Character Types

'Young Kid' and 'Husky Type' from Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain by Christopher Hart.

Expressions

A few expressions using Drawing on the Funny Side of the Brain by Christopher Hart. Aside from expressions, I discovered how difficult it is to draw the same character over and over and still have him look the same. Dude needs a haircut too.

A Show of Hands

Why are hands so difficult to draw? Actually I didn't find them that bad, but they do present a challenge. I haven't yet decided whether I want to use 3 or 4 fingers for my toons.

I'm not really sure how the mouse got in there....

I referenced several books for these (Blitz, Hamm, Hart).

Mo-Mo-Monkeys!

The character I am creating likes monkeys and wants one. Not terribly original, but cute. How I will handle this in my story I'm not sure yet. She is certainly not going to get a monkey, and the imaginary pet route is not one I want to take. But at some point I'm sure I will need to draw monkeys. These were actually a lot of fun to draw! Working from The Big Book of Cartooning by Bruce Blitz.

Working from The Big Book of Cartooning by Bruce Blitz.

This is the first time I'm using non-photo (or non-reproducible) blue mechanical pencil lead. You can find information on "Dave's Mechanical Pencils" (see The Great Blue Challenge and Non-Reproducible Leads). I ordered a bunch from JetPens.

I love them! I would first rough my drawing with non-photo blue, then shape it up with a regular pencil. The idea is that when photocopied, the non-photo blue will not show on the copy. It works a little different in the modern world of scanners, but you can judge for yourself on the results. I scanned this on an Epson Perfection 1250 scanner, with the scanner set for a black and white document.

By the way, I use mechanical pencils to draw with. As an engineer, I have always used them and it seemed natural to use for drawing. Plus I hate sharpening. I use different sizes (0.5, 0.7, and 0.9) and hardnesses (B, HB, 2B).

Cartoon Bodies

The Big Book of Cartooning by Bruce Blitz. Looks kind of like the Tin-Man.

Fishies

Flounder from The Little Mermaid (1989). I didn't realize how complicated a little fishie could be! Oh and for some reason I was trying out different mouths on top. Reference book was Disney's How to Draw The Little Mermaid.