What did I mess up on with this cartoon?
I’ve just started attempting to draw cartoons.
http://img167.imageshack.us/img167/5582/strawberrypeople0002at4.jpg
It looks really weird and I don’t know what I did wrong. Yes, I know the coloring is f*cked up. But that can’t be the only thing I messed up on, because even when I imagine it without the smears, it still doesn’t look right.
Here is a picture of it smaller.
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/2509/stawberrypeople2smalltu1.jpg
It looks a little better, but eh.
Anyway, changing the size won’t help me know what I did wrong, and thus I won’t be able improve my apparently minuscule drawing abilities. I want to know why the big one looks really weird and unprofessional. I just can’t put my finger on it.
The background is weird, I know. They’re supposed to be sitting on a strawberry…?
Juana
Tagged with: Cartoon • Drawing • Imageshack • Imagine • Weird
Filed under: Drawing Cartoons
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Corine
its too flat.
add some contour lines to make it more 3D.
Blanca
I do not think it is very good…sorry
Humberto
Well the baby looks like he had his legs ripped off and set on the sides of him, maybe try and find a picture on yahoo pictures of a baby sitting down so you can get his legs proportioned right.
Tynisha
You should change the baby’s legs, so they’re sitting like the boy. To me, it looks like he’s doing some sort of split in the air, but they’re lower than than the boy sitting, so it looks awkward.
Wilbert
There’s too much bright, strong background, so you lose the subject. The two figures should be the first things your eyes travel to, and at the moment they aren’t.
Leonarda
Might I suggest a few books? As an artist, first practice is everything. So dont give up. Second, you should practice your perspectives and proportions. And think about what each cartoon is saying to it’s viewer. Do you want to convey a certain message? How can you best get that across in your imagery?
Check these books out:
Lesia
The head of the larger character is nearly as big as his entire body. Although cartoon characters may have heads that appear somewhat proportionately larger…they are never as large as the rest of the body. The smaller character has a head that is about as big as its torso….a smaller ratio of disproportion but still too large for the body size.
You might try and upside down “7″ instead of a circle for the nose. It will make the face less “pig-like”.
Also, most cartoon characters will have three fingers and a thumb–not the usual four fingers and a thumb. This keeps the hands from looking splayed and actually gives more of a realistic look.
Keep practicing.
Francoise
Hey everyone has to start somewhere…so don’t get upset ….instead of looking at this drawing as final …think of it as part of a group of drawings and you are telling a story….make 6 squares or cells..as some call it.
In cell #1…..draw just a strawberry, medium size….then cell #2…..draw a head only coming into the square…peeking inside it….this makes it interesting …causing someone to want to know more…then on
Cell #3….have the whole body inside the square or cell….standing close to the strawberry as if he is going to climb on top of it…..with one leg up…and one down..
cell #4…..body is completely on top but facing to the side not looking straight ahead….
cell #5 another body comes in from the other side and climbs up the strawberry….
cell #6…..you see both bodies looking at one another ….and then you can write a “caption” balloon shape….with what they are saying to one another….for example….”I think were in a JAM”…..( they are afraid to climb down..also suggestion of strawberry jam)
Hope this helps you stretch your mind….keep at it ..never give up….
Mama Jazzy Geri.
Earline
well for starters everyone has their own style, sometimes
dont get upset if yours isn’t the way someone elses is
secondly
is that a huge baby of a small boy
they are exactly the same size
Katlyn
You should get a picture off google or yahoo and copy what you need to know.
What you drew is cute but you can definetly learn more by art books or pictures on the computer.
I’ve never had a lesson myself and one of my friends said that her boyfriend took art lessons for years and never did anything as good as mine. You can definetly improve yourself just by working at home and studying pictures or art books.
Good luck!
Coy
Your drawing has many elements that need improvement. You don’t have a good sense of form in space. The characters aren’t sitting in a way that we can all recognize. There isn’t enough details to make us want to look at them more closely. The background strawberry that they are sitting on looks like a rug. It is flat and there are no strawberry seeds to give us a clue. My suggestions are to draw some more paying attention to form, space, and adding details.
Debbra
Like people have said, you need to learn quite a bit about human anatomy, perspective, proper construction and design. You can’t draw something properly until you know exactly they way something is built and works. So essentially, you need to learn more.
This might help you out to learn how to cartoon properly. All the basic principles can and should be applied to human characters as well.
Loyd
1. When you ask for opinions you are often going to get blunt opinions, so let’s start with your phrasing. NEVER say you have miniscule drawing abilities. You are able to make a drawing obviously so you have sufficient drawing abilities. Got that? You can be excused for saying you have miniscule drawing skill, or miniscule understanding of drawing, but if you say “miniscule drawing abilities” this suggests you can’t improve and may as well give up. And some of us (I am explicitly thinking of myself) WILL tear you down, not because we really want to hurt you but simply because we see this as a good way to make you do a bulletproof picture. Whether we are right or wrong doesn’t matter.
Rant over, now it is time for suggestions.
Now, the most important thing in any drawing is shape. Your shapes are not bad (though I would have made the older boy’s ear’s bigger), but obviously you are not satisfied with how incisive they are. Shapes are constructed with lines, obviously. We used to use the term “outline” for the lines at the edges, but the problem with the outline is that it seems to be a visual abstraction with more to do with how we see an object than with what is in front of us. “contour” is the edge of an object. Objects can have two, three, or many more contours in their outlines. When you draw an outline you ALWAYS risk making the contours more homogeneous than they are. This is true both of academic drawing and of traditional cartooning. The difference of course, is that in the former you try to represent what is in front of you as honestly as possible, and in the latter case you are exaggerating what you see (at least in your mind’s eye). In both cases, you draw better when on some level (not necessarily verbal) you are analyzing what you see.
We tend to see babies as cute and somewhat funny, so we see humorous or cute figures as having big heads, big eyes on the head, button noses and small mouths. At whatever age, while individual proportions vary, the center of the head tends to be where you see the eyes and/or eyebrows. Look in the mirror and measure for yourself. If you look at most good traditional cartoonists, like Ranan Lurie, Miguel Covarrubias, or John Held, Jr., you will find that even when being funny, they usually respect that convention. You’ve got it right on the little fella, not on the older boy.
If I were you, I’d just take a pencil and do a black and white tonal drawing. Don’t even worry about what color anything is. Make whatever is closer lighter than whatever is further away. Fix it as you go along. Eventually, you should figure out what the contours are, then you can use them to make a more satisfying colored drawing. Then maybe you can post it to Yahoo! answers, but I should warn you, I don’t normally hold back and there are others like me out here.
Leonardo
UH.. Don’t take this the wrong way its a critique not a personal insult.
1. Perspective is really off
2. The nose is wrong no ones nose is a circle even in a cartoon
3.The position is really off the legs are wrong one should be in front of the other.
4.The body sizes are off the baby should be smaller than the boy.
5. No shading at all. You need the shade to give it a more 3D look to it. With out shading it looks extremely flat.
6. The eyes are wrong. The eyes are less football shaped and more almond shaped. and you will never ever see that much of the iris unless someone i shocked or scared to death.
7. The people don’t have lips just lines for mouths. Try drawing in the lips it will make them look better
8. The bodies are off as well as the hair.
9. It needs more of a background
The best advice I can give is look at tutorials, use references, and get some lessons. They should all really help. Once again this is a critique not an insult