Humongous Book of Cartooning Read online

  Bear—On Two Legs

  This is an exuberant pose: All the limbs are spread out, as the bear looks directly at the reader. As we move away from the more realistic animal stance, we also move away from real animal anatomy. His long snout is shortened, and his ruffled fur has been eliminated. Instead of flat paws, he now has chubby hands and feet.

  I’ve drawn the head flat across on top, which gives him a stylish look. But add some hair to it, so that he doesn’t look like a bald bear! For goofy-looking characters like this bear, set the eyes close together.

  Bear Cub

  This little cub has all the attributes of a cute character, including a large head on a tiny body and very big, soulful eyes.

  Lioness—Seated

  The lioness is a sleek, evil-looking character. She makes a great villain. Given the choice between drawing a lioness and a male lion (the one with the mane), I prefer her. Her lines are simple, pleasing, and balanced, whereas a male lion’s mane has a way of visually drowning out everything else about the character. Since the female lion is the hunter of the pride, she is depicted as athletic: big shoulders, big chest, small waist and rump.

  Get the Details Right

  The bridge of the lioness’s nose is clearly defined, even in a frontal view. Give any lion—male or female—a huge chin. Consider showing the lower row of teeth. And note that her upper lip is split by a line extending down from the nose.

  Elephant—On Four Legs

  Elephants make some of the funniest animal cartoon characters, period. To bring out their humor, I like to exaggerate and juxtapose several key elements. First, I make the eyes teeny to contrast with the elephant’s massive head. I also lower the head so that it’s in the middle of the body, which gives the elephant a funny, high, rounded back. I make sure to draw the feet, which have to hold up several tons of blubbery body, improbably small—almost dainty. And last, but definitely not least, I exaggerate the “pinchers” at the end of the trunk.

  Option

  If you like, you can feather the bottoms of the ears.

  Hamster—On Two Legs (Only!)

  Hamsters—usually with nervous personalities—are popular characters in animated films and TV shows. If you draw them on all fours, hamsters tend to look a little too feral—like fat mice. So I only draw them on two legs.

  Hamsters have fat cheeks—and therefore very wide faces. They’re thick all over, with little arms and legs. The snout should remain small, which gives him an adorable quality. Tiny whiskers finish off the look. Often, cartoonists will choose to blacken the hands and feet.

  Tips and Options

  The faster a character runs, the longer its stride should be. On the left is our hamster’s normal run. On the right, his all-out run!

  Double-breasted

  Half-length

  Short oval

  Full-length

  You also have a variety of choices when creating stomach markings for your hamster. (These also work for other small, woodland creatures.) Stomach markings, with their appealing two-toned look, make the character stand out.

  Shark—Standing

  Standing sharks are truly hilarious. They’re totally improbable, but what the heck? In a cartoon, we can do anything we want—if we can pull it off convincingly. The funniest aspect of the standing shark is that this big, mean, threatening animal has to take teensy-weensy steps when he walks because his tail fins are so little. As for the head construction, trust me on this: It’s funnier to have the two eyes on one side of his head, even though it’s anatomically incorrect.

  Tips and Options

  To make the shark’s eyes even more evil looking, add a furrow in the center of the brow and raise the lower eyelids.

  A single dorsal fin (left) is the classic look, but two dorsal fins (right) is an acceptable variation.

  Rhinoceros—On Four Legs

  The rhino has a huge sway in its back, as well as along the bridge of its nose.(Actually, the entire length of its face is curved.) Its tummy is always round and droopy—that’s just how the animal is built. The legs are short and sturdy. And here’s something else to keep in mind: A rhino always hangs its head low to the ground, never holding it up high the way a horse does. If you don’t draw the rhino this way, it will look weird.

  Get the Details Right

  There’s an indentation in the rhino’s nose just above its upper lip. And notice how deeply set the eye is on the rhino’s narrow head.

  Note how the back and front legs are differently configured.

  Rhino—On Two Legs

  Here’s the rule: If you want a villainous bad guy, place your rhino on four legs. If you want a funny character, stand him up on two legs, where he looks useless! In this two-legged, upright posture, he’s just sort of a grumpy complainer. Keep the eyes deeply set inside the outline of the head, just as they are in the more realistic version of the rhino. Keep the swayback, too—even in the upright posture—as well as the rounded tummy. Oh, and by the way, rhinos don’t have a shock of hair or a mane on top of their heads. I’ve given this character a little tuft of hair solely to humanize him.

  Get the Details Right

  Some rhinos have two horns. But, frankly, I think that’s redundant for cartooning purposes.

  Elephants’ feet are similar to those of rhinos—but subtly different. Compare the rhino’s foot, on the left, with the elephant’s, on the right.

