How To Draw Cartoon Characters

1)     Start out by sketching basic figures with a pencil for the body. Use basic spheres, cubes, cylinders, boxes, curves and lines as body shapes.

2)     Determine the character personality. Will s/he be angry, happy, a hero or a villain?

3)     Draw the correct posture of the character that fits the personality.  Someone that is slouched is seen as shy. Someone with squared broad shoulders and facial features would seem confident.

4)     Exaggerate the characters. Make skinny cartoon characters even skinnier and fat cartoon characters even fatter.

5)     Draw the clothes on the character. Match the clothes to the personality of your character. If your character is sad, use long, droopy clothes. If your character is mad, use sharp, pointy clothes.

6)     Shape and detail the face to make it as expressive as possible. Draw eyes to be nervous, frightened, thoughtful, confident or suspicious. Young, happy faces are usually round with big eyes. Faces of villains are long and skinny with small, beady eyes.

7)     Once your character is done, darken the lines with marker. Erase the visible pencil lines. You can choose to color the picture with colored pencil, marker or paint.