Drawing Cartoon Characters

When thinking of drawing the face of a cartoon character whether a person, animal or alien, the key to remember is: Keep it simple. You want to be able to think in terms of very simple shapes as a foundation for your drawings and then build upon them. Remember when you were in kindergarten or first grade when you first learned about basic shapes? Circles, squares, triangles, etc., well, that is drawing cartoon characters at the most basic level.

In a nutshell, you need to be able to visualize complex objects and express them into simple shapes. Once you are able to do this, then you can begin to distort and combine those shapes to create any character that you can imagine. Let's take a look at the shape of a characters head and its facial features, which include the mouth, eyes, ears, nose and hair, and how you can build upon them to create your cartoon character.

There are an infinite amount of variations that can be created in drawing cartoon characters. All it takes is a keen eye of observation, breaking down the drawing into simplistic shapes and lots of practice as far as the details go, which, are totally up to you and your creativity. I suggest, getting realistic references of things that you wish to draw and use them for your future drawings. I prefer using a sketchbook and going outside to sketch people, places and things for reference. I do this for 2 reasons:

1. There is no greater teacher than life itself and..

2. It gets me out of the house to enjoy the process of drawing without worry of failure as my sketchbook is just a place for practice and ideas (no judgement, just learning).

Of course you can use books, the Internet and magazines as well if what you are trying to draw isn't readily available. Drawing cartoon characters isn't hard it just takes practice. Practice to see things in a creative way and practice translating it to paper or your Wacom tablet. So, get started drawing cartoon characters for your fun or profit. No telling where it will take you!