Different Styles of Cartoon Drawing

[holdemlt]

Hi all,

I'm not only new to the forums, but to the animation also. So don't laugh at me loudly please :-) And my English is far from perfect, however you, as most of the people, should be able to understand it

The question is where could i find examples of different styles to draw cartoons? I mean things like using brush vs. pen vs. pencil vs. digital lines; different ways to color shades, highlights; finally different ways to draw a nose or a mouth?

I'm not sure if you get what i mean, so let me give you a bit of a background.

I wake up one morning with a perfect idea for the animated series :-) Today i finally decided to jump into it, so i download toon boom studio, google a few tens of tutorials and find them all to be... well, either a cold technical stuff which i know (to the point what i need to know) or such a basic drawing lessons that anyone older than 9 would feel offended by that.

So, the only tutorial i found useful was a two-legged walk cycle, which i could transform into four-legged walking cycle using my logic.

Here's my first shorty i made in about 3 hours after first opening toon boom studio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHj3P9eRy2I

It's not perfect, but i can work on things like floating legs, unnatural mimics, etc., because i do understand how things should move and i only need a bit of practice to achieve better results with it.

Anyway, one thing i don't seem to get is how to draw characters/backgrounds/etc. to look like... hmm... Ok, i like these guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oizHKoephrE

I can even draw realistic things (not professionally, but pretty good looking to the level) but i really need to learn what makes cartoons made using two or three colors look so natural? Even more than natural, i'd say so "warm" and "friendly". Is there any literature, video tutorials, or anything that could help me to come to the point where "i get it, i see it"?

[goliard]

There are a lot of different questions here. Most of them do not have an answer...

...different ways to draw a nose or a mouth?

This is a meaningless question. What do you want to express? What kind of characters do you want to develop? Once you know the answer to questions like this, then drawing noses and mouths just follows the rest of your character design.

i really need to learn what makes cartoons made using two or three colors look so natural? Even more than natural, i'd say so "warm" and "friendly"

I don't know what this means...and I don't know why you would think this is so important when you are just starting out learning animation.

I'd advise you to get a good book on animation -- something like Richard Williams' "Animator's Survival Kit". There are also many good -- and free -- animation tutorials out on the net; google for Karmatoons -- they would be a good starting point.

Good luck.

G

[holdemlt]

Thanks for the reply. I know these are the questions without definite answers so i do appreciate your input.

What i was asking however is where can i learn things like "bigger nose makes a character appear older and v.v."?

That's because i know what i WANT to draw and i can draw it pretty well in "realistic mode", but whenever it comes to cartoon drawing i don't seem to find the way to express myself.

I've read everything i can find and i do lots of practice and yes, the things are getting better, but i feel like there must be a moment when i finally "get it", so i'm wondering if there's anything i should know to understand things faster than going through the normal read-draw-read-draw path?

I.e. i don't mind reading, but i want to be sure i'm reading the right things. I'll go through the book you suggested. Thanks again.

And if anyone else knows any resources that can make a person "get" one thing or another, them please share it :-)

[lefteyewilly]

it's not specific to animation, but for a comprehensive look and multiple skill levels of lessons, www.drawspace.com is a great resource that's helped me understand drawing more.