Cartoons and animations have proved that they are everyone’s cup of tea. It does not matter whether you are an adult, teenager, or kid; you will always turn into a bundle of joy on seeing your favorite animated character and cartoon. So, here are some tips on drawing cartoonish characters by Brazilian artist Carlos Gomes Cabral. The tips can help inspire you to create your own original character
1 Begin with the shape of the face
The first thing you draw is a CIRCLE. Yeah, a small, medium-sized or large one. It does not matter; all you have to draw is your animated-character-to-be’s head. By “a circle”, one may mean an oval too, if the typical not-so-intelligent, air-head, yet-so-loveable Homer Simpson’s face is popping into your mind. You may also get inspired by the ceaselessly judgmental, bitterly cynical, low self-esteemer Daria Morgendorffer. In a nutshell, decide the shape of your character’s face shape.
2 The axis of symmetry
Have you drawn the circle? Perfect! Now you need to draw the symmetry axis which means that you will trace a vertical line and horizontal line intersecting as shown here and in the tutorial video above.
3 Draw the eyes
Drawing the eye adds life to your circle and gives it the fist human-like sign. All you have to do is to draw two oval shapes cut at the center by the horizontal line drawn before. Preferably, let the oval get a little tilt to the top side of the face. Of course, a gap is demanded indeed between the two eyes. You can draw an eye of the same size between the tow in your draft.
4 The eyelashes
Now it is time to add the magic touch! To create the eyelashes, thicken the upper half of the oval. Then, you can opt to add slightly thick eyebrows for your young male characters or bushy ones for grandpas. On the other hand, you will definitely add thick. well-shaped ones for a feminine look. Preferably, try as many shapes and sizes of eyebrows till you adjust the style that captures your eyes. Mr. Cabral says: “To give more life and “realism” in our eyes you can draw a small line below them to simulate a kind of wrinkle. This is another very interesting tactic that adds a special touch to our facial expressions”.
5 The nose
To create your character’s features and age, you will have to work on the jaws and nose; they have the potentials to completely alter one character’s look. We will elaborate more! The first character to be created is a character of a little boy. So, when drawing his nose, you can draw a small one without details as cartoon noses are only seen from the front. Moreover, it can be drawn as a small semi-circle. Furthermore, it is insanely popular to draw one side of the nose. Despite the fact that cartoon noses are very simple, they offer the character’s face a comic semblance.
6 The mouth
Drawing a little child’s mouth is not much different from the nose; both are a piece of cake. When drawing a child’s mouth, draw a simple mouth to demonstrate the countenance of pureness and childlike innocence. Mr. Cabral also says that all children’s mouths are drawn without lips regardless of gender. The same applies to ears; they are seen from the front side, thus the internal cavities are not to be seen.
7 The hair reflects the personality
Interestingly, after the eyes, the hair is the most striking feature that gives life to your character, moreover, it gives the public a glimpse into the character’s nature. In other words, the hair shows the character’s main quality and trait; the character can be neat, messy, shy or a social butterfly, etc. You can refer to fashion magazines as ELLE and Vogue, in order to get a glimpse into the fashion worlds and hairstyles that may help you promote your character and provide it with an eye-catching look.
So, the tips applied to draw a little boy is not necessarily applicable to an old man or a teenage girl.
Hence, Mr. Cabral uses different techniques when drawing an old man; he does not draw a mouth; he hides the grandpa’s mouth with a relatively big mustache. For a teenage girl; Mr. Cabral thickens her eyelashes while rendering her eyebrows thin.
When working on animating the characters, you have to render the faces expressive and emotional, so you have to work on bending the mouth down and adding tears if one character is gloomy. and you can raise the eyebrows and render the character’s eyes wide open if they are thrilled.
Cartoons and animations are part of an appreciated kind of art, so one should take his/her time and attempt to achieve the convincing final look. Draw as many drafts as you wish till you adjust.