How to Become a Cartoonist

Video Transcript

"Hi, Joel Hickerson, grindog.com. The question is, how to become a cartoonist. Well, I guess a cartoonist is kind of like a stand up comedian only you're using paper, so you really I guess to start out with, you need to draw all the time. All the time. Doodle when your teacher is talking to you, take classes, figure drawing is a great class to take. Figure drawing, perspective drawing, those are all very important and then when you take them all, you can throw away a lot of it, because what you're doing as a cartoonist is exaggerating. So concentrate on emotions, especially the funny ones 'cause cartoons sometimes if you decide to go the comic route you will have to get very good at drawing expressions and motions, flailing of the arms, hopping, falling down, all of that's important. And as you draw, the more you draw you'll find you're developing a style. And as you progress with your style, it could take you somewhere you never thought you would go. You could become a very simple, simplified cartoonist like say, Dilert or Nancy, some of the older ones. Or you could get very complicated. There's one called Non-sequitur that's out there now, and there's some underground comics that are very complicated comics, and the anime kind of combines both of those. But I guess the most important thing is just to keep drawing. And it may not look the way you want it to at first but the more you draw the better you're going to get. And draw all of the time. Draw on everything you have to draw on. Business papers on your envelopes that you're sending out to be mailed. The more you draw the better you're going to get. But also don't be afraid to take instructional classes. And that's about the best information I can give you on how to become a cartoonist. I think it'll slowly creep on you, creep up on you before you know it. You'll be good at it. People will want you to do things for them and then you can start submitting your work to home publications or teacher companies or wherever you want to go with it."