Christopher Hart - Cartoon Cool: How to Draw the New Retro Characters of Today’s Cartoons

Published in 2005 by Watson-Guptill Publications an imprint of Crown Publishing Group, a division of Random House Inc., New York
www.crownpublishing.com
www.watsonguptill.com

Executive Editor: Candace Raney
Senior Development Editor: Alisa Palazzo
Designer: Bob Fillie, Graphiti Design, Inc.
Senior Production Manager: Ellen Greene

Inks over pencil: Rich Faber
(pages )

Copyright 2005 Art Studio, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hart, Christopher.
Cartoon cool: how to draw the new retro characters of todays cartoons / Christopher Hart.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8230-0587-1
eBook ISBN: 978-0-7704-3478-6
1. CartooningTechnique. I. Title.
NC1764.H34 2005
741.5-dc22
2004024844

Cover design by Bob Fillie, Graphiti Design, Inc.

v3.1

Its everywhere you look, in animated television shows and comic books. Its the new retro style. What is retro ? Its the biggest thing to come along in cartooning in decades. Its a style of illustration loosely based on the animated TV shows of the late 1950s and early 1960sa time when everything had a flat, graphic look, and the sly humor didnt play down to children.

Retro is also based on character typescharacter types influenced by the popular family sitcoms of the early to mid-60s, when everything looked nice on the surface: brownies and milk, moms in the kitchen, and fathers who never yelled. Yet there was always lurking a sense that these families were too good to be true and were repressing some truly bizarre personalities and behaviors. Add a modern look, bring those bizarre personalities to the surface, ratchet up the pace to a fever pitch, and youve got retro. As a cartoonist, you owe it to yourself to stay current and learn how to draw this growing, popular new style.

Interestingly, some of the retro-style drawing principles are the exact opposite of the principles used for drawing traditional cartoons. For example, retro-style action poses are drawn so that the figures seem to conserve energy rather than expend it (which would be the look of a more traditional cartoon).

Retro characters are so nerdy theyre cool. The retro style is, in fact, the coolest style of cartooning on the planet. Retro-style animated TV shows have completely stolen the thunder of hand-drawn, animated feature films. While the popularity of the hand-drawn, realistic style of animated movies has waned, retro cartoons are proliferating all over television. And even the most heroic comic book characters and bad guys have been redrawn by publishers and studios into modern, retro versions. But retro is about more than just style; its also about laughs. Its truly wacky stuff. The characters are quirky, perky, and just a little bit warped. Their break-neck pacing and hysterical characters are generating legions of fans of all ages.

This book is packed to the brim with easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions and loads of special hints. Anyone, at any level, can benefit and can improve his or her skills by using this book. Youll be shown how to create retro-style heads and bodies from basic shapes, making it easy and fun. Youll learn how to create the basic cast of characters that make up the bizarre retro family unit, including retro pets. Youll learn how to caricature action poses in the unique, retro style, with examples that compare the new way to the traditional way of cartooning. Retro facial expressions and body language are illustrated clearly and in detail. And at the end of the book, youll be guided through an exciting section on how to draw scenes with multiple characters. Are you ready? Lets go retro!

I believe in drawing the fun stuff right out of the box. So, were going to begin with the basic head. As you go along, therell be lots of special hints throughout the book to help you understand the principles of character design and to provide you with options for creating variations on a theme.

Simple shapes are the key to creating todays new retro look, and theres no shape simpler than a circle. Its perfectly symmetrical and has no sides. But pay close attentionIm definitely not talking about the old-fashioned, start-with-a-circle approach to cartooning. Im talking about a self-consciously round cartoon, in which the shape of the circle is not just the starting point but the whole point . To emphasize the circle further in the front view, dont open up the circle at the chin as it crosses the neck; keep it a closed loop.