How to Make a Drawing Look Like a Real Cartoon

Try drawing a popular character like Spiderman.

Cartoonists use certain techniques and tools of the trade to turn line art drawings into professional cartoons. You can create real cartoons with the same tools and techniques. The drawing is executed in a stylized manner then inked with professional cartoonist tools. Your drawing can be realistic or cartoon-like and can be executed in a range of styles from Manga to Super Hero to Disney. It's the attention to the tricks of the trade that make it a real cartoon.

Things You'll Need

• Pencil
• Eraser
• Black ink
• Reference image
• Black ink
• Crow quill pen nib
• Crow quill pen holder
• Watercolor sable brush, #2

Instructions

1. Make a sketch using pencil and paper. Begin by looking for the main shapes in your reference art, then sketch them in place. If you draw from your imagination, begin with a stick figure in the desired pose, then sketch the shapes over it for the head, body, arms and legs. Draw a circle or oval for the head, a rectangle or large oval for the body, and elongated ovals for the arms and legs. Draw an upside down triangle for the hips. Pencil in the hands as small ovals and the feet as rectangles. Fingers and toes can be drawn with sausage shapes.

2. Add the mouth, eyes, nose and ears with lines. Draw from your imagination or copy these details from reference art. As you move your eye along the facial details, move your pencil on the paper to copy the eyes, nose and mouth. Draw flowing lines connecting the shapes to finish off the figure. Check reference art to draw clothes. Even those drawing from their imagination can look at reference images of the type of clothes they want to draw. Draw only the major shapes and lines seen in clothes. Erase and redraw the details until they are pleasing to your eye.

3. Take a blank piece of paper and either a crow quill drawing pen or a water color sable brush. Dip the tool in black ink and draw practice lines with it on the paper. Either draw with a sideways motion or pull the point of the tool toward you. Do not draw by pushing the point of the tool away from you. Draw lines of varying width by varying the pressure on the point, making a flowing, pleasing line.

4. Use the crow quill pen or the water color sable brush to trace the pencil drawing over in ink. Cover the most important lines. Vary the pressure on the tool as you draw to achieve a variety of line thickness as you ink the drawing. These beautiful flowing ink lines define your drawing as a real cartoon. Once the ink is completely dry, erase any remaining pencil lines and your real cartoon is finished.

Tips & Warnings

• The crow quill pen and the water color sable brush are the tools at the heart of cartooning. While anyone can draw a beautiful line with them right away, it takes a lot of practice to master these tools.

• Scan your finished real cartoon into a computer on black and white setting at 300 pixels per inch. Open the scanned file in Photoshop image editing software and add color with the paintbrush and paint bucket tools. While some cartoonists color cartoons with watercolors, colored ink or acrylic paints, the professional standard technique is to color cartoons in Photoshop.

• It is fun to draw favorite characters like Batman and Spiderman for your own use, but remember that you cannot sell images of these licensed characters.

• Clean brushes and nibs with soap and water when finished to maintain these tools and avoid ruining them.

References

• Sidewalk Bubblegum: Comic Strip Tutorial