the best as it is not too hard or too soft. Your pencils must be kept sharp all the time for good drawings. And you should use photocopy paper to start as it is cheap and readily available.

Step Two
Okay. We're all familiar with the Smily Face so we can start off with that. Draw an oval or circle freehand and place a button near the middle for his nose. That is in number one here.

In the middle drawing put in the oval eyes and just a squiggly line for the mouth. We're not trying to do anything spectacular here. Just a simple drawing to get you going and having fun.

On number three here draw in the ears which are level with the eyes as you can see. Then put in some more squiggly lines on the head, a quick dash for the eyebrows and you're about done with step two.

Step Three
All cartoons must have "expression" and that is emotion of one sort or another. It may be sad or happy, angry or docile, scowling or smiling, laughing or crying, silly or content or many other emotions.

So let's take our oval shape face and put in a few of these emotions. A smile is always a nice upswing of the lips and a scowl is quite the reverse as you can see in these rough sketches.

Number three is a happy face. Notice the eyebrows in number two, these can be very expressive.

Step Four
Now let's dicover how to draw a side view of a cartoon face. Again, start off with the oval or circle.

You will notice here that all the features are made up from ovals and circles? So start by drawing a circle for the head and a small circle for the nose as in number 1.

Next, in figure number two, draw an oval for the eye and one for the ear - also an upward line for the mouth.

Okay, in number three put in the eyebrow, then a dark shape inside the oval you have for the eye and a line underneath the mouth to show the lips. Then the hair, just draw in squiggly lines to indicate the hair. Now rub out a few lines on the nose and ear and you should have a pretty good drawing!

This Page will be added to within the next few weeks so call back or subscribe to the RSS feed on this page and you will know when it has been updated. You can also click on the link below for more tutorials on drawing.