Thousands Can Draw Cartoons Who Have Never Even Tried -- Vintage "How to Draw Cartoons" Ad

Thousands Can Draw Cartoons Who Have Never Even Tried

"Why work at drudgery when through a remarkable new method you can easily learn at home in spare time to draw cartoons that sell?"

"Many are earning pitifully small salaries who could make wonderful salaries in cartooning."

This is my favorite part:

"Just watch a cartoonist work. A few little lines -- a couple of simple curves --a splash of black here and there -- and then you see a splendid cartoon before you."

Ad ripped from Popular Mechanics via Google Books.

Abandoned Chihuahua Cartoon Project – Learning How to Draw a Chihuahua

A few years ago (when Nickelodeon Magazine was still alive and well) my pal and editor Chris Duffy asked me to pitch him some comic strip ideas...


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I didn't know where to start. Chihuahuas were kind of a big trend at the time, so I started thinking about how to draw Chihuahuas.
I went to the library with my post-it notes and started trying to figure out how to draw a cute little cartoon Chihuahua…
After looking through tons of pictures and doodling my sketch studies, I couldn’t help falling in love with the little critters. They’re so cute with those big round heads and bulbous eyeballs and those teeny little bodies.Once I felt comfortable with the basic animal anatomy I started to cartoon it up a little bit…
…and then finally I came up with this little guy:

The marking on his forehead was scribbled quickly, and when I gave it another look, it looked like a chili pepper. Then the name popped into my head: “Chili Chihuahua!”

So this is the final result of those cartoon drawing explorations. I was really happy with it! And you know what? I tossed it all in a folder and haven’t done a darned thing with it since.

Oh, and lest I forget: Chili Chihuahua is TM and ©2011 by Sherm Cohen! ---After all, I might want to come back and revisit this little project someday :)

Bill Nolan's "Cartooning Self-Taught" on eBay!

Cartooning collector alert! Bill Nolan's ultra-rare book, "Cartooning Self-Taught" is up for bid on eBay!

Ebay Listing:  1936 book CARTOONING SELF TAUGHT by Bill Nolan

What's so special about this book? Bill Nolan is pretty much the guy who (back in the 1920's) created the round, rubbery, bouncy animated cartoon style we all take for granted today.

Check out the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive about this 24-page "how-to-draw" book by animation pioneer William C. Nolan.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Media: Bill Nolan's Cartooning Self Taught 

...and for a look at Bill Nolan's great cartoons, see this post:
http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.com/2010/07/bill-nolans-oswald-cartoons.html

How to Draw Cartoons the "Old-School Way" by animator Bill Nolan

Another one to file under, "How in the world did I miss this?" Our pals at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive scanned in this 24-page "how-to-draw" book by animation pioneer William C. Nolan.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Media: Bill Nolan's Cartooning Self Taught

I just love the giant hands on all these characters, reminding me of Bud Fisher's Mutt& Jeff, Elzie C. Segar's Thimble Theater (Popeye) and George Herriman's Stumble Inn. It's kinda strange how different decades have different cartooning styles. I wouldn't mind at all if this old-timey "bigfoot" style started to make a comeback!


This book is a quick survey of the most basic building blocks of how to draw cartoon characters: There are different mini lessons on how to draw the head, hands, feet, full figures, action poses, animals and kids. Like a lot of books of this type, it doesn't go into great detail, but it's fun for what it is! It looks like all the text from the book has been re-typed in captions underneath the scans, which makes it a lot easier to read than scanned type. Thanks, Steve!

You can check out the whole set of scans over at the AHAA. They're unfortunately not very big scans, but if you're ever in the Burbank area, the Archive is open to the public on Tuesdays thru Fridays. When you arrive, just ask Stephen Worth and I'm sure he'll let you page thru the entire thing!

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive: Media: Bill Nolan's Cartooning Self Taught

Staging and Design – Storyboard Commentary Video

Today's storyboarding commentary video talks about staging and composition; planning out your drawings to leave room for characters and actions. Also, designing props and background elements that aid in your storytelling.

The video window above looks small, but if you click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), it'll look nice and BIG!

A little bit of planning can make a big difference. This scene was staged with the second panel in mind. Knowing that Mary-Frances was going to enter the scene and admire Bessie’s pile of work, we left plenty of room in that first panel.

One of the best bits of advice I ever received was, “stage a scene based on the widest action.”  It’s usually not necessary to zoom in super close on the characters…it’s nice to leave some breathing room. This allows for nice negative shapes around the characters, and allows you to draw the key players and props with easily-readable silhouettes.

Every character is drawn with a specific expression that reveals their character, and (as we’ll see later) advances the story.
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Yesterday I went through the comments again on the last few posts and answered a ton of questions that were asked there. So if you left a comment before, you may wanna check back on those posts (see links below) to find your answer. If its not there yet, it’ll be coming soon.
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Other posts in this Storyboarding Commentary series:

• #1 - Storyboard Scans and Overview
• #2 - The Establishing Shot
• #3 – The Pan Shot
• #4 – When to Cut
• #5 - Staging and Design
• #6 - The Close-Up
• #7 – The Three-Shot
• #8 - Staging for Movement
• #9 - Escalation & Contrast in Acting

Storyboard Commentary: Drawing Pans (Panorama Shots)

In today's storyboard commentary, the topic is Pans. "Pan" is short for "Panorama Shot," a camera move in which we move the viewer from left to right, or right to left, or vertically or diagonally.

