Cartoon Hand Formulas

To be honest, just drawing hands alone is as complicated as drawing heads and figures.  There's a LOT to drawing hands.  However, you can get away with not going too in depth with hands when you're cartooning.  Depending on how cartoony you're drawing.

In this lesson, we'll go over:

• Very basic cartoon Hands
• Hand Burger and Sausage
• Boxy Hands
• Hand Drawing Tips
• Applying The Formulas to Different Styles (Freddy Moore Style, Bruce Timm Style, Takahiro Kimura Anime Style)
• Turn Arounds

Very Basic Cartoon Hands

When it comes to basic cartoon hands, they can be drawn in just about any abstract way that you can think of.  As long as they can be clearly understood to represent hands.

Here's some fun crazy ways that you can have fun with hands:

If you want a bit more form to your cartoon hands, then you may want to try the formulas below...

Hand Burger and Sausage

I could have called this "The Mitten Hands" because that's the core of what I'm going to show you here but "Hand Burger and Sausage" made me laugh.

This is a very traditional form of drawing hands.  It's really the way I drew hands for many many years. It's really a very simple formula.

First you start by drawing a mitten like this:

Once you have that, you take the top part of the mitten and make figures out of them:

This method is straight out the Preston Blair's drawing book: Cartoon Animation.

The trick to giving these hands a feeling of dimension,  is to think about these these forms as if they are burgers patties and sausages.  The palm area of the hand should be thought of as a slightly flat disk shape similar to a fat burger patty:

And of course, the forms of the finger should be like cylinders with rounded ends like sausages.

Thinking about the hand like this help give it volume.

...hmm, are you suddenly hungry or it just me?

Boxy Hands

If you want the hands you draw to be a little less cartoony and a bit more natural, it's best to get boxy.   It's still helpful to first draw a mitten shape. But instead of drawing the palm like a burger patty and the fingers like sausages, you turn the palm into a flat box and the fingers like long boxes.

What this is doing is defining the hand shapes more clearly and giving it more depth:

This is helpful when drawing fingers because, if you notice, when you bend your fingers, the top of the fingers seem very boxy. This makes your finger drawing more believable.

No, finger aren't boxes, but if you want them to look more natural, after you draw them boxy, then simply round the corner on the bottom half.  And there you go...

The thumb is a unique part of the hand.  You have to draw it as if it's on a special hinge on the palm cover in skin:

Hand Drawing Tips

As I've said before, drawing hands if very complicated.  What I've explained above is merely two approaches that simplify the hand.  However, there's a lost of other factors to be aware of when drawing hands. Below I go over some things to tips that will make you're hand drawings a tad easier and  look better:

Finger Curves

Be aware that fingers aren't the same size.  This may seem obvious but when drawing hands in elaborate positions, this little awareness is one of the first things to go.

One of the reasons to draw a mitten shape is to force the size of the fingers to get smaller on the ends.  However, you also need to follow this same curve on the joints of all the fingers and the top of the palm.

Bending the Hand

One thing you may not notice until you actually take a very close look is that the knuckles and the top "webbing" of the palm don't line up:

The knuckles are located further down.  They line up more with the top mid area of the palm instead:

Why is this important? Because when you're drawing the back of the hand in any position, you don't want to draw the knuckles too high up or you'll lose the padding of the upper palm. Especially when you're drawing the hand bending:

Gesture

I've found that the easiest way to get expressive hands is to treat them exactly like a micro figure drawing.  Since the first thing we do when we figure drawing is do a gesture drawing, I recommend doing a gesture drawing for the hand you're drawing first, then add structure to it after.

This way you get the benefit of seeing if the hand is working before you commit to the complexity of finish up the drawing:

Varying Fingers

Another finger drawing tip is to make sure to vary them up a bit.  Don't draw every single finger on a hand doing exactly the same thing. It looks unnatural:

You don't have to have them ALL doing something different, that doesn't always look good either, just make one of two finger doing something a little different.

Just doing that make the fingers look much more natural.

Use reference, like a mirror or take a photo

By far, the most help thing you can do when drawing hands is to use your own hand as reference.  If you don't know what the hand is suppose to look like in a certain pose, pose it out yourself.  You can do this in front of a mirror, or you can simply look at it.

If you happen to need to look at the hand you draw with, then take a picture of it. It's that simple:

Applying the Formula To Different Styles

Now that we have a basic formula, we can try "clothing," the formula in different styles.  Let's use our go to styles: Freddy Moore, Bruce Timm, and Takahiro Kimura.

Freddy Moore

With Freddy Moore style, you can do the classic "gloved hand" and all it variations simply by using the "Burger and Sausage" approach:

1. First, gesture
2. Then you can add the structure
3. And then finish off the drawing.

It's a very standard cartoon hand.  If you want it to be a tad more real you simply add the fifth finger.

With the naturalistic version, you'll need be more boxy with your structure. Male hands tend to be thicker, boxier and defined than female hands:

1. Start with a gesture.
2. Then add the structure
3. Female hands have far less detail, tend to have less angles, are less square and the fingers usually end in soft points.
4. Male hand tend to be boxier, with more defined fingers.

Here's the turn around...

Male:

Female:

Bruce Timm

With this style, it's boxier still. But only with male hands.  The hands are also simpler and less detailed.  Female hands are not depicted below since they are essentially identical to Freddy Moore hands.

1. Start with a gesture drawing
2. Add the box structure.
3. In a 3/4 angle like this you will be able to clearly see the sides of the fingers.  I chose this angle for that reason.  Otherwise from the side, front and back, the fingers tend to be drawn completely flat, graphic and with the least amount of detail as possible. Almost as if they're made out of paper, as you will see in the turn around at the end of this lesson. Also, the knuckles are drawn an "S" curve at the base of the fingers.

Here's the turn around...

Male:

Female:

Takahiro Kimura Anime Style

With the Kimura style, essentially the same as a naturalistic Freddy Moore style except the finger nails are drawn in:

Here's the turn around...

Male:

Female:

This is NOT a definitive lesson on hand drawing.  It's just the beginning.  There's a LOT more to learn. This is just a some information to let you get started.

The rest is up to you.

Cartoon Body Formulas

I spent a lot of time on cartoon heads.  There's a lot to know about drawing heads.  There's just as much to know about drawing the body. By "body", I mean the torso and hips.

Cartoon bodies can be simplified so that you don't need to go as deep as you would with the head although, for best results, it's good know how to draw a more realistic anatomically correct body.

In this lesson I'll show you some simple body formulas you can use, and how some of those formulas can be modified to draw some slightly more naturalistic looking body shapes. We'll go over:

• Super Simple Cartoon Body Shapes
• The Bean and The Bullet
• The Chest Area
• The Underwear Hip Shape
• Modifying the Formula
• Freddy Moore Body Types
• Bruce Timm Body Types
• Anime Body Types.

Super Simple Cartoon Body Shapes

When it comes to cartoon body shapes, anything goes.  Start with basic shapes: Squares, Circles, Triangles. Pull them, push them, make them interesting:

Stick heads arms and legs off of them, and you've got a cartoon body.  It's really dead simple. If you want it too look more solid, add solidity. Give it form.:

Make it up, you're the cartoonist, you make the rules.

If however, you want someone else's cartoon body type formulas, then read on.

The Bean and The Bullet

By far, the most commonly used cartoon body shape is "The Bean." Another helpful shape that I personally like to use is a modification of "The Bean," I'll call, "The Bullet."  It's a shape I learned from my favorite Figure Drawing teacher, Steve Huston. So let me explain these shapes.

The Bean is exactly what it sounds like. It looks like a bean.  It's made up of two spheres. One on top, one on the bottom, separated by a small space, connected by lines on the side.  What you end up with is a modified cylinder of sorts. When it bends, it looks like a bean. This shape is meant to represent the torso and hip area together.

The usefulness of The Bean comes from it's flexibility.  It can be bent, stretched and twisted easily. It can also be modified to create many different types of torso shapes.  It's a fairly standard shape for most traditional, western, animated cartoon characters, from Mickey Mouse and his gang to the Looney Tunes characters.

