An Apple for the Teacher

Thanks to this blog, I was recently asked to teach an art class at the Pulitzer & Panetta Creative Studio (http://web.me.com/pulitzerandpanetta/P&P/HOME.html). Besides cartoon classes I have taught myself to draw and cartoon. The students might be surprised because someone who was initially self-taught and then took a few classes might have some different strategies or techniques than what is taught traditionally. A few things I will tell the students will include keep their drawings original by drawing what they see, not what they think they should draw.

Try not to start cartooning right away, read comic books and stay away from cartooning instruction books. It will send a beginner down the wrong path to begin with. The books always have unoriginal ideas and their characters have no life. Another important detail to have is personality like maybe a hat shows character: hat up=happy; hat down=sad.

Once you've picked up styles and ideas from cartoon characters in comic books (DON'T COPY!!) you are ready to begin. Pick a character that has life and remember to include whatever personality traits or drawing techniques. Remember: your cartoon character is unique.

Once you have the main character you are ready to begin. Your main character and setting are the most important things to your comic book. Once you have a plot, begin! There is nothing holding you back except lack of creativity and short patience. If you don't get it exactly right, keep on doing it.

It's good to have a doodle sheet to start or collect ideas for a comic strip. Remember you don't always have to do cartoons and you can just relax and just doodle on a sheet. It may not seem like a lot, but many ideas can originate from it. Trust me it's one of my best strategies and brainstorming techniques. Keep it simple and you can work on your comic strip. It doesn't have to be done in a matter of minutes. Put everything you have into your comic strip, after a while you will train yourself not to accept sloppiness. Cartooning will grow on you and hopefully will become one of your best hobbies.