I used simple shapes and fun squiggles to create this cartoon.

People tell me that I have a talent for drawing cartoons.  They also go on to tell me that they “can’t draw a straight line!”

I like to  think that anyone can draw cartoons. They only have to break the process down into a few simple steps.  I guess that’s where my real talent lies.  Through years of personal research, exploration, and discovery, I unlocked some simple methods (steps) that help me draw cartoons.

I’ll share them with you now.  Don’t be surprised if they appear to be pretty obvious.

1. Simple Shapes. Cartoons are nothing more than assembled shapes and lines.  Take a look at the drawing of the boat. It’s made up of a half circle and rectangle for the lower boat part and a couple of small rectangles and a triangle for the mast and sail.

2. Don’t draw a straight line. Lines that run crooked or stray one way of the other, just a bit, have more character to them.  Again, take a look at the cartoon. The lines that make up the boat, mast, etc aren’t precisely straight at all.  They are somewhat straight, but they weren’t made straight using a ruler or straight edge.

3. Less is more. You can see this quality in a lot of the great comic strips.  I try to practice it, as well.  The idea is to capture the entire drawing with as few lines as possible.  Laying down a lot of lines over and over just muddies the picture.

Try to create a cartoon using as few lines as possible, but give each of those line a character of its own.  (This can be achieved by varying the thickness of those lines.).  When combined, the lines create an illusion of something larger and more detailed then its smaller pieces.

Look at the rock in the cartoon example. I count ten lines.  One large line (that is thicker than the rest) and about nine lines that act as shading.  With just under a dozen lines, the illusion of a large rock has been created.

4. Have fun with Squiggles. Don’t be afraid to play with squiggly lines and shapes. When used properly they can create clouds, waves on an ocean, water droplets (like in the above example), bushes, snowflakes, etc.

5. Draw, draw, draw! I know it sounds cliche, but it’s really the truth.  Practice makes perfect.  Like anything else, the more you draw the better the cartoonist you’ll become.