And once you get used to the simple Bean made of two spheres,  you can change those shapes to cubes, cones, cylinders and wedges to make even more varied body shapes:

The Bullet is similar to the The Bean.  However, it's just a tad more complicated.  It's made up of two shapes, a bullet shaped cylinder facing down, inserted into a soft cornered box hip area. The idea is that the bottom round bullet part of the upper shape immediately creates the shape of the abdominal muscles adding an anatomical feel to your drawing from the start.

If The Bullet is difficult to grasp, you can first start with The Bean and once you have it the way you want, you can convert it to The Bullet after, as you will see in a moment.

This shape is best used when drawing more naturalistic, anatomical cartoon characters such as anime or action adventure characters. But it can also be use to supplement a modified Bean shape to add more naturalism to an exaggerated cartoon shape:

When drawing either The Bean or The Bullet from the side view, don't forget to make sure to the natural rhythms for the body to get a naturalistic convincing look to your characters.

The Chest Area

If you're going to add a bit of convincing naturalism to your cartoons, whether it's to add some pecks or breasts, you'll want to have a simple chest formula to work with.

Here's how I approach the male chest area:

1. After deciding where to put the center of my torso, I find the area where I think the shoulders will be. I do this by drawing a shoulder line near the top of the bullet shape. I put a dot for the pit of the neck where the center line and the shoulder line connect. I also add two line on the right and left of the pit of the neck for the neck.
2. I decide where I want the bottom of the pecks and draw a line wrapping around the form there. This is different for every character.  I also add arm tubes that connect to the shoulder line.
3. I then connect the bottom corner of the pecks to the shoulders and end up with a shape like this. This is NOT anatomically accurate but it's a helpful guideline that can be adjusted with the particulars of each character.
4. Now here's where it get interesting.  Starting near the bottom of center of the pecks draw a rhythm  line the travels up the center and turns before it gets to the pit of the neck.  This line travel over to rhythmically create the shoulders.  This connects the chest area with the shoulder creating a unified shoulder girdle.  Once that's done, you can add two concave lines from the neck to the shoulders to create the shoulder muscles. If the male is very muscular, these line would be drawn convex.
5. And that's it. I have a male chest lay in.  This is enough of an under drawing to start.

But what if you want to draw a female chest area? Well, it's pretty much the same thing with some slight adjustments:

1. You start exactly like the male chest, with a shoulder line, pit of the neck and neck.
2. Then you draw the arms and the bottom of the pecks.  Yes, women have pecks. Surprise!
3. Connect the pecks to the shoulders as with the male.
4. Here's where thing change up a bit. To add bosoms simply draw two slanted egg shape on the corner of each peck. This slant varies depending on the type of bosom.  Like men's chests, not all women have the same type of bosom.
5. Now create a rhythm line connecting both bosoms to each other and to the shoulders to make them feel as if this whole area part of one unit. Once that's done you draw the concave lines of the shoulder muscles.
6. And you're done. You now have a female chest area lay in to draw over.

That and variations of that, is all there is to it.

The Underwear Hip Shape

Whether your hip area is more box like or cube like, once you're ready to define it more, you can turn into, what I call, "the underwear" shape.  It reminds me of men's briefs.

This shape is not unique to me.  I got this from The Famous Artist School book on The Figure as well as Walt Reeds book on The Figure.  I found this hip shape comes just as handy for cartoons as it does for naturalistic figures.

Here's what it looks like:

It closely resembles a bowl with two holes cut out on the bottom.

It can be placed on any shape. Like this:

The reason is to better define where the legs will be inserted into the area. I'll show you how this helps once I start writing about the legs.

The Formulas In Action

Once you have these elements down, you can start modifying them to create all kinds of different body types and styles. You can make animals, different types of men, different types of women. It's up to you and your experimentation.

Let's see how these formulas work using some popular cartoon styles...

Freddy Moore Style Bodies

The Bean is pretty much the foundation to most of the Freddy Moore style. It's very easy to see in Looney Tune type characters and Mickey Mouse type.  But you can also see a more advance, more naturalistic version of the style in Disney animated features.

Below is a Looney Tunes type body.  I didn't add chest or bellybutton details because this body can be used to make bunnies, cats, dogs, mice...etc, as well as people:

1. It's simply made of two balls, top one about half as big as the bottom.
2. Which you then connect together.  Adding some form and direction.
3. And you have the body type.

This is not "the only" Looney Tunes body type but it's a very common one.

If, however, you're going to for a more Disney princess type, here is a simple archetypal body formula for that:

1. Again, two balls. This time, the top ball more egg shaped and only slighting smaller than the bottom one.
2. Except this time you join them with two "c" curves that bend inward creating an hour glass shape.  Adding direction, pecks and a small ball on the chest to define the bosom.  Usually the bosoms aren't big. Don't forget to add the underwear hip area.
3. And that's it. The final body type is usually very simple without a lot of anatomical detail.

Remember, this is a body formula not an absolute.  The final result can vary greatly depending on your needs.

Male bodies that are in this more Disney type look, differ far more. so there isn't just one body formula that you can adjust from. However, the body type below should be helpful.  Below is just one:

1. This one top ball is much bigger than the bottom.
2. Again, connect the balls flattening out the shoulders. Make sure to define the forms and direction plus add pecks and hips.
3. And that's it, you've got a dude.

Now let's see the bullet in action using a more action adventure style...

Bruce Timm Style Bodies

Similar to the Freddy Moore Style except I found that using The Bullet works best for these as a foundation.  The construction would look something like this:

1. First start off with a regular Bullet shape. Making sure the hip shape flares out.
2. Then add the "underwear" shape, chest rhythms and the shape of the Latissimus Dorsi (Lats). Which gives the torso the exaggerated hour glass shape. Notice the triangle shape created to the shoulders is much wider than the hips
3. And you're done.  Simply draw the final details, leaving out most of the construction.

The male has a similar process:

1. Start with the bullet, only don't flare out the hips.  They should just go straight down.
2. Add the chest rhythms, shoulder girdle, and large modified ellipse for the Lats.
3. For the final line, just leave some of the details, shown below and you're done.

Just a reminder, this isn't THE way it's on ONE way to draw in this style.

If you want to get even more naturalistic, like with an anime style, you can.  Let me show you...

Takahiro Kimura Anime Style Bodies

The most naturalistic version of the formula comes in play in this anime style. There's far less exaggeration here. The Bullet comes into it's own when drawing in this style. Let's begin with a female torso:

1. Again, you start bullet shape with the hips flared out.
2. As with the Bruce Timm style above, you add the chest rhythms and hip shapes.  BUT you don't add the exaggerated Lats.  This style is a bit more natural. Also, this style often has slightly larger bosoms. Notice the shoulder and hips, unlike the Bruce Timm style above, are almost the same width.
3. Once that's all done, you pretty much get rid of most of the construction and add the top line of the Clavicle.

The male is the same with a bit more anatomy showing:

1. Start with a bullet.  You may add a tad bit of flare at the hips if you want.
2. Add the chest Rhythms, hip shape, and Lats.  As large or as light as the type of male you want.
3. Once that's done, you'll need a bit of anatomy knowledge to put in all the right lines in the right place.  These cartoon type characters tend to be much more naturalistic.

And that's how you use The Bean and The Bullet to draw three different cartoon body types. As you can see, the formula is very versatile.

Cartoon Body Turn Arounds

As I've done before, Here's a body turn around of all three styles. Beginning with...

Freddy Moore Torso Turn Around

Male:

Female:

Bruce Timm Style Torso Turn Around

Male:

Female:

Takahiro Kimura Anime Style Torso Turn Around

Male:

Female:

And that's that. You should be able to draw any type of cartoon body you want with the info I've given to you.  Remember, the more you know real anatomy, the better your final drawings will be.

Cartoon Eye Formulas

Eyes come in all types of shape and sizes. In this section I'm going to be talking about a few specific types eyes and what they're made up of.

