hi y'all!
was wondering - how can I create a new cartoon character- instead of drawing the ones that already exist. I really want to make original images but i can't semm to do so without seeing something to fgo on. Do any of you create the image in your brain or something?
I would really like to create( draw what I see in my mind) and not only draw what I see visually- do you know what I mean?
Eren

I know what you mean 100%

I think that is something you can't do unless you've spent a lot of time drawing things from reference, or at least studying things with your eyes. When you look at a cartoon character, you don't see all the little things that have gone into making it - you accept it as a whole. Until you understand what makes them up and how it all works it will be very difficult to get good results yourself.

So look at things, study them, draw them, practice practice practice

I A gree with u thats so true !

What Lizzeh said ,all but one thing.He should have said;practice, practice, practice and more practice

I asked this question once and Brenda said, "As best said by Leonardo da Vinci":

"First draw from drawings by good masters done from works of art and from nature, and not from memory. Any master who should venture to boast that he could remember all the forms and effects of nature would certainly appear to me to be graced with extreme ignorance, inasmuch as these effects are infinite and our memory is not extensive enough to retain them."

I am not sure if this applies to cartoons. Just experiment. Draw a crazy body give it a crazy head and eyes and then play with different expressions just like the Clickable Smilies to the left of a post edit window.

go out with a camera and take photos of people believe me you will see a cartoon in some one .. just try and be discreet though lol

my answer would be to doodle with your pencil while on the phone listening to music etc.then look over the doodles and work from there.to take things further put them on photoshop and skew them about.even with photo's skew them about.hopes this helps cheers Lorrir.

Learn to draw with your eyes first, then with your brain, all concepts of new characters are going to have some basis in reality. observe and practice practie practice!

btw cool forums, and hi to everyone, i'm new around here

Hi Azul,
you might want to check this web site out.
RJS

http://www.karmatoons.com/drawing/drawing.htm

I have problems drawing anything I can't see! I have always said that I'm a terrific copyist! However, even with that, all "imaginary" paintings have some basis in fact so learning the fundamentals would certainly be of benefit to you.

RJS, that's one terrific link you gave!

J

My beginning would be to develop a very simple character. Then learn to draw it from all sides, positions, and doing many types of things. This way, when you do get your character developed, you won't have just one position that he is always displayed in.

Eric

Eren,
I think I made a mistake when I was young

Somewhere I got the idea that in order to be an artist I need to be able to draw things from my mind only.
To use any reference... was cheating.

I'm not sure where I got this idea but it influenced me greatly.
It might have helped in some ways but it definitely hurt where it counts the most.

Use reference!
Underneath it all there are only so many shapes and forms that can make up a cartoon character.
You'll find that everyone that has created a successful character has borrowed some of those shapes from other characters. At the very least there will be a strong influence from somewhere. We may not seem it immediately but its there.

So... use reference! Its a great starting point if nothing else.
Find cartoon images you like... and think about what is is that you like about them.
Study real life too and see where those cartoon influences are reflected there too.
As you study you'll find the basic shapes you found in othe successful design to work for you too.

Other than the lessons right here at Drawspace.com I'll suggest a good study of the cartoon form would be the work of Preston Blair.

http://www.animationarchive.org/2006/05/me...tion-first.html


Note to those that might follow the link.
The Preston Blair pages on display via www.animationarchive.org are the originals.
You'll see copyrighted characters (Tom and Jerry, Droopy Dog etc.) that caused Preston Blair to redraw the artwork to remove those characters. There is another site that has a side by side comparison of the original and later edition. That alone is a good study... in draftmanship... and copyright.

Hi Azul,

Here's what helped me. I decided to design a new cartoon character for a company I worked for. I was their graphic designer and I ended up doing a ton of illustration work there.