  10

  Special Characters: Fantasy Creatures

  Now we have another category of creature altogether—from the world of fantasy. I’ve saved fantasy creatures for last, because they use every aspect of cartooning that we’ve learned up to now. All of them draw upon the realm of animal shapes, but some have half-human bodies, too. And all of them require us to think outside the box.

  We have gone over quite a lot of useful material together, you and I. Now it’s time to dig deep into that well of inspiration, to come up with wild and fanciful characters that will delight and tickle the audience’s imagination. My humble character designs are just suggestions. You can depart from them at any time to create your own individual take on these fantasy creatures.

  DRAGON

  The more realistically drawn dragons, as seen in fantasy-adventure illustration, look like crocodiles with horns, large back plates, and wings. Not so with cartoon dragons, whose faces, particularly their snouts, are often large and bulbous. I especially like to make funny dragons fat, with skinny necks. That brings out their true goofiness. As for their dramatic wings—forget it! The smaller the wings, the funnier they are. (Useless is funny.)

  Dragons are not complicated to draw, but they do have a lot of “stuff” on them—horns, teeth, back plates, wings, spots, scales, breast plates, and so on. All this “decoration” gets drawn after the basic construction is locked into place.

  Dragon—On Two Legs

  Because dragons are so tremendously popular, I want to show two different ways of drawing them. Here’s a dragon standing—improbably—on his hind feet.

  Tips and Options

  Instead of giving him a spotted hide, you can add stripes to your dragon.

  Some cartoonists give their dragons ridges that bump out and frame the snout and eyes.

  The bigger the wings, the more dramatic—and the less humorous—the dragon will appear to be.

  Dragon—On Four Legs

  Instead of a fat tummy, this dragon has a hunched back. But it’s still the lack of athleticism in his physique that makes him funny. Like a typical reptile’s body, his is low to the ground, with short legs. He’s ticked off about something, but his pouting lip and those little teeth are not going to scare anyone. Note that the flat feet give him a funny walk.

  A word about how this picture was composed: I’ve got a vertical piece of paper to draw on—this book page. Yet, the dragon, with his long neck and long tail, is really a horizontal character. There are only two ways of fitting the head and tail on the same page—I could draw him really, really small, or
I could bend his neck and tail upward, which is what I decided to do. This is called “working within the environment.” It took some effort to make this pose look effortless and not cramped by the page dimensions.

  Our dragon’s fat ankles are reminiscent of the “cankles” of your favorite aunt.

  Note the ski-slope flow of the back.

  Get the Details Right

  Our dragon’s fat ankles are reminiscent of the “cankles” of your favorite aunt.

  Note the ski-slope flow of the back.

  Little Gargoyle

  This little devil is an up-to-no-good but somewhat incompetent mischief maker. He can make your life miserable once he gets you in his sights. The gargoyle hides on the cornices of buildings and swoops down to terrorize the citizens of the city below. But cartoon gremlins have notoriously bad aim, and they wind up crashing into city buses more often than nabbing their victims. Ouch, that hurts!

  These little creatures are sort of cute, but definitely not cuddly—they’re too evil and skinny for that. And they lack the big, puppy-dog pupils of truly cute characters. Even so, they’re basically humorous little fellows.

  Options

  Here’s another way to draw his face: instead of using a circle, bump out the cheeks, for a younger, less retro look.

  Centaur

  A centaur is half-man, half-horse. The trick is in melding the two at the waist so that it doesn’t seem as if you’ve unceremoniously stuck two separate drawings together. Notice that the man’s waistline appears above the body of the horse and that the horse’s back has a curve to it. A straight line is lifeless. Most important, the man’s chest and the horse’s chest are vertically aligned. Ready to give the centaur a try? It’s challenging, but fun.

  Anatomy Lesson

  Note the two main areas of forearm muscles, on either side of the bone.

  Also note the direction of the definition lines of the muscles of the neck, collarbone, chest, and ribcage.

  Mermaid

  Mermaids are the class act of the sea. They are beautiful, graceful, shy, and playful. They are perennial favorites among young girls, as the mermaid is an idealized version of a beautiful young lady who lives in a sort of water wonderland. The top half of the mermaid is human (although it’s got oceanic motifs), and the bottom half is pure sea creature. The two halves meet in a zigzagging pattern just below the waist.

  Remember, this is a fantasy character, so she should have huge, fantasy hair—hair that gently flows with the current. I like to give mermaids elf-like ears, but most of all she needs beautiful, radiant eyes. Tilting them up slightly at the ends does the trick.

  Find a good “floating” pose for your mermaid character. Swimming poses are good, too. But remember that she should look weightless, because she’s under water.

