STEP ONE: Create 3 cartoon drawing sketches that originate from a gesture drawing.
Creating cartoons with emotion isn't just about adding a facial expression. If I ask you to draw a "sad robot", some people might assume I want a figure of a robot with a sad face, such as the one below:
Emotion really comes from all parts of the character. You have to think about body positioning and posture -- and that comes from gesturing. Start with any full-body photograph of a person or animal. Try looking for something specific -- happy person, scared person, etc. Or if you have something in mind, include that in your search (person walking, handstand, etc.) and create your gesture.
Then determine what you would like to turn your gesture into. It could be a person, animal, robot, creature, alien -- anything you want. Think about what could be exaggerated about your cartoon. If you are turning your gesture into something specific, look for photographs to help inspire you.
Make sure you are looking at PHOTOGRAPHS of the actual human/animal/create, not computer illustrations or someone's drawing. That's their interpretation of the cartoon. Be original and create your own interpretation. The results will be much more interesting:
If you have trouble drawing things, start with basic shapes -- circles, rectangles, squares, ovals, triangles, etc. and see where the shapes take you. Think about not having your character stand straight and facing you with its arms by its sides (like a "gingerbread man" stance.) Do you want to exaggerate any part of your character? Do you want to give your character any props/objects/friends?
STEP TWO: Final Drawing
When you have finished at least three cartoons from gestures, pick your favorite/best sketch and redraw it on a clean piece of computer paper. Don't worry about a background -- we will create those later.
Requirements for your final drawing:
- A full-body character
- LOTS of details (does your character have fur, clothes, texture, etc.)
- On a piece of white computer paper
- Large (try to fill up as much of the paper as you can without going off the page
- Do not copy any existing cartoon. Make your own original character.