The idea was to create a cartoon character that matched the business environment. I started by thinking a lot about what "aura" the company and its employees gave off. I know you probably aren't doing this for a company to use, but I think it may help to read someone else's general process:

1. Type of company: Direct sales of printing equipment
2. Type of management: Persistent, ex-Marine Corps hardcore-sales guys
3. Type of books the company members would probably read: Old self-improvement books like "How to Win Friends and Influence People" and other motivational (if corny) sales materials
4. Age of salesmen: 30-60

This got me thinking about the type of cartoon character that would really resonate with these guys. I started to imagine this slick salesman with big elvis hair and a skinny tie. I thought about the movie "Big Fish," especially the part where the main character is a salesman. Honest, hard working, knows how to extract money from people, and prone to make dumb mistakes here and there.

So, I decided to make him pretty fragile and skinny. Overall:

1. Hair: Big, a sign of confidence and optimism
2. Face: Handsome, or else he wouldn't be in sales (that's what all these guys think) - thin nose, sharp jaw, bushy eyebrows, small ears
3. Clothes: Black (slightly warped) tie, black pants, black pointy shoes (this company had *no* color at all, believe me, and these guys are used to reading Zig Ziglar books with black and white cartoons )
4. Line quality: Very sharp, sharp corners everywhere - his whole persona is "sharp."

At this point, I had something. I opened up Illustrator and within about two hours I had him down. I knew he would work when the sales guys peering over my cubicle wall started laughing and asking who he was. The character ended up being a big hit, especially with management (where it counts, he he)

To sum up, this creation was a caricature of the whole company. I don't mean that in an abusive way, but in a "wow, how true" way. The cartoon character really resonated with people there. In my opinion, if you start out by analyzing your target audience, really getting into their minds, you will come out with gold and the drawing will create itself (said by a guy who practices a lot...caveat emptor ).

If you are just creating a new character for the heck of it, try to give yourself something interesting to work with. I started a comic about myself once (albeit myself in an alternate dimension) and found it really hard to be excited about, after a point.

Maruchan,

Thank you for that very personal, and totally innovative discussion on this topic. I am sure if you didn't help out Azul, you provided some hearty material for other users with the same sort of questions.

This is why I like this site. There are so many professional people lurking out there that when something of relevance comes up in a question or topic discussion, they step forward and offer any assistance they can. Your information Maruchan was truly worthy of paying for on a consulting basis.

Thank you,
Eric

This is a problem that i have almost all the time. I draw comic books and it is always difficult draw a new caracter. What i do is next

1. First you have to know what is function of your caracter, wath is he going to do.
2. This will help you to form some image, altought it will not bee a clear image or it can associate you to some thing you alrady know, dont give up and try mixing those things that associate you and make some thing new.
3.With this preferences you can start to shape your caracter.
-First doodle simple drawings and than go for more and more complex and detailed ones, throu practie
you will make some thing that is yours and original.
-Next step if your caracter is in the comic is to draw him in all possible positions.
example:
I wanted to make an alien for my comic book. His preferences ware to be humanoid ( with two armes an two legs), biger then humans, too look mean and ugly but also dignifyd and respectfull, he was a warior so he had to have armor and wapones and protactive mask.
Awery thing whent smootly until i come to head and mask i didnt know how to do it, i always had an image of Predator in my head and what ever i draw it looked like Predator or similar to him. Wath i did was that i searched the internet for all kind of aliens from star wars, startrack,.................. I liked some of them and used them and mixed them to make my one alien for my comic book.

You can chek out my album and see some of my caracters and ideas unfortunetly specific alien is not there but i hope it will be sone.


Good luck

I read some cartooning advice somewhere:

• Sketch your cartoon characters from every angle
• Do eyes, practice several expressions
• Draw hands in different positions and holding different objects
• Write notes about how they move and look. What is special about this character? What makes them look different from the others?
• Fix defined proportions for each character's features. (Artists have developed rules of proportions for real faces. You have to develop ratios of the facial and bodily features of your own characters, to give them reality and consistency.)

Of course, there is no short-cut to relentless practice.