How to Draw Cartoon Faces – And Be Original With It

How to Draw Cartoon Faces – And Be Original With It

Are you happy with the way your cartoon characters are turning out, or are they lacking that touch of originality that makes them stand out, and makes your style and talent recognizable?

If you’ve learned to draw cartoons by following the standard, established rules, and techniques of cartooning, then it’s not surprising if your characters look much like those of other cartoonists who’ve learned the same way. But there is another way, a more exciting way, to create cartoon faces with complete originality – using a method I call: Spontaneous Cartooning.

With this method, you doodle a shape onto your drawing paper – freely, spontaneously, without forethought. It’s more a sort of scribbling.

Next, you look at what you’ve drawn, turning the image around to see it from different angles, and you try to pick out specific elements that could be recognized as facial features – it’s not hard to see a curve as an ear, or chin, or nose. But the real trick is to construct a complete cartoon face from the lines on the paper.

You can add new lines of course, and ignore others that don’t seem to fit. Retracing the most defining lines and adding shading help to isolate the recognizable features.

Start simple, using basic shapes, and increase the complexity of your squiggles as you become more adept.

This method of cartoon drawing has distinct and unique advantages:

1. It increases your ability to see form and shape in abstract compositions,
2. It develops your talent for caricaturing, by freeing you from the restraints of standardized cartoon-drawing techniques,
3. It encourages you to be more daring and adventurous in your creativity,
4. The results cannot be anything but original – since they have been created without planning, and using the unique dexterity of your finger movements.

Rules can be followed, used, abused, or ignored, including the rules of cartooning. Spontaneous cartooning is the “free-jazz-improvisation” of cartoon drawing.

As with any activity, the more you do something, the better you become at it. To be a great, original cartoonist, requires you to draw lots, and often. An activity as fun as spontaneous cartooning will give you many hours of stimulating drawing practice – without ever becoming repetitive, or boring.

How to Draw Cartoon Faces Video Tutorial