The Problem With Starting A Drawing The moment you start drawing, you mess up and you erase.  Then you try again, only to mess up again and erase.  Doing this a few more times and you give up. Why can't you draw well?! If this sounds like you, I can tell you right away, your whole mindset is wrong.  You may have seen someone online start with an eyeball or start in a corner of a page with a marker and draw something incredible, but people like that are outliers. They don't draw like most professionals do. Drawing Like A Master You, me and many of the great masters have to "buil ..read more

Cartoon Nose Formulas Drawing naturalistic noses is almost as complicated as drawing naturalistic eyes. HOWEVER drawing cartoon noses isn't nearly as hard.  You can actually get away with a lot less understanding of actual noses and still be able to draw convincing cartoon noses. In this lesson I'll talk about general cartoon noses.  Which really can be just about any shape. I'll also give you a "catch all" nose base formula that can be adjusted to make just about any kind of simple naturalistic looking nose.  Finally, I'll go into Freddy Moore, Bruce Timm and Takahiro Kimura an ..read more

Cartoon Clothes Formulas We've learned formulas for every body part, however, people don't tend to walk around naked. We're usually wearing something. That something often wrinkle up and fold around us as we move. In this lesson, we'll be dealing with how to handle drawing cartoon clothes.  Specifically how to draw wrinkles and folds. Here you will find: Simple Cartoon Folds The Four Most Common Cartoon Folds: Pipe Fold, Half Lock Fold, Spiral folds, Zig Zag Fold Fold Thickness and Fold Origin Points: Fabric Types, Support Points and Pinch Points Using Fold to Describe Form Costume ..read more

Cartoon Feet Formula Feet are often one of the most neglected parts of the body when it come to drawing. It's not that they aren't important, it's just that they aren't very "glamours." Also, most of the time they're covered up completely by shoes so we don't even get to draw them as much as everything else. Still, we should know what's going on inside the shoes. And women often were shoes that expose their feet so, we still need to know how to draw them. In this lesson, we'll do just that.  I'll share with you the three part formula that helps me draw feet, plus more. In this lesson we'l ..read more

Cartoon Legs Formula Arms and legs have a lot in common when it comes to drawing them.  The thought process behind drawing them are very similar.  The biggest difference between the two are the muscle masses. Otherwise, the approach to both arms and legs have a lot of overlap as you will see. In this lesson, we’ll be tackling: Simple Cartoon Legs Leg Drawing Formula How to Apply the Formula to Different Cartoon Styles. Let's get started: Simple Cartoon Legs Cartoon legs can be simply broken down to rubbery rectangles or long triangles. After deciding the type of legs you will go w ..read more

Cartoon Hand Formulas To be honest, just drawing hands alone is as complicated as drawing heads and figures.  There's a LOT to drawing hands.  However, you can get away with not going too in depth with hands when you're cartooning.  Depending on how cartoony you're drawing. In this lesson, we'll go over: Very basic cartoon Hands Hand Burger and Sausage Boxy Hands Hand Drawing Tips Applying The Formulas to Different Styles (Freddy Moore Style, Bruce Timm Style, Takahiro Kimura Anime Style) Turn Arounds Very Basic Cartoon Hands When it comes to basic cartoon hands, they can be d ..read more

Cartoon Arm Formula It's odd to have a body without arms.  Arms and hands are very expressive parts of a figure.  We'll be tackling hands separately. In this lesson we'll be focusing mainly on arms. Arms, for the most part are very simple to draw.  It's when you want to get muscular that things get complicated.  Either way, drawing arms start off very simply. In this lesson, we'll be tackling: Simple Cartoon Arms Arm Drawing Formula (two line arms, arms as tubes, slight tapering, rhythms). How to Apply the Formula to Different Cartoon Styles. Let's begin with the most bas ..read more

Cartoon Body Formulas I spent a lot of time on cartoon heads.  There's a lot to know about drawing heads.  There's just as much to know about drawing the body. By "body", I mean the torso and hips. Cartoon bodies can be simplified so that you don't need to go as deep as you would with the head although, for best results, it's good know how to draw a more realistic anatomically correct body. In this lesson I'll show you some simple body formulas you can use, and how some of those formulas can be modified to draw some slightly more naturalistic looking body shapes. We'll go over: Supe ..read more

Hair Drawing Tips Nothing ruins a well drawn cartoon head like ugly drawn hair. Pretty much, what you want to avoid, is the spaghetti hair effect. You don't want your hair drawing to look like you're just putting down a bunch of lines from the top of the head.  It really doesn't look good at all. In this lesson I'll show you three simple ways to approach hair that will make your cartoons look far more professional. This tips will are: Creating a clear hair line and hair shape. Making "Hair Ribbons." Creating highlight shapes. Before I begin, let's take a look at some very simple cartoon ..read more

Cartoon Ear Formulas Out of all the features on the head, ears are treated most like an afterthought.  I know that I ignored them for most of my drawing career. It's rare when anyone really pays too much attention to a drawing of an ear, unless it's just down right terrible. It doesn't really help that cartoon ears are almost error proof. You can almost draw anything, call it an ear and you're done. When it comes to drawing more naturalistic cartoon ears, you can get away with knowing pretty much nothing about ear anatomy and end up with  a good drawing of an ear. Because of thi ..read more