These eyes will be:

However before we begin,  just as having knowledge of drawing real heads helps your head drawing, having real knowledge of how real eyes work, will help your cartoon eye drawing. Especially the more naturalistic your cartoon characters are.

When drawing cartoon eyes, there are four things about realistic eyes to keep in mind:

Some of these things may seem like common sense, but more often than not, when drawing cartoon eyes, they're ignored. This makes eyes look a bit odd.

Let's quickly take a look at why these things are good to know:

1. Eyes are spheres - This is, of course, the most common sense of all the things, yet when drawing eyes, most of  us tend to draw flat stickers for eyes instead of spheres inserted in the head.
2. The eyelids have an origin - In many cartoon eyes, the lids tend to often appear out of no where. Yet in reality, they have specific origins from which they pivot to open and close.  The average eye's lid origins tend to line up. In cartoon eyes, you can vary the angle these origins have to each other in order to add variety. I'll show you more about this later.
3. Eyelids wrap around the sphere - Another thing that can make or break the look of a cartoon eye is how the lids interact with the sphere of the eyes.  Unless you're Garfield the cat, you want eyelids to wrap around the eyeball to add dimension to your eyes.
4. Eyelids have thickness - Eyelids are not painted on the sphere of the eye, they have depth. They even cast a shadow on the eyes more often than not.  It's another way to add depth and dimension to your cartoon eyes.

Keeping these four things in mind, let's see how we can best use this info when drawing our cartoon eyes.

Dot Eye

Dot eyes are not only the easiest type of eyes to draw, they also happen to be my favorite. I suppose the simplicity is what appeals to me most.

By "dot eyes," I don't only literally mean eyes that are dots but also longer elliptical shaped eyes. I would even include lines for eyes, either vertical or horizontally drawn:

Dot eyes can easily be expressive by simply adding lines connected to them, around them or eyebrows above them:

However, one of the trickiest things to do with them is make them seem like they're looking in specific directions. You can often get around this by turning the whole head to look in the desired direction.

Still, sometimes you don't want to do this.  This is when knowledge about how real eyes work comes in handy. Even when drawing dot eyes.

Dot eyes can represent pretty much every part of the eyes: the whole eye, the irises or the just the pupils. When you want to make dot eyes look in a specific direction, it comes in handy to make them temporarily represent the iris or pupils.

By doing so, you can bend the dots in such a way to make them seem to look in a specific direction. Like this:

It also helps with dot eyes if you're aware of the solidity of the shape of the head. It's best if you place the eyes in such a way that they emphasize the structure, direction and perspective of the head:

That's it, that's all I really have to say about dot eyes.  Have fun drawing them.

Bubble Eyes

Bubble eyes are really one step up from dot eyes.  They were the first kind of cartoon eyes that I started using when I was a kid.

You can draw them two ways. You can draw them overlapping each other or you can draw them apart from each other. They also don't necessarily need to be perfectly round:

When you use overlapping bubble eyes they immediately give the viewer the sense that the eyes have volume.  They tend to seem spherical.

However, they also have a tendency to seem like they're bulging out of the head.  This is not a bad thing, just as long as you want that effect in your cartoon.

This is not necessarily the case if you separate the bubble eyes from each other.  It's possible with separated bubble eyes to not have them seem like bubbles at all, but rather spherical disks inside the head. Which is fine, if that's what want.

Here's somethings to keep in mind:

When drawing overlapping bubble eyes, have the overlap happen in the correct perspective.  The eye closes to us should overlap the eye further from us:

This may seem like common sense but I've seen plenty of people, including myself as a kid, get it wrong:

Also remember that eyelids should have an origin point from which they pivot. The eyelids, ideally should wrap around and reinforce the roundness of the bubble eyes.  UNLESS, you're trying to create a flat graphic look to your cartoons on purpose.

You should also try to avoid splitting the eye in half with your eyelids origins points.  It's best to error favoring a lower origin for the lids.  Why? Well, besides being good design, it's much more natural since our own eyes are not evenly split in half by our own eyelids and also favor a lower pivot point:

Eyelid thickness is often used with these kind of eyes too.  Experiment to see whether you want to include the thickness or not.  It give the eyes even more dimension:

Below you'll find a turnaround of how a version of these set of eye may look like from different angles.  This example is NOT the dogmatic, definitive way these eyes MUST be drawn.  They're simply a version you can use that you can then modify to suit your whims.

For example, the eyes below are very different than the bubble eyes used on a show likeThe Simpsons:

I think that covers it. Play around with the eyes and enjoy.

Freddy Moore Eyes

Okay, here's where thing start getting a bit more naturalistic.  Freddy Moore has had a big influence in the animation industry.  His way of drawing eyes are almost industry standard IF you're going for a Disney or Looney Tunes type look to your cartoons.

Freddy Moore's eye style has become more naturalistic than it started out being. It's based far more on reality than the previous eye types. This means that knowing how to draw a realistic eye is more helpful when drawing this type of eye.

So let's take a look at the two types of Freddy Moore eyes. The Looney Tunes eye and the Disney eye:

By the way, the examples shown here are by no means the definitive version of these eyes.  They're just one sample of what can be done based on the framework I will talk about below.  There's infinite design possibilities within the basic framework of this eye construction.

Here's the logic and thinking process behind the construction this eye type.  Let's start with the slightly simpler of the two, the Looney Tunes eye:

A. This type of eye simulates a real one much more.  It's best to envision the whole eyeball when drawing it. This eyeball will be in the character's cartoon eye socket.  In this case, the eye is so exaggerated that the ball would be enormous, so to save space I just made it an egg shape.

B. Just like with a real eye, the lids will have an origin.  A pivot point for the eyelids to open and close from.  It's good to imagine this pivot point on the other side of the ball. Notice it doesn't split the eye in half but favors the bottom of the eye.  NOTE: I'm putting a line down to show where the pivot point is for this step but I don't draw the pivot point at this stage.  I usually figure out a pivot point of the eye, after I've roughed out the eye lids.

C. When drawing the upper lid, make sure draw it wrapping around the eye ball. Sometimes, depending on the design, the top of the upper eye's lid are drawn thicker than the rest.  This is meant to imply the thickness of the eyelid.

D The same should be said about the lower lid.

E. When the eyeball is erased all that's left is the exposed ball of the eye and the long shaped lids.  I exaggerated the pivot area so you can see where they connect but more often than not, they are not so clearly marked.  This area often looks like one continuous line.

F. When the lids come down for blinks and expressions, the origin of the eyes are used.  Also the thickness of the eyelids are more clearly seen.

G.  Now that you have a finished eye, you can create any expression you want. You can even "break" the eye and make it do odd things in order to get the expression you want.  This only works because the base shape of the eye you're messing around with has a solid structures to start with.

Now let's tackle something a little more complicated with the more naturalistic Disney eye.

This eye is just an extension of the Looney Tunes eye, only it's even more naturalistic.

A. Again, we're starting this eye by thinking about it as an eyeball in a socket.

B.  And again, we're going to be using pivot points. Just like last time I don't really draw this line until after I've figured out the eyelids.

C. When drawing the eyelids, they should not only wrap around, but it's also a good idea to thicken up the eyelids to imply eye lashes. It also makes the eyelids look thicker.

D. Bottom lids also wrap around. Notice there's less bottom lid than top lid.  They eye should not split equally.

E.  Without seeing the rest of the eyeball, you should have something that looks like this.

F.  Here's a sample of the eyelids pivot.

G. Here's a wide eyed look.  I'm making sure to keep the upper lid lines thick, although I do it a bit with the lower lids too. I also added the wrinkle of skin above the eye as the eyelids compress to add to naturalism.

As you can see, familiarity with how a real eye works helps a lot when drawing his type of eye.  This is the reason why Figure Drawing and learning to draw naturalistic is the industry standard foundation for getting into the animation industry. Naturalism pushes your cartooning to a whole new level.

The variations of eyes that can be produced from this basic structure is tremendous.  Depending on the design and the style of characters, this type of eye can be very complicated or very simple.  But in the end, their basic structure is the same.

