Stop Making These 5 Common Cartoon Art Mistakes!

5 Most Common Cartoon Art MistakesMost cartoonists aren’t classically trained artists (myself included), so we tend to learn as we go.

Want to draw like a professional cartoonist quicker? Here’s some common cartoon art errors to avoid:

1) Start with poor writing

So this first one’s not really about the art per se, but if you’re going to draw an entire orchestra staffed with gorillas in Hawaiian shirts, that had better be a really inspired gag.

2) Live in the past

I’m not saying you need to sweat accurately drafting design changes in the latest iPhone vs. the iPhone 3Gs, but drawing a businessman in a fedora chasing his secretary around a giant CRT computer monitor is a sure way to not to sell cartoons.

3) Draw everything and then some

That scalloped rim amber cherry conference table surrounded with chrome trimmed leather lumbar support chairs and a mandaianum fern in the corner sure is fun to draw, but your standard bar graph gag really doesn’t need all that.

One way I’ve found to edit myself is to draw my scene, throwing in whatever I think I need, then drawing one box around what’s important. It forces you to focus on what’ needed for the gag, and not just what you like to draw.

4) Hand hiding

If you can’t draw a decent hand, learn. Stop putting characters’ hand in their pockets. Just stop.

5) Kill your line

Nothing leeches the life out of a line like drawing it over and over and over and over and over until it’s juuuuust right. No one will notice that little imperfection but you, and the loss of that just-dashed-off vibe isn’t worth it.

This is why I still use good old fashioned ink and paper. No undo for little surprises.

Take these to heart the next time you’re at your drafting table and your cartoons will improve dramatically.

What stuff do you avoid when you’re cartooning?

Cartooning Dos and Don’ts (Advice to a Young Cartoonist)

Andertoonsmailbox-2 1Got this email from a young cartoonist a while back:

My name is (name omitted) , and I just graduated from Baylor University in May with a degree in English Lit. While there, I also cartooned for our campus paper, The Lariat, for a good five semesters or so. I just narrowly missed getting to work with our new assistant media adviser, (name omitted), but she has mentioned that she knew you from school and that you’re open to advising students looking into cartooning as a field. To that end, I’m writing to see if you have any practical advice on making a living off of drawing. I’ve visited Andertoons and read your FAQ (so trust me, I plan to “draw, draw, draw”!). But do you have any stories or advice regarding the path you took? Maybe mistakes you learned from or things you got a jump on? I figure any advice I can get from those who have gone before would be super-valuable.

I’ve offered cartooning advice before, and regular readers will know that I don’t often tend to wax poetic about art and inspiration and all. I’m assuming that’s a given.

When I look back, the help I needed most starting out was nuts and bolts advice. So, some cartooning Dos and Don’ts for you:

DON’T – Bet it all on syndication

That’s not to say that the syndicates aren’t all very nice, but it seems there’s fewer and fewer breakout strips, and the newspaper industry isn’t in the best of health anyway.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s always room at the top (and I haven’t looked at your work) but the odds are pretty long on making a good long term living with a syndicated strip. You might be better served to…

DO – Promote yourself

I’m going to assume that your cartoons are really good, so that means you’re about a third of the way there. Get a website working well and get it noticed. Blog. Tweet.

Look at your competition and see what they’re doing and do it better and more often. Eventually you won’t have to do as much of this, but count on thinking about it a lot for the next year at least. That being said…

DON’T – Create only what you think will sell

Doing what you think will sell because you need/want to make money is the wrong way to go. It comes off false and readers sense it. That being said, trying to sell ninja princess bunny cartoons to business publications or professionals looking to pep up a powerpoint isn’t a good idea either.

There’s a fine line between acknowledging available markets and creating appropriate material for them, and cynically creating cartoons leveraged more toward sales than humor. Do what you think is funny while keeping an eye on the markets. You’ll be happier, funnier and make more in the long run.

Basically…

DO – Be a business

Learn what an invoice is and make yours clear and professional. Get up to speed on some basic accounting. Invest in good materials and equipment. Have your W9 ready to fax over.

Be professional on the phone. To a client you shouldn’t be Johnny Someguywhocandraw, you should be Johnny Inc., who knows what they’re doing.

OK, that’s about he best cartoon advice I can give. There’s a ton of other really good cartooning blogs out there for more help and inspiration.

Good luck!

Top 5 Ways to be a Jerk Cartoonist

1) Make sure you promise an unreasonable deadline you think the client wants, and then deliver late. Over-promise and under-deliver. Nice!

2) Take the tiniest germ of humor you can find and squeeze a cartoon out of it by writing an excessively long caption to explain why this is so funny. Brevity is wit my arse.

3) Ask for other cartoonists’ markets and contacts. Nothing endears you to a professional more than asking to see their books.

4) Argue print vs. web and refuse to consider other points of view. You know you’re right – make sure we all know it too.

5) Beg for criticism, and then explain why it’s wrong. Classy!

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Trade Color Alpha! (Sounds like an action movie doesn’t it?)

Tradecolors

Well, if you’re into comics and coloring in Photoshop, this is about as close to action as you’re gonna get.

Trade Loeffler, of Zip and Li’l Bit fame, gives some PS coloring via channels advice that I’m still digesting over my morning coffee.

Channels is one of those PS features I don’t know much about, but Trade explains it really well, and you can bet I’ll be trying it out next coloring job.

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