  Get the Details Right

  The mermaid’s bottom lip curves in and around.

  Sea Serpent

  A sea serpents is like a giant tube with an elongated string of dorsal fins running down its back. And puny little legs for swimming. It’s pure evil, but not too bright.

  You can have fun designing these any way you like, provided they have some mystery about them. I’ve given this guy dark circles under his eyes to make him look intense. He’s got long, crooked horns that aim backward and a wild shock of hair. But those buck teeth and his stupid grin let us know he’s not the sharpest tool in the shed.

  Note how the long line of his tummy travels from his chest past the hind legs. That line and the short vertical lines drawn across the body help the eye follow the sea serpent’s long, squiggly form.

  Funny Fins

  Nope! This is how you draw the plates on a dragon’s back.

  Yep! This is how you do the fins on a sea serpent’s back. The pattern mimics the crests of ocean waves.

  Leviathan

  A leviathan is a giant sea creature. To make this creature look gigantic, we have to exaggerate the size of certain parts of him while making other parts smaller, for contrast. The tiny head and big body are a must, but the ridiculously long neck is the funniest part, ending in a goofy smile without a chin. Give him near-useless arms and legs, with just the smallest suggestion of hands and feet at the tips.

  Underwater Fluidity

  Draw the line of the back as one continuous, fluid line. And no matter whether your leviathan is floating, swimming, or hovering, the character will look more interesting if you position him on a diagonal rather than a static horizontal or perfectly vertical pose.

  INDEX

  American-style Manga Girl and Boy

  Animals. See also specific animals

  expressions

  eye placement in profile views

  eyes

  four-legged bodies

  noses

  snouts and beaks

  teeth

  two-legged bodies

  Apes and monkeys, 9.1, 9.2

  Aqua Gal

  Bad guys. See Villains and bad guys

  Beach Bum

  Bears, 1.1, 4.1, 9.1. See also Personality in poses

  Beavers

  Body language. See also Personality in poses

  leg placement

  posture

  turning walk into run

  Boss, Harried

  Buildings, drawing

  Bullies

  Bump-out head (bear cub)

  Camels

  Cats and kittens, 9.1, 9.2. See also Lions and lionesses

  Centaurs

  Chimpanzees

  Circle head, 1.1, 1.2

  Comic Cowpoke

  Confused King

  Costuming characters

  about: overview

  Aqua Gal

  Comic Cowpoke

  Confused King

  Gigantic Genie

  Hula Girl

  Kid Jungle

  Lovable Viking

  Pirate Captain

  Rugged Roman

  Spaceship Commander

  Super Kid

  Super Villain

  Cows

  Cut-off circle head (goth girl)

  Dads, 1.1, 3.1

  Deer

  Designing characters

  about: overview

  American-style Manga Girl and Boy

  Beach Bum

  Evil Henchman

  Goofy Office Worker

  Harried Boss

  Little Toughie

  Pajama Girl

  Stylish Woman

  Designing layouts. See also Perspective

  character calling out to other character

  drawing buildings

  drawing rooms

  exterior backgrounds

  grouping objects

  layout defined

  one character bigger than other

  reverse angles

  turning characters toward reader, 7.1, 7.2

  two characters in scene

  Dogs

  expressions

  eye placement in profile views

  four-legged, 9.1, 9.2

  noses

  Pipsqueak Pup

  robot

  teeth

  turning walk into run

  two-legged, 9.1, 9.2

  Dragons

  Ducks

  Earrings

  Ears, 2.1, 8.1

  Elephants, 9.1, 9.2

  Entire figure, drawing

  know-it-all kids

  parents

  teenagers. See also Teenage girls; Teenage guys

  typical schoolgirl

  Evil Henchman

  Expressions, classic. See also Personality in poses

  Exterior layouts

  Eye patch, 1.1, 1.2

  Eyes

  animals

  female characters

  male characters

  super seductive

  Facial features

  earrings and

  ears

  expressions

  eyes

  mouths

  noses

  Femal
e characters. See also Kids

  American-style Manga Girl

  Aqua Gal

  earrings

  ears

  eyes

  Hula Girl

  mermaids

  moms

  mouths

  noses

  robot

  Stylish Woman

  teenagers, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 3.2

  Fox, 1.1, 2.1

  Gargoyles

  Gigantic Genie

  Goofy Giraffe

  Goofy Office Worker

  Gorillas

  Goth girl

  Hair. See specific characters

  Hamsters

  Harried Boss

  Head shapes

  about: overview

  basic shapes

  bump-out shape (bear cub)

  circle (squirrel)

  cut-off circle (goth girl)

  lightbulb (mad-scientist villain)

  modified half-moon (cartoon dad)