Below you'll find a turnaround of how a version of these set of eye may look like from different angles.  This example is NOT the dogmatic, definitive way these eyes MUST be drawn.  They're simply a version you can use that you can then modify to suit your whims:

I recommend you find some model sheets of the your favorite Disney or Looney Tunes cartoons to see how varied these eye types can look.

Bruce Timm Eyes

At their core, Bruce Timm Eyes are essentially, no different from Freddy Moore eyes except in one important way, their exterior design.

One of the reasons I'm bringing this up is to show the kind of variety you can get from something like the Freddy Moore eye formula.

So let's take a look at some Bruce Timm male eye designs and his standard female eye designs:

Bruce Timm male eyes are pretty much a modified version of the Freddy Moore eyes, only smaller on the head.  There is one apparent difference that I noticed when looking at his male eyes, compared to Freddy Moore's, the pivot points of the lids tend to be higher in most of his eye designs. There is more eye showing below the pivot than above:

When it come to the female eyes however, there something that happens clearly in Bruce Timm eyes that I didn't talk about before when writing about the Freddy Moore eyes. Something that's important to cartoon eye design.

Okay so, remember the pivot point I always point out on the eyes where the lids open and close from? Usually the pivots point are horizontally straight across from each other.  But if you want to vary the eyes even more, you can slant the pivot points. This is the main characteristic in Bruce Timm female eyes. And just like with the male eyes, there's more bottom lid then top lid.

Let me show you:

This can be done with any Freddy Moore based eye.  So this is the main reason I wanted to examine Bruce Timm eyes.  To give you a good example of what can be done once you have an understanding of the Freddy Moore eye.

Below you'll find a turnaround of how a version of these set of eye may look like from different angles.  This example is NOT the dogmatic, definitive way these eyes MUST be drawn.  They're simply a version you can use that you can then modify to suit your whims:

Takahiro Kimura Anime Eyes

Anime eyes are probably one of the most complicated type of eyes to draw. This is why I've been saving these type of cartoon eyes for last.  The reason is because they're so based on exaggerated reality.

I've seen a lot of "how to draw" manga books that completely ignore this.  But if you really want to understand how to draw a really good anime eye, you need to study real eyes.

Thing is, I've already showed you many of the things you need to know by showing you how to draw the eyes above.  However, here I'll go one step further and show you how a naturalistic eye drawing can be transformed into an anime eye.

I'll also add one more bit of info about eyelashes that I've left out in all the info about drawing eye above.  This eyelash info is relevant to all eye drawing so don't skip it just because you're not into anime or manga.

Let's get to it:

1. Here's a regular naturalistic eye. In order to take this eye and make it look like an anime eye you take the lids the iris and the pupils and...
2. stretch them out
3. You then erase most of the details leaving only the top fold wrinkle. You erase the connection of the eye to the pivot points. You darken in the inside thickness of the eyelid at the far end and you got an anime eye.

These are how naturalistic anime eyes are.

Yes, anime eyes can get far more stylized than this but they all tend to have this naturalism as their foundation.  Let's take a closer look at more stylized Takahiro Kimura anime eyes to show you what I mean.

1. Here we can see the fold of the eyelids.
2. (2A) represents the underside of the eyebrow as it wraps around the eye (more on that later).  Unlike a real eye, the Takahiro Kimura eye doesn't necessarily connect the eyelash edge to the pivot point.  (2B) represents the eyelash coming up and over defining the edged of the eye. (2C) in most anime eye stylizations there's always some sort of artistic license that often has no real world equivalent.  In the case of the Kimura eye, it's this extra eyelash.  It kinda works as both eyelash and an odd indication of the eye socket.
3. Here we have the eyelash drawn to show how it wraps around the eyeball.
4. Here's a tip about drawing eyelashes for naturalistic eyes, anime eyes and Freddy Moore type cartoon eyes:  The lashes wrap up and around the eye. Think of it like a ribbon you eventually break up to look like hair. You see the underside of the lashes as they turn away from us as, well as the top when they turn toward us.  You should avoid drawing individual lashes.  Lashes are often drawn completely black so you don't often see the way they turn. Even if you can't see this overlap in the lashes because of the black tone on them, it giving them dimension and a lot of depth.

Okay so let's take a look yet another variant of the Kimura eye:

1. Once again we have the fold of the upper eye lid. Although sometimes, as it is on the Kimura eye on our right, the fold is not always where it should be. In this case, you can argue it's actually describing the eye socket.
2. (2A, 2B) Once again we see the lashes as they wraps around the eye, and once again we have that odd stylization especially in the middle of the Kimura lashes that over emphasize the way they overlap over the eyeball. The act more like overhangs than lashes.
3. Here we have only the corners or the peak of the rounding of the eye drawn in the Kimura eye. The fact that it's this area that is drawn gives the eye dimension.
4. Lastly I just wanted you to notice that the pivot points in the naturalistic eye are slanted in order to give the eye a more exotic look, the way we did with the Bruce Timm eye.

You can breakdown the best anime and manga artist's eyes the way I did with Takahiro Kimura's eyes.  You can also separate the good manga artists from the bad ones by noticing which ones are devoid of structure.

Once again, below you'll find a turnaround of how a version of these set of eye may look like from different angles.  This example is NOT the dogmatic, definitive way these eyes MUST be drawn.  They're simply a version you can use that you can then modify to suit your whims:

A quick word on anime highlights.  Eyes are reflective, similar to mirrors.  The highlight in an eye is a reflection of the shape of the light source hitting the eye.  So if it's round, the light source might be a round lamp or the sun.  If it's square, the light source may be a a window.

Anime eyes sometimes have a TON of highlights.  This is simply artistic license.  But if you really think logically about it, those highlights must be a reflection of SOMETHING.  Do anime characters have a large lighting crew just off screen holding giant lamps everywhere they go?

That's that for the cartoon eye lesson. Now that you have a collection of eye formulas to work with, go and play round with them. Have some fun.

Questions?

I can’t help you if you don’t ask.

What’s your eye formula questions?

Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about cartoon eye formulas? Ask.

I’ll give you my best answer and, who knows,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You’ll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.

Cartoon Features and Parts: 3 Head Formulas

Now you know what you need to know about drawing cartoons.  However, it's often difficult to come up with your own formulas and designs. It helps to have a starting point.  A place to start and improvise from.

This is where I come in.  This is not going to be some much a lesson as it is a breakdown of some cartoon drawing formulas you can use to get you started drawing your own cartoons.

You can then move on from here and make modifications to make these formulas your own.

I'll give you sample formulas of heads, eyes, noses, ears, mouths, hair, facial hair, bodies, arms, hands, legs, feet, clothes, that you can use to get you started drawing your own cartoons.

This is not going to be an exhaustive list of features. Perhaps someday I may make a book just for that.  Here I will simply provide some samples of what can be used.  I'll try to include simple to complex formulas.  That way you can choose what you think you're capable of using depending on your skill level.

I hope you get a lot of if this. Let's get to it...

Heads

Let's start with head shapes.

I'm going to be talking about these head shapes below:

The shapes on top are the most simple shapes to use. If you've done the work up to this point, these shapes should be familiar to you.

The shapes on the second row are more advanced.  I'm going to spend a little bit of time on each one, showing you how to use them.

First though, let's quickly talk about the shapes on the top row.

You ought to be able to come up with different cartoon head designs using them.  They're some of the most basic yet useful and versatile shapes you can use.

I've drawn examples of the type of characters heads you can make with them and this is just the tip of the iceberg:  I only drew characters with dot eyes. You can imagine the amount of variation you can have if you use different eyes:

.

I only drew characters with dot eyes. You can imagine the amount of variation you can have if you use different eyes. These are the most common head shapes used in Looney Tune type of cartoons as well as classic comic strip style cartoons.

With a little imagination and some very slight modifications, there's very little you can't do using these basic shapes.

That said, well look at the shapes on the second row next. I'm going to show you how to build on at least one of the top basic shapes so you can see what modifying them can do.

Let's get to it.

