Want to a make a cartoon? Blend magazine, published by the Secondary Education Services office at Ball State University partnered with National Scholastic Press Association, features a story in the Winter 2008 issue. Evan Mannweiler, a junior at Indiana University who wrote the story, tells you how to make a cartoon from start to finish.
Mannweiler writes:
Cartoons are kind of like dates. Everybody likes them, nobody knows a formula for making a good one every time, and the best ones you don’t want your parents to see. While there aren’t any secrets to making a good carton, there are some tricks I discovered during my years as Cartoonist-in-Chief that will help make your cartoons better.
1. Use pencil to sketch
Pencils are very good tools. They can achieve truly beautiful tonal ranges, including wonderfully subtle grays, none of which reproduce very well on gray newsprint. Get your ide
as out then get your eraser out.
as out then get your eraser out.2. Use pen to finish.
Consider this a continuation of #1. Pens look more professional, more finished and simply reproduce better than pencil.
3. Computers color really well.
Because you’re going to be laying your paper out digitally, consider using Photoshop to color your cartoons. Scan your ink drawing, set the blend mode to Multiply, create a new layer underneath it and color away. Quick, easy, and again, it reproduces well. Catching the trend? Be like a rabbit. Reproduce well.
4. Get rid of Paper Tone
One of the biggest (and sloppiest) (and ugliest) mistakes that most high school cartoonists make is not removing paper tone. Let’s make this the most important step. After you scan your cartoon, open it in Photoshop, click on Levels and select the little eyedropper that is white. Click on your white paper. Thank me later.
5. Put a box around it.
This will help your composition, it will give you an idea of the space you have to fill on the page (make sure you know that before you start drawing) – plus everything looks better with a box around it.
6. Get the person with the best ideas to do your cartoons.
Good writing always trumps good art. Besides, you can always get someone from your school’s art department to draw a cartoon of a good idea.
