1 - Make it a Habit to draw every day! The more you draw, the more your own style will emerge.
2 - When you first start out get yourself a light box. Collect about 200 cartoons by the cartoonists that
you like best. Take the 200 cartoons to a copy store and enlarge each one to fill two thirds of a 8 1/2"
by 11" sheet of paper. Set down to your light box and trace the 200 cartoons fast and loose several times.
Now start drawing your own cartoons. You will be surprised at how much faster you will be drawing and your
own style will start to emerge.
3 - Sometimes you will need to use perspective to put over a gag but draw eye level perspective whenever possible.
It does not matter to the cartoon editor and it will save you a lot of time.
4 - Your cartoons should read from left to right. Show your cartoons to a friend and watch your friends eyes while
he or she looks at your cartoons. This will tell you a lot about how your cartoons read.
5 - Develop a set of characters you can use over and over. If you think you need to draw a different character
every time you draw a cartoon take a look at Chon Day's work. Chon Day has been drawing the same man and woman
since 1940 and we all could learn a lot from his simple, clean style of drawing.
6 - When you do not know how to draw something go to your morgue. You say you do not have a morgue. If you have
a phone book and a department store catalog you have the beginnings of a morgue.
7 - You know when a drawing is not good enough, draw it over! Use your light box to trace and redraw until
it looks right.
8 - Always look at your finished cartoon to make sure it has good composition. This simply means that your
cartoon is balanced.
9 - If the hands or feet are out of proportion it is better that they are too large rather
than too small. In cartooning heads are usually large in proportion to the body so the feet
have to be big enough or your cartoon character will look like it is going to fall over.