The Secret of Great Cartoon Formulas

Okay, before I begin I need to tell you something really important.  In order for you to get the most out of these cartoon head formulas, you really need to know how to draw realistic, naturalistic heads.

Cartoons are exaggerated realism. If you don't know what a thing looks like in real life, how can you exaggerate it?  The more realistic you're able to draw, the better your cartoons.

However, I won't be getting into the realistic stuff until Level 2. So why am I teaching you these formulas? Because you can still use them and because, in many ways, knowing these formulas will ease you into more naturalistic drawing formulas.

You'll get more out of these formulas once you get better at drawing realistic, BUT you can use them now and get a lot of use out them.

Fred Moore Head

The most used formula in animation is the Fred Moore Head.  Fred Moore was one of Walt Disney's "Nine Old Men." The Nine Old Men where Walt's favorite animators.

Fred Moore was known for his appealin cartoon designs and girl drawings.  I doubt that Fred Moore necessarily invented this formula. It was probably a by product of many different drawing formulas that developed at Disney in the early days.

The formula is attributed to Fred Moore because he was one of the first animators at Disney to produce really appealing cartoons using the formula.  Once everyone saw what Fred Moore did with the formula, it was copied and adapted by everyone at Disney.

It's what is now considered the "Disney Style." Practically every animated Disney character has the Fred Moore formula at it's base.  The formula has since made it's way outside of Disney and is used in many animated movies and shows all over the industry.

The formula is basically an extension of the ball head.  You first draw a ball, and then you add...well...I'm not sure exactly what to call it.  A sack, a bag, a cushion, a bulge? Well, just look at the example below:

The blue areas above is the extension of the ball head. It's used in many different ways, but mostly it's used as a cheeks and jaw line extension of the face. It's a quick and easy way to add more form, dimension and anatomy to the head.

The extension can be long, short, broader, thinner, squarer...etc, depending on the type of character you're drawing.  I drew two head types that are often used.

Below I drew a quick, imprecise, turn around of what the formula tends to look like from different angles.  This is by no means a dogmatic absolute representation of the formula. It's just a quick overview of what the formula CAN look like. The proportions can differ depending on the character:

One of the reasons this formula was so universally adopted was because of it's mailability.

Animators discovered that the formula allowed them to squash and stretch the jaw and cheek extension to produce more life like movements on the face. Also this mailability allowed them to enhance the expressions they wanted to produce on their characters:

Another reason the formula was so useful was because of it's flexibility.  A modified version of this formula is still used at Disney to this day.  It may be a tad more blocky, and the characters, my have a tad more anatomy, but it's still essentially the same formula:

As you can see, simply by changing the features and proportions, you can get a good variety of characters using this head shape formula.  It's a good formula to use if you want to take your cartoon character designs up a notch, and it's fairly simple to use.

Bruce Timm Head

When it comes to the heroic cartoon look, it's tough to beat the Bruce Timm style.  Bruce Timm has managed to distill very complicated anatomy into the most simple shapes while keeping them looking powerful and dynamic.

Let's take a look at his head design and see what makes it tick. Keep in mind that there is more than one type of Bruce Timm head.  I'm going to be taking the most recognizable types to talk about here:

I'm going to focus specifically on the male head.  The reason is because Bruce Timm's female head is essentially a modified Fred Moore head.

See, it's just a ball with the a modified Fred Moore jaw:

The male head is a bit more complex.  I'm going to take a generic 3/4 view Bruce Timm head and break it down.  This is NOT the absolute dogmatic way you MUST draw this type of head. It's a suggestion.

If you find it easier to do it another way, please do it that way. However, I will point out a few things you should keep in mind when drawing the head from this angle.:

Steps:

1. At first I draw a sphere.  Why? I needed a guide. Something to anchor my head to.  As you can see the final head is not circular at all.
2. I then added the top of the head and neck.  The lines here are not perfectly straight. They curve a little.  Also note that the neck and scalp are combined and simplified into one line. Note also, that I circled the other side of the neck to show you the general area where it should connect to the sphere.
3. I then drew the front of the face and the jaw.  Note the close distance between the jaw line and the neck line (at least in this 3/4 view). When drawing in any style or drawing from observation, spacial relationships are important.
4. When adding the bottom jaw and chin lines, keep in mind you are in fact creating a type of box out of the head.  Where exactly should you put the bottom jaw line?  Experiment. There's no absolute placement. It's just about where it looks right.  If you don't like it, you can always change it.  Note the circled area in the drawing.  Make sure there's a clear devision between the front of the chin and the neck. This implies overlapping forms.  Otherwise the head will look flat.
5. Finally, I put in the ears, the eye line guide, and continue the front facing axis line. I also lightly draw the side plane starting from where the jaw and chin meet by drawing a line upward from there.  This is optional but I found it helps me define the front and side of the head.

And that's it.  It's not as simple as the Fred Moore head but with enough drawing repetition, you should get the hang of it.

Below is the full turn around of a generic Bruce Timm head.  These are NOT absolutes.  If you were to look at Bruce Timm's male characters over the years, the heads tend to fluctuate in width and shape:

Below is the type of character variation you can get using this these types of head shapes. It all depends on how thin, thick, long or short you make the head. Also, Bruce Timm uses his modified Fred Moore head formula on male characters as well.  All he needs to do is adjust the thickness of the neck and they look more masculine:

Now you have some head options for drawing something a bit more heroic.

Takahiro Kimura Anime Head

Building on both the prior styles, let's take a look at anime heads.  Specifically Takahiro Kimura anime heads.  Why Takahiro Kimura? For no other reason than because I happen to like his anime design style.

Now Takahiro Kimura mostly has a standard female head shape but his male heads are far more varied so I'm going to pick one male head type which could be modified as needed.

It's good that we've been over the Fred Moore head formula and the Bruce Timm head forma because, knowing those to formulas actually helps us with our anime head.  You may not know this but anime is heavily influenced by Disney and Fleisher Cartoons from 30s and 40s.

I recorded a video about this a while back, talking about the evolution of anime:

It should  come as no surprise that an anime head can be broken down into yet another modified Fred Moore head.  The difference being that the cheek/jaw modification, in the case of a Takahiro Kimura head is a lot more complex:

Note that the green area is not very large compared to the Bruce Timm female head.

There's a lot to watch out for when drawing this head type.  Keep these things in mind:

The curves on A and B are concave curves while the transition between both is convex.  The interior curves in C and D also follow this same pattern.

In profile, the nose and mussel area really stick out A LOT.  The area in E is very concave, while F can be pretty straight and is at a diagonal.

Now let's talk a bit about the male head.  By the way, the female head type can also be used to draw a more tradition male head. I give an example later in this lesson.

The Takahiro Kimura male head type I chose actually has a lot in common with the Bruce Timm head.  Only with some slight modifications you should keep in mind:

The head is much more straight at A and E.  The jaw line at C is at a sharper angle and ends in a much smaller chin.  There's a convex curve at B representing the corner of the other side of the jaw.  And make sure make a stair step between the neck and bottom of the chin like in D.

In profile the head angles out a bit in G.  And there's a convex curve in H which represents the area underneath the lower lip and the chin.  Yeah, the mouth is usually very high up in the face.

Here's an rough turn around of what a Takahiro Kimura anime head looks like:

Now that you've got that down, here's the type of heads you can make with this head type:

Of course, you don't HAVE to use it with anime features.

Note that the drawing on the upper left corner of the guy is drawn using the female head type.  When you draw males using that head type, they tend to have a more traditional anime look.

Studying Your Own Head Types

I recommend you practice drawing these head types until you get comfortable using these formulas.  Especially the Fred Moore head, since it's often the basis for just about every other head type.

Once you get comfortable working with these head formulas, go see if you can't figure out some of your own.  Either by inventing them yourself or by breaking down the head types of your favorite cartoons.

If you're not sure how you would do that, I recorded a video showing you how it's done:

Have fun.

Questions?

I can’t help you if you don’t ask.

What’s your burning head formula questions?

Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about head formulas? Ask.

I’ll give you my best answer and, who knows,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You’ll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.

