The Best Tools For Cartoonists

...if you wanna work for me anyway.I am starting a couple projects and will be on the lookout for cleanup artists, inbetweeners and maybe animators. What I need from cartoonists and animators are some basic traditional skills.Here is a quick rundown of the tools I find the most useful:CONSTRUCTIONThis is the most important one for me. I need artists who can draw solidly and make their characters

Evolution Of Macaroni

Late 20s, early 30s: Characters are made of simple torso shapes. Limbs are tubes that have no pliability. They are even widths from one end to the other. When they bend, they bend mechanically in the middle, not towards one end or the other.The macaronis can stretch but generally stay the same widths from end to end.They gradually start to loosen up and get more organic.Mid 30s - Getting more

Macaroni Theory

Methodical Study

My pal Jojo is a young whippersnapper who is constantly improving his skills.I suggested he study some Tom and Jerry animation and copy some of the basic actions.I have noticed over the past few years that students who study and even copy old animation do not in turn always apply what they studied to their own work.So I suggested to Jojo to animate another character doing the same action as a Tom

Pretty Girls by Rasmusson

Hal Rasmusson is a cartoonist who I only know of from the Walter T. Foster cartoon books.He draws pretty girls like a sonuvabitch.It's nice of him to explain some of how he does it too.He's got some real common sense advice. No hippie teacher mumbo-jumbo.I used 2 different editions of the same book, because some of the pages overlap. The older edition (the skinny pages) has slightly better

Tommy's Lesson 1

I started by explaining the most fundamental parts of good cartoon drawing:1) Construction:I pointed out that the center lines that slice through forms are not parallel to the edges of the forms.I pointed out that on a 3/4 view you see more of the side of the head and face than from the front view (which many young cartoonists don't realize).Here are very simply explained facial mechanics. When

Cartoony, Graphic and Directly to the Point: Kurtzman's Hey Look

Harvey Kurtzman's "Hey Look" is UPA before UPA. It's also something more. It has the graphic qualities of "Gerald McBoing Boing" and "Fudget's Budget", but without abandoning its cartoony roots. It's similar to T. Hee's style, but with a lot more verve.Technically, Harvey has a lot of obvious great qualities but above and beyond them all is his ability to balance them graphically to convey a

The Incredible Story of Tommy, My First Official Cartooning Student

I was shopping for meat one day and I noticed a tall lanky youth following close behind me. I assumed he could tell I knew my meats and wanted to copy my selections, but after a few minutes he walked up to me, clamped his hand onto my skull and addressed me. He said "Are you........him?" I said "I am one of him." He then queried: "John K.?" Then he hailed his sister over. "Hey sis, it's John K.!"

Classic Character Studies

When I want to learn how to draw classic characters, I don't only look at the model sheets but it's a good place to start. I try to find the earliest incarnations first.After studying the models I then also look at animators' drawings, storyboard drawings, toys and comic book or comic strip drawings too.I look for the most appealing incarnations of the characters and try to incorporate them all

Harder Angles

Stiff Warm Ups and Studies

I am slowly, painstakingly trying to beat new information into my brain.2 things I have been working on are facial structure and legs - with attention to balanced poses and how they work. Like many cartoonists, my eye lies to me a lot and I naturally draw things out of proportion.I think I am just beginning to understand how the major facial muscles and features interrelate with each other. The

Private Lessons

I started giving private lessons to a fellow named Tommy who moved out to LA from the midwest to pursue his dream of being a top Hollywood cartoonist and getting beaten down by the man. I ran into him at the supermarket the day he arrived and he dropped his eggs all over the floor and did a Tex Avery take. "You're....HIM..." Jesus. I almost called the manager. Then he demanded lessons. I took

Does All This Human Drawing Help Cartooning?

Honestly, I'm not sure yet.I'm realizing that I use a whole different type of thinking when I copy live humans (or photos of them) than when I draw cartoon characters and I haven't yet figured out how to link the two types of reasoning.Boy I see even more mistakes when I compare the drawings to the photos after I blog them. Like many cartoonists I tend to shrink open spaces when I copy real

Teeth Help People Be Specific

No two people have the same tooth personalities.I've been noticing how important the shape of peoples' teeth are to their individuality. If you don't get the teeth shape right it can lose the likeness.Below is my breakdown of a very famous set of chompers. First I figure out what the whole mess looks like as an overall shape - each person's bar of teeth has its own unique shape. Then I break it

More Hair : Asian Girls

My "realistic" drawings are about as bland as bland can be. I'm ready for when Filmation starts up again. My goal is not to learn to draw realistically, but to understand why things look a certain way in general logical terms so I can then simplify and cartoon them.I gave myself a double problem with these studies. I want to add some hairstyles to my pretty girl palette and am using a Japanese

Warmups: Caricatures / Heart Throbs

I haven't done caricatures in awhile, so I thought I'd warm up by doing some of the current teen heart throbs.Because you never know when Jeffrey might call me in to design the latest romantic emos for a picture.As you can see, I'm out of practice.I don't really know who these people are, but they certainly have interesting heads.I love this head. I have been fascinated with it for some time

Cartoonist Warm Up Exercises: Girls' Hair

I strongly recommend to every growing cartoonist to do warm up exercises every day. Athletes warm up before stressing their stiff joints, musicians practice their scales every day before jumping right into their performances and I think cartoonists can benefit from limbering up their pencils and brains before they attack their work. I should follow this advice and I did this morning.PRACTICE THE

Application Of Studies

Some people might wonder what the point is in copying the drawings of others. I'll tell you. It's so you can apply what you learned from the copies to your own drawings. It's not just so you can be good at copying.Geneva has been studying the work of Harvey Eisenberg and copying his original poses and scenes.She got very good at these straight copies so I suggested she go to the next step. ...to

Going to Get a Cartooning Class Together

Live, in LA Areaif enough folks are interested12 lessons$12006 weeks/2 lessons per weekmust have some basic skills firstIf you're interested post drawing lessons from 1-7 on a blog and send me a link to checkIf you have the stuff it takes you will be acceptedhttp://johnkcurriculum.blogspot.com/2009/12/preston-blair-lessons-fundamentals-of.htmlmore details to come