Friday, January 8, 2010

Drawing cartoons

I think most cartoonists would agree with me that drawing cartoons is not such a thing you can learn out of a book. Years ago I bought 'Cartoons Tekenen' (1986) by Ross Thomson and Bill Hewison (original title, 1985,'How to draw and sell cartoons'). I'm not a cartoonist and I really am an awful drawer, but this book gives a good understanding about the art and techniques of cartooning.
Chapter 1 explains some drawing techniques and materials,(pen and ink, pencils, paint, underground, ...) chapter 2 tells about developping an own style (inspiration, caricature, anthropomorfism, sound and motion, ...) and chapter 3 describes cartoon classifications (such as satire, black humor, polical cartoons, international styles, etc.)




International styles: left Dallos, right Bosc cartoon:


In our public library I found 2 other books with the same goal: offering drawing techniques en inspiration to draw cartoons.
The first one is 'Stripteken Technieken' by Steve Whitaker ,1997 (original title: The Encyclopedia of Cartooning Techniques, Quarto Publishing, 1994):

The second one is 'Stripfiguren tekenen' by Jack Hamm ,1989 (original title: Cartooning the head and figure, 1982). In the book are very detailed drawing lists of hands, noses, hats, faces, cloths, feet, shoes, etc.


Drawing hands, as described in the tree books:

The Encyclopedia of Cartooning Techniques


How to draw and sell cartoons


Cartooning the head and figure

Drawing emotions:

in How to draw and sell cartoons

in Cartooning the head and figure

in Cartooning the head and figure

Caricature in:

The Encyclopedia of Cartooning Techniques
left: Tyson by Karl Meersman (Belgium),
right: Arnold Schwarzenegger - Terminator by Carl Flint (Sweden)

How to draw and sell cartoons
Khadaffi by Ewert Karlsson (Sweden) and
John Wayne in The sands of Iwo Jima, by Bob Sherriff

What is your favourite How-to-draw-cartoons-books?
Let me know.

Learn More:
How to draw and sell cartoons on Amazon (with preview)
Cartooning the head and figure on Amazon (with preview)
The Encyclopedia of Cartooning Techniques on Amazon
How to make money with simple cartoons (1949) (on Mike Lynch blog)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

One of the best is The Cartoonist's Workbook by Robin Hall.

Jan said...

Thanks for mentioning, didn't know of that book. Here's a link to some reviews of the book I found:

http://www.amazon.com/Cartoonists-Workbook-Drawing-Writing-Selling/product-reviews/0806996730

Unknown said...

Hi, I noticed that you've posted an image of mine from the Encyclopedia of Cartooning Techniques, thanks for that! I thought you might be interested in my new book It's behind You! - it's a book of children's monster poems and you can see the trailer (and hear some snippets of the poems) here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4FEOn4R1viQ

Best
Carl Flint