Cartooning Character Drawings
Traditional cartooning creation is a multiple step workflow process. For me, I need to start doing some simple character drawings. I like to start out on a sheet of paper by drawing a 6-1/2″x 4-1/2″ frame , like a typical single comic panel. It establishes my character drawing in terms of space limitations, vertically and horizontally. It forces me to deal with my normal proportions and my character posing. I need to work up the basic roughing out. I could just jump into drawing any where on a sheet of paper, but I find that I like to have some guides.
Penciling is the exploring step of cartoon drawing. I try to draw as lightly as possible, only darkening as I select desired marks. Lighter marks are meant as lower layers to develop an under drawing. I use darker marks to develop details. I try to not draw in very long strokes, but rather to use short sketching strokes. I sometimes find some marks create clutter in my sketching, I often erase to make adjustments until I’m satisfied.
I’m wanting to create solid forms using shapes and contours. It’s a type of pencil sculpting. Sometimes it’s useful to retrace my prior work on a new page using a light pad. I like to save my prior drawings and date each drawing to use as a progress diary. Sometimes I go down a different direction only to decide to go down an alternate path, so I need to back up to restart using an earlier drawing.
What I continuously remind myself is practice, practice and lots more practice. When I first started learning, I looked at great cartoonist’s work and thought “I can never achieve that level of skill”. But then I looked back at early drawings of those famous cartoonists and they were not even close to what they became. The more you do, the better you get. That is true for everyone. I’m always self-critical, but not negatively, but rather reminding myself cartooning is a continuous journey.
I plan to continue more on this next time.
Reader Notes : These are some of my “Cartooning Trek” thoughts as I work on pencil drawing warm-up. These posts are primarily my own notes. I will share what I am trying to do and when possible I will try to add useful background information. I hope you will find reading these posts useful, they are just my own personal approach to cartooning.
To get started drawing, I will be using different pencils, erasers and some simple 11″x 8-1/2″ white blank paper. Over time, I’ll discuss various art materials, but generally materials are a totally personal choice. If you want to following working along , you can draw your own characters, or learn with someone else’s characters as a model just for practice. I use mostly my own “BugPudding” characters, but I also like to occasionally use other people’s characters. It’s best, when possible, to use other cartoonist’s pencil drawings as examples and not finished inked examples. I learned Walt Kelly’s Pogo characters when I was first learning . Walt Kelly pencil drawings of his characters are almost nonexistent so it’s hard to learn from his finished inks. But he was a master cartoonist and one of my childhood heroes. 
Layout your rough shapes as light as possible and then you can strengthen your shapes as you feel out the drawing. Don’t be afraid to erase as needed to keep your sketch from becoming cluttered. You need to fill out and develop your drawing as you go. Unlike working digitally where layers and transparency are built in, traditional drawing expects multiple sketching sheets to be used. I find a light pad useful for creating overlays. This allows you to adjust the positioning and to adjust proportions and attitude positions. Nothing is sacred, nothing is precious. Try things and erase and go with what seems to work best. Your eraser is as important as your pencil lead. You can actually draw by using your eraser in your drawing. Just keep pushing through your drawing, go as far as you need to go to achieve your idea, don’t give up, just keep at it.
Use multiple sheets of paper under your drawings to cushion your pencil. It helps you keep your marks lighter. You later can shift to a darker pencil when you’re ready to darken your choices. Also, you might try initially using a 2H, 3H or 4H pencil lead instead of softer darker leads like 2B or 4B. I like 3H or 4H for starting out and exploring my drawings. Then for choosing shapes or marks work with 2H to darken lines to pull out your character. I also like using green, blue, orange and red colored pencils for exploring my character ideas. It’s visually useful to manage sketching clutter.
Light Pad : A light pad is a great tool for cartoonists. They are used to backlight your work so that you can place another sheet of paper or Bristol board on top of your original drawing to see the drawing on the bottom level. It facilitates tracing and saves your time when reproducing your original sketch. It is very useful for repositioning or modifying your original sketches as well as a way to workout your cartoon frame panel compositions.