Best Drawing Exercises to Ereate Amazing Cartoon Characters
You probably will agree with me when I say it’s REALLY hard creating cartoon characters that seems alive. But what if I tell you that…You can learn how to draw better cartoons spending just 30 minutes a day. If you want to create cartoon characters this post could be a great place to start, I will share my best 6 drawing exercises for beginners to improve your drawing techniques with little to no effort.
1.- Improving action lines in cartoon characters
Drawing Exercise: choose an image of a cartoon character you like. You can use the mascots I created for KSA Pro League. Your task is finding the action line.
What do we learn?: We learn how to find action lines that liven up the characters. With some practise, you’ll will learn how to draw cartoons characters that look dynamic even if they are in a relax pose. When you add an action line to your mascot design, it becomes easier to understand for the viewer and easier to draw for you.
2.- How to improve your character posing
Drawing Exercise: the task here is creating a character that communicates different moods, attitudes or actions without any lines, just a black shadow. If you do a good work your mascot design pose will be understandable.
What do we learn?: the pose is one of the most important aspects when it comes to show attitudes, which is key in creating good character designs. A good silhouette makes easier and quicker to understand the character’s pose. A pose can have different silhouettes depending on the position of the camera, you must learn to find the best angle.
3.- Reducing characters to basic shapes
Drawing Exercise: your goal is reducing the complexity of any cartoon character to its basic shapes.
What do we learn?: this is a very good drawing exercise for beginners. If you want to learn how to draw cartoons you must “understand” the basic shapes behind complex character designs, once you understand the basic shape you will pose the character easily. The outcome will be more dynamic and consistent.
4.- Sketching A CHARACTER from Visual
Drawing Exercise: we are going to look at any mascot character or object as much time as you need, then you have only 45 seconds to reproduce it (you can look to the cartoon while sketching).
What do we learn?: Newbies tend to focus in the details of the character and ignore it as a whole, which is a huge mistake. By limiting the time to just 45 seconds you force your brain to focus in the basic shapes, this drawing technique is key to create well constructed poses.
5.- From basic shapes to detailed CHARACTERS
Drawing Exercise: the goal is building a mascot character using different basic shapes. Notice how simple and effective are he following characters:
What do we learn?: simple and effective cartoons are made with very basic shapes. In this exercise we learn to put details into the right place. Once you master this drawing technique your characters will be well constructed.
6.- Draw A CARTOON from Memory
What do we learn?: when we are not experts we tend to draw characters through visual references. With this exercise, we add resources to our mind. With practice, those resources will come to your mind automatically and you’ll learn how to draw characters unconsciously, just by imagining.
I created some courses with all my Photoshop tips and tricks about digital inking and digital coloring for mascot design. With my technique and some practice you can also make a living from the characters you imagine.