Making Your Cartoons Look Professional - Cartooning Design

You're comfortable drawing.  If fact, drawing hasn't ever been a problem for you.  You enjoy drawing quite a bit.

Thing is, when you look at your drawings and you look at more experienced artists, your stuff doesn't quite look right.

When you copy cartoons, they look good, but when you draw your own, there's something off about them.  You're not sure what you're missing.

What's the biggest thing that separates what you do and what they do? How can you take your cartoon drawing to the next level?

Applying the principles of good design.

In this lesson I'll show you what design principles you're missing.  There's three things you need to keep in mind when designing cartoon characters.

I'll go over each one and show you how to work with them so that you can bring your cartoons to the next level.

By the time you're done with this lesson, you'll know what you need to do to draw cool looking, and well designed, cartoon characters.

Let's get started.

The 3 Things You're Missing

To simply sum it all up, in order to make your cartoons really sing, you need to apply these three things.

• Principles of Design
• Compound Forms
• Simplicity

Let's take a closer look at each one of these idea. Starting with...

Principles of Design

THE secret to GOOD design is harmonizing contrast and balance <= CLICK TO TWEET

EVERYTHING that you will EVER draw, can be broken down into a flat, two dimensional shape. <= CLICK TO RETWEET

These are the key principles of good design. I wrote about these two principle in two earlier lessons on this site:

Stick figures, with style! Basic design and

Design Simple Cartoon Characters from Flat Shapes

You can read the full version of this info there but, I'll sum it up here in a condescend version.

When we create a character, it’s all about creating balanced contrast with the spacing of the proportions.

What is contrast?

When talking about drawing, contrast is:

• Dark against light values or lines.
• Straight lines against  “c” curve or “S” curve lines
• Big against little shapes
• Uniform patterns against chaotic marks.
• A color against it’s opposite color on the color wheel

Contrast is good because it adds interest and dynamism to a drawing.  It gives a drawing tension that draws the eye. But it can also be unnerving and just plain ugly.

What is balance?

When talking about drawing, balance is almost what you’d think it is:

• Making things seem even
• Placing things on a page so that it doesn’t seem off kilter
• Making things uniform.

Our instinct is to make what we draw balanced and uniform.  Balanced, uniform drawings are automatically appealing to us.  A perfectly uniform and balanced drawing is often seen as an ideal. They can also be VERY boring and uninteresting.

Good design is when you deliberately take contrasting things, and you place them together in such a balanced way, that they seem like they BELONG together. In other words, you’ve managed to harmonize them. This causes them to not only be appealing, but interesting as well.

A good design works well when you end up with the appeal of balance, and the interest of contrast, without keeping the dullness of balance and the ugliness of contrast.

As you design characters don't forget to keep these other two principles in mind:

1. Spacing contrast and
2. Size contrast.

Spacing contrast – Means you make sure you space out the shapes in interesting ways. Trying to avoid spacing that is too balanced which would make the design dull.

Size contrast – Simply means your trying to put shapes of different sizes next to each other to create interest.

For example, in the figure above, in point 1, the face favors the bottom half of the head shape and is not perfectly centered.  Also even the mouth itself favors one side of the face to another.  All the features are also very close together rather than being spaced evenly apart.

In points 2 and 3 we see an example of size contrast. The size of the circle shaped head is larger than the rectangle of the body which it’s connected to.  The body is not only proportionally smaller, it’s also smaller in width.

Points 3, 4, and 5 also contrast. Notice the length of the arm and hand are longer the body, and obviously thinner.

Point 4 and 5 contrast, not only in size but also in shape.  Now, this isn’t something that is done all the time but sometimes, a round shape next to a hard edged shape is a good mix and contrasts well too.

Point 6. The spacing of the legs here is something well worth pointing out.  They are NOT evenly spaced out. By which I mean I favored the outer part of the body to attach them to rather then where the green arrows are actually located.  The reason for this is, again, to add interest

Again, for a more in depth view on this subject, read the earlier lessons linked above.

Compound Forms

There's a reason why we learned to draw basic forms in Lesson 2.  Once you have a grasp of those forms you can build upon that knowledge to create "Compound Forms."

Compound forms are basic forms that have been combined to create a more complex 3D form.

Imagine you're basic forms are made out of clay and you sculpt them together to make a new shape while still retaining some of the original forms.

They're what many cartoon characters are actually made out of.  Often simple cartoons may not be as simple as you might think.

Some cartoons are really quite complicated, while others are not.  It depends on style.

We're going to be focusing on the slightly more complicated type here.

So what do compound forms look like? Well here's some examples of what I'm talking about.

A cartoon cat, might look like this:

The drawings above are simple compound forms. The most complicated part being the attachment of the mussel to the head, as well as the "cheeks," of the cats that have them.

Notice the eyes are not merely "painted on," but are 3D forms inserted into the larger head form.

And when talking about more advanced human head shapes. You might get something like this:

I deliberately designed these head to be far more complex than the cat heads. I wanted to show you how elaborate compound forms can get.  It's also a good example of the complexity of a human head and why some cartoon heads are harder to draw than others.

The heads above are a combination of wedges, spheres, and cubes, all combined to make the head shapes.

Drawing compound forms is an essential skill to learn to take your work to the next level.

Anchoring Features to Your Forms by Creating Topography

Something critical to keep track of when creating these compound forms is the topography of the form you've created.

Make sure to map this out clearly, either on the page itself or in your head.

The reason  for this is that any details you place on top of your figure needs to follow and reinforce the topography. If it doesn't your drawing runs the danger of looking flat where you want to have solidity.

You also need to understand the topography if you plan to model your drawing using tonal shading or coloring.

Here's what I mean:

Okay, perhaps the middle one is a bit much.

Still, you really do need to be able to understand your character's topography as well as possible at some level. Like I said before, you don't need to draw it all out, but you do need to know it. It will make your characters look more solid in the long run and it will help you be able to draw them from different angles.

Simplify

"Look at the detail!"

Beginning artist are often more obsessed with details and textures than good drawing.

Too often as draftsmen, we get caught up in the complex and the details.  The more textures the better, the more bumps the better, the more colors the better, the more MORE the better.

Not necessarily.

It's much more difficult to draw something simple than something complex. There are great draftsmen and cartoonist that do the detail thing really well.  They're usually really good at drawing to begin with.

BUT there are far more bad draftsmen and cartoonists who use details and textures to cover up their bad drawing and what they don't know how to draw.

You really don't want to be that person.

When drawing cartoons don't overdo the compound forms.  Us as few forms as you can, to get the idea across that you want.

The last thing you want is for your cartoon to get overwhelmingly "lumpy bumpy."

Below are two examples:

I deliberately drew as many bumps and complexity as I could in drawing 1.

With drawing 2. I kept it as simple and a clear I possible.  I could have even simplified it more, in fact.

As you can see, 1.  is all visual "noise." It's difficult to focus on anything. It's all over the place.

2. Flows together more harmoniously.

If we were to only see the silhouette of these arms...

You can tell that drawing 2. is an arm while it's difficult to tell what the hell 1. is. Clarity is lost.

When you draw, ask yourself, how can I make the simplest statement? How can I minimize the amount of lines here?  Can I do this with only straights and "C" curves?

When it comes to drawing, less is often more.

There IS a place for detail, texture and complexity.  Mastering simplicity will help you know when those things can best be used and when they can be left out.  It's not what you put in that makes your drawings sophisticated, but what you leave out.

Examples

In combination these three idea make some very cool looking cartoons. Let's look at some examples.

The drawing below is basically lifted from the model sheet of a very famous looney bunny, but I changed him into a monkey for copyright reasons:

Looney Tunes style characters are generally made out of very basic forms:

Although the hands and the faces tend to be where the compound forms make an appearance. Usually, this style of cartoon has more complex faces than you might think. It's what makes them expressive:

Once you have all those forms down, you build the details of the characters on top of them:

The Looney Tunes style is a very flexible cartoon style.  Deep understanding of anatomy is not necessary to pull off a cool looking, and fun cartoon.  It helps but it's not necessary.