The video window below looks small, but if you click on the full-screen button (at the bottom right of the video), it'll look nice and BIG!

Here are some examples of pans from my storyboards on SpongeBob, Phineas & Ferb and Hey Arnold:

I've been answering many of your questions in the blog comments, while other questions are answered in the videos. If your question hasn't been answered yet, It's probably because I'm trying to answer them in the context of the topic of the posts...so I promise I'll get to them all ^_^

Next storyboarding commentary video:
"When To Cut"

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Other posts in this series:

• #1 - Storyboard Scans and Overview
• #2 - The Establishing Shot
• #3 – The Pan Shot (This is it)
• #4 – When to Cut
• #5 - Staging and Design
• #6 - The Close-Up
• #7 – The Three-Shot
• #8 - Staging for Movement
• #9 - Escalation & Contrast in Acting

Cartooning Advice: Zippy's Bill Griffith gives his Top 40 List on Creating Comics

Bill Griffith (of Zippy the Pinhead fame) has been successfully creating his idiosyncratic comics since the early ‘70s. He’s a keen observer and a funhouse mirror when it comes to society’s foibles…and his cartooning chops are top-notch!

Griffith recently posted his “Top 40 List on Comics and Their Creation,” an incredible, inspiring and thought-provoking gift to the cartooning community.

Gems on this list range from the philosophical (#10: “Cartoon characters have souls”) to the downright practical (#12 on lettering and speech balloons, #26 on copyright protection)

After sharing these links with some of my friends on Facebook and Twitter, I realized that all this great info will soon be buried under all the millions of other posts added daily to the internet. Click on any of the thumbnails above to see and download the 4 pages of great cartooning advice. If you want to find Bill Griffith on Facebook, he’s HERE:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=735107763&ref=mf

While you’re at it, you can find me on Facebook at:
http://www.facebook.com/ShermCohen

…and on Twitter at:

http://twitter.com/shermcohen

How to Draw Cartoons the Old-Time Way! Instructional Cartooning Book from 1920's

Take a look at this wonderful little book on cartooning techniques by cartoonist B. "Tack" Knight. Tack's Cartoon Tips for the Aspiring Professional!

In just twenty-nine pages he teaches aspiring professional artists how to draw cartoons the way they were done in the old-fashioned style of 1923!

Some of the pages are corny and not very useful today, but MOST of this book features rock-solid cartooning tips for learning how to draw in that old big-foot print cartoon style.


12 Mini Chapters on the Art of Cartooning:

• How to draw HANDS (this page is a winner!)
• Hats, Shoes, Wrinkles (as in clothes and drapery)
• Lessons on drawing KIDS and ANIMALS
• Drawing various cartoon facial Expressions
• How to draw BACKGROUNDS
• and even a bit on Cartoon Lettering

Warning: there's some very politically-incorrect caricature material in here. What people thought was funny back then just makes people mad today. Don't say I didn't warn you!

To read all these cartooning tips as a slideshow, (I think it's easiest to read it this way), click on:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/davidblog/sets/72157603310750480/show/

Thanks to Dave Blog for sharing these scans on his Flickr page: Tack's Cartoon Tips for the Aspiring Professional!

Charlton Guide to Making Comics - Super-Rare 1973 Premium is now Scanned

The Groovy Agent at Diversions of the Groovy Kind comic book blog has generously shared his scans from the impossible-to-find, 1973 "The Comic Book Guide for the Artist - Writer - Letterer" from Charlton Comics!

In addition to 36 pages of scans,
you can also download an easy-to-print PDF of the whole thing!

Just go to:
http://diversionsofthegroovykind.blogspot.com/2009/03/how-to-make-comics-charlton-way.html

The Groovy Agent has included a lot of background information on this rare and insightful peek into the production process of 1970's Charlton comic books. I've been wanting to find a copy of this for years, so I'm really excited that Groovy has made this available!

PS...

While you're there, check out this scan
of an AMAZING Creepy magazine story drawn by Alex Toth ---

Draw Comics - Here's How! A Complete Book on Cartooning by George Leonard Carlson

Old-School Cartoonist George Carlson shares the wealth of his cartooning skills! Here are the first few pages of his 1933 cartooning course,

Draw Comics! Here's How

by George Leonard Carlson

How to begin and what to use...

How to Draw Cartoons With Pen and Ink

How to Resize Drawings with an Old-School Pantograph

There's an excellent overview of the life and work of cartoonist George Carlson HERE:
http://www.bpib.com/illustrat/carlson.htm

Some George Carlson comic book scans at:

http://cartoonsnap.blogspot.com/2008/07/george-carlson-fantastical-comics-pie.html

Of course, there's a LOT more pages to this book...I'll keep scanning and posting them -- so keep your eyes peeled for the next installment of George Carlson's Classic Cartooning Course!