Maybe not Everything, but Plenty Nevertheless! Before I finished my third book I decided it needed cartoons to visually explain some ideas (a picture is worth 1000 words) and provide humor to a tough subject. I started checking with hiring a professional artist (or student artist) to do the work. It quickly became clear the task would be time consuming, expensive and I may not get what I wanted in the end.
First, it would be difficult to find someone who would be able to take what was in my mind and transfer it to a cartoon
Second, it became painfully clear it would be expensive (even with a student artist). I wanted around twenty five cartoons drawn.
Third, some individuals wanted to discuss contracts and usage.
My best option was to learn how to draw cartoons myself. I figured it would be less expensive (only the cost of books and art supplies), and frustrating and I would get exactly what was in my brain. It would take some time to become proficient, but it sounded like a fun project. I was fortunately right.
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Cartooning but Were Afraid to Ask by Christopher Hart and a couple other books helped me learn how to draw cartoons good enough to put in my latest book.
Christopher Hart has done several books on drawing comics. He provides excellent common sense content, and teaches the skill very well though his words and cartoons.
Some the sections that I found especially helpful were: Expressions, How to Draw Hands, The Art of Character Design, Body Types, Principles of Layout, Layouts from a Distance, The Special Effects Lab, Explosions and more.
After finishing my sketches, I used Adobe Elements software to polish up the work. I was very pleased with the final cartoons that went into my book..and there have been many positive comments about them from people who have the book!
Overall, this is a great resource for learning to draw cartoons!
The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide to: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain : How to Come Up With Jokes for Cartoons and Comic Strips
The Cartoonist's Workbook Drawing, Writing Gags, Selling
Beyond the Basics I love how Christopher Hart really delves into the hard things to draw. Like hands and feet and expressions. This is a wonderful art resource. The pictures are fun and will help you generate many of your own ideas.
This would make a great gift!
Excellent Far more detailed than the How to Draw Cartoons book by this author. There are examples of heads, eyes, noses, mouth, hands, and many other elements in good detail.
high quality This a useful book for the artist (or developing artist) moving into cartoon drawing. The material is high quality, drawn and written by a professional with many years' work under his belt. You'll wish it were longer.
Drawing on Inspiration I bought this book so I can learn to draw cartoons with my 2.5-year-old daughter. Right around this time I had finished reading the book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman, and I was wondering how I might be able to start teaching my child about different emotions. Then on pages 18 and 19 of Hart's book I found a list of cartoon faces depicting emotions. We started drawing some of them. Currently we're concentrating on two: Happy and Laughing.
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