You can often come up with some fun and interesting characters simply by playing around and experimenting with compound forms.

But if you want to make even MORE advanced cartoons...

The examples below are of the Draw Fu characters.  They're here to both represent, "Disney style" as well as slightly cartoony "comic book style."

I did this because these characters are a little bit of both.

Beginning with a line drawing of Brush Lee below:

Brush can be broken down into some basic forms although when it comes to the hands, feet, and face, the compound forms really start kicking in:

These basic form are just the beginning. Once you have them down, that's when you start breaking up the forms into much more sophisticated designed, compound forms:

This level of cartooning requires you to have some understanding of human anatomy.  It's the reason why the Disney animation studio used to hire people based on portfolios full of figure drawings and NOT full of cartoons.

This is where observational drawing, representational drawing and cartooning meet.

Here's a closer look at a head drawn in this style:

The basic forms that make up a head like this are very simple:

Once you get into refining the compound forms, the head becomes far more complex:

Just because a cartoon is simple looking, doesn't mean it lacks sophistication. This style of cartoons require a deeper understanding of anatomy and structure than you might think.

Only by understanding certain anatomical principles will you be able to break down a cartoony head, in this style, into it's compound forms more easily.

I'm showing you these more advanced set of examples to help you see how far you can take this compound form concept.  Also, if you're having trouble drawing in this style, you now know what kind of knowledge it takes to be able to pull it off.

Not to worry. In later Draw Fu levels we will begin to examine more advanced anatomical drawing.  For now, simply be aware how compound forms create more solid looking cartoons.

See if you can experiment in more simple styles.

Exercises

Now it's your turn. Come up with a few characters made up of compound forms.

1. Create a character,
2. Break down it's compound forms making sure you have it's topography worked out well.

Here's what I mean.  Let's take the simple form characters from the example I created in Lesson 2.  This one in particular:

Let's start by coming up with a purpose for him.  He looks stocky and tough so maybe he can be a fighter of some sort.

Since this is Draw Fu, let's give him a martial arts archetype. I'll take Bolo Yeung  from Enter the Dragon as my inspiration:

Start with a very basic lite lay in.  This doesn't have to be pretty and it can even be flat and graphic.  What  you're doing is creating a rough road map or your drawing.  You're placing the pieces where you want to take the drawing.

Erasing and adjusting is fine, but keep in mind, you're not looking for perfection:

You can eventually take this and make it something tighter. Add a bit more detail.  Even make it look finished.  The purpose of the first sketch is NOT to have a final drawing.  It's meant to give you something to create compound forms from.

Let me show you.

Once you have the rough lay in, you then go in and work out the compound forms you will use to solidify the drawing, over your lay in. Ideally you'd do this on a separate piece of paper using a lightbox or tracing paper.

This is done in case you mess up or you don't like some of your choices.  It's easier to erase the construction without erasing the lay in, if it's on a different piece of paper:

You should end up with something like this:

You can then start working out more complex compound forms, like the face.  This might take a few tries as well. Again, you may use a separate piece of paper. If you do, it would probably be because you're still not sure what the face would look like and it's easier to change stuff around or just start over if it's on another sheet:

The final finished drawing would then be done on yet another sheet of paper.  Yeah, it's a lot of paper, but at first it's best that way.

By the time you're done, you should have a solid looking design. When I drew the drawing below, I kinda drew the whole process at once on one sheet of paper. This is why you can see all the extra line work on the drawing. Eventually, you'll be do this as well.

I usually tend to use multiple sheets of paper now, when I want to make adjustments and fix stuff I don't like in my roughs:

Even if you decide to draw the whole thing in one drawing as I did, you should then take another piece of paper and draw over your character using a lightbox or tracing paper, drawing only it's compound forms. This is to make absolutely sure that you know exactly what they are and how they work.

Otherwise, you're cheating yourself and you're not really learning anything.

Trouble?

Q: I'm having trouble starting. I don't know where to begin.  How would I go about starting a new design?

A: There's two ways.  The first way is simply to look up reference.  Go online and search images for people or animals that are similar to what you want to draw. If you're going to draw cats, look up cats.  If you're going to draw a fat guy, look up fat guys. That's where I tend to begin.

Pre-visualing a direction this way helps a lot.  Sometimes when the possibilities are endless, it helps to reduce them.

Once you've done that though, that's when you go back and remember your design principles.  Start flat.  Play around with flat shapes. At first, you don't want to worry about drawing 3D forms, you want to get good design.  Simply come up with varying flat shape designs and experiment.

It's the reason I was able to explain design with such simple elements in earlier lessons.

The example below is the many variations of Brush Lee I drew before finally finding a version I liked.  Notice there's lot's of versions.  I didn't get it right the first time.  I had to draw lots of different heads. It's okay not to get it right the first time. In fact, assume it's the norm. Getting it right the first time is actually an exception.

Here's a line up of all the flat shapes that make up the Draw Fu characters:

Once you have something you like, that's when you start applying compound forms to your flat design.

If you're having trouble coming up with unique original shapes, it's okay to copy other artist's shapes and riff off of them.  If you do this enough, you will eventually learn to create your own.

I will be dealing with copying in Lesson 6.

Pro Tip

There are a lot of books out there about drawing people with certain proportions.  They say things like, "the idealized person is so many heads tall," and they break down the human body.

These are great guideline to keep in mind BUT, when drawing cartoons, try to avoid those kind of proportions like the plague.

They make really generic and boring looking cartoon characters.  Instead, use those kind of guides as things to avoid.  If an idealized person is eight heads tall, make your character three or eleven heads tall.

If the body of an idealized character's proportions are perfectly divided in half at the crotch, put your character's crotch closer to 1/4 or 3/4.

Observe real people and notice how far from ideal they are.  Draw THAT instead.  Cartoons are more fun to look at that way.

Questions?

I can’t help you if you don’t ask.

What’s your burning under compound form questions?

Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about compound forms? Ask.

I’ll give you my best answer and, who knows,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You’ll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.

Practicing Your Draw Fu Forms

You can draw cartoons but there's something missing.  They look odd.  Not like the stuff you see in animated cartoons or your favorite comics.

What are you missing? What do you need to do?

You want to start drawing cartoons that look more solid.  Cartoons with "dimension."  Something that compliments your new perspective skills.

If you create three dimensional environments, it would be nice to put three dimensional characters in them.  The problem is, where do you start?

Well, you start here.  Now that you know what you know about lines and flat shapes, it's time to build upon that knowledge to add a new dimension.

Just as you did with those beginner's exercises, here you will need to get comfortable working with three dimensional shapes. This is the stuff you need to know to take your character drawing to the next level.

In the following lesson, you will learn the four basic forms that can be modified to create the basic structure of just about any cartoon.  They can even be used to create naturalistic drawings.

We'll finally get into the stuff you need to know to make your drawing look much more professional.

Let's begin.

Three Dimensional Forms are Like Sentences.

If drawing is like writing, lines are like the A, B, C, and Shapes are like words, then three dimensional forms are like Sentences.

To really be able to communicate in the clearest natural way, you need to learn three dimensional drawing forms.

There are four forms that, in combination, make up all three dimensional drawing:

• Spheres
• Cylinders
• Cubes
• Wedges

Just about every basic, flat, three dimensional shape can be given dimension to become one of these three forms.  Remember, the illusion of space is just that, an illusion. You're not drawing three dimensional forms, you're drawing flat shapes on a piece of paper.

That doesn't mean you can't trick the eye into thinking it's seeing something more dimensional.  It's best to start thinking about your drawings as a flat graphic design which you add dimension to.  This will make you're drawings more pleasing to the eye in the long run.

Everything you can see and draw can be broken down into these four basic forms.  Although, sometimes they may be a complex combination of the forms. This is why it's so important to learn to draw them.

Let's take these four basic forms and see how they can be developed from flat graphic shapes:

Spheres - This one is pretty self explanatory, Circles or ellipses can be given dimension and turned into Spheres or modified Spheres. Spheres are very versatile but they can also be tricky to use.

They don't have corners which makes it more difficult to give them direction. You can usually do so by defining the radius of the outer surface of the Sphere.

Traditionally this is done by drawing the diameter across the circumference vertically and horizontally across the Sphere so you can clearly see it's dimension.

Cylinders -Squares and modified squares can be made into Cylinders.  This all depends on your intention.

Simply decide which direction the Cylinder is being seen from and add the circumference lines reinforcing the direction. Cylinders can be the most handy form to use in the preliminary drawing process.

They come in handy when you don't want to get too caught up in detail.  They're ideal for drawing organic long forms and are great for defining gesture and rhythm.

Cubes - Cubes and modified Cubes are often created off of squares and rectangles as well.  They can be the most useful of all the forms.

Cubes are the easiest forms to get the illusion of dimension with. Because of this, Cubes can also be used to better clarify the perspective of forms that don't have corners, like Sphere modified Sphere and Cylinders.

This can be done by simply drawing a Cube around the corner less form. Whenever you're unsure about the dimension of a soft corner-less form, convert it into a Cube or modified Cube.

The one drawback to cubes is that they are often stiff and inorganic.

Wedges - Wedges are odd forms.  They're usually created from both cubes and triangles, depending on the intent.  A wedge is basically a cube, cut in half diagonally  across two of it's corners.

Most often, wedges are found combined with the other forms above creating a complex compound form.  You'd be surprised how handy this form can be.

The reason to learn to draw these forms well is so you could later combine them all into complex  compound forms that lead to more organic naturalistic looking drawings.

Examples of Using  These Simple Forms in Action

Let's see what can be done with these basic forms.

In the 1920s, many cartoons where often drawn by using two of the basic forms: spheres and cylinders.  The result was something that looked a lot like this:

Here's my very rough under drawing so you can see the circles and cylinders I used:

Now a days with more stylized video games, such as Minecraft and Lego video games, we can have more blocky looking cartoon characters. Like this:

If you're into drawing environments, you can even use the forms to draw things like bushes and trees out of these basic forms:

Here's my rough under drawing, so you can see the cylinders and circles more clearly:

As you can see, these forms, at their most basic, can be very versatile.

Your Exercises

Alright, now that you know the importance of these forms, it's time to do some yourself.  Instead of simply drawing spheres, cubes and stuff, I thought it would be more fun to actually be able to have something cool to show for your effort. Let's start:

Drawing Spheres

Spheres are, more often than not, used as the basis for most heads.  So why not start by filling up a page with goofy drawings of cartoon heads?

• Simply draw a circle or modified circle of some kind.
• Draw the circumference lines somewhere through the circle, creating a sphere.
• The XZ axis is your eye line. It's where you will place your eyes.
• The YZ axis is your guide for the nose and the direction the character is facing.

Just draw dots for the eyes and another sphere for the nose. Play around with the placement of the XZ axis. It doesn't have to be directly in the center. Also, play around with the orientation of the sphere.

Turn it so it you're looking up at it, down at it, seeing it at 3/4,...etc.

Your page of cartoon heads, should look something like this:

This might be tricky at first. If you're having trouble, start simple.  Don't get fancy. Simply draw a round sphere and place everything in the center.  Slowly make your way to fancier heads as you go.

Most important part of all though, is to have fun.

Drawing Cylinders

Now it's time to add an element.  Let's keep it simple at first.

• Draw a sphere adding the circumference lines.
• Then attach a cylinder to the sphere, right underneath it.  To create a neck.
• For now, make sure to draw through your forms as if they were transparent. Also on the cylinders, draw circumference lines all the way across it so you can see the perspective.

You can draw a variety of head shapes and neck shapes until you feel comfortable.

It should look like this:

Once you're comfortable , you can add another element.

• Do the first three steps above,
• Now add another bigger cylinder under the neck cylinder.  This makes a body or torso for your figure.
• As before, draw through your forms and draw the circumference lines all across your cylinders.
• Don't be afraid to make it bend.

Vary the shapes and play around.  Get comfortable.

At first you're not going to want to make the cylinders bend, keep it simple and straight.  Once you get the hang of it, start playing around some more.

It should look something like this:

If you're comfortable with that, it's time to add the last element. Arms and legs.

• Do the first six steps above
• Now, simply add four cylinders attached to the torso for arms and legs.
• At this point you should be comfortable enough to make the cylinders you add bendy.
• If you wish, you can add spheres for hands and feet.

Like this:

Congratulations, you can draw spheres and cylinders.

Let's move on...

Drawing Cubes

With cubes we'll do a similar thing as what we did with the spheres.  Modified cubes also end up as heads.  In fact, a lot of what you use spheres and cylinders for can be given corners, squared off a bit and turned into cube in order to understand, their position in space better.

Here's your cube exercise:

• Simply draw a cube or modified cube of some kind.
• Draw the circumference lines somewhere through the cube,
• The XZ axis is your eye line. It's where you will place your eyes.
• The YZ axis is your guide for the nose and the direction the character is facing.

Just draw dots for the eyes and a sphere or cube for the nose. Play around with the placement of the XZ axis. It doesn't have to be directly in the center. Also, play around with the orientation of the cube.

Turn it so it you're looking up at it, down at it, seeing it at 3/4,...etc.

Your page of cartoon heads, should look something like this:

If you have not been practicing your perspective, your cubes will look very off.

If it helps, put a Horizon line and a Vanishing point on the page.  Ideally, you should be able to draw and turn a drawing of a cube in space without them.

See the previous post to see how this is done.

If you're having trouble, start simple.  Don't get fancy. Simple draw a cube facing one direction and place everything in the center.  Slowly make your way to fancier heads as you go.

Once you're comfortable doing this exercise, you can then start replacing the cylinder torsos from the earlier exercise with cubes. Like this:

You can keep the arms and legs as cylinders.  You'll find that doing this actually helps with the cylinder drawing as well.

Drawing Wedges

Finally we get to the wedges. Wedges tend to be sprinkled on a cartoon or drawing.  They rarely take center stage like Spheres, Cylinders and Cubes do.

Here's what I want you to do, simply add Wedges to the cartoons you are already making out of Spheres, Cylinders, and Cubes.

• Use Wedges for drawing noses.
• Use Wedges are shoulders,
• Add Wedge feet on your cartoons.

Here's an example of what I mean:

Okay there you have it.

It's important to become comfortable drawing these forms. Hopefully these exercises will make it fun to practice drawing them.

It wouldn't be a good idea to move on without feeling  you've got a handle on them.  From this point on, things get a bit more tricky and knowing  how to draw the forms will help out immensely.

Trouble?

Q: I don't understand. Every time I try to draw these forms they come out all wrong and messed up.  I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. What can I do?

A: If you're having trouble drawing these forms from your imagination, there is absolutely nothing wrong with using real objects as reference when drawing them.

Especially when you're starting out.

You want to draw a cube rotating in space? Find a small box or a Rubik's Cube and draw it.

Need help drawing cylinders? Find a can, a cup or a glass.

The point is, to start.  Get confidence. Get used to the forms.  The more you do the more your muscle memory will start taking over.

Don't be afraid to use reference. This is NOT "cheating." The best artist in the world use reference.

The problem is not UNDERSTANDING, the basic structures your referencing.  And THAT is what this lesson is helping you to do.

Often, when you see them draw something fantastic straight out of their imagination, it's because they've done so much drawing and studying from reality that it's become second nature.

Pro Tip

Observe how things around you can be broken down into the four basic forms.

When sketching complicated things, don't get caught up in surface detail, instead, try to take it all away so what you're left with is the basic form of what you're drawing.

Learning this skill is the key to drawing anything.

Arms are tubes, books are boxes, heads are spheres,..etc.

Practice seeing these things.

Questions?

I can’t help you if you don’t ask.

What’s your burning 3D forms questions?

Is there something you’ve always wanted to know about drawing forms? Ask.

I’ll give you my best answer and, who knows,  probably write a post about it.

Leave any comments and questions in the comments below.

Or better yet, sign up to receive more information via e-mail. You’ll get extra tips and advice.  You can ask me questions that way also.